#Valentina JJS

[echointernationaljumpers]

NVEC NATIONS CUP 2024

Lauren's POV

We had arrived at the Nations Cup arena a few hours earlier. Travelling so far with a new horse wasn't my favorite thing to do, but Toémme didn't seem to worried as we warmed up for the actual course.

He seemed slightly tens though, which was probably because of me myself being tense, so I tried to relax, breath deeply and let go of the tension in my shoulders - as to relax the reins a little. It seemed to help, and he soon trotted on just as well as home in our own little arena at Echo IJ.

At some point we stopped moving for a little while, thoughts clouding my mind as I wondered if we could actually do this. If we could actually complete the course without too many faults.

Deep in thought I didn't hear my own name being mentioned at first, not before Vivian nudged my knee with her hand, and said, "You're up, hun."

The course and it's obstacles became a blur, as I cleared them one by one, not really noticing if we hit any poles or not. Focus was on completing in the time set for us to not get faults by being too slow.

When the sound of the crowd stopping ringing in my ears, I was so relieved. I didn't even have a good picture of how well or bad we had done. I had just done the course without thinking too much, because thinking quickly became overthinking with me, and I didn't want to make Toémme nervous.

But the relief washed over me, as I clutched my chest just above my heart, soaking in the feeling that I had done the best I could (probably), and now it was up to fate whether or not we would place well. Whether or not some of the other riders would fail what I - no, we - had managed to complete.

Getting out of the arena, I pulled of my helmet. It would be awhile until I had another horse to ride, and as I was met by Lottie, I couldn't help but hug her in relief. My first show as a rider for Vivian seemed to have went well.

Text

Then it was Valentina and I's turn. I warmed her up as well as I could, and hoped for the best in the arena. I was sweating quite a lot, and wished - probably not for the first time today - that I had been allowed to enter the show in a show shirt instead of the full on jacket look, because peeew that was hot!

First obstacle went well, and I seemed to gain more confidence on this very experienced horse that Lidija Rotherford had leased to Vivian for a few shows. The experience of this horse seemed to ease my worries quite a lot, as I got ready for the next time it would be my turn. This time with Kozak.

Kozak was quite jumpy today, and he almost kicked down a pole at one of the first obstacles, but seemed to pull through quite well, even if he was frisky, and the whole experience was clearly very new to him. I don't think he had been in front of such a large crowd before.

Then I was beginning to warm up Cou. The fleabitten stallion just breezed through the warm up obstacles.

"Lauren Gibson and EJ Casse-Cou to the show arena!" was heard loudly from the speakers, as I trotted around on the stallion in the warm-up arena.

Then I took him down into a walk, and turned towards the show arena, ready to do my best with the last one of the horses I would be entering with at today's show.

Cou seemed calmer than Kozak, and very focused on his job. Being the first show with me as his partner I went easy on him, and let him set the pace, which seemed to work for him with me not interfering too much with his jumping and cantering.

Lottie met me at the warm up arena, where I was cooling Cou down, and helped me lead him back to the temporary stables, where he could be put in soon.

Then it was just to wait for the price call about who had gotten which placings and so on.

"Let me take him," Lottie said, and grabbed one side of the reins, "Then you can go see how the last equipages are doing."

"Honestly, I don't have the nerves for that, Lottie," I replied softly, feeling the nerves shaking my body, even if I knew I couldn't do more now anyways.

"Fair enough, Lauren," she said with a lopesided smile, and then we walked back towards the temporary stables both holding the reins.

"I mean, I probably should, shouldn't I? Try learning something from the others, even if I can't redo anything I have done?" I said thoughtfully, looking at the ground as we walked. I could feel Lottie's eyes on me.

"You tell me. You are the big competitive rider, not me," she laughed, and I could feel her gaze intensify, until I laughed a little back.

"I honestly don't think I will ever get used to all of this," I looked at Lottie, catching her gaze.

"Well, I could definitely not do what you do. I am much better as a groom for this kind of events," she smiled broadly, and shook her head before she added, "I am better as a small local shows-rider."

