#ALSO ANGELA GETTING THE MOST WACKY QUESTIONS RIGHT ABOUT AMANDA OR AT ONE POINT KNOWING THE ANSWER WHEN EVEN SHE DOESN'T KNOW IT

[cuecrynsleep]

I'm screeching over the recent 'What would Amanda do' video. Like PLEASE, first of all Angela won, but it's the fact she legit stressed herself over it. Like she's so serious and competitive over knowing her best friend, it's so sweet. But it's also the mini things, like Angela really thinking on each answer or saying something along the lines of "we talk about (blank) a lot." Or Amanda calling Angela whenever shit goes down. Or Amanda calling Angela her sleepover buddy/best friend whatever. Or Angela-

Also this video was very funny. We got a good mid-week with this video and the recent games video.

[thesportssoundoff]

“A Finale With A Killer Headliner” TUF Redemption Finale Preview

Joey

July 3rd

The month of August is pretty lean for high level MMA so you better enjoy this July we've got coming! With a Bellator card, some PFL stuff and five UFC events (Dana White Tuesday Night Contenders Series notwithstanding), it's a pretty busy month where quality meets quantity. The first show comes through from Las Vegas with a snazzy TUF Redemption season finale. Compared to some of the other TUF Finales? This one is okay I guess. Comparing it to the last four July TUF Finales, it's probably on the lower end of shows. 2014 had BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar and an at the time very solid undercard with guys like Derrick Lewis, Scoggins vs Dustin Ortiz and Kevin Lee on the prelims. Also there were two at the time great finale fights with Van Buren/Anderson and Lima/Gordon. In 2015, it was a relatively blegh card I suppose with Wonderboy at the helm. 2016 was an awesome card with Joanna Champion vs Claudia Gadelha at the tippy top plus the debut of Will Brooks and so on so forth. This year is probably on par with 2014 but above ‘15 and well below ‘16. 

Fights: 11 (as of right now with maybe two more to be added)

Debuts: 1 (Aspen Ladd)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 1 (Amanda Ribas out/Tecia Torres in vs Juliana Lima)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 6 (Brad Tavares, Michael Johnson, Tecia Torres, Jessica Eye, CB Dollaway, Gray Maynard)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:  (CB Dollaway, Jessica Eye)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: (Steve Bosse, Elias Theodorou)

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 16-18)- Justin Gaethje, Aspen Ladd

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 10-17)- Tecia Torres

Second Fight (Current number: 19-18)- Drakkar Klose

Cage Corrosion (Current Numbers: 2-2)- Steve Bosse, CB Dollaway,

*Going to give this a test run of sorts. How do fighters who have taken more than a year of perform in their first fight back?*

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Of all the fights on these two shows, Michael Johnson vs Justin Gaethje is the fight that I'd argue is the MOST Must See fight of the weekend. Justin Gathje is joining the UFC's deepest division and he's entirely unique as a fighter. Think of a guy who has Tony Ferguson's level of activity combined with Conor McGregor's ability to adapt as the fight goes on with a prime Diego Sanchez level recuperative level. His ability to go to the body when he pressures against the fence is absolutely perfect and he's going to rack up plenty of body shot KOs in time. Justin Gaethje has taken a ton of damage over the past 3-4 years, a guy who has never had an easy fight and whose initial output and activity level put him in the way of danger consistently. That makes for an intriguing match up with Michael Johnson given how Johnson has the ability to toast dudes out the gate with his hand speed and versatility on his feet. Sometimes you forget that Michael Johnson's quality of competition is so vast; guys like Tony Ferguson, Beneil Dariush, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon and Edson Barboza. If you look at the kind of guys that Johnson has struggled with, Gaethje IS that kind of guy. We're talking about somebody who amplifies the pressure with each passing minute, can take advantage of the lulls and inactivity Johnson uses to time himself down the stretch and somebody who will earn his respect right off the bat with his power. So yeah, I'm 100% in love with this fight.

2- TUF isn't going anywhere and next season features the female 125ers. I know it's not something of note anymore but I still get a major kick out of learning who the coaches for the next TUF season is. They normally get announced during the TUF shows so here's hoping we learn something on the show about it. I'd be totally down with two retired fighters taking the opportunity to coach TUF for the banter to avoid a champion getting tied up in TUF again. Give me Renzo Gracie vs Mark Coleman or Dan Severn vs Don Frye. Let Rampage and Rashad coach again and then retire vs one another.

