UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen - FIGHT PREDICTIONS

Oh yeah, it’s that time again where a UFC title belt is on the line. UFC 159 should prove to have a few exciting bouts between some big names and a possibility of Jon Jones surrendering the belt to Chael Sonnen. 

We will get into that here in a minute, but first let’s take a look into the main card of the night and breakdown the fighters by weight class, bout and you will see my predictions will become factual once again. 

Jim Miller VS Pat Healy - Lightweight         

Starting off the main card is Miller VS Healy, to say the least, this fight should be awesome. Both fighters should stand with each other and bang it out. Healy, who hasn’t lost a single bout since 2010, has pulled out six wins in the last three years, all of which pushed a third round. Miller on the other hand, has lost two of his last five in the last three years. Miller’s most recent win was over Joe Lauzon in UFC 155 where the judges declared Miller the winner by unanimous decision. As mentioned above, these two fighters will probably stand toe to toe and bang it out, should prove to be a good fight.

Prediction: Miller wins in Round 3 by TKO

Phil Davis VS Vinny Magalhaes - Light Heavyweight

I don’t know too much about Vinny Magalhaes other than he is a Brazil native and this is his second fight in the UFC. He debuted back in September of last year and was victorious over Igor Pokrajac by arm-bar. On the other hand, Phil Davis has fought in the UFC eight times, this will be his ninth. We have seen wins from Davis of top condendars such as Alexander Gustasson, Brian Stann and Antonio Nogueira. This should be a good stand up brawl as well but could go to the ground if Magalhaes can get Davis down.

Prediction: Davis wins in Round 2 by TKO

Roy Nelson VS Cheick Kongo - Heavyweight         

Four years ago, you would have never thought you would see Big Country Roy Nelson still alive and making moves in the UFC. Surprisingly not indorsed by KFC, Nelson is returning to the octagon against Cheick Kongo who has a significant reach and height advantage. Although Nelson is on the shorter and fatter side, he can still pack a punch against guys who are taller than him. Lets look back to 2010 when Nelson fought skyscraper Stefan Struve, he jumped right in front of him with some dirty boxing, closed Struve’s range and BAM, knocked Struve out. Coming off of a win in UFC 149 back in July of 2012, Kongo has had time to recover from any damage, illness or injury he may have suffered. If Kongo can keep Roy on the edge of his gloves and not in his personal space, he may just defeat the colonel sanders kid, Big Country Nelson.

Prediction: Roy Nelson wins in Round 2 by KO

Michael Bisping VS Alan Belcher - Middleweight   

Okay, I have never really been a big fan of Bisping, nor do I understand why he is fighting again so soon after his recent loss to Vitor Belfort only three months ago. Alan Belcher on the other hand has a decent record coming into this fight despite his most recent loss over Yushin Okami in UFC 155 in 2012. Belcher has wins over top contenders such as Jason MacDonald, Patrick Cote, Wilson Gouveia and Dennis Kang; I’m going to make this one short and sweet, just like Belcher is going to do tomorrow.

Prediction: Belcher wins in Round 3 by Rear Naked Choke

Jon Jones (Champion) VS Chael Sonnen - Light Heavyweight Championship

Now that the undercard is through, it is time for the main event of the evening. Current reining and defending champion Jon Jones is finally going to step into the ring with top contender Chael Sonnen. If many of you remember, UFC 151 was cancelled because champion Jon Jones turned down the fight with Chael after Dan Henderson suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee only days before the scheduled title bout. Now that Jones and Sonnen have gone head to head in the TUF series and coaches challenges, we wait no longer and they will be going toe to toe in the octagon tomorrow night.

As we all know, Jones is very explosive. Jones has nasty elbows and a sick reach advantage over most opponents. Jones has defended his light heavyweight title four times now and is looking down at Chael to be number five. However, Sonnen has different plans. Having lost to Anderson Silva twice in his last seven fights, Jones is the next best man to beat. Once Sonnen beats him, he gets the belt too, it’s a WIN WIN for Sonnen, if he wins.

