Big Red Fury

Will Smith is fucking amazing! never dissapointed in a film he is involved with! Fresh Prince was brilliant aswell! Everything the man touches turns to gold!

You liked Wild Wild West

I did but only because I like Kenneth Branagh a whole lot. Other than that, the movie was a drizzling shit sandwich.

I think all the Family Guy stick is justified. That being said, I've really enjoyed this season a lot more and I think it's starting to get back to what worked. The Simpsons have been dead for about 6-7 years, every once in a while it is good, but for the most part it is a horrifying shell of what it was and for that reason only, it's a bigger disappointment to me than Family Guy.

As of February 4th 2011

1. Manchester United- Juande Ramos (via SAF and Steve Coppell)

2. Chelsea- Javier Aguirre (via Luis Felipe Scolari)

3. Liverpool- Rafa Benitez

4. Arsenal- Arsene Wanger

5. West Ham- Felix Magath (via Alan Curbishley)

6. Sunderland- Roy Keane

7. Aston Villa- Martin O'Neill

8. Everton- David Moyes

9. Middlesbrough- Gareth Southgate

10. Bolton- Gary Megson

11. Newcastle- Kevin Keegan

12. Blackburn- Hugo Sanchez (via Paul Ince and Michael Laudrup)

13. Hull- Stuart Pearce (via Phil Brown and Roland Nilsson)

14. West Brom- Mark Wotte (via Tony Mowbray)

15. Manchester City- Paul Simpson (via Mark Hughes and Mark Bowen)

16. Charlton- Alan Pardew

17. Tottenham- Louis van Gaal (via Juande Ramos and Marco van Basten)

18. Wigan- Steve Bruce

19. Portsmouth- Harry Redknapp

20. Fulham- Roy Hodgson

Apparently my game is boring.

I was fairly disappointed with this movie. Thought it was going to be A LOT funnier than it ended up being, some good moments but overall meh. 6/10 for me.

Whatever happened to City signing Yasser Al Qahtani? he's a decent striker even though he's Saudi Arabian I recall him having a trial with you guys.

Dunne made him cry and piss himself.

In all my years of playing FM, I realised I had never really gotten into a game with any team in the Championship. When Im in England I always usually manage Rovers or a Prem team. So I thought I'd give it a go with Preston.

First season was great, brought in a couple of good Prem players on loan (Paul Gallagher & Andy Carroll notably) and managed to come 2nd in a good promotion race, only a few points behind Watford and about two clear of Sheff Utd in third. Stepping up to the Prem is tough, but I think Im holding my own so far. Though Im only five games in. My strongest starting line-up is:

GK: Charles Itandje (Loan)

RB: Alan Tate

CB: Youl Mawene

CB: Paul McShane

LB: Ludovic Magnin

RM: Paul Gallacher

CM: Billy Jones

CM: Alex Song (Loan)

LM: Danny Pugh

ST: Collins John

ST: Neil Mellor

I'm quite proud of the fact that squad includes more players who played for me last season that players that didn't. Got lucky on the transfer market-Fulham were relegated and John turned down a new deal there, he's already got 4 goals in the first 5 games, Magnin was also free from Stuttgart, McShane came cheap from Sunderland, and Ive no idea how I got Song on loan. Im up to deadline day and currently am awaiting acceptance of a contract from Joe Ledley of Cardiff, as Pugh is my only left midfielder.

Lost away at Villa 3-0 on the opening day. Not a good start, but it was a complete turnaround in my first home game-managed to thrash Spurs 4-0, two of the goals from set pieces and the other two from fantastic counter attacks. Followed that up with a strong showing but defeat at Everton, 2-1, and then lost 3-1 at home to Liverpool, who were just too good. Just now battled to beat Man City 2-1, after Collins John injured Micah Richards in the run-up to his goal. I also survived a huge error from Magnin in the 85th minute, he squared the ball across our own box straight into the path of Rafael Van Der Vaart, who promptly smashed the ball into the crowd from 8 yards.

I hear you that's why I started my Stoke game and got them in after the first season, the August 2008 window is just now about to close and my strongest squad consists of...

