Month: March 2010

UFC 111 Observations

Posted on by georgefattell

The co-main events were good, but not great. Georges St. Pierre defeated Dan Hardy by unanimous decision. GSP clearly dominated the fight, yet Hardy was impressive in defeat by absorbing a lot of punishment and lasting 5 rounds with the champ. Hardy’s lack of an effective takedown defense was exposed as GSP took him down at will.

The Mir vs. Carwin battle did not last one round as Shane Carwin delivered a devastating barrage of punches that KO’d Mir. The extra weight and muscle that Mir put on did not appear to help him. If anything, Mir looked slower and less agile than he did when he weighed around 240 lbs. Moreover, Mir did not look significantly stronger as Carwin was able to push him up against the fence and control Mir with relative ease. Although I picked Mir to win I did note that Carwin could end the fight quickly with his KO power and that is indeed what happened.

Unfortunately, I missed the Jon Fitch’s victory over Ben Saunders, but the scores indicate he dominated that fight. I think he is deserving of a rematch with GSP at this point.

UFC 111

Posted on by georgefattell

UFC 111 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ presents two potentially great fights as the co-main events.

A welterweight title fight featuring the great UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy, a hard hitting up and comer from the UK. GSP is the heavy favorite and with good reason. GSP has no evident weaknesses in his MMA skill set. He can fight very well on his feet or on the ground and is always in tremendous condition. Hardy has an extensive martial arts background, but we haven’t seen much beside boxing in his UFC fights. Hardy has a puncher’s chance of winning this fight, but I don’t think he will prevail. I think GSP ends this 5 round fight by round 3, with a KO or TKO.

The other main event is a Heavyweight bout between former HW Champ Frank Mir and the undefeated Shane Carwin. Both men weighed in at the HW limit of 265 pounds. Mir was somewhat earlier in his career, but has built up his muscle mass in order to take on behemoths such as Carwin and current UFC HW Champ Brock Lesnar. Of course, Lesnar demolished Mir in when they last met in the Octagon and at that time Mir was 20 to 25 pounds lighter. Lesnar was able to throw Mir around and smother him in that fight. We’ll see if the added bulk helps Mir. This fight is a tough call because both fighters are very capable of ending the fight in round 1. Mir is a very skilled master of submitting opponents. Carwin is built like a tank and has KO power. I’ll go with the more experienced Mir to win, but I won’t be shocked if Carwin puts Mir to sleep.

Another interesting fight on this card pits Welterweights Jon Fitch against Ben Saunders. I’ll take the always formidable Fitch in this fight. If he wins he may get a rematch against GSP, who he lost to when they last fought.

2010 NCAA BB

Posted on by georgefattell

The Basketball Tournament has been great this year, at least from this fan’s perspective. I can’t recall a year with so many upsets. This has been the year of David’s beating the Goliath’s. In the end a power like Kentucky, Syracuse or Duke will probably win, but it is wonderful seeing teams such as Cornell, St. Mary’s and Northern Iowa make the Sweet Sixteen.

I’m really glad in chose to buy two brackets this year. I had Kansas beating Duke winning in one and I have Duke beating Syracuse in the other. Of course, Kansas went down in flames to the Panthers of Northern Iowa. Duke and Syracuse both look good so far and look like good shots to make the Final Four. Kentucky remains alive and dangerous, but I’m hopeful their inexperience catches up with them at some point.

UFC LIVE

Posted on by georgefattell

There are two potentially really good UFC fights on tonight.

The Heavyweight bout features two very tough fighters from Brazil in Junior Dos Santos and Gabriel Gonzaga. I’ll take Dos Santos in this fight and I don’t expect this fight to make it past round 2 because both of these guys are bomb throwers, so a KO or TKO is very likely.

The other fight is a Light Heavyweight contest that pits Jon “Bones” Jones against Brandon Vera. I’m rooting for Vera to win this fight because he is a local guy that fights out of San Diego, but I think the odds are against him. If I had to bet on this fight my money would go on Jones. Why? Jones is simply too fast and multidimensional.

2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament

Posted on by georgefattell

Let’s not waste any time. I just finished filling out two brackets for the Big Dance. I chose Kansas to beat Duke in one bracket and Duke to defeat Syracuse in the other. The rationale there was to take the favorite in one bracket and a relative long shot in the other.

POST TOURNEY RESULT: My strategy worked out perfectly this year. 11 out of 30 selected Kansas in my pool and only 2, including me, chose Duke to win it all. I ended up beating other person who selected Duke by a small margin and ended up taking First Place!!! First time in five years I pulled that off.

I look forward to defending my crown next year.

New blog posts

Posted on by georgefattell

Wow, I see it has almost been a month since my last post on this blog. Well, it won’t be another month before I enter more posts on this blog. I’ve been busy at work and elsewhere, but there are all sorts of topics I want to put my two cents in on, including, but not limited to, sports, politics, technology, foreign policy and the economy. Comments coming soon.