"Yeah, this definitely isn't for everyone," I replied thoughtfully, as I couldn't stop thinking about how this would turn out.

[starsmush]

colored my girls (and added a lil jj)…. They are each other safe place :’)

[dinosaurs-go-rawr]

ah, si, mis parejas Bi4Bi chico/chica favoritas

[arrows-unofficial-ocs]

arrow | she/her | isfp | hobby oc creator | a menagerie of ocs | no plans for fics

main blog: @unfortunate-arrow

⤷ find hp/wizarding world & bridgerton: next gen ocs, follows, and likes there

General Tags:

⤷ my aesthetic • my character profiles

Other People’s Amazing Work:

⤷ dividers • aesthetics • ocs

𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄: 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐂𝐒

An AU of the Arrowverse where the multiverse wasn’t destroyed, both Zaris were able to exist outside of the totem, Ronnie Raymond and Earth-1!Laurel Lance are permanently alive, and Oliver Queen was relieved of his duties as Spectre in 2022 by another earth’s Oliver Queen, who had lost everything and everyone.

Abigail “Abby” Cohen-Stein

Natalie “Nat” Constantine

Ethan Goldberg

Alyssa Harper

Roberta “Bobbi” Harper

Brian Hart

Henry B. Heywood

Sonia Heywood

Diana “Di” Lance-Sharpe

Quincy Lance-Sharpe

Rebecca “Becca” Lance-Merlyn

Quinley Lance-Merlyn

Carson Palmer

Tristan Palmer

Elowyn “Ellie” Palmer

Thomas “Tommy” Queen

Adalyn “Ada” Queen

Lucas Queen

Elena Ramon

Lizzie Raymond

Albert “Al” Raymond

Asa Watanabe

Raiden Watanabe

Joseph West-Allen

Ben West-Allen

Dawn West-Allen

Morgan West-Wells

Canon Character Interpretations

⤷ Ronnie (Cohen-)Stein • Connor Hawke • JJ Diggle • Sara Diggle • Martina Jackson • William Clayton • Mia Smoak-Queen • Nora West-Allen • Jenna West

𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐍𝐄𝐘’𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Caroline Darling | intro

Arianna Fitzherbert | intro

Nova Fitzherbert | intro

Percy C. McLeach | intro

Kalani of Motunui | intro

Molly Poppins | intro

Timothy “Tim” Radcliffe | intro

Jean Radcliffe | intro

Nicola Radcliffe | intro

Julia Radcliffe | intro

Ian Radcliffe | intro

Edward Radcliffe | intro

Harriet Radcliffe | intro

𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐒 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Delaney Ballard

Ricky Gilmore

Levi Powell | intro

Plot Bunnies

⤷ Josh Ellis • Aaron Weatherford

𝐆𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐂𝐒 (post-series)

Will Gordon — jim & lee’s son

Canon Character Interpretations

⤷ Barbara Lee Gordon • possibly other batkids

𝐌𝐂𝐔 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Grant Barnes — bucky’s son

Jo Rogers — steve & peggy’s daughter

Jamie Rogers — steve & peggy’s daughter

Carter Rogers — steve & peggy’s son

Riley Wilson — sam’s daughter

Canon Character Interpretations

⤷ Cooper Barton • Lila Barton • Nate Barton • Morgan Stark

Plot Bunnies

⤷ Dani Watson

𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐀 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Patrick Joseph Mallon | intro

Plot Bunnies

⤷ Aoife, daughter of Ramandu • Emily Bastable • Charlotte Thompson • George Thompson

𝐏𝐉𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Valentina “Val” Flores | intro

Ivy Gao

Eloise Kittredge | intro

Landon McCallister | intro

Florian Mostyn

Harmony Reyes

Arlo Stanhope

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐒: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐋𝐒 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Maddox Solo | intro

