Last week I had a brief holiday in Calgary where I took in the Saskatchewan Roughrider and Calgary Stampeders game along with all of the UFC 149 festivities. Here's some pictures I took while I was in Calgary.
I started my vacation last Thursday by attending the UFC 149 press conference at Flames Central. In attendance were UFC Canada President (former CFL commissioner) Tom Wright, UFC President Dana White and the fighters in the three main bouts at UFC 149 Urijah Faber, Renen Barao, Tim Boestch, Hector Lombard, Shawn Jordan and Cheick Kongo. Here's a few pictures from the press conference.
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| UFC President Dana White taking questions during at the press conference |
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| Kongo vs Jordan |
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| Lombard vs Boestch |
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| Faber vs Barao |
Following the press conference on Thursday I went to the Riders vs Stampeders game at McMahon Stadium. The last time I was in Calgary for a CFL was in 1995 when the Stampeders hosted the Birmingham Barracudas. The QB's were Doug Flutie and Matt Dunigan with Birmingham pulling out a late victory. The game also featured the first ever apperance of Jeff Garcia in the CFL.
I'm not sure how the crowd looked on TV but I would definitely say the crowd was half Rider green with the other half being Stampeder red. It was disappointing to see the Riders blow the lead and lose their first game of the season, but I really did enjoy watching the Riders on the road. I would say the Stampeder fans enjoyed the win but half of them left during the 4th Quarter.
On Friday I attended the weigh-ins for the UFC fighters, here's the pics of the three featured fights.
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| Kongo and Jordan |
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| Lombard and Boestch |
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| Faber vs Barao |
Then on Saturday it was time for UFC 149 at the Saddledome. I thought it was a tale of two cards. The prelim fights (the fights not shown on the PPV) were excellent with Ryan Jimmo of New Brunswick recording the quickest knockout in UFC history at 7 seconds. The match of the night was Bryan Caraway and Mitch Gagnon with Caraway recording a submission win in the third round. I thought the Court McGee and Nick Ring was a good fight although I didn't agree with the judges decision of Ring claiming victory, I scored the fight 29-28 for McGee.
The PPV card got off to a great start with Matt Riddle recording a submission win over Chris Clements. But after that the card went down hill big time. The Brian Ebersole-James Head, Shawn Jordan-Cheick Kongo, and Tim Boestch-Hector Lombard fights were three of the worst UFC fights I have ever seen. You know the fights were bad when even Dana White admits that the card was one of the worst in UFC history. While the crowd was booing the Faber-Barao fight I didn't think the fight was that bad, the problem was that it had to follow the previous three bouts. Here's some pics from my seats of the fights.
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| Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan hyping the PPV |
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| Carvalho vs Pineda |
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| Caraway vs Gagnon |
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| Moments after Ryan Jimmo recorded a 7 second knockout |
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| Rivera vs Delorme |
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| Ring vs McGee |
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| Clements vs Riddle |
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| Ebersole vs Head |
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| Kongo vs Jordan |
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| Lombard vs Boestch |
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| Faber vs Barao |
Even though the Riders didn't win and UFC 149 will go down as one of the worst cards in UFC history, I had a fun time in Calgary and I really enjoyed my holiday. I'm back at work until next weekend then I will start my summer holidays for two weeks.
Just a couple of local sporting notes while I was away on holidays.
--- Estevan hosted the Peewee and Bantam Baseball Provincials last weekend. The Estevan Haulers claimed the Bantam Provincials and will now move on to Western Canadians in Morden, Manitoba on August 17-19. The Peewee TS&M Tornadoes lost in the semi-finals to Lloydminster. The Muenster Red Sox claimed the championship.
-- There were three fighters who competed at Hard Knocks 26 in Prince Albert. Estevan's Greg Alberts defeated James Sanderson, Tapout via Guillotine, Round 1 0:37. Jordan O’Connor defeated Estevan Mike Geib, Tapout via Guillotine, Round 1 2:49. Estevan's Josh Heinz defeats Randy Coyer, Tapout via Kimura, Round 1 0:43. Derek Daku was scheduled to fight Jesse Haywood from Vancouver but Haywood missed his flight so Daku didn't competed on the card. Unfortunately Heinz suffered an injury at work this week and will not be competing on the card in Estevan in September, but it looks like he will be back in the winter time.
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