Sunday Reflections/MMA Review/Crush(s) of the Day, just a long post.

Hello everyone. Hope you’ve had a good day.

Wow, I looked back on my last post and it looked like one of my old ones when this dude would make a lot of appearances:

Some days you reach breaking points when you have to vent your frustrations and find a calm medium. I feel better now.

Normally Friday is reserved for my MMA Review, which I will still do. However, a lot is happening in the sports world that I want to touch on as well, so for this edition, I will do a General Sports Review. However, first, let’s get to business.

Music to listen to: Roulette Dares by The Mars Volta




This is for two reasons. First, I found out that my boys are releasing a new album called Octahedron on June 23. You know that I’ll be getting it the first day that its released. They’re the only band that I still do that for.

Second, one of my fantasy baseball teams is named Roulette Dares and The Peoples’ Champion wanted to know where the name came from. Well, here it is. Also, deal with the 10 minute live version of the song, its much better than the studio version and its worth listening completely through especially after the five-minute mark.

Crush of the Day for the Ladies: Georges St. Pierre



What am I doing? Well, I do have readers that are women and they deserve a Crush of the Day once in a while. Even as a straight dude, I can acknowledge GSPs good looks. Plus the dude is a badass fighter, best welterweight in the world.

Ok, back to reality!

Crush of the Day: Mandy Moore



Mandy is generally acknowledged as the most well known female MMA fan. I’ve seen her attending events for years, even before the sport staring getting more mainstream attention. For that and being sneaky hot, she gets love.

Now, lets get to some Reviewing:

-I purchased UFC 97 and had the same sentiments that the rest of the fans had. I was disappointed in the main event of Silva vs. Leites. It was slow, boring and I felt cheated out of spending my money. This is the first time that I’ve ever said something like that about a UFC event in the five or six years that I’ve devoted to it. Leites would just take a punch and fall to the ground and get in a turtle position, trying to bait Silva to head down to the ground with him.

UFC President Dana White was very harsh in his criticism of Silva and I get that too. I’ll give Dana credit for one thing, he keeps it honest with the media, which as we learned a week or two ago with his tirade of Loretta Hunt of Sherdog, can be a good or bad thing. In this case, it was a good thing.

I don’t think that Silva feels motivated which isn’t an excuse for how he has looked in his last two fights, its just a fact. We all know that he will probably get GSP if Pierre gets past Alves, which isn’t a gimme.

-Excellent career by Chuck Liddell. He’s done it all, was a major force in me starting to follow the sport and if that was truly his last fight of his career against Shogun last Saturday, well done sir.

-I was on the road with baseball and missed the latest Strikeforce event so I can’t give my complete analysis of the event but I heard it was a success. That’s great for the sport. Not everything has to be UFC-related in MMA. We need more companies putting on events for us to view and for fighters to gain experience and make money.

Similar to Liddell winding down towards the end of his career, I think that we can start saying the same about Frank Shamrock. He’s won titles, been a tremendous asset to the sport, but when you reach a certain age, its time to move on.

-I’ve been thoroughly enjoying each of the NBA playoff series this year for various reasons. Whether its seeing a team developing into elite (Cleveland vs. Detroit), the maturation of point guards (Chicago vs. Boston), even matchups (Orlando vs. Philly and Denver vs. New Orleans), etc. Even the LA vs. Utah and Portland vs. Houston series have been solid.

-I’ve also been intrigued by the NHL playoffs, especially seeing the Rangers face the Capitals. I actually stayed home today to watch the Rangers and Caps go into battle in Game Six and that was a rough one to see as a Blueshirts fan. Hopefully the Rangers can win game seven in D.C. I’m actually torn about this one because I love the Rangers and will never root against them, but Alex Ovechkin is my favorite player to watch in the league. I really want him to have a long run in the playoffs so more people can learn about him because that dude is a beast.

-It was an interesting weekend on the baseball front for me, especially Friday. First, I had to take my final for my Sport Finance class, which wasn’t fun. After dealing with that in the morning, I had to work a doubleheader and the Bruins won the first contest in thrilling fashion, a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 12th, the second game didn’t go so well. After all of that, I had to head back out to Shelby Park during the Music City Marathon, streets blocked everywhere. It was a bear getting out there. So that game finally takes place and I just go home and collapse.

