UFC 84....Ill Will

Alright. Once again a fantastic night of fights is abouts to begin. So I thought I would share my meaningless predictions for tonight's UFC 84 "Ill Will" at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Let's start at the bottom and work our way up this time.

Rich Clementi vs. Terry Etim
Okay, although Etim and his lanky ass has only only been beaten once out of eleven pro fights. I can't find it in my heart to give him a win against a pretty tough and well rounded Clementi. Rich has over four times as many fights against much tougher opponents and is coming off a good couple of wins against Sam Stout and Melvin Guillard. He also has only been submitted five times in his career and I personally don't see Etim catching him, even though nine out of his ten wins are by submission. Rich by a relatively dominant Uni.

John "War machine" Koppenhaver vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
To be honest, I am lacking in any form of knowledge of Yoshida. Although what I do know tells me he is a tough s.o.b. But so is the war machine. As he displayed in a crazy emotional win against Jared Rollins. Yoshida just seems to be more versatile in his wins and experience. I must give him the win here. Although this has the makings for a bang-out fight, Yoshida in the second, TKO.

Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes
With the overwhelming atmosphere of the huge UFC crowd and the closing of the octagon, it takes a large toll on new fighters. And I don't see Mendes coming in that comfortable against an always aggressive Thiago Silva. Thiago by an easily achieved TKO/KO in the first.

Christian Wellisch vs. Shane Carwin
This is Shane's first fight in the UFC also, but I am not expecting as many jitters from this undefeated 6'4 muscle packed machine. Although he came in a bit light for the weigh-ins, he still outweighs Wellisch by almost thirty pounds. Their experience is similar, but Wellish is on his fourth fight in the UFC with two wins and one loss. But his losses were against stronger opponents and Shane could have Christian packing his bags. Carwin by first round sub.

Rameau Sokoudjou vs Kazuhiro Nakamura
These two former pride stars are going at it in the octagon tonight. That is pretty crazy in itself. Together, these two have fought a plethora of named fighters. Soko knocking most of them out while KazNak loses most to a close decision. But both are tougher than nails and both are coming off losses to "Lyota" Machida in their last UFC fights. Although KazNak has the experience here, I can't help but think that Soko will be the aggressor and try standing with his fellow jukoka. But in the end I see another cautious fight resulting in a Uni for Soko.

Dong-Hyun Kim vs Jason Tan
Alright, simply put, Kim has the hands while Tan has the ears. Haha. Just foolin' but seriously Mr. Dong can throw down although at times a bit cautious. He also has great td defense. Tan is also a well rounded fighter and is pretty aggressive to boot, but I think that Kim's cautiousness will prevail and he will eat out a Uni.

Ivan Salaverry vs. Rousimar Palhares
Ivan Salaverry is still fighting. This will most likely be his one fight for the year, but hey. The guy has been fighting for a pretty long time and has a descent game. He just seems to get KOed from time to time. Palhares, who is knew to me and the UFC, is an up and coming middleweight with a black-belt and only one loss to his name. He is strong and has good subs is what I hear. I must pick him. By submission at the end of round two. Yeah that sounds good.

Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic
Another new comer with a black belt on the card. Crimony. Croatian Goran Reljic is the Euro-Gracie Champ at 205 and is a pretty tough mofo from what I understand. But I do believe that the experience will play a role in the bout. That is where the not-so-bad himself Mr. Gouveia will pick up the slack. A guy who has twice as many fights and has yet to be submitted. He is on his sixth fight in the UFC, where I believe he is becoming more and more comfortable. I believe he has the tools to rock the undefeated Goran where he could finish the fight by TKO/KO in the second.

Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva
OOOOOOOhhhhhh baby. This one makes me all warm inside. This is one of those unpredictable, end of a round robin, type of fights. Keith picks apart Liddell, while Liddell beats up Wandy and now we see this. I must go with what I know. And that is that Jardine is a methodical hard hitting well rounded pissed off individual. While Silva is a psychopathic hard hitting well rounded annihilator. I just have a problem with Silva though. He doesn't seem to live up to his hype in the octagon. I must see something different from his tonight. And so leaves me with a clear Uni for The Dean of Mean. Good luck to both.

