1 Samuel 2: For those stumbling

1 Samuel 2:4

"The bows of the warrior are broken,
but those who stumbled are armed with strength."

This verse jumped out at me when I read Hannah's prayer. For all you out there who stumble, this is the verse for you. How strange the Scripture says that those who stumble are empowered, when in my experience stumbling in life causes shame, guilt, and an overall sense of powerlessness, not strength! When the devil succeeds in his temptations, get back up and continue to fight on. This verse has greatly encouraged me, reminding me that God is my strength, no matter how righteous I am.

When I read this verse, I immediately thought of Court McGee, who just won the Ultimate Fighter last Saturday. In his post-fight interview, he broke down while saying "I want to dedicate this fight to anybody who's struggling today. I love you all!" A little background on Court: a few years back, he was addicted to drugs and eventually overdosed, and he was clinically dead at one point. He fought through it, went to rehab, straightened his life, and has now just landed a UFC contract. You can watch the fight here. (The post-fight interview is at around 8:50).

Court's outburst of emotion reminded me of another man who was beaten, knocked down, taken down, and hit in the face in every literal and figurative way imaginable, but fought hard and he came out on top. He has dedicated his life for all those struggling, that when we fall, he lifts us up back on our feet with heads held high, knowing that it is because we are loved that Jesus died for us.

If you are struggling today, Jesus loves you. If you've been stumbling, know that however strange it may seem, God arms all who have stumbled with strength. Keep your head up, your arms high - God has already won the battle.

Anderson Silva vs. Damian Maia Reaction

I like Damian Maia. I would consider myself one of his fans. I love Anderson Silva. He's my favorite fighter.

That said, Maia had no business being in the octagon with Silva. He was outclassed. Maia shouldn't have talked to much crap before the fight. He is nowhere near Anderson Silva. The first three rounds really show that Anderson isn't afraid of Maia. He's sending a message to the UFC to stop putting garbage in the octagon against him. He has nothing to gain but everything to lose.

Damian Maia deserves some criticism as well. The first three rounds he did nothing against Anderson Silva. Nothing. I doubt he landed more than one punch in the entire first ten minutes of the fight. He didn't bring it. He didn't force AS to bring his game. It's unfortunate that when Maia decided to show up, Silva decided he didn't feel like being there anymore.

Like Anderson said, he definitely could have been more humble...there's really no denying that. Anderson Silva was cocky as hell, but that was just because he wasn't threatened at all. The fight wasn't nearly as bad as the reviews were. The result was expected, so the fight wasn't surprising.

A really good post I found on forums:

What does AS has to do to please the crowd? He is by far the most skilled fighter to ever step inside the octagon. Liking it or not, he always breaks his opponents physically and mentally and brings originality to the fights.

When he ran over Forrest Griffin several people said it was rigged.

When he started to devastate all his opponents in the first round, the UFC managers got worried about the PPV sales (the same thing happened to Mike Tyson).

So he plans to take a fight to the distance against Patrick Côté and again all he hears is criticism.

AS has beaten well rounded fighters such as Carlos Newton (former UFC Welterweight Champion), Jeremy Horn, Rich Franklin - twice (former UFC Middleweight Champion), Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson (former Pride Welterweight and Middleweight Champion), Forrest Griffin (former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion) to name a few.

He has never been Knocked Out. He lost his very first fight by a split decision and 2 other by submission. His last true lost happened in December 31, 2004 against Ryo Chonan. Despite being controlling the fight, Silva was forced to submit at the last 15 seconds of the fight due to a flying scissor heel hook. Certainly AS learned a lot from this lesson and didn’t want to take unnecessary risk against Thales Leites and Damian Maia.

It takes two fighters to make a fight and when your are the challenger, is your duty to hunt the champion to take his belt, just like AS did to Rich Franklin. Thales Leites and Damian Maia didn’t do anything against AS and still he is the one to be blamed?

I really don’t get… AS is the kind of fighter that appears once in a lifetime. People should just enjoy his originality and respect his game plan for the different style of fights he is going to face.

To the ones that say about him not being humble, notice that he respected every single fighter who did not talk trash about him or disrespect him before stepping in the octagon for the fight (Rich Franklin is a good example of that).