Tullia “Tully” Nash | intro

𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Isaac Mayfield | intro

Missy Sinclair

𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐎𝐂𝐒

Bridgerton

⤷ Martha Barrington • Susannah Baxter • Alex Rokesby • Liza Stickland • Robert Wynn

Heartstopper

⤷ Theodore “Ted” Ainsworth

Ted Lasso

⤷ Megan Armstrong

[villainfell]

— closed starter for @lovest0rie !! ♡ spencer reid for valentina alvarez

spencer gives a polite smile as he approaches her. "hi, i'm here to pick up henry ... i should be his emergency contact," he says. the latest case they were working was local, and involved an unsub that knew too much about the b.a.u's personal lives for comfort, and so, he was sent to pick up henry from school and bring him somewhere safe, on jj's behalf. "i'm his godfather," he adds, perhaps unnecessarily, but he says it with a great deal of pride.

[theanticool]

I’m just going to talk about the fights I care about for this Singapore card. Honestly, not a whole lot of technical aspects to cover. Feels like a lot of the fights are going to be one sided. Bear with me.

Max Holloway vs Korean Zombie - This fight is sad. While Chan Sung Jung is still a top 10-15 fighter at featherweight, this match up could easily turn into a 5 rounds of a too tough for his own good KZ getting pieced up by Max Holloway a la Holloway-Kattar. I can’t knock it too much as it was the fight KZ asked for and with him being open about the end being near, give him one last big fight. He deserves it. But I expect sad times.

Giga Chikadze vs Alex Caceres - I strangely like this fight. While Caceres lacks a level of physicality and raw athleticism to hang with the top of the featherweight division, no striker by Cisco Rivera has ever been able to put him away. It’s always been big strong wrestle-grappling types who have been his foil. That said, I expect the technical, athletic, and power edge to carry Chiladze to decisive victory. Unless Giga has spent the last 17 months actively getting worse as a fighter, I think he should take it.

Rinya Nakamura vs. Fernie Garcia - according to Tapology, I have seen Fernie Garcia twice. The fact I can’t remember anything about him and that he lost twice to some guys does not bode well for him. This is a fight meant to get the UFC’s next big hopeful star, U23 wrestling world champ Rinya Nakamura some cage time. But I’m interested in seeing what improvements he’s made since Road to the UFC. He’s been working at ATT alongside Kyoji Horiguchi and them. Guy has a bright future!

Erin Blanchfield vs Taila Santos - the first proper competitive fight I’ll talk about. Erin Blanchfield has only grown more and more confident as a striker in the UFC. While the technical polish isn’t there, the power and aggressiveness are. In contrast, I’d argue the biggest thing that kept Taila Santos from straight up beating Valentina Shevchenko in her last fight was her unwillingness to exchange on the feet. Her reliance on Valentina feeding her takedowns as opposed to being able to use strikes to set them up herself meant when Valentina stopped, so did her opportunities. That said, if Blanchfield comes out guns blazing like she did against Andrade, she could find herself getting tied up and taken down. And while her top game is impressive, we have seen Blanchfield lose a bottom side grappling match to a physically imposing opponent (Tracy Cortez) before. Granted that was 4 years ago but still. I’m excited to see what new things both women have been working on since the last time we’ve seen them!

Kenan Song vs Rolando Bedoya - Song had a more competitive fight with Ian Garry than Neil Magny, which will always be funny to me. That said, i think it’s fair after 25+ fights to say that we’ve probably seen his ceiling. A fun action fighter who can and will be folded by fighters who are either more experienced or athletically gifted. So this fight with Bedoya has me intrigued, because I don’t think he’s either. But what he has shown is that he’s got some Alex Morono in him. Bedoya has a lot of intangibles that fighters who make long careers in fighting without competing for gold have. Good defensive instincts. Fills space with offense well. A guy like Song is the perfect test for him.

