UFC 137 bout announced & Strikeforce HWGP thoughts

Awesome news in the MMA World. UFC 137: GSP vs Diaz. What a wonderful fight, I am so glad it has been made. It is really the true test for both men at 170lbs, with GSP clearing out his division and Diaz having no challengers left in Strikeforce.

Hopefully this is the first of many fights made between the rosters of UFC and Strikeforce. I would love to see the winner of the Heavyweight Grand Prix fight the UFC Heavyweight Champion and the other titles unified. I think aside from Jacare the Strikeforce champions have an excellent chance at usurping the UFC Champions.

Seeing as Zuffa own both organisations, I can't see how the Strikeforce contracts hamper the setting up of intra-brand fights. They own both contracts.

On a related note,17 days until the next round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. I hope no injuries occur between now and them. I am picking Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett to go through to the next round, I only hope that Barnett doesn't piss hot afterwards.

The Strikeforce event will certainly make up for the lacklustre/mediocre card that was UFC130. I am glad in the UK we have it included on ESPN FOR £9.99 a month, I would have felt totally ripped off having paid $50 for that fight card. Say what you will about Strikeforce's limited roster and fight matching but they never fail to deliver an entertaining card of fights.

Bank Holiday Sport (Part 2)

The second football match at Wembley that caught my interest was the Championship Playoff Final between Reading and Swansea City. I have a passing interest in the game as Swansea are a local team for me and a rare opportunity for a Welsh team to possibly win a place in the Premier League.

The match was a wonderful spectacle and Swansea took the lead thanks to a penalty from Scott Sinclair, moments later he added a second and the match seemed over when Swansea added a third. The second half was opposite and Reading pulled two goals back and made a game of it. It was squeaky bum time for the fans but Swansea saw the game out and Sinclair netted his third of the game and Swansea were victorious 4-2. Again it was another victory for the beautiful game, Swansea and Barcelona play a similar type of fluid football. Swansea play the football of Barcelona but in the colours of Real Madrid.

The weekend had other finals like the Mangers League final between two Irish sides; Munster and Leinster. munster edged Leinster thanks to two late tries and won 19-9. At Twickenham England played the Barbarians and were edged out in the latter stages of the match 38-32 thanks to a late try by Tim Visser.

UFC 130 took place Saturday night, sadly the card was blighted by injuries and pullouts. Which saw me lost a lot of interest in the card. The fights were rather bland with only one real highlight a beautiful knockout by travis Browne on Stefan Struve. It was a wonderfully timed superman punch that seemed to leave the gigantic Struve in mid air for a split second. Other than that the card was forgettable and I didn't bother with the main event. Roll on Strikeforce on the 18th June and the second part of the Heavyweight Grand Prix.

So all in all it was a very entertaining weekend of sport, much better than watching the tired films that get re-run every holiday. I am finishing it in an insomniac state watching WWE Raw, which is blighted by technical difficulties this evening. I'm looking forward to seeing Averno debut as a foil to Sin Cara on Smackdown. It will be awesome to see more luchadores in WWE.

Bank Holiday Sport (Part 1)

What a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend of sport we have had. Bookended by a feast of football at Wembley with two teams who play the beautiful game as it should be played lifting their respective trophies when the dust has settled. Congratulations FC Barcelona and Swansea City.

I am not the most fanatical follower of sports but I do enjoy it when it is on and this weekend there has a been a lot on. It was either watch sport or the usual repetitive drivel that is aired every Bank Holiday weekend. So this weekend I watched a bit of everything from Football, rugby, MMA, Formula 1, golf and as I type this up I have wrestling on, not a sport but sports entertainment so it's close enough.

The biggest story of this weekend has been the football and the absolutely mesmerising performance by Barcelona against Manchester United. Going in to the match I was looking forward to a humbling of Manchester United and the silencing of their fans, namely because I am a fan of Liverpool & Barcelona whereas my father is a Manchester United fan. I am always subject to his gloats at Manchester United having the more success so Saturday I was looking forward to the favourable outcome I had been hoping for. 