Tito Ortiz vs Ryoto Machida
I think this fight is the easiest to call. At least the winner will be. Who knows how it will end. Tito has fought everybody and beaten a lot of good fighters. But as of late I believe it is pretty well known that Tito is now a fighter for the money. While Lyoto is a fighter for the respect and goal-minded inspiration. Lyoto has also fought and beaten the likes of great fighters such as B.J. Penn, Rich Franklin, Stephan Bonnar, Soko, KazNak to name a few. But I believe Tito will try not to get knocked out and will go out of his last fight with the UFC as a showman and not a fighter. Too bad. Mach by Uni.

Main Event B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk
And the fight we are all waiting to see. Will the freak of nature prove his past steroid use does not effect the true fighter that he is. Or will the now driven B.J. Penn show everyone that he is truly the best pound for pound fighter in the world. I can't wait either way. Sean hasn't fought in over a year but will most likely prove to be a control freak while Penn has fought a couple of toughies to snag the lightweight belt. In my eyes, that time off added to the fuel that has driven B.J. equals a win for Penn. Submission (rear naked?) round three.

So there we have em. Good luck to all fighters and we will see how well everyone does after a matter of hours. I'm pumped.

If you have a need to bet real or fake money, don't forget to check out MMAPlayground.com. And if you are looking for betting advise, check out what FIGHT! Magazine's beautiful and talented Mr. Perfomify has to say in the magazine or head over the best MMA informative website in the world, MMAJunkie.com where he posts his past betting articles and his picks also.

The Brew World....Global Warming=Expensive Beer

Not so fast.

Okay, I will be the first one to admit that I don't carry the recycling bin to the curb every tuesday night or take short showers. Nor am I gonna try and fit my "number two" left-overs onto one or two sheets of toilet paper. Although I do try and limit my excessive use for other reasons. Simply put....economics.

But there may just be an entirely new reason to slap a band aid on old mother earth.

Because she's gonna turn up the heat on Australian barley farmers which in turn effects the crops. So the climate change could spell disaster for brewers all around the world who depend on Australian and New Zealand barley crops. Especially for China according to climate scientist at New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Jim Salinger.

A similar incident has happened before and is expected to happen again in the future. Here's a little sumsumpin from Realbeer.com talking about Jim's thoughts,

"His is a longterm prediction, looking 30 years out, although brewers around the world experienced the domino effect of a poor crop in Australia last year. China, which now consumes more beer than any country in the world, relies heavily on barley malt from Australia. When that wasn’t available prices around the world went up."

Well this should make it a tad bit easier for the average guy to think about how he treats his planet. I think I might just start recycling. And I suppose I could stop burning random trees for no reason at all.

This is truly scary though.

Flavorites....Meatwater!

I figured that I would start this off with a low blow to vegetarians and those alike. Why? Honestly. How? Is your natural human instinct of consuming meats and fats gone. If so, shame on you!

Seriously folks. We need good amounts of proteins and fats and amino acids and carbohydrates and whatever else to live a healthy and productive life. All provided by meat. Some theoretical scientists even suggest that when our ancient ancestors first thought of meat as an option for survival, it had a huge impact on our brain. Yes. Because those large amounts of nutrients and proteins actually made our brains grow. And from that boost from meat we have evolved into what we are today.

So in some disturbing way, vegetarians and there influences might actually be reversing evolution and throwing away what we've worked so hard for. So are vegetarians slower minded (stupider)? I don't know. But if you were to turn down a kill that dad hunted down for the family way back in the ancient times. You would probably be made into stew. Mmmmmm vegetable stew.

And so brings us to our latest edition of flavorites.

Meatwater. An intricately blended concoction of savory dishes intermingled with something our bodies cannot do with out....water.

