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It's really snuck up on me this here. Last chance saloon for Cool Dusty P. If he loses he'll seem like a nearly man, but it really isn't the whole story. He's been so good, for so long, in the best division in the sport in recent years and one of the strongest divisions that the sport has ever had. 

If he wins it'll cement him as one of the tippy top guys to ever do it. What a full circle story it'll be too. If he loses, no doubt he'll be disappointed to an incredible degree, but it won't hurt his current legacy in any way I don't think. This division is a shark tank, and at the sharp end of it almost any of them can beat each other on any given Saturday night. Yet Dustin wins many more of those than he loses, against top guys every time out. 

He's facing a real uphill battle here for sure, but he's a live dog and one I would never count out. It's just hard to imagine Islam not getting to him at some point, as Poirier likely won't be stopping too many of the takedowns. However if he can just avoid giving them away too easily, and doesn't get caught in a dreadful position from failed guillotine attempts, he might just get this to rounds 4 and 5. Right there my friends, is Dustin's wheelhouse. Get it to there and then he has a chance - providing of course he doesn't channel his inner Mike Bisping and go out there like he left the bath running. 

4 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

July should be fine for voters, I'm thinking 67%.

Maybe in England. This is already peak summer holiday time in Northern Ireland and Scotland. (Not sure about Wales). We all know who bothers to postal vote. I'm guessing younger (sub 26?) and also the middle aged with kids voter turnout in these areas to be lower than if the election had happened during this month or in October. 

Some pure madness booking there really. It's like the Saudi Prince that wanted Yokozuna on the WWE show turned up and asked for Kimbo Slice, to be told well, we can't do that but what we can do is . . .

That's hugely disappointing. Hopefully it's as he says there, accidental, and Rountree doesn't lose a tonne of time as a result. 

What do we think then for the co-main now? Hill to get a replacement, or a full new fight with Hill being moved show? There's absolutely nothing on that undercard that should be second billing on a PPV. At least with Hill/Rountree you were potentially getting a number one contender out of it in a flagship division. 

Wouldn't be a bad idea to try and get two lightweights in there as co-main now instead in case something goes tits up with McGregor or Chandler. 

Mickey Chandler, like most people in MMA, is another Trump/MAGA headtheball, and even then I sincerely hope when this is said and done that we see him tramping about the cage, jubilant and waving old glory like he's Hulk Hogan's stepchild. 

I fancy Chandler massively in this too, even though he's been out ages also. There's one man out of these two that I would trust is putting in the work, and it's not the sorry excuse for an Irishman. And when the going gets really tough, only one of them has shown for certain in their most recent fighting history that he has that dog in him. McGregor could absolutely knock him out - but he better do it in less than two or three minutes or my guess is he's toast. Hopefully. 

Rountree smashing his way through Hill en route to a fight with Pereira? Please, please don't tease me. That's a ball tingler. 

21 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Yeah, Rolling Thunder is superb. John Flynn directed The Outfit a few years beforehand, an excellent crime thriller, and then went on to direct Best Seller, Lock Up and Out for Justice in the 80s and 90s. A good director, but I think this was his best.

I've had The Outfit on my watchlist for a while now, so will have to sort that. Hadn't heard of Best Seller before but I'll keep an eye out for it. Lock Up feels like it gets forgotten about in that mix of Stallone pictures from that period I think. Against type, Donald is a hateful bollocks in it too. Out for Justice though is one of Seagal's best. Top 3 probably. 

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

You might be interested in this list:-

https://mubi.com/en/lists/disillusionment-in-sun-drenched-1970s-american-new-wave-cinema

Few years back I watched them all (or the ones I could find) and found so many good to great films. This movement is a huge favourite of mine too. Highly recommend diving into this list.

Thanks for sharing that list @Devon Malcolm Some incredible stuff there. From those that I've seen, there's high quality throughout. Plus lots of others I didn't know of, or haven't found before. As chance would have it, the very first film that shows up, Rolling Thunder, I watched for the first time at the start of the week. Turns out it was another lost gem until Amazon placed it on it's home page and I knew it'd be right up my alley. 

How good was it to see Aldo look like he hadn't skipped a beat? His offensive and defensive boxing was slick here and he utilised a lot more kicks than in recent fights too. This worked out a treat for Jose. A very good win, in Rio, another solid payday as well as clearing out his contract with the chance to renegotiate.

If Merab didn't have that recent win over Aldo I'd just be saying book Aldo and O'Malley right now. As it is, Merab should still get that fight, but I think they should keep Aldo as either an emergency alternate, fight the winner or else book him straight into a #1 contenders fight. Don't miss the bloody boat again. On the right day against the right opponent, I don't think he's any worse than 50/50 in a title fight with several of the top boys at 135. Merab is probably Kryptonite like. But I can see a path to victory for him against some other matchups. I wouldn't play the long game on it though. 

