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.

UFC 110

Posted on by georgefattell

The co-main events look like they both could very good fights.

Antonio Norgueira vs. Cain Velazquez: I’ll take Big Nog. Cain Velazquez is certainly a very tough up and comer in the heavyweight division, but Nog represents a fighter with a much higher skill level than anyone Cain has yet faced in his UFC career. This fight will probably go to the ground early and despite the fact that Velazquez is an outstanding wrestler I think that is where Nog will have the advantage with his great BJJ skills. Velazquez has displayed great endurance in his previous fights, but he has not displayed KO power in his striking. I think Nog will find a way of submitting Velasquez.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping: This fight is a very tough call. These two really seem to hate each other and I don’t expect this fight to go the distance. This fight will end in a TKO/KO imo. The question is who gets KO’d? A years ago I would have selected Silva to win for sure, but I think he on the downside of his career now may not be able to match the quickness of Bisping. I’ll go with Bisping.

On the undercard I’ll take Ryan Bader over Keith Jardine.

Panda Cub Yun Zi

Posted on by georgefattell

I recently visited The San Diego Zoo to see Yun Zi, the Panda cub who has become the new star of the zoo. Yun Zi is a funny, playful little bear well worth seeing in person. You must go early in order to see him. Yun Zi, which means “Son of Cloud”, and his mother Bai Yun, are available to the public daily between 9:00 am and 11:30 am. You don’t have much time to observe Yun Zi and Bai Yun because the Zoo personnel keep the line moving along past the Panda exhibit area so as many people as possible get a chance to see them, so if you plan to take pictures you have to be ready to shoot quickly.

The iPad

Posted on by georgefattell

After watching the iPad demo on the Apple homepage I am even more impressed with the device than I was as I watched Steve Jobs introduce it Wednesday morning. The iPad is not perfect, or even revolutionary, but it is groundbreaking. Apple priced it right ($500 to $800) and I expect sales to be very strong.

It will indeed cannibalize some MacBook sales and some iPhone sales. Some people won’t want or need a conventional laptop or a full blown smart phone if they have an iPad. Overall though, Apple stands to gain with this new device because it is unique and should have wide appeal. Many people who have never purchased an Apple product before will buy iPads and Apple will again benefit from the halo effect as new customers are drawn into the Apple ecosystem.

Another thing to remember is that future iPad will only get better. It is game over for Apple competitors if the iPad establishes the same dominance that the iPod has. Based on the early mixed reviews of the iPad it is clear that there seem to be a fair amount of people who doubt the iPad will be a “game changer”, but I think the critics are once again underestimating Apple.

NFL Playoffs Conference Championship Games

Posted on by georgefattell

Colts vs. Jets: I really don’t see how the Colts lose this game, unless Peyton Manning is injured in the 1st quarter and unable to play the rest of the game. Really, the Jets are lucky to still be in the playoffs. They defeated a superior team in the Chargers, but that won’t happen again. Not to take anything away from the Jets, they have played great football in the playoffs thus far and have exceeded expectations for this season, but they are not nearly as good as the remaining teams in the playoffs imo. I think they would also lose to the Saints or the Vikings if they played either one of them. I predict that the Colts will win by at least 10 points.

Saints vs. Vikings: Now this game is a very tough call because both teams have such strong, well rounded offenses, and each team has a truly outstanding QB. However, I have to give the Saints the edge because of homefield advantage. I would love to see Brett Favre return to the Superbowl, but this time he really has his work cut out for him because Drew Brees seems to be every bit his equal this year and Brees may have even more weapons to draw upon. If Reggie Bush plays as well as did last week vs. Arizona the Vikings are in trouble. We’ll see. I don’t want to discount the defenses either because that is what may decide the game. It may very well come down to which defense slows down the opposing offense the most effectively. I don’t think either will be “shut down”. I see a high scoring game, with the Saints prevailing, say 31-28.