These "high efficiency survival beverages," as they put it, are a flavored liquid meal that are packed with nutrients that help the body live the way it is supposed to. Here is an exert from DinnerInABottle.com,

"We at Meatwater use only the finest protein, an organic compound composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. One of the main functions of protein is to synthesize structural proteins like muscle. Protein is also responsible for synthesizing structural hormones like insulin, growth hormone and Insulin Growth Factor I. These are anabolic hormones that can influence many functions in the body, including muscle growth, recovery, strength and absorption of nutrients into your muscle cells. Your body uses protein to make structural and biochemical reactions that are required for muscle contraction, cardiovascular function, and immunity from disease, just to name a few."

Meatwater comes in a whole array of stomach-growling flavors such as Beef Jerky, Cheese Burger, Dirty Hot Dog, Fish'n Chips, Peking Duck, Texas BBQ, and even Hungarian Gulash to name a few. They also have breakfast drinks such as an English Breakfast or Brunch Omelette.

Now I haven't tried one yet so I have many questions. Obviously all of them having to do with taste. But shoot. I'll try anything once. Except vegetarianism.

Check out there website. It's something else. There's a match game and descriptions of all the flavors as well as a contest for a new flavor. I picked Buffalo Wings so don't submit that one. I think that a nice saucy hot wing would be great with water! Haha.

Sweet Ride....Lamborghini SUV

So the perfect scenario would be that you are a sports car lover but have to drop the kids off at school. Well most sports cars aren't very family friendly. Especially a Lambo.

How about a Lamborghini SUV? That would be perfect. Haha. How many mofos do you know that can take the sports car grocery shopping. Sorry. I know that most of us can only dream of having anything close to a beautifully sculpted mess of metals, rubber, oils, and paint that is a Lamborghini.

So bring on the REM!

Here she is. After years of speculation and controversial spy pictures. A successor of the not so popular "Rambo Lambo" (LM002) built in the 1980's. And once thought to be a new prototype of the Porsche Cayenne SUV. Too large and too many frame alterations for it to deceive the crafty lookers. Here is a bit of info from TopSpeed.com,

"The question is what are going to be the performance of a SUV made by a supercar market? Under the bonnet where will be the same 5.0 liter V10 engine used in the Gallardo, but the weight of the SUV will make the car slower. Maximum output will be around 500 hp and the Lambo SUV will hit an estimated top speed of 175-180 mph."

"The 2009 Lamborghini SUV will also get the 4.5 liter V8 engine used in the Cayenne. Also the European market will get the 5.9 litre V12 diesel engine used in the Audi Q7."

So there we have it. The year 2009 might just bring in a new slick version of a whacked out hybrid. I can't wait to get one. But am I the only one who thinks it is a bit ridiculous. A Lamborghini is a Lam bor ghini. A sleek, stylish, futuristic, booty-gettin', expensive speed-demon. And an SUV. An SUV is either for a gangster of sorts who enjoys paying to much for gas while cruisin' with homies or spending time on the river. Or for the middle-aged house wife with four kids and a dog who runs errands all day. Eh, oh well. We shall see how well she sells and to what demographic.

Man vs. Nature....We Walk Wrong?

Evolution is the craziest thing. It adapts with our lifestyles and life changes. But are there certain ways in which we ruin perfectly good evolution. That's the idea of New York Magazine's very own Adam Sternbergh.

He says that our feet are perfect by themselves and our need for shoes is ruining the nature of our walk. Or how he puts it as a past article title, "You Walk Wrong." He then goes on to say that he himself wears shoes that conform to the shape of his foot and are similar to walking barefoot. In fact they are called Vivo Barefoot and are made by the Clark shoe family of England.

Sternbergh supports his theory by comparing the unlikely situation that one would wear an arm cast from age three until much older. And then explains that your arm would simply "not work" after removing the cast. He also gives proof of a 1940's study on the feet of Indian rickshaw drivers, whatever those are, and how healthy their feet are.

My feet aren't healthy?