GK- Erick Delgado (Got in my first season for 1.9 million pounds from Sporting Cristal)

LB- Benoit Assou-Ekotto (Bought in July 2008 for 2 million pounds from Tottenham)

CB- Sylvain Monsoreau (Bought in July 2008 for 3.3 million pounds from Monaco)

CB- Ryan Shawcross

RB- Stephen Wright (Got in first season for 130,000 pounds from Sunderland)

LM- Romaric (Bought in July 2008 for 4.7 million pounds from Le Mans)

CM- Salif Diao

CM- Anthony Obodai (Got in first season for 1.4 million pounds from RKC)

RM- Liam Lawrence

ST- Victor Anichebe (Loan from Everton)

ST- Marius Niculae (Bought from Caley for 900,000 pounds in August 2008)

--------

Bench: Antti Niemi (Fulham for 140,000), Brynyar Gunnarsson (Reading for 190,000), Leon Cort, Peter Kopteff (Utrecht for 20,000), Rory Delap, Richard Cresswell, Ched Evans (Loan from Man City)

We're doing fuck all so far, one win from 4 but hopefully we can turn it around.

Anichebe is a stud in the Championship. Signed him on loan with Stoke and we're currently 3rd through 44 games with a match away to 4th placed Ipswich and then we finish the season against 5th placed West Brom at home. Anichebe has 29 goals and 11 assists in 33 league appearances and 31 in 38 overall. Richard Cresswell has 19 goals and 11 assists in 43 games. The sick thing is West Brom has 119 goals in 44 games, Bednar's got 18 for them and Ishmael Miller has 41 goals in 41 appearances. The last game should be fun, they only beat us 8-1 in December.

Was listening to the Jim Rome show today when I heard a pretty funny email right after the story broke.

Something to the effect of "So Batman assaulted his mom and sister? I bet Commissioner Gordon won't be able to get him out of this one."

Hughes deserves better than City, if they take a manager as good as Sven and dump him after a year.

Hopefully the club will see that and not hire him. A dirty rag bastard as our manager=no thanks

I personally want every player fined a week's wages after that and Sven can go as far as I'm concerned too. I've never felt so embarrassed and I support a team that hadn't had a winning season in almost 15 years in baseball. Shocking, shocking performance.

I love Sven as our manager but he's fallen victim to his own early successes. If you look at the initial 5 year plan, he's within what he was supposed to do but I think because of our shit hot start some view our current position as a disappointment. One things for sure, Ronaldinho won't really help us that much to where we'll be leaps and bounds better next year if we got him so I'm not sure what Thaksin thinks he's achieving with all of this.

I thought this movie was better than Superbad. I literally laughed throughout the entire movie. Almost pissed myself when he played the Muppet Show theme song.

I thought it was great, really really enjoyed it. As far as not being quotable, I would disagree. My roommate and I have been using "Suck my cock, I'll murder your family", "Have you ever been bunched in the jejenum?" and "Did you just call me a jive turkey?" since we got back from seeing it.