Side note, Angel Hesseltine and I have been watching the Ultimate Fighter series religiously over the last eight weeks and before she saw the first episode, I told her straight up, “after watching these, you are going to love Chael Sonnen.” My prediction came true later that night. Chael is a good guy. He is a good coach and truly cared about his team. I’m not saying that Jones didn’t care but it was blatantly obvious in season 10 with Rampage, he was just going for the W’s. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even show up to one of the TUF fights due to previous engagements – go act in another movie guy..

Now that I am done ranting a bit; to say the least, tomorrow’s fights will be good. I am looking forward to Chael taking the belt.

Prediction: Sonnen in Round 2 by TKO (he is going to catch Jones with some dirty boxing and capitalize with ground n pound)

Arizona Cardinals 2013-14 NFL Season Schedule

Thats right. We are getting closer to the 2013-14 NFL season and the league has released the official schedule for the upcoming year. As many of you know, we (AZ Cards) didn't make the playoffs last year. Well, I'm here to tell you that will not be the case this year. Looking at the players we picked up in the off-season and our seemingly easy looking schedule, we are going to make a superbowl run.

Here is the schedule for this season, I'm getting tickets - Who's coming with me!?

Arizona Cardinals
Week 1 (Sunday, Sept. 8): Cardinals at Rams, 4:25 p.m.
Week 2 (Sunday, Sept. 15): Lions at Cardinals, 4:25 p.m.
Week 3 (Sunday, Sept. 22): Cardinals at Saints, 1 p.m.
Week 4 (Sunday, Sept. 29): Cardinals at Buccaneers, 1 p.m.
Week 5 (Sunday, Oct. 6): Panthers at Cardinals, 4:05 p.m.
Week 6: (Sunday, Oct. 13): Cardinals at 49ers, 4:25 p.m.
Week 7: (Thursday, Oct. 17): Seahawks at Cardinals, 8:25 p.m.
Week 8 (Sunday, Oct. 27): Falcons at Cardinals, 4:25 p.m.
Week 9 Bye
Week 10 (Sunday, Nov. 10): Texans at Cardinals, 4:25 p.m.
Week 11 (Sunday, Nov. 17): Cardinals at Jaguars, 1 p.m.
Week 12 (Sunday, Nov. 24): Colts at Cardinals, 4:05 p.m.
Week 13 (Sunday, Dec. 1): Cardinals at Eagles, 1 p.m.
Week 14 (Sunday, Dec. 8): Rams at Cardinals, 4:25 p.m.
Week 15 (Sunday, Dec. 15): Cardinals at Titans, 1 p.m.
Week 16 (Sunday, Dec. 22): Cardinals at Seahawks, 4:05 p.m.
Week 17 (Sunday, Dec. 29): 49ers at Cardinals, 4:25 p.m.

Arizona Cardinals New Additions for 2013-14 NFL Season

Though there are no NFL games going on, the NFL players and staff are behind the scenes training and making trades with other teams to bulk up their roster.  This year will certainly be a game changer as the Arizona Cardinals have added a few more quality assets to their repertoire which gives us that much more of an advantage to reach the big game this year.

Lets break it down by our strong suited Defense and then talk about our new additions and comments on offense. Here is the most recent news with your Arizona Cardinals.

Defense:

Starting last month in mid-March, the Arizona Cardinals made a 2 year deal with LB Jasper Brinkley who had a career high 117 tackles last year on the Minnesota Vikings. He Last year he also forced three fumbles and had two sacks, Brinkley should be a good addition to our defensive backs.

Cardinals also made a one year deal with Matt Shaughnessy started all 16 games last season with the Oakland Raiders. He had 3.5 sacks along with 42 team tackles, 29 solo tackles.

In sadder news, long time Cardinals LB Daryl Washington will sit out for at least the first four games of the season due to the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Washington admits his mistakes and will be able to participate in full for all training programs however will miss the first four games of the regular season.