JJ Aldrich vs Na Liang - JJ Aldrich is the quintessential example you point to when you tell people this is a sport of athletes. Cause technically, she’s a darn good fighter. Great job. Solid striking. Ok wrestling. But because she is not fast, powerful, or physically imposing, she will occasionally get her doors blown off by a more athletic fighter like Maycee Barber or Erin Blanchfield. Like Aldrich was winning those fights in a lot ways before the other women just decided they were done and went in for the kill. Against Na Liang, I think it makes for an interesting fight.

[eeraygun]

Top 192 Sonic Releases of 2022

000. Autechre, Gescom & Sean Booth - Hanalgig 001. Lala &Ce & Low Jack - Baiser Mortel 002. Rosalía - MOTOMAMI 003. Pontiac Streator - Sone Glo 004. VOICE ACTOR - Sent from my Telephone 005. Stone - Earth FF 006. Persher - Man With The Magic Soap 007. Various Artists - Lamkin: Versions & Variants Across the Northern Hemisphere 008. Various Artists  - V4 Visions: Of Love & Androids 009. Vanessa Rossetto - The Actress 010. Romeo Poirier - Living Room 011. Various Artists - Ghost Riders 012. Ben Bondy - Camo 013. Félicia Atkinson - Image Language 014. TLIM SHUG - bbbootlegggs 015. Paperclip Minimiser - Paperclip Minimiser 016. Honour - HBK Vol 1 & 2 017. res_és_nostre - res_és_nostre-modular_juns 018. Authentically Plastic - Raw Space LP 019. Purelink - Purelink 020. Cypher - APPX-10 Glasgow 021. Planet 1999 - this is our music ♫ 022. pent - live fold 023. Rhyw - Honey Badger 024. Signe Lidén & Espen Sommer Eide - Vertical Studies_ Archival Spirals 025. Catartsis - Acier Leste 026. Hoavi - Posle Vsego 027. Various Artists - SLINK Volume 2 028. Various Artists - Ever Since We've Known It_ More North Carolina Mountain Singing 029. Metrist - Forova 030. Derek Bailey - Domestic Jungle DAT 031. Various Artists - Begging the Moon_ Phleng Thai Sakon & Luk Krung, 1945-1960 CS 032. Romance - Once Upon A Time 033. FKA twigs - CAPRISONGS 034. Angelo Harmsworth - Vent 035. Mistareez - xenosonic 036. Shygirl - Nymph 037. Gilla Band - Most Normal 038. Second. - Rasuba EP 039. excel dj - phishermen 040. bad lsd trips - bad lsd trips 041. Duval Timothy - Meeting With A Judas Tree 042. Jennifer Walshe - A Late Anthology of Early Music Vol 1_ A 043. Perfume Genius - Ugly Season 044. claire rousay - everything perfect is already here 045. Two Shell - ❖-secretbox-❖ 046. Noémi Büchi - Matter 047. Ojerime - Keep It Lo 048. Reinartz - APPX-08 Sequences 049. ayrtbh - EP8 050. Ulla - Foam 051. Felicity Mangan - Wet On Wet 052. JJ+JS - peeled 053. Boomerang - 300's 054. mu tate - the body is round 055. mos fet & eustress - surf031 056. Ura - Baby with a Halo 057. Frederik Valentin & Loke Rahbek - Together 058. James K - random girl 059. Chained Library - Dear Master 060. OL - Roaming 061. Mbulelo - Kalibre EP 062. Luc Ferrari - Solitude Transit 063. Various Artists - A Cloudy Dawn 064. perila - there are no words to describe it 065. Aldous Harding - Warm Chris 066. WOODMAN - WD1112JU2XX2 067. Scarcity - Aveilut 068. Kindohm - Merge Experience 069. bod -包家巷 - Music Made by Other People 070. Relaxer - Candy 071. Valentina Magaletti - A Queer Anthology of Drums 072. MINIKINGZ - ICONICY 073. Dominic Coppola & Angelo Harmsworth - Pavonine 074. Xenia Reaper - Plain 075. Kali Malone - Living Torch LP 076. SZA - SOS 077. Benedek - Zebrano 078. Laenz - Undue Valence EP 079. Moin - Paste 080. Hiele Kinsella - The Third Summer of Love 081. Richie Culver - Post Traumatic Fantasy 082. ssabæ - azurescens 083. datassette - Sentinel 084. Jacob Dwyer - The Devil Museum 085. Ani Zakareishvili - Fallin 086. ubu boi & r hunter - A Symbol for Disguise 087. Leikeli47 - Shape Up 088. Primitive Man - Insurmountable 089. Sébastien Forrester - Orpheus' Pipes (Object-Oriented Studies) 090. Henry Greenleaf - Kirkstone EP 091. K Wata -  Dot Dot Dot 092. Prison Religion - Hard Industrial B.O.P. 093. Rabit - What Dreams May Come 094. Minder - Sanctuary 095. John M. Bennett - A Flattened Face Fogs Through 096. Candy - Heaven Is Here 097. Smpl Smpl - Embryo Issue #1 098. Peter Rehberg - at GRM LP (Rec. 2009-2016) 099. Vod Kasat - Mavi Maskara 100. Quixosis - Burundanger 101. Klahrk & KAVARI - Wax 102. Ákos Rózmann - Mass_Mässa 103. Contour - Onwards! 104. Carla dal Forno - Come Around 105. Brent Faiyaz - WASTELAND 106. wrk.dat - w.d o2 107. exael - Ice That Melts the Tips 108. Vanessa Amara - Fonetica Amara 109. Eric Lanham - Objet Dirt 110. Pariah - Caterpillar 111. Fibre Optixxx - Iris 112. Hyd - CLEARING 113. Nikki Nair - Renormalization Support Group 114. Etch - Predator Trax 115. Cocktail Party Effect - SNKRX010 116. Leo Kupper - Complete Electronic & Voices Works 1961-1987 117. Wench - Greatest Hits '88 - '16 118. Inland - BRETT001 119. torschlusspanik - intersexual healing 120. Mathis Ruffing - Further Explorations 121. Chat Pile - God's Country 122. MOBBS - CH002 - Untitled 123. Charli XCX - CRASH 124. Objekt - Objekt #5 125. Ziyiz - Pattern Factory Method 126. XHOSA - Push It (Remixes) 127. Small Car NRG - Road Legal 128. Slikback - K E K K A N 129. Marco Zenker - Channel Balance 130. NUG - Napping Under God 131. Dauwd - Psssh 003 132. bookworms - untitled 133. Warm Currency - Returns 134. Asher & Jordan - Foliage 135. Quelza - 47030 136. EVOL - The Worm 137. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers 138. Kibosh - Jumping Heart 139. Strugglin' - Pitch Pine 140. MORTIMER DUBATON – ATHENS VS PREDATOR 141. Lauren Tosswill - 1- 2 142. Beatriz Ferreyra - Senderos de luz y sombras 143. Moor Mother - Jazz Codes 144. Itoa - Oh No 145. Freundliche Kreisel - Freundliche Kreisel 146. Frankie - Styx 147. Gabor Lazar - Boundary Object 148. Atte Elias Kantonen - POP 6 SUSURRUS 149. INGI - Fade EP 150. borderlandstate_the best kisser in l.a - direct message EP 151. SYZ - Burner FM 152. Temudo - Fidelio 153. Ali Berger - Nonsight Vision 154. Sister Zo - Screw Cheek EP 155. Cucina Povera & Ben Vince - There I See Everything CS 156. Drummy - Double Stop 157. Jacques Charlier - Art in Another Way 158. B.Michaael - Built2Crawl 159. Omaar - Marcha 160. Laura Cocks - Field Anatomies 161. Katatonic Silentio - Les Chemins De L'inconnu 162. Notte Infinita - Atmosfera 163. Divide - La Terra Di Egherlak 164. Gallegos - Pump Up The Sound EP 165. Overland - Paryía 166. Lea Bertucci - Murmurations (w_ Ben Vida) 167. Fergus Sweetland - Punching The Core 168. Pub - Autumn 169. Siu Mata & Amor Satyr - Speed Dembow Vol. II 170. Panda Rosa - Threatened 171. Alien D - To My Friends Nick & Tony 172. Baby Blue - End of Sleep 173. Caroline Loveglow - Strawberry 174. Can't Read - Mind's Eye 175. Rroxymore - Perpetual Now 176. More Eaze & Claire Rousay - Never Stop Texting Me 177. Liew Niyomkarn - I Think of Another Time When You Heard It 178. Harba - TDITD 179. Eliza - A Sky Without Stars 180. Brendon Moeller - Highly Concentrated 181. Ctrls - Your Data 182. Rustal - Nexus Zeal 183. Atrice - Backrooms 184. age eternal - universal feeling cs 185. Product Toss - Go Way 2 186. D. Tiffany & Roza Terenzi - Edge Of Innocence 187. Roll Dann - Amargura EP 188. The Bug - Absent Riddim 189. S T I N 𝟡 - mi7 190. Jan Bruyndonckx - Rails And Other Tracks 191. Ludwig Berger - Pseudo-Volcanic Voices