I know I'm really late in making this comment, but even as a City fan, Ben Thatcher's challenge was the worst I've ever seen and he only got 8 games officially from the FA so anyone talking about 10 games can fuck right off. It was way late and a pretty poor decision but by no means did he intend to hurt him. Fuck, I saw worse challenges in the A-League final get no action taken on them at all. If Eduardo's leg hadn't been destroyed, I think Taylor might have even gotten away with a yellow.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: Before we jump into UFC 81, can you explain your background in the sport and how you became a referee for the Nevada State Athletic Commission?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: I've actually been into the sport since it was regulated by the state athletic commissions. I've been with the Nevada State Athletic Commission for 14 years first doing kickboxing and K-1 competitions and Muay Thai. I've always been an MMA fan, and when they came stateside, they told me to talk to Big John (McCarthy). He mentored me. Back then, he was the only teacher around... Like any martial artist, I've been watching the UFC since the first inception. I was totally amazed. As the skill level has improved, it's even more exciting. And today, it's more exciting than it's ever been. I'm really into the technical aspect of the sport and the science of it.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: You're now a veteran official, especially with the UFC. With a fight like Lesnar vs. Mir, can you tell me how and when you end up learning that you're reffing the fight?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: We don't usually find out until we actually show up at the event. Every once in a while, I'll catch which fights I'm doing on the Internet because you guys go to the commission meetings, but usually, I don't find out until I get to the show.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: So you're aware of sites like MMAjunkie.com?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI. Absolutely. I read it often. It's our job to do homework, and it's how I get the latest news and know what's going on.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: What were your initial thoughts when you realized you got the Lesnar-Mir fight? Do the big-magnitude fights bring a little extra pressure?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Absolutely. When Big John left, he had been doing all the big fights, and I usually got a co-main event and the undercard fights. We'd divvy them up. When you're reffing those big fights, the ones that headline the events that people came to see, (the fans) are going to watch every little thing and analyze everything, just like the SuperBowl. A high-profile fight is going to have a lot more scrutiny and be more analyzed. That's for sure.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: OK, onto the fight. When we spoke earlier, you mentioned that the decision to deduct Lesnar one point for strikes to the back of Mir's head was pretty clear. Can you explain?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: These fighters are extremely skilled fighters, and a grappler like Frank, that's what they're trained to do: when you have a guy in half guard on top of you, you don't want to give the guy room to punch. So that was Mir's defense. You suck up close to (your opponent's) chest, tuck yourself up under them, and that covers you from getting hit. At first, Brock started to do the right thing by winding up with the hook from behind and pushing Mir's head away from his stomach. Then you can blast him in the face... but to have to worry about getting struck in the back in the head in a situation like that isn't something Frank should have had to worry about. But that was a target that presented itself to Brock.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: Just to be clear, did you think the strikes were intentional?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: I don't think it was through any fault of his own. It was just there for him, so he started coming down with that hammerfist. But the back of the head is not a target you can take. And honestly, we see it all the time. A lot of people are comparing it to that the Tibau Gleison-Tyson Griffin fight earlier in the night. They were doing the exact same thing. Gleison took down Tyson, Tyson scooted up toward Gleison, and he had the opportunity to hit him (in the back of the head) but didn't take it. Instead, he moved his head out so he could get in some punches, which is what you're supposed to do.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: Did you issue Lesnar a warning? That's a big part of this whole thing, you know? Some fans think you didn't issue a warning.

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Yeah, I did. Brock's excited. It's a big, big opportunity for him, and -- in my opinion -- he looked down and saw the head there, and he took three shots at him and caught him. I jump in and say, "Don't hit at the back of the head." A few more seconds go by, Mir tucks up under there again, and Brock comes down with the second couple hits to the back of the head. That's when I jumped in and had to do my job. That's what I saw.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: So, just to be perfectly clear, you did issue Lesner a warning before you stopped the fight and deducted a point?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Oh yeah, I did. But can you imagine the decibels in there? That was one of the fights everyone came to see. Of course, I came home and did my homework, watched the tape, and I can't hear myself give the warning. I couldn't hear myself say, "Bring it on!" on that beginning (either). [laughs] That's my thing. I always shout that. If you watch the tape, you can barely even hear that.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: Do you think Lesnar heard you?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: I don't know. I can't say that he heard it. I yelled it loud enough for them to hear. It was awfully loud. I yelled it, though. I've got kids, so I know how to yell. [laughs] I used to be in a rock band, so I've got some lungs.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: I think that's where the controversy is -- if there is, indeed, any controversy -- that some people think you never issued a warning. But you're saying it's just a matter of people not hearing it, correct?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Absolutely, yeah. Let me also say that striking to the back of the head is one of my pet peeves -- that and grabbing the cage. The back of the head is a very dangerous spot of the body in this sport. If you were to put a RAZR cellphone right above your C-spine where it connects to your skull, that's the most dangerous part of the skull. A good, strong hit there can really hurt a fighter. That's the part of the head that is considered illegal. Right behind the ears is not illegal. Sometimes we caution people not to hit there. That's not necessarily a warning... we just know the possibility is there. Like I said, I'm just there to look for illegal techniques. And if you go back through my history, you'll see that I've deducted a lot of points for strikes to the back of the head.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: Obviously, it can be easy to accidentally hit someone in the back of the head unintentionally if an opponent if flailing around. Where do you draw the line?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Accidental strikes happen. But when you look at the back of the guy's head and connect, it's, "OK, that might be cool. He didn't mean it." Then you hit twice, and it's time to start considering if you're doing it intentionally. Then the third one comes down, and that's when I jump in and say, "No strikes to the back of the head!" as loudly as I possibly can. Brock knows what he did. He has nothing to say about it being controversial. I don't think his corner protested at all about it. It's all left to interpretation. But was a foul committed? Yes, it was... If you look at the fight several times, unfortunately, the majority of the powerful shots were to the back of the head.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: Previously, you told me that Mir did what he was supposed to do and that it's your job to make sure he's not penalized for that. Can you explain?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: He did what he was supposed to do under the rules he's training under -- that's to jump up under there. He was using a lot of skill in doing what he does. He shouldn't have had to worry about his head being hammerfisted. Unfortunately, that's what happened to him, and that forced Mir to do something he shouldn't have to, which is come out of the pocket. When he comes back out of the pocket, that allows Brock to use legal techniques... but he got there by illegal means.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: So, he loses his position? That's why you restarted them standing?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Whenever a foul is committed -- whether it's considered intentional or unintentional -- we take the position away, especially if it's a dominant position. That's just the way it is and the way it's always been.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: At any point in the initial exchange, did you consider stopping the fight to award Lesnar the TKO victory? Mir was taking a lot of punishment even without the shots to the back of the head.