Erceg and Pontoja had a really top notch, close fight. Thought rounds 1 through 3 could have been scored either way. 4 was definitely for Erceg and 5 for Pantoja. I would have had no problems with the decision either way. I hope it's not an immediate rematch next, but Erceg definitely shows he belongs and that a title win is probably in his near future. His striking was certainly superior to Pantoja's here, but Pantoja is very well rounded, experienced and has that relentlessness that make him a bastard to deal with. In a re-match though I could easily see how Erceg might chin him early. I'd like to see them both have a couple of fights against others and return to this next year if it works out that way. 

19 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Agree with this, but you should be pooing on the company dime my friend.

Well, that happens too. But the amount of time the work mobile rings just after I hit the toilet seat, I'd swear they're waiting for it on purpose. Would mean less "sorry I missed your call because . . ." Excuses having to be come up with. 

Since I'm just back from a run on the local back roads and this first one is in my head;

1) Compulsory purchase all old/vacant/rundown properties, that let's be honest, are usually on farmland. These could be renovated into either social/affordable housing, or sometype of outreach centre, or shelter.

Without even having to add to the amount of buildings that are already in, say, greenbelt areas, if that's part of the issue. I passed this morning at least 14 such places. Just rotting away, probably the original farmhouse, son/daughter moved away, Inherited the farm and house, but already had their own place so the homestead gets boarded up. Or someone has passed away with no will and no obvious next of kin, so again, it just sits there. 

2) If we must have insurance, for whatever, car, travel, home, whatever we need it for. There has to be a tier, if that's what it would take, that you can pay where there's zero wriggle room for them to get out of paying up. 

3) Nationalisation obviously. Of it all. Electric, water, heating, transport etc. 70+ years ago the rail system here was so far advanced compared to what it is now. You would have had a hard time going more than a mile to a station, and the old railway network covered the whole of the country. They ripped it to bits and now there are hardly any trains and they only service the coastal area. Backwards. 

4) MLA'S/MP's can't be paid more than the average of the local area they live in/represent. Nor can they get a pay rise unless other public sector workers do. 

5) A full time working week being 30-33 hours. No loss in pay. I need some extra free time to waste on the bog flicking through this place. 

1 hour ago, FLips said:

I realised the other day I've never seen the Beverly Hills Cop films so with them all being on Netflix I gave them a whirl.

Beverly Hills Cop

Brilliant, loved it. Good action, really funny and the cast are all spot on. Ronny Cox shows up which is always a bonus, and Eddie Murphy is on top form. Steven Berkoff is a great bad guy and being backed up by Jonathan Banks is a good combo. Love the dynamic of the main cast, everyone stands out.
Obviously the theme song is a banger and they do really well interlacing different versions of it through the film. Enjoyed it so much I've watched it three times in a week while I've been working from home.

 

My brother and I were in Canada last September. We hired a camper and travelled around a bit, but on our first and last night in Montreal, we stayed in a hostel. I'm fairly aged out for staying in hostels and kind of stand out. He's 4 years younger and blended in a bit more. Anyway, we fucked our bags in the room went out for dinner and on the way past the girl in the lobby, she told us if we were back in an hour, it was 5 dollar pints. Of course, back we came. So, two men from Tayto land started propping up the bar until happy hour no longer existed. 

We were shortly joined by a couple of girls from Holland and a younger guy from Germany. Then three Indian fellas turned up and we got them to pull up a pew and join the craic. There was the "bluffer" that told me he spoke 14 languages, was living in Dubai and moved to Canada recently. I forget where he said he was originally from because it was all nonsense, but he said he had been in the Navy in the U.S, and showed me his phone screen saver of a military headshot photo, with his head clearly transposed onto some other veterans body. He had a tonne of businesses apparently, but when he tried to pay for his 5 dollar pints he had to run through three cards before paying with a bill. All flash, no cash. 

The bartender, shockingly, was a french Canadian woman. A couple of English girls appeared. It was decided that we were all going to a local Karaoke bar, and everyone, bartender/hostel desk woman had to come too. Before we left though, a quiet Italian guy of about 25, reluctantly, pulled up a stool. 

The brother and I just looked at each other, back at Mr. Italy, back at each other, then turned to him again with a hearty greeting of "SERGE!" We were hoping for "Get the fuck outta here!" to come back from Serge, but no dice. Steve and I were adamant this man's name was not Vincenzo as he claimed, but that he was, in fact, Serge. Never has somebody looked more alike another person. 