[rollingthvnder]

Que linda eres Valentina, saluditos jj

jjj gracias <3 saludos

[greedaeye-a]

NAME: ceejay / cj

PRONOUNS: she/her

MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S): colby newman ( @reb3lcrew ) , savannah dawson ( @dcwsonscreek ) , felicity aguilar, valentina perez, jj maybank, prince henry fox mountchristen windsor, eddie price ( @m0bhit ) , wallace harvelle ( @hcrv3lles ) , dean and camden winchester ( @hcllchesters ) && delaney winchester ( @he11sprncss )

RP PET PEEVES: ignoring rules, godmodding, unnecessary drama

EXPERIENCE/HOW MANY YEARS: with tumblr rp, it'll be 3 years this year in october which is wild, but i've done random silly ones through messages with my friends in high school

FLUFF, ANGST, or SMUT: all of the above, it just depends on the day. somehow it usually leads to angst with me . . . but you know :)

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: because of my adhd shorter 1 para replies are usually my go to, but if i have a lot of muse for a thread and / or it was plotted beforehand i can get a solid 2 or 3 paras in there because i'll never shut the fuck up

TIME TO WRITE: my best time to write is usually in the night time. for some reason that's when my muse is most active and poking at me to do things

tagged by @brckensociety tagging you reading this !!!

[twistedsoulmusic]

Here is our latest show for Blue-In-Green:RADIO. Music of many genres, as we air tunes from JJ Whitefield, Tyson, Pantayo, Magnetic Machines, corto.alto, Flock and more. We also share three tracks from our Album Of The Week from V/Z. Valentina Magaletti and Zongamin recently dropped an album influenced by dub and post-punk. I hope you enjoy it.

📻 (www.blueingreenradio.com)

[cfthesoul]

valentina has been crushing hard on jj and she's pretty sure she's been obvious about it. the fairy was never good at subtle. the little act of excitment has her giggling like a school girl. he really was an adorable puppy. her arms instictively wrap around his shoulders as their lips press together. "mhm, guess we are on the same page then?"

He didn't expect her to admit it so adorably but now that she has damned if he's going to deny himself a second longer. " Well ma'am... " He takes off his hat. " I say wooo! " He pumps a fist and does a smooth 360. " And I feel it too and you should kiss me. Or maybe I should? I'm gonna... I'm gonna kiss you now. " He snickers and slowly pressed his lips to hers, hugging her with all the muscle his tank top couldn't hide while he did it.

