Back From The Dread

So it happened. IceMan KOed Babalu. It's no surprise, really, Chuck Liddell is now at the top of his game. Forget the stunning loss by TKO to Randy Couture and Quinton Jackson and Babalu's impressive previous record. Like Matt Hughes, Liddell is king of the hill...for now. And Hughes? He is likewise his promontory's top dog. He may have lost by submission via rear-naked choke to BJ Penn in UFC 46, but that is ancient history now. Seventeen editions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship later, Hughes is a changed man, and so is Penn. Hughes has run over all five of his opponents, including the Bob Dylan of the MMA -- Royce Gracie. It's like Bruce Springsteen blowing Dylan off the stage. Age has something to do with it beating a legend is like giving God a scratch. It's not just possible. But this is MMA not theology and anything can happen. Like a fight promoter challenging a journalist to go up the ring. Challenge accepted, prick! GnP 2, October 28, 2006. Mark the date. Names withheld to protect the guilty. But people already know. What are you gonna do, make the rules? Get in the ring, punk. Receive your just punishment. Yeah, YOU! You know who you are, deluded ass. OTSS. What is that? Another spelling for OUCH? Four and counting, start discounting. GnP may be the new kid in the MMA block but the older (not by much) "group" is starting to feel the pinch. A GnP guy told me that one of the incorporators of OTSS offered a tie-up of sorts. My GnP source said that his colleague said "no, thank you." Good. Two "groups" can play this game. It's the same game but played with different rules. I would love to write about the rather touchy city ordinance on local MMA, re: only those 18 to 40 years old allowed to fight legally. How about illegally? Heh... Hey, ass, remember the time you told Richard (you know who) to hold MMA fights with betting in your family's building basement? You conveniently cannot remember? That's because your memory is selective, same as(s) your few friends and plenty of enemies. Oops! Not a very politically-correct term...how about opponents? Adversaries? Rivals? I like the last one. No more monopoly.

Back to reality. Hughes vs. Penn. I have to take Penn on this. The way he dominated Hughes in their first fight, despite going up in weight to welterweight from lightweight. That was the upset of the year in MMA in 2004. At the time, Penn was arguably the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter. Then he left the UFC and was lost, directionless in his fighting career. Sure, he lost two of his five fights by decision. Decision, sometimes the judges see it differently or it just means the match was boring and someone had to be declared the winner so let the better looking fighter get the win. Penn also looks Filipino. Despite the Anglo last name, Penn looks Oriental and being from Hawaii...he could be Ilocano. Let's root for the Pinoy or maybe Pinoy here.

Evenly matched on paper, this fight could go the full route and anything could happen. MMA is by far the more difficult sport to judge compared to boxing. Ringside judges have to consider strikes by hand and foot, knees and shins, elbows, grappling prowess and ring control. And if you are a bleeder, that could be a minus. Penn by KO in less than five, Hughes by decision in five. Betting starts now.

Hey, readers, if any. Please excuse the grammatical errors and typos; the cybercafe girl is yelling: "Five minutes na lang!" I don't even have time to spell check. Whew. Just barely.

Three weeks without a new post. Well, when I was doing this for pay (ahem...and the self-expression), 90 percent of the time, at the very least, I was 10 to 20 hours early in sending my column. Giving up that far-from lucrative enterprise, I have no editors, ASSistant editors, manAGING editors, NOOSE editors, editors in CHEAP, yeah, CHEAT, too, pressuring me to make the deadline that they themselves can easily disregard. Admit it! Now, I only have the Internet cafe attendant saying: "Manirado mi og 9 p.m.!" I used to rush against the onslaught of daylight, now it's a lowly-paid cybercafe attendant baying at my heels. Did I omit anybody? Reporters, your time will come. Photographers! Yours too. Nah, reporters and photographers are the coolest people in print media. There are exceptions, of course. But the bad is outnumbered by the good.

Speaking of one reporter, SSC ace justice beat reporter Karlon N. Rama of Stage Fright (sorry, couldn't resist, grasshopper) fame/infamy -- thanks for the mention of this blog in your column, man. I owe you coffee. KNR doesn't drink alcoholic substances anymore, he only smells gunpowder nowadays. And Bong Wenceslao (one of the more cool print editors in Cebu), my gratitude goes to you too, Sir Bong, for the similar mention in your column. That's how it goes in local media: you scratch my back, I will knife yours. Joke.