Unfortunately, Serge didn't get the memo why he was famous. He hadn't the faintest notion what we were on about. Neither did anyone else. So out the phone came, videos of Ahmed Foley and Serge, and it was clear this room had a different upbringing than the pair of us. Anyway, Serge came out kicking and screaming to the karaoke place, which was absolutely booming and one of the best nights craic I've had in many's a year. Despite having no words, the theme song was requested. I thought this was it, we're going to prove it to Serge that everyone else in this bar knows who he is and gets him a big cheer. 

I was so disappointed when the night ended and our request didn't make it through the list in time, but really it probably was headed for Steve and myself being the only two people in a room in Montreal, with about 300 people in it, that had any clue what the song, Beverley Hills Cop, or our man Serge were even supposed to be. I think we were saved the crickets and fuck tonne of embarrassment in the end up. Serge along with everyone else ended up having a good night, and he passed over the Espresso with a Lemon Twist for a few pints of Moretti when all was said and done. 

That long winded explanation came to me @FLips as I was thinking how you couldn't have watched those movies until now, and then the "Oh. Yeah" Kicked in. 

Turns out, despite my best efforts, nobody on the Eastern side of Canada has heard of Bret Hart either, and they are all backwoods, inbred, Shawn Michaels fans. Who knew. 

That could be two concussions in 3 months for Hill right there. Love that Rountree is getting the chance to jump to the top of the pile though. Would love to see him fight Jiri or Pereira. 

The only two names I've ever seen that were to be Vince's choice in 83/84 if he didn't go with/get Hogan were Kerry Von Erich and going with Snuka. Both wouldn't have worked. It doesn't matter who was available in '85, they would have likely been coming in on the back of a failed national expansion rather than riding the coat-tails of a successful one. 

What's likely to be the least disastrous out of these, and would it have lasted past any possible initial success;

- JCP/Mid South with the best product but not the financial discipline. 

- AWA keeping Hogan as a plus but Gagne as the negative. 

- WWF with Vince's expansion plans but the wrong guy at the front of the spear. 

I imagine JCP would have been the top dog in that scenario, however still needing a bail out, just a few years later than when it actually happened. 

8 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

don’t count cases where a fighter hits the canvas and immediately bounces back up to their feet as official knockdowns

And yet, when it comes to takedowns . . .I feel myself about to go all "That's a mat return Joe" here. They love using the entire abacus to collect up as many That's Not a Takedown, Takedown's together. 

Oppenheimer 

Bit shite wasn't it? Took me three days to watch it. (Friday, Monday & Tuesday). Could hardly ever hear the dialogue with the amount of silly background music in all the conversation scenes. So many scene cuts back and forward in time. I'm not sure there was a single great scene in it, considering all the plaudits it got. The best may have been when they were discussing which cities to target in Japan. Chilling if you imagine stuffed suits selecting life and death in that manner in reality. Not one for a re-watch, sorry Cillian. 

Shocked at that. I don't see that as a slip at all. 

I was pleased I was quite wrong about the Kayla Harrison fighting. Not so pleased whenever I heard her post fight interview reveal to me she is another "Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour" type of prizefighter. I guess that's 95% of them, but even so. 

Thought Moicano sounded like an absolute moron in his post fight speech too. I liked his staff talking shit about the apex previously, but this nonsense about first amendment rights? Wouldn't mind seeing Jose Aldo give him one to the liver again. 

Sterling looked fabulous against Kattar. Really glad he hit the ground running at 145. If that extra energy he probably has allows him to continue to be as relentless as this going forward, then this could end up being a very good move for him. 

Both those fall on weekends that I'll be working, meaning spoilers will have to be attempted to be avoided until at least Sunday night or Monday morning. That'll be pretty hard to do for the McGregor fight. 

Did they make the Dustin Poirier fight before UFC 300, during the show or after? 

Alex showed his class in that main event. He's a different level on the feet. If you choose not to wrestle him then unless you earn his respect with something quickly, it's going to turn ugly for you. 

The Zhang fight was weird. I'm very pleased she won in the end because I felt it should have been stopped at the end of the first. The way the 2nd and 3rd went, I thought she was going to be on the wrong end of an unfortunate set of circumstances. Glad she righted it with winning the last two rounds. Crazy toughness by both ladies, Yan for gritting through as long as she did in that sub and Zhang for being knackered, getting dropped and still finding a way to win. 