Offense:

Of course you can guess the hot topic, the Quarterback position. After two years of Kolb injured half of both seasons on the sidelines, the Cardinals finally made a smart decision and cut QB, Kevin Kolb. There were talks about getting a rookie in the spot or even starting John Skelton but recent news has shows Skelton was picked up off waivers by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Ever since Bruce Arians was hired to replace the fired Ken Whisenhunt, quarterback was the No. 1 topic of conversation. In late March the Cards seemed confident that Drew Stanton would be the starter until Mr. Carson Palmer stepped up and showed some interest in Arizona. The Cardinals met and made a deal with Oakland for Palmer who should be a good addition to Arizona’s offense. Though Palmer had a rough year last season in Oakland, I think he has plenty of arm left and will compliment our receivers with a sturdy arm at the Quarterback position.

Larry Fitzgerald is arguable one of the greatest receivers of all time, in a recent statement by Fitzgerald, he states "I'm coming off the most disappointing season of my career and I'm in 'prove it' mode," Fitzgerald told Darren Urban of the Cardinals' team site on Tuesday 4/2/13. "Anyone who can come to our team and help us reclaim the division, I'm all for." Now when Fitz says anyone, he is directly referring to the addition at the QB position. I expect Fitz to be a very strong second half receiver this season with Palmer targeting No. 2-3 receivers and tight ends in the first half, pulling defenders off Fitz to cover the new play-makers which will give Fitz some one-on-one lines.  

It is still very early in the offseason and things can still change but for the most part, our 2013-14 season is shaping up and looking good. Look forward to the NFL schedule release in two weeks on April 14. 

Upcoming Movies in Theaters to Watch in April 2013

As many of you know Angel Hesseltine and I have a child coming in May, Lucas does Karate, Jasmyne does gymnastics and Angel is still working full time as the director of her pre-school in Gilbert – we have a pretty busy life. Not to mention family coming in town, birthdays on weekends and in Las Vegas and my Thursday night softball beer league to add icing on the cake of busy weekdays. Somehow we still find time to go out and do fun things with the kids.

Last month I wrote about movies upcoming in March, 2013 and guess what, it is that time again and I am going to recap a few movies that are being released in theaters in the month of April that I hope to find a seat in the theater for sometime soon. Which I might add that we still haven’t went and seen ‘The Croods’ with the kids and we really need to get that one out of the way first.

Here are some movies I am looking forward to watching this month:

Evil Dead

Number one movie on my list that I want to see in the month of April. It comes out on April 5 and it looks great! Angel won’t even watch the previews with me because it shows the little girl looking out from under a board or something – I’ll admit the little demon girl looks pretty scary, but that’s what is going to make this movie great.

The movie based around five friends who take a trip out to a remote cabin where they discover of a Book of the Dead. This book directs them to unintentionally summon demons living in the nearby woods and what do demons do? They terrorize and kill eventually kill people. Movie rumors are raving that the evil demonic presences try and possess them one by one, who knows how many of the five will get out alive.

Jurassic Park 3D

SO STOKED FOR THIS! Lucas is infatuated with animals, dinosaurs, cows, bulls, etc. so when we found out the original 1993 Jurassic Park was being re-released in 3D, we made it a point to take Lucas to it. I think it may get a bit scary during some parts for him especially if there is a dinosaur coming out of the screen trying to eat him but I’m sure he will enjoy it. J

If you haven’t seen the original Jurassic Park, it is based on a un-inhabited island that frog DNA testing has been done and strains have been made to re-create dinosaur DNA, essentially bringing dinosaurs back to life. During a preview tour of the drive through theme park, a major power outage takes the cast for an adventure they had not prepared for. The cloned dinosaur exhibits security fences fail and dinosaurs become the top of the food chain.

Oblivion

I’m not sold on this movie yet. The reason why I included it on this list because it stars Tom Cruise on a solo mission and it seems to be somewhat of a repeat of “I am Legend” which starred Will Smith and wasn’t too bad of a movie either. Regardless, if you had any questions on Tom Cruise’s acting ability, I think this movie will show his true colors of holding an audience by himself.

