Something a tad different as I talk about another love of mine!

It's a given for me to rattle off about film, Polish hip hop, Finland,

self exploration, and other things one could rattle on about on a blog, but would you have expected that I would be a huge fan of UFC and MMA (mixed martial arts)?

My introduction to it was long ago when watching an episode of TSN's "Off The Record" when they were having a debate on a new sport called "Ultimate Fighting". Some Canadian wanna be actress was calling it "barbaric" and it kind of caught my eye. I ended up seeing a UFC 39 DVD or something of that sort and I was kind of interested a little more. But it wasn't until I purchased THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER reality series at Target when I kind of got hooked. Light heavyweights Forest Griffin taking on Stephan Bonnar in the final live round, must have been one of the best UFC fights ever.

When UFC 83 was announced to take place in Canada, I was totally wanting to go. On the card, Canadian Georges St Pierre is to take on Long Island's Matt Serra (who clobbered St Pierre). Sadly, tickets sold out in mere minutes, and coughing up $250 a ticket wasn't on the agenda. Considering I balk at the mere fact of paying full price for a film, and having friends kind of not really too into going to Montreal to see the fight (Well, maybe Ricky J would go!).

Anyhow, when it was announced, the Canadian press gushed all over St Pierre with a slow handjob, painting the guy almost pretty much like he had won, and the fight hasn't even taken place. Only Sportsnet UFC specialist Showdown Joe Ferraro was saying that basically even though he was friends with St Pierre, that Serra might be the underdog. Indeed.

Seeing interviews with both Serra and St Pierre this week, I gotta say (and I'm sure Canadians will call me traitor) that my bet is on Serra as well, and I'm a St Pierre fan. St Pierre appeared in one interview with two dime sized bruises on his face with his head looking like a human bowling ball. Meanwhile, Serra who might not have really fought in a pro bout for a year due to a back injury said he's fully recovered. Like Liddell or Couture, it looks like St Pierre has kind of fallen into the Canadian hype machine. He looks tired. It will be interesting to see the turnout, but my prediction is St Pierre taps out in the 2nd.

Out of any sports, there's two that appeal to me in actually doing. My pal Lorraine in Chicago got me interested in Yoga, and second, mixed martial arts. Oddly enough before dealing with a family crisis, I was going to train. When telling my friends about this, they thought I was mad. Well, Tim and Brenda thought it WAS typical for me to do. And consideiring Couture is in his 40's, do I feel too old to pursue this? Nooooooooo!

But yeah, there you have it. Besides being (as one online website referred to me as) "the overlord of Flea-Market cinema", I'd pursue ultimate fighting. Now, it's just being able to find the routine for traning as the new shiftwork kind of is preventing this at the moment. But once it does, you've got the tip up, not the tap out ;)

OK... Back to our regularly scheduled programming!