[jobrohoealways]

[juliantinadaily]

[hope-mikaelson]

listen y’all, tops and bottoms both flirt and they both tease. whoever is more teasing or more flirting from scene to scene or moment to moment doesn’t determine who the top or the bottom is

but hear me out okay? when juliana is being flirting or teasing she’s suggestive. it sort of says ‘hey come and get me ... if you want to,’ she gives herself to valentina and then teasingly takes it away, in hopes val will chase her, but never says it.

when valentina is being flirting or teasing it’s assertive. it’s her saying ‘i want to____’ it usually comes with orders ‘don’t provoke me,’ her putting juliana’s arms around her waist, ‘you’re going to teach  me how to dance’

when valentina wants something she instructs it. when juliana wants something she hints at it, like she’s asking. 

that’s what separates juliana’s bottom-like, submissive flirting form valentina’s top-like, dominant flirting.

thank you for coming to my TED talk 

[dailylgbtq]

Endless Juliantina 1/?

[theanticool]

Who are you taking for tonight, homie?

Had to pull out the laptop and write down my thoughts for this one

Jiri vs Glover - Jiri by (T)KO early.

Can't help but feel we are going to see one of those fights where the older vet (Glover) has finally reached the mountain top thanks to good timing only to have it come crashing down immediately (think Bisping, Shogun, Werdum a bit or what just happened with Donaire and Inoue) because a younger guy with way more tread on the tire just comes and tears him apart. We know Glover is probably going to get hurt cause he does in basically every fight. And unlike basically anyone Glover has fought on his recent stretch, Jiri is a finisher. Not in the Anthony Smith, he's losing til he wins way of being a finisher. He is a 27 finishes in 32 fights type finisher. He's probably going to hurt Glover early. But unlike a Ion Cutelaba, I don't think Jiri lets him off the leash when he does.

Jiri isn't perfect though. He can be hurt (Reyes did). He can be stopped (King Mo did). Who knows how he looks in a fight with a 3rd, 4th, and 5th round? There's a solid path to victory for Glover if he survives early but you have got to think those come from behind performances have got to end at one point.

Shevchenko vs Santos - Shevchenko by UD (or 4th or 5th round tko). You have no idea how much I want to pick Santos, because I believe in the chaos that this sport throws out there. Normally when there's an upset in the women's divisions for titles, I can see the path. Wrote about it for Holm-Rousey, Joanna-Rose, Andrade-Rose 1, Rose-Esparza 2, and comically enough Pena-Nunes (years and years before the fight was made). But there were clear weaknesses that the upstart in all those fights could leverage for big wins, normally centered around a perceived weakness in the champ.

I like Santos. I think she's a good example of a fighter who got UFC money and dedicated herself to becoming a complete MMA fighter. She has 0 of the strengths any of those other women possess. She's not particularly brilliant in any facet of the game. While she is generally big and strong for 125lbs, she doesn't hold that edge over Valentina. The only way I can see Santos taking this is if we get a worse version of Shevchenko-Nunes 2 with Santos pressuring but refusing to throw giving Shevchenko nothing to counter for 25 minutes. Smarter people than me have pointed out some of Santos' similarities to Nunes, but I don' t think they factor in that Shevchenko-Nunes 1 was a brutal fight for both women involved that played into how the rematch went.

Zhang vs Joanna - Taking Zhang, UD or early stoppage.

There's so many weird caveats to this fight. If this fight had happened immediately after their first fight, I think I would have picked JJ cause she had the greater technical depth to make the adjustments she needed to win a rematch. Shorten exchanges, less kicking (or kicking upstairs more instead of to the leg). Really take away the big power counters that won Zhang their first fight. But Joanna hasn't fought since the last time these two fought, two years ago. And while Zhang is 0-2 in the meantime, she arguably beat Rose the 2nd time they fought and has looked physically well put together. Joanna is 34 and has been in so many brutal fights (Gadelha 2, Letournau, KK, Rose 1+2, and the Zhang fight). Has the two years helped her recover from that string of wars? Is she going to come back flat? She can't afford that in 3 round fight.

My main worry for Zhang is that the KO loss to Rose has shook her striking confidence and she'll be reluctant to get into a firefight when that's the fight she needs to beat JJ. But I'm honestly more worried about what JJ looks like at this point and should this turn into a battle of wills, I think Zhang can tough that out better than JJ at this point.