Oblivion is based around a veteran (Cruise) who is assigned to extract the Earth's remaining resources and while on his journey, he begins to question what he knows about his mission as well as himself. Alright solo man on Earth, lets see what you got for us and bring those resources back to home planet.

42

Rated PG-13 and rightfully so to educate children of today’s neglected world of television, this movie shares the life story of Jackie Robinson and his extraordinary story of making his way into the Major League Baseball. This movie showcases the history-making Robinson signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey.

This movie looks amazing. This drama based biography feature film with a sports twist should be a major hit with baseball and sports enthusiasts all over the world. Not only should this be a very compelling movie but it will be sure to bring tears to your eyes during certain struggles that Robinson had to face while making his way into the MLB.

The Lords of Salem

This movie looks good as well. It is created by the producers of Paranormal Activity series and Insidious (which I thought was pretty good too until the end) and a setting based in Salem which having a huge history of witches, warlocks and Satan worshiping, it should prove to be a good thriller and keep you on the edge of your seat.

This movie is about a young woman named Heidi who is a radio DJ in Salem, she receives a box containing a record; a "gift from the Lords." The sounds that play from the record trigger flashbacks of her town's violent past and begin to haunt her, meanwhile the Satan worshipping is happening in the background encouraging these haunting and awaiting a special day for a child to come into the world.

Pain & Gain

Many people don’t, but I personally like movies with Mark Wahlburg – my favorite being ‘Rockstar’ which was released in the early 1990’s. Either way, “Pain & Gain” stars Wahlburg and Dwayne Johnson (better known as ‘The Rock’) and should prove to be an action packed movie.

Pain & Gain is based in Florida about a three bodybuilders who get caught up in an extortion ring and a kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong. They find themselves smack dab in the middle of less than appealing situations and use their brawn to get out of these sticky situations.

MUD

Right up on my favorite actors list with Wahlburg, Nicolas Cage, Bradley Cooper and Timothy Olyphant; Matthew McConaughey stars in this feature film based around a fugitive on the run living in the woods looking to find his true love. Sounds a bit sappy trying to work a love story into the film but I’m sure it will play out okay with the support of Reese Witherspoon as the true love.

Assuming Mud (Matthew McConaughey) escapes from jail or prison and is living day to day; two teenage boys stumble upon his stuff and the use of their boat sparks scary thoughts. Eventually the boys form a pact with Mud to help elude the bounty hunters with hopes of reuniting him with the woman of his dreams. This movie won’t be the first one I try and see in April but makes the list because of the cast.

Get ahold of me if you want to go see one, we can hit a Harkins somewhere!

5 Easy Steps to Use Google’s New GIF Search Functionality

If you are a visual person who uses Google image search a lot, you may find something new that was just released this week. Google has added animated .gif image search filter options to their image search where you can find images coming to life.

If you want to filter your search to provide animated gif listings in your image search, take these 4 simple filtering steps:

1. Do a Google Search - use whatever term you want.

2. Filter by ‘Images” - this will tell Google you want to see pictures

 3. Click ‘Search Tools’ - this will give you a selection to choose from.

4. Click “Any Type” - this will allow for a dropdown will appear. 

5. Sort by “Animated” - this will now allow animated GIF’s to appear in your image search results. 

 And there you have it. 5 Easy steps to implement Google's new .gif search functionality in Google Image search results.

UFC 158 Tomorrow - Current Champ GSP VS Nick Diaz

Alright boys and girls, fight fans of all ages - it’s that time again where we have a big fight on the horizon with big names and a 170lb belt up for grabs. As always, I have a good post for you putting out some bold predictions to compliment my past winning record predictions.

This Saturday’s fights UFC 158 on PPV are between some of the top MMA fighters in the world, don’t be a pussy, comment and put yourself out there and tell me what your predictions are for these big Welterweight bouts! 

