Sharpshootin' With The Franchise
Mourning in Quebec: You’ll have to excuse me if I sound a little cranky this week but I have a pretty good reason, thank you very much. I pretty much had the worst weekend of all times. Things started off rocky when the dreaded Toronto Maple Leafs ousted my beloved Montreal Canadiens from playoff contention. That was pretty much as sacrilegious as sacrilegious gets. Luckily, I didn’t have time to get too sad about the Habs’ terrible demise because the brand new UFC Welterweight champion, my boy Georges St. Pierre, was about to embark on his first title defense against the VERY beatable Matt Serra. Remember all that talk last week about GSP steamrolling through Serra en route to his huge rematch against Matt Hughes in Montreal? Um, yeah, we might have to put those plans on hold. First off, let’s talk a bit about Matt “The Terra” Serra. Going into Saturday night’s fight, Serra held a career 9-4 record. He was pretty much a middle-of-the-pack fighter, certainly not contender-level. Some of his notable losses came against the likes of Shonie Carter and Karo Parisyan. Not the worst fighters in the world, also not the best. Serra earned his title shot by winning “The Ultimate Fighter 4” tournament in November. He won two matches during the reality show tapings and then defeated Chris Lytle in a very controversial finale, controversial because most people thought he shouldn’t have won (what? sour grapes? I have no idea what you are talking about). Moving along, Serra was supposed to fight Matt Hughes for the title in February but GSP threw a wrench in those plans by demolishing Hughes in November. So everything was set for the fairy tale bout between the underdog reality show winner from Long Island against the newly minted champion. Well, everything except for the fact that GSP hurt his knee while training in January so they postponed the fight until April. Honestly, this injury was bugging me leading up to the fight. However, all things considered, GSP is one of the best fighters in the world. Bum knee or not I was pretty confident and so were all the odds makers. The only, and I really mean ONLY, chance anyone was giving Serra was if he could somehow take GSP down (a feat not even the great Matt Hughes was able to pull off) and work some of his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills on him. GSP is much better at striking than on the ground so everyone was expecting him to keep this match standing while Serra would try to take it to the ground. Even more reason to keep the fight standing was that GSP was four inches taller than the 5”6 Serra.
So... this is where the nightmares start to creep back. The fight was kept standing but, unbelievably, Serra was the fighter doing the striking. The one positive was that the misery lasted only 3:25. To say I was shocked out of my mind at the sight of seeing GSP laying flat on his back after Serra had knocked him silly would be the understatement of the century. To be honest, I still can’t believe Matt Serra is the new UFC Welterweight champ. I can’t believe after everything GSP had to endure to win the title that he lost it on his first defense and I certainly can’t believe that right after GSP was knocked out the cameras panned to show Matt F’n Hughes sitting Octagon-side laughing it up and mouthing the words “I love it.” Listen, Matt. I hope Dana White grants you a shot at Serra’s title. I hope you just squeak by him. And then I hope, no I pray, GSP gets another crack at your farm-boy ass. Il va to detruire espece de conard. Look it up. Take nothing away from Serra. From all accounts, he is one of the nicest people in MMA and has probably worked his butt off for this one shining moment. His gameplan worked to a tee and, on this night, he was the better man. But something tells me GSP will be back. Biases aside, the guy is as dedicated as it gets. As the PPV was ending, they showed him getting dressed in the locker room and all he kept saying was “this is my worst nightmare.” He wanted nothing more than to defend his title in front of his hometown fans. But he’ll back. He’ll re-capture his belt and he will get his match at the Bell Centre in Montreal. That’s what great champions do. They come back stronger than ever. And that’s more than I can say about the Bell Centre’s main occupants – the Habs. Boy, do those guys suck.
This Week in History: I think everyone needs a good laugh after that somber report so I would like to point your attention to April 11, 1997. Wrestling legend, Big Van Vader, known as the man who ripped off part of Mick Foley’s ear and as the man who never washed his wrestling singlet, was a guest on “Good Morning Kuwait.” No, it was not some SNL skit - this show actually did exist. Vader and the WWF were in Kuwait for an event and he was booked to appear on Kuwait’s version of the popular NBC program. During the show, the host, Bassam Al Othamn, asked Vader if wrestling was “fake.” Bad move. Understandably, Vader didn’t appreciate the question and decided to show the host just how real wrestling can be. Vader grabbed Othamn, dropped a couple of f-bombs and shoved him. Unlike last week’s video of the planned Andy Kaufman-Jerry Lawler incident on the Letterman show, this encounter was definitely unscripted. Due to his actions, Vader was detained in Kuwait, charged with assault and using obscene language. He then spent the next ten days under house arrest. I think wrestlers often forget that the stuff they do in the ring is not exactly socially acceptable outside of it. By the way, does anyone know if this show still exists? I really hope it does. Anyhow, enjoy the video evidence below.