The match was a feast and it always is a pleasure to see an amazing team like Barcelona play, such beauty and fluidity to their game. They are a true proponent of the beautiful game. Without a shadow of a doubt the best side of recent history. A team that can boast the likes of Xavi, David Villa, Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta and of course possibly  the best footballer to step on a  pitch the maestro Lionel Messi. 

In the opening exchanges I fancied Manchester United looked the most likely to score but once Barcelona got into their rhythm there was only going to be one outcome. They played United off the pitch, summed up by the magnificent goals by Messi and Villa. United much lauded team seemed average at best, yes in England they are the best but against continental opposition of Barcelona's class, there is a long way to go before they can blow their own trumpets. It seemed as though the years caught up with some of United's squad, Ryan Giggs was ineffective and seemed an old man compared to the flair of the younger Messi. Paul Scholes equally so. In the end it was a victory for the beautiful game. The best team won and football won. 

Letting Eric Abidal lift the trophy was a lovely gesture, he recently returned to football after having major surgery to remove a tumour and the final marked 70 odd days since the surgery. It puts the game into perspective and what a great, feel good story to have in the match a return against all odds.

I should watch Barcelona more, I have Sky Sports so no excuse not to seeing as they are broadcast every weekend live. Wish I also bought a ticket to see the final. I really want to watch Lionel Messi play in person once in my life.

I will talk about the rest of the sport in a second blog. This one seems pretty long already. 

Jurassic Park - The Novel

I have just finished reading the novel Jurassic Park. I am a lover of the film and always meant to read the book and finally got around to it this week. I was expecting to be underwhelmed by the book, the film is one of my favourite films, but it captured me and I preferred it to the film. The book is full of much more suspense and action than the film, it seemed to be almost like the trilogy crammed into one book, with many more dinosaurs and events taking place which didn't happen n the film.

The book starts off giving a brief background into the 1980's boom of genetic research and how InGen started as a genetic research company. It then describes how workmen arrive at a clinic with injuries attributed to machinery but really are injuries from the dinosaurs. A little girl then gets mauled by a Procompsognathagus or Compy for short and the remains of one is found but due to it being extinct it is said to be a lizard species and nothing more is thought of it.

The rest of the book follows how the film goes but with added details and differences with characters inspecting the park and all the problems that occur thanks to Dennis Nedry tampering with the system and dying due to an attack by a Dilophosaurus.

I love how much more detail goes into the park with two tyrannosaurus Rex’s, one adult and one juvenile. It adds to the drama, same with the Raptors, which have bred unbeknown to the park management and play havoc in the park when the power is down. The story is told from many perspectives, the main one is Dr Grant and the children getting from the T Rex enclosure to the Visitor Centre with many twists along the way like being chased downstream by the T Rex and attacked by Pterodactyls in a giant aviary.

Unlike the film hardly any of the main characters die, Gennaro who is famously killed whilst on the toilet survives, the only deaths are Dennis Nedry (Dilophosaurus attack), Henry Wu (Velociratoptor), John Arnold (Velociraptor) & John Hammond (broken ankle and Compy's feasting on him). Ian Malcolm is also said to have but survives and is featured in the sequel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the part I found strange was how the characters are totally different to how they look in the film. Dr Grant is described as wearing colourful shirts, having a beard totally unlike the film. I kept on picturing Sam Neill, his demeanour is also different with him being child friendly unlike the film. Also the characters of Tim and Lexi are opposite with Tim being the older sibling and Lexi the youngest. That was my only qualm, I have seen the film so many times that it hampered my perception of the characters in the book. I would however like to see another film adaptation of Jurassic Park but more true to the book.

I have began to read the sequel to Jurassic Park, also called The Lost World. I hope it is as good a read as this was. I highly recommend Jurassic Park to everyone. You will be surprised how good it really is.