Major Preliminary Card fight – Broadcast on FX

Patrick Côté VS Bobby Voelker

Okay, I may be a bit biased on this fight because I tend to lean towards fighters I have some type of connection with. I was able to see Bobby Voelker fight a couple of times a few years ago before moving down to Arizona and he is a pretty well rounded fighter. However, only having 4 fights in the last 3 years (three of the four against Roger Bowling), I’m not sure if he is completely ready for Côté. Patrick Côté only has one loss in his last six fights. Coming off a first round victory over Alessio Sakara due to Sakara’s disqualification and a loss to Chung Le, I’m pretty sure Côté will be coming back ready to swing with a ‘Win’ in near sight.

Prediction: Côté wins in Round 2 by TKO

Major Preliminary Card fight – Broadcast only on PPV

Jake Ellenberger VS Nate Marquardt

This is another fight where I had the opportunity to see one of these fighters throw down in person. I believe it was in February 2006 at VFC 12: Warpath in Council Bluffs, Iowa I saw Ellenberger defeat Mark Bear by way of TKO and a cut. Ellenberger is coming off a win over Jay Hieron last October, who I also enjoy watching fight ever since I saw him take a knock out punch and wake up to grab a takedown on the way to falling on the mat. Daniel Nisley is also a big fan of Jay, who fights out of Las Vegas, NV. Despite snatching the Strikeforce welterweight belt from Tyron Woodly by 4^th round KO last July, Marquardt gave it up to Tarec Saffiedine on his next and most recent fight in January, 2013. Marquardt is now returning to the UFC for the first time since his win over Dan Miller in UFC 128, he should be motivated for this big show welterweight fight trying to make his way back up the ladder since re-signing with UFC.

Prediction: Marquardt wins in Round 3 by TKO.

Carlos Condit VS Johny Hendricks

When Condit sees GSP for the first time since he lost to unanimous decision last November, I can only assume he is building up his motivation to fight GSP once again sometime soon hopefully using Johny Hendricks as a live punching bag. I’m sure it is a little bitter-sweet for Condit knowing that he beat Nick Diaz in February 2012 and then lost to GSP in November – now Diaz and GSP fight right after this bout. Winning 13 of his last 15 fights, Condit has made a name for himself in the UFC and hopes to get another title shot – there is only one problem. His name is Johny Hendricks. With a long standing OSU wrestling background, Hendricks has skills on the ground and power in his hands – he went 56-0 his senior year at Ohio State in 2007. Now sitting at a pretty 14-1 MMA record, Hendricks is in a direct line for the title shot against GSP (assuming he doesn’t lose immediately after his fight with Condit to Nick Diaz). With notable wins over Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck and 12 second KO over Jon Fitch, Hendricks is on a B-line for the welterweight belt.

Prediction: Hendricks wins in Round 2 by TKO (ground & pound after big head shot)

UFC 158 Welterweight Title Fight

Georges St-Pierre (Champ) VS Nick Diaz

The fight the world has been waiting for, GSP’s dark side to beat Nick Diaz down (assuming the soccer mom in Lodi, CA hasn’t already done it, see pre-fight conference call). If you have a chance to listen to the call, Diaz try’s to defend his ‘good guy, hard working past’ but eventually digs himself deeper by opening his mouth and getting loud with GSP (it could have been Geoff from Craig Ferguson late show) on the phone. Long story short, GSP came back to the UFC after a long injury and looked bigger and better than ever against Condit last November. Having not lost since 2007, GSP needs to not let his dark side over-commit to Diaz as he could land some hard counter punches and upset the 7 time defending champion.  

I’m not a big fan of Nick Diaz, nor his brother Nate; however I do know that Nick has been in the fighting game for a long time and his most recent fights other than losing to Condit have been more than impressive. I’m thinking that GSP will want to bring this fight to the ground and not want to bang it out with Nick, which hopefully they will give the fans a show and keep it on their feet.

Predication: Diaz wins by TKO in 4^th Round (GSP’s dark side is going to over-commit and get him KTFO)

Watch Joe Rogan and Dana White Podcast about GSP and Diaz fight

Upcoming Movie Preview – March at a Glance

Holy crap it has been almost two months since my last post, so lets bust one out now. If any of you know me, you know that I am a movie buff. I quote movies, enjoy watching all types and love to watch some over and over. Typically, I enjoy scary or thriller movies but I do enjoy comedies, some dramas but most of all the animated movies!