3- So by all accounts, this season of TUF was a moderate success. The ratings have gone up and if you watch the show, the fights haven't been too awful with some of them actually being really, really good. I don't necessarily expect anybody to stick around, mind you, but chances are we're going to get 1-2 guys added to the roster. So how many fighters from the show will be on the Finale? We've got the final (James Krause or someone else/Jesse Taylor vs Dhiego Lima) plus potentially an open spot on the prelims (likely semi finalist vs semi finalist). Could they squeeze a third fight on the Fight Pass prelims? I mean I think it's possible if you really liked the season. You can do Ramsey Nijem vs Hayder Hassan or something similar to that if need be.

4- I wonder if Michael Johnson pulls off the upset over Justin Gaethje if the UFC would get froggy about sliding Johnson into Khabib's spot in this upcoming interim title fight. Khabib is expected to fight in September or October but can you trust booking thast fight a third time?

5- Angela Hill vs Ashley Yoder is on the FS1 prelims; Tecia Torres vs Juliana Lima is on the Fight Pass prelims. Given the interest in Tecia Torres, at least at the start of this 115 lb project, you'd assume it'd be the other way around. Unfortunately Torres has fallen by the wayside because her fights are just not up to the par of the other ladies at strawweight. Angela Hill vs Ashley Yoder at least has big wacky action potential with Hill probably chasing a finish in the process.

6- Brad Tavares vs Elias Theodorou is arguably the most frustrating UFC fight you're going to see this year. Tavares has the key components to be a MW title contender; the ability to strike, grapple and wrestle with most guys. Maybe he's just protecting a suspect chin but he seems SO cautious almost to the point of brilliant inactivity. For Theodorou, he's a phenomenal grappler but his wrestling is labored almost to the point of absurdity and his striking hasn't developed beyond some range finding kicks. Both guys SHOULD be better and yet here we are. Oi.

7- So if Drakkar Klose beats Marc Diakiese is going to be the new Bryan Barberena style prospect killer?

8- Jordan Johnson vs Marcel Fortuna is interesting to put it mildly. Both are early 30s LHWs in a division where that's worth its weight in gold. Jordan Johnson was dominant in his wrestling vs Henrique Da Silva while Marcel Fortuna went up to HW and KO'd Anthony Hamilton in really impressive fashion. It's a shame that two new faces in a division that hungers for new faces are pitted against one another but hey! All's well that ends well, right?

9- If Jessica Eye loses vs Aspen Ladd, will they release her or is she earmarked for 125 lbs?

10- How have CB Dolloway and Ed Herman lived in the same division for like 15 years and never fought before?

11- Gray Maynard vs Teruto Ishihara is interesting if you're looking to try some new things for both guys. Maynard hasn't been the same guy who gave Frankie Edgar hell for quite some time and Ishihara had quite a few flaws exposed in his fight vs Artem Lobov. Maynard's just got enough of that mythical "vet savvy" to give Ishihara problems and there's no doubt that he's got the power to hurt him.

12- So about this Marc Diakiese vs Drakkar Klose fight. It's a really intriguing fight on paper given how despite all of his skills, Diakiese hasn't had to face a lot of complex challenges in the UFC. His toughest opponent was Frankie Perez who was coming off a tryist with retirement. Now granted it's not like Perez was gone for four years but it's still realistic to have questions about a guy who steps away from the sport. In that fight, Diakiese had his first flirtation with trouble when he took on Perez but he passed all tests with flying colors by adapting and then dominating the fight when he had to make changes. We're talking composed and comfortable in the face of trouble. Curious to see how he deals with the length and tenacity of Klose who is a smart pressure fighter off the regional circuit.

Must Win

1- Justin Gaethje 

 The UFC has had mixed success in WSOF champion signings. For every Arlovski and Rumble, UFC guys who found themselves in WSOF, you have Jessica Aguilar and others. Marlon Moraes has been an interesting addition to the UFC but his first fight was surely a dud in more ways than one. Gaethje has the ability to be a perennial top 10 LW with action fights galore. The question is did they get him as a broken man?