-I can dig running a marathon, I can even comprehend running a half-marathon. What I don’t get is WALKING a marathon. Dude, that’s probably 9+ hours of walking. I like to go for a long walk or two but that isn’t the way.

-However, congrats to Mr. McMahon, Sarah T. and the rest of you out there who did the Country Music Marathon on Saturday.

-I’m caught up on most of my shows, especially General Hospital and Chuck. Even at this moment, I’m watching the last episode of One Tree Hill. All of them have been solid, especially GH. I won’t give you a rundown of it because none of you watch it, but I’m been enjoying it.

-I completely understand why Ray-J picked Cocktail over Unique. I wouldn’t have gone that route personally but for the lifestyle Ray-J wants to live, he chose the right woman.

I had some of my lady friends tell me that Ray was scared of dealing with a real woman so that’s why he picked Cocktail. My first reaction to this is that this may be the truth. Unique would probably not put up with a lot of the tendencies of Ray. However, why should Ray subject himself to dealing with a woman who he knows will clash with him constantly. It seems like most people wanted Ray to pick someone that he could grow with and develop something more serious with.

This is a frickin reality TV show. No one is going to get married or get in a serious relationship. All Ray was doing was finding someone that he can kick it with. If something serious goes down, then good for them. However, I don’t think that Ray was going on the show for a wife.

-I’m almost running out of things to Observe in this post so let’s talk about the weather. Its been great, actually, I just thought about something.

-So I was going around on Facebook earlier this past week and I see the profile of my friend Amber. She’s been written about here often. She’s the woman that I’ve had an interest in for nearly a year. Amber was the one that I worked out hard for that one time and darn near hurt myself and launched this picture. Read this post for a prime example of something about her: http://pourtoutpancakes.blogspot.com/2008/10/sunday-reflections_12.html

She even inspired this dude to make an appearance:

Well, on the profile she lists her new boyfriend and I was actually happy for her. That was my first thought. Actually, keeping it honest, I saw the pictures of him and realized that I could take him out. I could completely kick the crap out of him. Then, I saw some pictures of the two of them together and she looks happy.

I then was at the Beaman getting my workout on and I saw her there and asked her about the boyfriend. Now, you have to understand, I talked with her about her old boyfriend and that guy was not good for her and I would vocalize that. I kept telling Amber that she doesn’t have to date me but she can do better than the old boyfriend.

She gave me the details about how they met, etc. I told her that I was happy for her and for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, I told a woman that I have feelings for that I was happy for her love and completely meant it.

All of us have been there. We tell someone that we’re interested in that we’re happy that they are dating someone else when in reality we wish they were with us. I’ve done this numerous times, even with Amber in the past.

However, seeing her happy makes me happy. I would rather have her in a positive place with someone else than in a negative state with me.

Actually, when she broke up with the old boyfriend and told me about it, I was happy, not for the fact that I could lay down the magic and get her, but for the fact that she moved on from that guy. After that conversation was over, I thought about asking Amber out again but remembered the “Tapout.” I even consulted the People’s Champion and he told me to ignore my rule and go for it, but I refrained.

She’s been going through a rough period and if he makes her happy, that’s all I’ve ever wanted for her. I want to be her friend before her boyfriend, if that makes sense.

But its hard at times. I have my whole “Tapout” thing going and that’s been a good thing but a part of me still holds out hope that she will end up with me. We’re friends and I think that she likes me and I like her but this just isn’t the right time for whatever reason.

I do know this. If dude does her wrong, I will make a trip to his school and beat him up. That’s another thing, this guy does to another school, out of the state. Amber likes the long distance relationships.

-OK, sorry for the Amber talk, I know that some of you aren’t fans of that but that’s why these are called Reflections.

That’s it for tonight. You know the posts that I’ve promised to provide but haven’t gotten to. Hopefully this week will be better. Until then, good fighting and good night.