And boy. Boy oh boy. Max Holloway and Justin Gaethje did Holloway and Gaethje things in that pearler. Two warriors. Holloway looked great in this fight. As good as he's ever been here, against an in form Justin Gaethje. The eye pokes didn't help, I'll say that. But as Max had done the damage to the nose before that, I think that was the main difference. With that nose being fried Justin was always a step behind. But he's Justin Gaethje and he always carries that threat to just change your world in an instant. He showed that by being the first man to drop Holloway, in his career. For Max, in a fight that he was winning every round in, to at the end just give Justin the opportunity to go double or quits for ten seconds? Incredible scenes.

I hope Max fights and beats Topuria, lets Volk and Ilia rematch non title while he then goes up to LW and challenges the champ there. I wish the world for this crazy Hawaiian. It's going to be a much worse place when he's retired. Enjoy this lunatic while he's doing shit like this. 

On 4/8/2024 at 3:36 PM, Supremo said:

Look, lads. You can dislike her if you want, but just know that you’re wrong. Extremely wrong.

 

Like hell I am. I'll go to the grave knowing she's the most annoying, grating announcer I've ever heard. Dreadful. Her and Pat McAfee. An assault on the inside of my brain. 

Main event was bonkers fun. Nailed it. The production is a billion times better than when I last watched anything from the company, yet there are still a few things I don't like about it - which tells you how bad it had gotten before. Improve the ring announcer, colour commentator, less of the CGI entrance graphics and figure out a way to blend the sponsors in better. But Jesus, on the whole there have been vast improvements in the watch ability of this stuff. 

Drew losing the title because he was too busy taunting Punk was good stuff. Drew and Rollins had a good match, got right to the point. They could have achieved the same thing without burying Drew's finish, but hey ho. Still a good time had there. 

The crowd woke up for night 2 which made a difference. It saved the weekend as I thought night 1 was a bit of a stinker outside of the decent Ripley/Becky match. The main event of night 1 would have done Horlicks out of business. 

Snoop Dogg as a semi regular third man behind the desk - ask him! The worst he could say is no, but man, that would be a bit of craic. 

9 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

The Couture’s definitely named their son accurately. Dirty old goat’s at it again.

 

😅 And still using a picture from about 20 years ago for his avatar. 

The fighters, en masse, need to turn down fights that get offered to them for Apex cards. That's just not going to happen though. Just let that call go to voicemail first - find out what they're looking. "A Vegas date? Sorry fella, barred from Vegas by the PD. You know I would if I could. That date in Cali two weeks later though? Sign me up". 

Great post Wand. Not far away now at all. 

Kayla Harrison fighting at 135 worries me. I don't know how she makes that with any kind of steam to last a whole fight. I think she'll need to stop Holm in R1. I hate to do it, but I'm predicting Holm to win this. 

Hope to god Pereira chins Hill. Hill seems like a fella even his mum would struggle to put up with over dinner. I think he'll do it too - I expect this to play out on the feet and Alex to show his class there. 

Can't pick against Zhang. Sure her age is getting on now, but her performances sure aren't showing it. I don't think it'll be here that it's going to start being seen. 

Max and Justin has the potential to be an all timer. You'd be hard pushed to write a fight down on paper that could be better than that, which also you would give an extremely high chance to it being able to reach that potential. I think Gaethje wins it, but Holloway is every bit the live dog. Gonna be a doozy. 

Fucking Bo Nickal on the main card ahead of every fight positioned below it. Mental. I can understand the TV prelims being a prime spot for the other fighters that didn't make that fifth slot, but the Fight Pass prelims aren't. That's where that fight belongs. Figgy Smalls jerking the curtain is mad. Shows the depth of this one obviously, but the order is pretty wrong. 

A winnable fight for Jim Miller on UFC 300 is about as good as you can hope for. I'm 50/50 on who I think will get the W, hoping Jim finds a sub from somewhere though. 

That's a pretty tasty looking card right there. Volkov/Pavlovich is a good pairing for Heavyweight, and that main event has the makings of a great fight. Really like that booking there. 

Big Will Hobbs is in the wrong place and time. Smackdown in the mid 2000's and he would have definitely gotten the chance to try and stand out among a pack of useless big fella's like Luther, Koslov, Heidenreich and that terrible Japanese fella who's name escapes me at the minute. 

Edit: Only just realised the thread is to bring people into the future not place others in the past 😔

8 hours ago, Merzbow said:

WWF may have been losing the war but the roster was stacked, Sid, HBK, Bret and Taker on top with Vader, Steve Austin and Mankind close to them with more greats underneath. Might just be my favourite group of guys in one place at one time.

And a lot of them were all pretty over at around the same time as well. No Ministry of Darkness Taker, or Ringmaster Steve Austin at this point. Good times.