2- Michael Johnson

Lightweight is not a division where you can stomach two L’s in a row. As it deepens, guys like Michael Johnson are always at risk of falling behind. This is a winnable matchup for him but I have no idea if he’s up for it.

3- Marc Diakiese

This is easy enough. The most hyped European prospect in the UFC needs to win and there’s no if’s ands or buts about it.

Five Underlying Themes

1- Any chance we get some finality towards the upcoming TUF Flyweight season?

2- How will the UFC handle the TUF Redemption winner? I think most fans will or have come to the conclusion that these guys won't last long either way but this is still a great accomplishment for these guys.

3- If James Krause wins the show, is this season a failure?

4- How they hype Marc Diakiese coming off three impressive UFC wins.

5- Can Todd Grisham find his sea legs as a commentator.

[jenmedsbookreviews]

It is official. I am broken. Well … when I say official, I mean that I feel it. Let’s face it – none of us are getting any younger, me included, and it’s fair to say I’ve been working some pretty wacky hours of late. Well … they are finally catching up with me and if the bags under my eyes get much bigger, I’m not going to have to worry about taking my bags for life to Tesco for the weekly shop anymore …

This week was less hectic than previous weeks, but I’m not entirely convinced that’s a good thing. You know how it is. When you’ve been running around like a loon for ages, the minute you finally take a step back and relax, the worse you feel for it. That’s me this week. Only one trip out, although it was a long one. 0300 start to drive the 170+ miles to Southampton for an 0545 start. Then a day out on the van with one of my team who was using our new POD system for the first time. Thankfully the weather was good as I spent the day travelling around various customer in Southampton and seeing places I had read of in books. In fact at one point it felt as though I was on a Helen Grace mystery tour… Lots of views of the Solent and I saw some really big butts in the docks and some slightly smaller butts on a shelf … (that’s boats to people who have never watched Finding Nemo …). Actually, I suppose to the navy they’d be ships – boats go under water …

Actually, the worst part about the day wasn’t the early start or the 12 boxes (8 bottles bottles of water cooler water included) that we had to take to the second floor of an oldish building with no lift and a rather small staircase. Nope. That’s all bread and butter stuff and nothing I can really complain about as my drivers have to do it every day. The worst part … that was the nearly 5 hour drive home. Bloody Friday traffic and being that horrid hybrid weekend at the end/start of a half term week. Yak. No easy way back whichever way I played it. Got about 60% through my next audio book though so it’s not all bad, but I am fluffing knackered now.

The weekend was much better. Headed down to London late morning (I know – I’m nuts) for the TBC 3rd Birthday party. I have no pictures as I am not a selfie gal and I have already done something foolish this weekend which will haunt me (and you) for years :p, but there will be some knocking about of me on social media to prove I did it, and I do have witnesses by way in Susan Hampson, Linda Hill, Fiona Wilson and Rachel Gilbey amongst others 🙂 A big thanks to Tracy and the gang for organising it as it was a fab night and I got to meet some great folk and catch up with a few authors I’ve met before or have been chatting with on Social Media.  I even rounded off the weekend with a trip to what is quite possibly my favourite restaurant now – Ole and Steen – for some Halloween cakes before heading home Sunday morning.

I know. Just … don’t say anything about the picture on the right. It is white chocolate, filled with a kind of chocolate cream.marshmallow and a marzipan base. It is very tasty and it is a ghost!!! Not all mine. I shared with family as a thank you for poochie sitting.

Anyhoo – back to the books. Well – Saturday night came with a whole host of them as each attendee had a tote bag full of goodies and I was also given a couple of new books by the lovely Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books. What did I get? Well, a side from back ache carrying them all home 😉 – from the party: The Watcher by Ross Armstrong; The Mine by Antti Tuomainen (love that book); Will You Remember Me by Amanda Prowse;  Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward and The House by Simon Lelic. From the lovely Karen I received Maria in the Moon by the equally lovely Louise Beech and Deep Blue Trouble by the also very lovely Steph Broadribb. I will admit to getting a bit Gollum over them and perhaps stroking my new books a little too much … Moving on.

Book post wise, just the one this week but it is a cracker and I am very, very excited to read it. Again from the lovely Karen Sullivan and Orenda Books I received the CWA Short Story Anthology – Mystery Tour featuring some very fabulous authors. Bouncy happy tigger moment for me then. The only thing to cheer me after a very long Friday of travel. You find the last reserve of energy for the good books. Isn’t it stunning?