I don't know about all of this. Is this something like the boxers vs. tighty whitey theory? I can't say that that my feet don't or do work the way they are supposed to. How would I know. I feel fine. Besides, cave men didn't walk so upright did they.

Maybe we have evolved into the shoe and therefore are better with it. I feel as though Mr. Sternbergh is leaving out the fact that 99.99% of us sleep and walk around the house without shoes on. Therefore, our feet adapt to both environments. No?

Although as men, we all have a bit of cave man in us. This is one area I might just keep under wraps. You decide for yourself. Article is linked. There are some cool foot paintings within the article though.

Not So Manly....A-Rod?

So everyone knows that life has it's hard times. Ask Kalib Starnes. But as men, we take those times and turn them into either something to joke about or an unrecoverable memory. So when a guy doesn't grit his teeth and take the bull by the horns, he may look sort of how do you say.... girlie.

Well that is just what one of America's very own MVP's of the major leagues did. So here's the story.

A-freakin' Rod. Yep. Alex Rodriguez. Just doesn't have it in him to follow through with the end result of that eternity that is nine months of pregnancy. The end result of a cloudy evening filled with cocktails and lubricants. Obviously we are are talking about the long awaited delivery of the bag of bones that was once a microscopic olympic swimmer.

Well, I know all too well the discomfort of a hospital. The walls are painted a numbing off-yellow and they pump way too much oxygen into those almost windowless rooms. But. We MUST finish the job A-Rod.

So what happened?

Ol' Rodney ova hea figured he would try and weasel out of the birth of his first born. Haha. Good try...never works. His wife tells about the funny business in this Sports Illustrated article,

"As tough and big as he seems, he is real wimpy around doctors or any type of medical situation," Cynthia Rodriguez said, according to excerpts released Tuesday by YES. "I don't know why I thought the birth of our child would be different. In the middle of the night, I realized that I needed to go to the hospital. I wake him up. The first thing that comes out of his mouth, `Can we call your mother?"

Okay. That's not the main reason A-Rod deserves this month's "Not so manly" badge of dishonor. The damn yankee passed out during labor. Here's more from the article,

"The one nurse had a cold cloth on his head. The other nurse had the blood pressure on his arm. And my mother was like rubbing his back. And he is passed out on a couch. And I am there, in the middle of labor,"

Now I'm not gonna lie. I had a good minute of "holy crap" followed by three or four seconds of nausea during both of my boys' deliveries. But i'll be damned if I was gonna go down without a fight.

Man Tech....TrackPack®

Alright. I sincerely appreciate technology that makes a man's life that much easier. Some of the most important innovations and technologies of our time involve making preparedness a stipulation.

Like with a swiss army knife, you will be prepared for any little job that might pop up. Or with pumps on the tongue of our shoes, we will be prepared to get the local mischievous cat out of our tree. Well today's man tech is all about being prepared.

How about not having to get up and walk to the fridge or cooler for a brewski. Or how about never having to ask a buddy to help you carry the cooler to another location. Or hows never having to buy ice and fill the damn cooler fifty million times a summer sound. Yeah. It sounds frickin awesome.

It's called the TrackPack® cooler and it is just that easy. This waterproof backpack is equipped with three re-usable freezer gel packs. It has easy open dispensers on both sides of the pack and holds a whopping 20 cans. Or you can put whatever you feel in it as if it were a regular cooler such as bottles or foods.

This baby is sweet. I can see myself walking around mingling with friends and watching them lug around a big ol' cooler. I mean how many times have you been pissin' up a tree and ran out of beer mid-stream. Well, with this bad boy, you'd be prepared. How great would it be to be your own bartender or even tend to others if you care that much.

The only flaw I see is it comes without an anti-theft alarm of some sort. Is there any way of knowing that the bastard behind you is taking two at a time. I guess one might notice the cans resettle to the bottom. But not after half a TrackPack. Haha.

Check out there nifty little website at TrackPackCoolers.com

Oh yeah, be sure to have the girlfriend or wifey carry it for you. Like in the picture. And your all set!