Here is a preview and a list of movies that are coming out in March that I hope to get a seat in the theater for – some to drag my babe Angel Hesseltine to as well:

Dead Man Down

Coming out March 8, Dead Man Down stars Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace – this is going to be an action packed movie. Based in New York City, a crime lord’s best man gets seduced by one of the boss’ victims seeking vengeance.

Rated ‘R’ for violence, excessive foul language and a scene of sexuality, I bet it was from more of the violence and guns that actually gave this film an ‘R’ rating, I’m sure it will be another faced paced gun shootout movie.

 

Oz the Great and Powerful

Also coming out March 8, Oz the Great and Powerful is a PG movie that should be child friendly. Though I am sure there will be a few scenes that will be ‘a bit off’ as far as reality goes, I’m sure it will be okay for the little ones to understand.

Starring Mila Kunis and James Franco as Oz, this movie is about a small-time magician with more undesired personal ethics who arrives in a magical land and must decide if he will be a good man or a great one.

The ABC’s of Death

This is definitely one that Angel will not see with me, not in theaters, not from Blockbuster, not from Redbox, and probably never. If I am ever going to get her to watch a scary movie with me, it wont be about children – which is completely understandable because we have two children and another on the way. Having her see a movie with a cover that looks like this one, when she is 7 months prego, probably isn’t the best thing for her (or me).

Only getting a 5.3 out of a possible 10 stars in IMDB.com, I cant say this is going to be a great movie – but it is a scary movie and I will enjoy it none-the-less. Showcasing death in all of its vicious wonder and brutal beauty; inspired by children's educational ABC books, the motion picture is comprised of 26 individual chapters, each by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. I cant imagine watching 26 short films with 26 different plots about death would be worthy of my $9.50 movie ticket so I will probably be waiting until this hits Redbox.

The Croods

This is the movie I have been waiting for since January after we first saw previews on tv. This movie looks great, not to mention that I truly enjoy the animated movies (speaking of, we went to see Rise of the Guardians yesterday with Janet Amado and Xochitl Amado).  With big personalities like Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone playing some of the character voices, I’m sure the narrative will be great.

Not the first stab at a prehistoric comedy flick but it just may be one of the first animated versions, this comedy adventure that follows the world's first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures -- and their outlook is changed forever.

Spring Breakers

This is probably not going to be the best film ever made but it definitely appeals to a the young adolescent style of audience. Based around four girls (Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rachel Korine) who want to go on spring break and don’t have the cash, they develop a plan to rob a store to gain the funds they need to go on vacation. Little do they know they await a not so pleasant surprise of the cops pulling them into jail, even worse, a local drug dealer bails them out and puts them to work with some of his dirty work.

Rated R for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout the film, this one is sure to bring high school boys to the theater to see these four beauties partying in their two piece bikinis. I just wonder how dirty they get with James Franco as the main male character with support of Gucci Mane.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

I don’t know about you but I thought G.I. Joe 1 & 2 were pretty damn good – and I know the ladies liked them because of the whole fact of Channing Tatum is the star. Females just love that guy, I think he has a chocolate covered strawberry penis that makes the women all go crazy over him.

With mentions of the G.I. Joe’s being framed for crimes against the country, the team is terminated by the President's order, and the surviving team members face off against Zartan, his accomplices, and the world leaders he has under his influence. This Joe flick stars yes, Channing Tatum but also Bruce Willis and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson should be another box office hit!

The Place Beyond the Pines

Getting 8 out of 10 stars on IMDB.com, this film based around a motorcycle stunt rider who turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.

Bradley Cooper (who is slowly becoming one of my favorite actors) stars along side Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendez and Ray Liotta in this feature film which caught my eye because of motorcycle stunts and bank robberies. This film wont be my first choice to see in the theaters but is definitely one I cannot wait for Redbox to release.