Book purchase wise I have been very reserved. I only ordered/pre-ordered the following books: The Cover Up by Marnie Riches; Truth or Dare by Richard Parker; Come Out To Play by Dylan Young; The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman; Before You Go by Clare Swatman; The Prodigal by Nicky Black and The Good Samaritan by John Marrs. No new Netgalley titles. I know!!! And no new audio books either.

Reading wise … well I really need to buck my ideas up as I’ve been pants again this week. Only three completed plus about 2/3 of an audio book and just about started another book. I am now a book and a half behind plan but determined to catch up. If I am missing from the world of blogging and sharing, you know why.

Books I have read

The Good Samaritan by John Marrs

She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.

Oh, oh, oh. Now I loved Mr Marrs last book The One (met him over the weekend too – lovely chap), but I have to say I think this one is even better. It’s quite a taboo topic and the main character is very, very dark. The creeping, twisting and unravelling story had me completely hooked, even if some of the characters made some mad decisions. Gah. I can’t talk about the book without spoiling things, but I am going to have to try as my review is due on Saturday – eeek. Out on December 1st, you can pre-order your own copy, as I have done, right here.

…

Killing State by Judith O’Reilly

The bullet in his brain isn’t the problem. She is. Michael North is a hero, with a bullet in the brain to prove it. A bullet which has rewired his neural pathways and heightened his sense of intuition. A bullet which is driving him mad.

Working for an extra-governmental agency called The Board, North knows one thing for sure. He is very good at killing very bad guys. But what happens when a hero is ordered to kill a good woman rather than a bad man?

Because it turns out that rising political star, Honor Jones, MP, can’t stop asking the right questions about the wrong people. 

He should follow orders.

Shouldn’t he?

Wowsers. What a book. I don’t know quite what I was expecting when I started to read this but it wasn’t this. Part action thriller, part psychological thriller and part conspiracy theory, this is a most unusual but very entertaining and gripping read. You shouldn’t love a guy who is essentially a gun for hire but there is something about Michael North which engages you and has you rooting for a man you should want to see taken down. I’ll be reviewing this for the blog tour at the weekend but you can order a copy here.

…

White Out by Ragnar Jónasson

Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop?

With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim’s mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier. As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland’s bestselling crime writers.

Man… I wanted to savour this, the last in the Ari Thor series, but I just couldn’t. I had to read and read and read until I was finished. What a haunting story; what a wonderfully atmospheric setting, what a brilliant way to say goodbye to Ari. Oh … but now I have to review it and there are only so many times you can use the word brilliant and perfect and magnificent and … well you get the picture. You’ll see if I managed to find any unique and seldom used adjectives next Monday. In the meantime go order yourselves a copy here.

…

And that was it. As I say I am most of the way through another audio book which I hope to complete and review this week, and I’m part way through another book I started last night, but I have a way to go to catch up with myself right now. Still if I go into radio (or social media) silence, you’ll know it’s in a good cause. And I have a pretty full week on the blog this week just as I did last, which you can see the highlights of below:

Review: Christmas at the Falling Down Guest House by Lilly Bartlett

#BookLove: Karen Cole

#BlogTour: Dead Lands by Lloyd Otis

#BlogTour: Absolution by P.A. Davies

#BlogBlitz: A Cosy Candlelit Christmas by Tilly Tennant

#BlogBlitz: The Lost Child by Patricia Gibney

Review: Now We Are Dead by Stuart MacBride

Review: The Binding Song by Elodie Harper

Broken Bones by Angela Marsons – Prologue Preview

The week ahead is a mixture of blog tours, and a little book love, this time from Annie at The Misstery Book Blog. Blog Tour wise I’m dropping in reviews of Murder Game by Caroline Mitchell, The Good Samaritan by John Marrs, and Killing State by Judith O’Reilly. I also have a special review planned in for later in the week, but trust me – soon said, soonest mended on that front. You may won’t want to miss it…

So that is it folks. I am off to read. Or sleep. Or some weird hybrid combination of both. If you share my posts this week – thanks in advance. If you see me about on Social Media – tell me to sod off and get some reading (or work) done.

Have a fabulously bookish week all

Jen

Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 29/10/17 It is official. I am broken. Well ... when I say official, I mean that I feel it.