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: No, not all. To me, Frank was doing everything right. He was doing what he needed to. He was doing what he needed to for that position. If you watch a thousand Jiu-Jitsu guys in that position, a thousand guys would do what Frank did in that position. He could have kept the position if it weren't for the strikes to the back of the head. He knew what he was doing.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: After a tough call or controversial fight like that, do you immediately meet with the commission and Keith Kizer (the NSAC's executive director)?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: Absolutely. Keith is really good. We go over the scores and everything we saw and heard. I spoke about that whole fight. I explained to the judges and the commission and everyone else around there the whole fight. We're constantly learning. We have a little discussion after the fight, and I'm telling them everything I saw and heard.

MMAJUNKIE.COM: Is this right after the fight -- or after the event?

STEVE MAZZAGATTI: After the event. Well, we have a quick meeting before the event too. Look, we're constantly learning and evolving and discussing different ways to make sure that the fighters get a fair shake. After that event, no matter how minor a point might be, we talk about it. That's how how we're going to improve.

This Belinda Gavin chick does softcore porn.

I finally saw it the other day, and I have to say, if you can accept that its not the book, its a fine, fine movie. The end is a little rush, from you know where on, but it was a decent movie for what it is.

I've played the games and I really liked it. I knew it wouldn't follow the plot exactly so I cast any notions of expecting that aside and just enjoyed it. Some of the actors sucked, but I thought Olyphant was excellent as 47 after initially having some concerns that he might not do the character justice.

I am 50% Swedish so I support this movement. Go Sweden!

This is my theory, but Kensei=Adam.

*EDIT*

Well fuck, I didn't expect them to give that away so soon. I promise I did not see the show in advance and I don't know any other spoiler sites.

It's sad that it's taken eleven posts for someone to spell Shakhtar correctly.

I'll go for Dnipro. Just because I've seen them play the most out of all the Ukraine clubs.

Shakhtar for life.

So...would you be implying that United shouldn't have had the penalty?

4-1 nicely does it.

In defence of Reo-Coker, I'm not convinced he should have been sent off. It might have been stupid on his part to put a challenge in like that not long after being booked, but to send him off for it is slightly harsh.

With the second one, it was a foul...Tevez was going to score. Sending off? Most Villa and anti-United fans would probably argue that Villa had a defender running back (which Barry seemed to argue) but it's Rob Styles, and he's never shy to show cards or give penalties in any matches involving United.

Good performance - Nice to see the goal difference getting another boost as well.

I like the game so far, it's much harder, my only complaint is that you can't play a season as Be A Pro.