So... this is where the nightmares start to creep back. The fight was kept standing but, unbelievably, Serra was the fighter doing the striking. The one positive was that the misery lasted only 3:25. To say I was shocked out of my mind at the sight of seeing GSP laying flat on his back after Serra had knocked him silly would be the understatement of the century. To be honest, I still can’t believe Matt Serra is the new UFC Welterweight champ. I can’t believe after everything GSP had to endure to win the title that he lost it on his first defense and I certainly can’t believe that right after GSP was knocked out the cameras panned to show Matt F’n Hughes sitting Octagon-side laughing it up and mouthing the words “I love it.” Listen, Matt. I hope Dana White grants you a shot at Serra’s title. I hope you just squeak by him. And then I hope, no I pray, GSP gets another crack at your farm-boy ass. Il va to detruire espece de conard. Look it up. Take nothing away from Serra. From all accounts, he is one of the nicest people in MMA and has probably worked his butt off for this one shining moment. His gameplan worked to a tee and, on this night, he was the better man. But something tells me GSP will be back. Biases aside, the guy is as dedicated as it gets. As the PPV was ending, they showed him getting dressed in the locker room and all he kept saying was “this is my worst nightmare.” He wanted nothing more than to defend his title in front of his hometown fans. But he’ll back. He’ll re-capture his belt and he will get his match at the Bell Centre in Montreal. That’s what great champions do. They come back stronger than ever. And that’s more than I can say about the Bell Centre’s main occupants – the Habs. Boy, do those guys suck.
This Week in History: I think everyone needs a good laugh after that somber report so I would like to point your attention to April 11, 1997. Wrestling legend, Big Van Vader, known as the man who ripped off part of Mick Foley’s ear and as the man who never washed his wrestling singlet, was a guest on “Good Morning Kuwait.” No, it was not some SNL skit - this show actually did exist. Vader and the WWF were in Kuwait for an event and he was booked to appear on Kuwait’s version of the popular NBC program. During the show, the host, Bassam Al Othamn, asked Vader if wrestling was “fake.” Bad move. Understandably, Vader didn’t appreciate the question and decided to show the host just how real wrestling can be. Vader grabbed Othamn, dropped a couple of f-bombs and shoved him. Unlike last week’s video of the planned Andy Kaufman-Jerry Lawler incident on the Letterman show, this encounter was definitely unscripted. Due to his actions, Vader was detained in Kuwait, charged with assault and using obscene language. He then spent the next ten days under house arrest. I think wrestlers often forget that the stuff they do in the ring is not exactly socially acceptable outside of it. By the way, does anyone know if this show still exists? I really hope it does. Anyhow, enjoy the video evidence below.
7 Comments:
Out here in the T-Dot the non-stop parade of delusion was in full swing after the 6-5 win over the Habs. Everyone was going mental on Saturday, and it ended up being a moot point when the Isles won on Sunday.
Until the rabid, impatient fanbase in Toronto actually allows the team to get blown up and rebuilt from the bottom up, we will wallow in mediocrity- constantly be fighting for the right to be called the 15th or 16th best team in the league. Boy do I hate Leafs fans.
It's weird...I love the raps and Jays but HATE the leafs. I guess it's because MTL doesn't have an NBA and MLB team (tear). Everything about them pisses me off. Paul Maurice, Tucker, Sundin etc. etc.
But I don't hate them nearly as much as I hate Matt F'n Hughes.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that growing up you read the children's story 'Le Chandail'.
Great call. I was actually going to reference that book in my post but I thought I would lose the audience. What an amazing book that was. It captured the essence of that rivalry so beautifully. I always wondered what Leafs fans thought of it.
Franchise,
I'm almost certain that 'Le Chandail' was required reading for all Canadian primary school students aged 5-8.
You know I loved it, but I thought the end was a little anticlimactic. I thought there was going to be some life changing lesson at the end, that celebrated our differences and said 'its really all about the love of the game.'
But no, instead they just had the kid praying that moths would destroy his Leafs sweater because he hated it so much. Even as a 6 year old I thought there was a little something off key about that message.
But you're right, it captured the essence of the rivalry perfectly.
i believe matt serra and gsp are both superior to matt h.
No way Hughes beats Serra. He had his moment.
As for "le chandail" you're dead on about the ending. I actually bought the book again last year and I remember thinking that some pages must have been ripped out since that couldn't have possibly have been the ending. Seemed like they were trying to push the religious message on us a little too much. Or maybe they were comparing the rivalry to life and death. Yeah, something like that.
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