But some talked a lot of shit such as Hendo and AS didn’t even want to touch gloves with him at the beginning of the fight.

There is a huge rivalry between BJJ fighters and any other style of fight here in Brazil. BJJ are so cocky provoking and disrespecting AS for years emphasizing how easily they will be owned by a BJJfighter once they schedule a fight of this nature, jus because Muy-Thai is the discipline he stands for.

Damian Maia said a lot of trash prior to the fight such as he would make AS like the floor and take his arms back home with the belt as well.

Seems to me AS didn’t want to finish Damian Maia, he really wanted to punished and humiliate him. Maybe he was caught up on the emotion, but who could blame him?

If you want to be respected, you got to be the first to show respect, and certainly Damian Maia didn’t do that unfortunately.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/18714/manager-says-champ-anderson-silva-not-bored-isnt-sure-weight-jump-is-answer.mma

UFC: A new era of bad fights

For Tim (cuz I didn't feel like posting it on your wall =P)

The UFC is entering a new era. As they develop and become more and more mainstream, there is an inevitable parity that starts entering the league. When the top fighter really becomes the top fighter, there's not much that can be done to make their fights not suck when matched with clearly worse opponents. It's also part of the nature of the sport. Rarely are there true upsets in MMA. Unless the better fighter gets clipped with a wild punch, poked in the eye, broke a bone, or something improbable, the better fighter usually wins. When the level between the fighters is as great as it was two nights ago with Silva vs. Maia, the fight is going to suck...there's no way around it.

GSP got criticized a lot for his last fight against Dan Hardy. Dan Hardy couldn't stop GSP, and GSP just imposed his will on Hardy, but GSP was still vilified. It's ridiculous. GSP and Anderson Silva are just too much better than their opponents. I think Silva felt disrespected when they put someone nowhere near his caliber into a fight with him. Silva and GSP are levels above their opponents and while the ufc likes to sell itself with exciting fights, overmatched opponents don't make for good fights.

Imagine yourself being put in a math contest, and the best that the opponent team could come up with was a 3rd grader. Wouldn't you feel disrespected? There is no risk of you losing at all. I might even get a few questions wrong on purpose just to keep it interesting. This is what Anderson Silva must feel like. It is this disrespect from the UFC that probably frustrates Anderson so much. He knows who he wants to fight, but the UFC insists on putting incapable fighters up against him.

The UFC needs to think hard about its future. Knockouts in the first round usually come when two crappy fighters fight each other. Fight of the night rarely goes to the main event...it goes to two evenly matched fighters. When one fighter dominates another, it often goes the distance (weird huh?). Think about the last few title fight's we've seen. Even Penn-Sanchez almost went the distance, if it wasn't for a nasty, nasty cut that ended it.

As the UFC increases in popularity and has more and more fighters, the parity in the league is also going to increase. The truly great fighters will emerge as great and mediocre fighters will be mediocre fighters. Think of the NFL and the NBA. Are Patriots-Raiders games ever going to be interesting? Are Lions-Packers games? Are Lakers-Clippers games? This doesn't even do the parity of the UFC justice. This parity is part of "getting big" as your great fighters really are great and really that much better than all other fighters. If people wan't to stop seeing crappy fights, the UFC needs to stop putting overmatched opponents against the likes of GSP and Anderson Silva.

Silva acted out of line. there's no denying it. But the Dana White's gotta take responsibility for setting up a fight he knew was going to suck....like GSP-hardy. I knew the fight was gonna suck once i heard about it. GSP is just too good. Same with this Silva-Maia fight. Anderson Silva is a jiu-jitsu black belt, and I doubt he ever felt threatened by Maia's JJ, much less by his striking.

The UFC needs to take responsibility for bad fights instead of always blaming the fighter. They are a business, and top names like GSP and Anderson Silva make the big bucks, but you can't seriously expect a great fight when you put them against mediocre opponents.

Some good articles on the topic:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/4/11/1415026/lambs-to-the-slaughter-anderson

http://www.headkicklegend.com/2010/4/10/1414591/purple-rain-anderson-silvas