Affliction: Day of Reckoning – recap

Dan Lauzon  vs. Bobby Green

A really good, exciting fight, when they were actually fighting.   This may have been the longest 5-minute round in history, as action was interrupted three times due to Green kicking Lauzon in the balls, and Lauzon opted to took a good amount of time to collect himself after each time.  Lauzon showed good ground work at the end and choked Green out just before the round ended.   Could he have held out for five seconds???

Final CompuBox BallStat(tm) numbers showed that Green connected with Lauzon’s balls three times in the fight, hitting two of Lauzon’s balls each time, for a total of six balls. The fight lasted 4:55, so this comes out to an average of one ball hit by Green every 49 seconds.   Impressive stats for the youngster.  I predict big things.

Winner: Dan Lauzon by submission (rear naked choke) Round 1

 

Paul Buentello vs. Kirill Sidelnikov

“Baby Fedor”?   Fuck that.  You need to do a lot more before getting annointed with a name like that.  Like beating somebody higher up in the food chain than Kim Jong Wang?  Buentello completely picked him apart.  Sidelnikov did prove one thing – he’s really tough and can take some serious punishment.  However, he did basically nothing to Buentello the whole fight.  I think his offensive repertoire is lacking.  For example, not once did he attempt a swift kick to Buentello’s junk.  Ah, he’s a kid…  he’ll learn.

Winner: Paul Buentello by TKO (doctor stoppage) Round 3

 

Renato Sobral  vs. Thierry Sokoudjo

Solid win for Babalu.  Once you get Sokoudjou on his back, it’s basically over.

Winner: Renato Sobral by submission (anaconda) Round 2

 

Matt Lindland  vs. Vitor Belfort

Is the “Old Vitor” back??!   No, not really.   But the move down to 185 should do him some good at this stage in his career.  As the commentators said, his power will be an asset.

Winner: Vitor Belfort by KO Round 1

 

Josh Barnett  vs.  Gilbert Yvel

This was a totally one-sided fight.  Yvel managing to survive for so long from mounted positions and various other horrible predicaments was impressive and made the fight interesting.   Gotta give Yvel credit for fighting his ass off,  but he was just totally outmatched.

Winner: Josh Barnett by submission (strikes)  Round 3

 

Fedor Emelianenko  vs. Andrei Arlovski

This KO was one for the highlight reels.  Arlovski, airborne attempting a flying knee, gets blasted out of the air by Fedor and is totally out cold before he hits the ground.  Incredible power and accuracy by Fedor.

Arlovski in the first few minutes of the fight, although his offense didn’t amount to a heck of a lot, probably looked impressive enough to people that they could conceivably sell a Fedor vs. Arlovski rematch down the line.  From what I’ve read of people’s reactions to the fight, some (wrongly) think that if Arlovski reined himself in a little, he could possibly win.   Arlovski of course should be given a fight on the Fedor vs. Barnett undercard to justify a rematch.

After the fight, Tito Ortiz’s line of questioning was pushing some crap about how people were wondering what kind of heavyweight Fedor really was, but now he proved himself?   Huh??  Nobody in their right mind could possibly have been questioning Fedor’s credentials.

Winner: Fedor Emelianenko by KO Round 1

 

Tito Ortiz vs. The English Language

Tito Ortiz as color commentator was, at times, listenable.   Tito Ortiz as in-ring interviewer may have been the worst verbal performance on TV since Miss Teen South Carolina.  Tito was tripping over his own sentences, saying different words than he intended, losing his train of thought, and just sometimes botching things so badly that I couldn’t even tell what happened.  He said that Fedor was “the best pound-for-pound heavyweight”.   He prompted one fighter as he put the mic in the front of him “Let me tell you how you feel right now”    Babalu was declared to be “one of the best light-heavyweights… of the night!”  High praise!   Also, at one point he was trying to say Babalu’s name and somehow combined Renato, Babalu, and Sobral into one word.   Wow, Tito.    Maybe you’re not cut out for this talking stuff.

Winner: Tito Ortiz by submission

 

Overall thoughts:  I thought it was a very good PPV.  They zipped through the fights quickly – very little downtime in between.  The card featured a good amount of star power and all the fights were entertaining.  On the other hand, there were no GREAT fights.  This show sets Affliction up nicely for a Fedor/Barnett main event on the next card or possibly Tito’s debut vs. someone (Babalu?  Vitor?).

My second USCF rated tournament: Round 1

I recently played my second ever rated USCF tournament, a 3-round G/90.   First round I drew a touch matchup, getting black against a ~1820 rated player.  He played a Colle and we eventually reached this position:

Here’s where it started to go bad.  White has just played 30. f5 which is a tough move to meet.  Not really seeing any appealing options, I sacrificed the exchange with 30.. Rxd4 31. cxd4  gxf5.

Down material, but my knight stands well on d5 and at least my kingside didn’t get torn apart.   But white gives the exchange right back with 32. Rfxf5! exf5  33. Rxd5.    Material is now even but I have a hanging pawn that can’t be defended, while white has the more active rook, a passed pawn, and the better pawn structure.   In all, it’s a miserable endgame for me, which I eventually lost.  Looking back on the game, I needed to do more to prevent the f5 push, or reduce its impact, before pursuing my own queenside play.  Still, I was reasonably satisfied with how I played, putting up a decent fight against a 1800+.   I did better later in the day, going 1.5/2 in Rounds 2-3.   I’ll probably post a look at my Round 3 win later on.

The blog begins

This is the first post!  Incredible!  So what will this blog be about?  Mostly about my current interests, like games, sports, technology..  I’m an avid chess and poker player.   I can’t stand most of what is on TV these days, so, I watch movies and sports (baseball, football, MMA, and auto racing mostly).   Fantasy sports and video games also command some of my free time.   All of these should be good topics for discussion.