Headley’s Sports Blog - Musings of a Sports Junkie

Power vs Precision: Cro-Cop vs Mir

Two of my favourite MMA heavyweights will go head-to-head in the main event at UFC 119 in what promises to be a real clash of styles.  Frank Mir, one of the deadliest Jiu Jitsu fighters in the world, is a two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and one of the most articulate characters in the fight game.  His opponent, quite simply, is a legend.

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic is a former anti-terrorism commando from Croatia who took up kickboxing while not in active service.  Famed for his leg-kick knockouts, his mantra, "Right leg hospital, left leg cemetery," is part of MMA folklore and his highlight reel of KO wins only goes to back up the mystique.  While Mir is lethal on the ground, Cro-Cop is deadly on his feet.

Cro-Cop was also the reason that I got into MMA in the first place.  I watched, stunned as a "little" Croatian guy proceeded to smash a man who appeared twice his size in a kickboxing contest.  That man was Bob "The Beast" Sapp, who weighed in at around a hundred pounds heavier than Cro-Cop for that bout.  Cro-Cop not only stopped Sapp, but left the huge man lying on the canvas, crying in pain, thanks to some huge kicks to the body, then a stiff punch to the eye that broke Sapp's orbital bone.

I've followed Cro-Cop ever since, through his Pride days and into the UFC.  It's fair to say that the Croatian hasn't hit the same heights in the UFC as he did when he fought for PRIDE in Japan, but he remains my favourite MMA fighter and, following a performance against Pat Barry where he rolled back the years and unloaded with some of his trademark strikes, he's found himself in with a real chance to propel himself into title contention.  

Cro-Cop has stepped in last-minute to replace the injured Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, whose brother Rogerio takes on Ryan "Darth" Bader in the co-main event.  The short notice nature of the fight clearly gives Mir the edge, and Cro-Cop readily admits to being underprepared.  But the former PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix Champion is a warrior, and a hugely dangerous one at that, so if he can avoid Mir's world-class ground game, Mirko could spring a surprise and kick himself right into the UFC heavyweight title picture.

Whoever wins, it promises to be an intriguing contest, and one that is unlikely to last too long, so don't blink!

Transfer deadline day: All mouth, no trousers

Yesterday's transfer deadline day proved once again to be a bit of a disappointment.

Only one genuine big-money signing occurred during Sky Sports News' favourite day, with Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan joining Sunderland for a fee in excess of £13million.

The rest of the day was filled with rumour and counter-rumour, with only a smattering of loan moves interrupting the sensationalist reporting of players using mobile phones.

We'll look over the best, and worst, of the deadline day moves in our first "Extra Time" mini-show of the season over on www.footballpubcast.co.uk later today.

Back with a Boo

Last week was a stressful one. Work was busy (no change there, then) but there was also the worry about what we'd do with the problems we had with the hosting for the Football Pubcast that I mentioned in my last blog.

With many other sites set to be adversely affected if we didn't find a new home for the Pubcast, I spent many hours in the evening trying to work out the best way to take the show forward.

Thankfully the week ended with some brilliant news. The mobile and web platform, Audioboo, who I'd approached earlier in the week, agreed to partner with the show and from that moment all our technical issues were history.

As a result, we are now proudly "Powered by Audioboo" and I couldn't be happier.

We are now on board with one of the most exciting new media companies in the UK, whose product is revolutionising how people use the spoken word on the internet.  I have used the platform for a couple of years now, for both work and play, and absolutely love it.  Now we have the exciting opportunity to see how well we can utilise their service for a Top 20 sports podcast.

We'll be looking at various ways of harnessing the full power of Audioboo to improve the Pubcast and make it more interactive, while keeping it "grassroots".  The ideas are already flowing and there's much to consider in the weeks to come.

It should be a fun season.

Check out the Football Pubcast at: http://www.footballpubcast.co.uk

Check out Audioboo at: http://audioboo.fm

Growing pains

We've run into some problems with The Football Pubcast. Without going into technical jargon, we've outgrown our web hosting account and need to find an alternative home for the show. Quickly.

The account I have that hosts my various websites can't cope with the demand for downloads and as a result the podcast files need to be hosted elsewhere to keep everything running.

So, we need podcast hosting, and we need to get a sponsor for the show while we're at it.

None of us anticipated how the show would develop and it's caught us on the hop somewhat.

The show itself might be amateur, but we now have to run it professionally, starting by getting a new home for the show's files.

Looks like I'm in for another busy weekend...

Booing? Already?

Saturday was Gillingham's second home game of the season and the performance in defeat against a bang average Lincoln City side was awful.

But isn't it a bit early to boo the side off?

Some of our fans did just that at the end of both halves and it left me walking away from Priestfield more disappointed with the crowd than I was with the players.

I don't boo. I never have. But if the players in front of you aren't trying, I can understand when fans do boo.

But that wasn't the case on Saturday. We conceded a poor goal, then huffed and puffed in search of an equaliser. We didn't get one.

They just weren't clever enough or sharp enough in the key areas of the pitch. That, combined with some stand-offish defending for the Lincoln goal, was why we lost.

The team tried, so booing was out of order, as were the isolated calls from some fans for the manager to go. The manager and the players will now know that a significant proportion of our support will turn on them all too quickly - and that can have a detrimental effect on the players' performances.

We're three games in, under the stewardship of a new manager, and that was our first defeat of the season.

Surely that's way too early to start booing.