Saturday 22 March 2008

I am getting ready to do a longer walk. Goal is 20 + miles.

Update It went ok; 2:18 for the first 10 of boredom (from the house), 1:02 to the end of the trail (included one extra gooseloop lap), 43 minute 3 mile segment (lost focus), then 35:26 uphill back (ok) for 4:39:37. I’ve done better and I’ve done worse. But this is the first “ultra type” workout I’ve had in a while. 20 more of these and I might be getting back into shape! The day: overcast. Air: cool, humid, some wind, but I wonder about the quality. We had “dirty rain” yesterday which made our cars look as if they had been driving on dirt roads.

For anyone whose car was parked outside Friday morning, it looked as if mud rained on it.

Like children running through a clean house with dirty shoes, anywhere and everywhere rain drops fell they left behind their filthy, little footsteps.

Matt Barnes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln, says dirty rain is not uncommon.

Particles of dust, dirt and pollutants are always circulating high in the atmosphere. They cling to water droplets and fall with every rain, he explained.

“There’s always some particulate matter; it just so happens (Friday) was a little more than usual,” said Barnes, who fielded several reports of the dirty rain in and around Peoria.

There’s no fancy, scientific name for it. No Latin-phrased phenomenon at work here. For better or worse, labeling the tinted water “dirty rain” fit just fine with the meteorologist.

With the ground throughout Midwest still moist and saturated from previous rainfall, Barnes figured the residue left by Friday’s rain emanated from the south or southwest part of the country. [...]Despite having already washed several cars at the dealership that morning, employees were back at it Friday afternoon. “It was like mud,” Psinas said after having to use one car’s wipers just to see through its windshield. [...]

Humor/Political Social. Colbert interviews Samantha Power; he talks about her “monster remark” and her newest book.

It takes about 6-7 minutes and is worth watching; my guess is that her book will go on my reading list after I finish off my backlog.

Humor: Edward Current talks about Hell.

Graduate School Reading this really makes me appreciate my Ph. D. adviser. He was about as nice and non-abusive as they come.

Boxing: Once again, I stayed up too late watching Friday Night Fights. The three that I saw were very entertaining.
(Image hotlinked from Fight News)

The report on the bouts is here.

See the highlights here.

Longer reports can be found here and here

Unbeaten super middleweight prospect Aaron Pryor, Jr. (9-0, 6 KOs) survived some rocky moments to post a unanimous decision over Alphonso Williams (10-4, 8 KOs). Scores were 76-75, 77-74, 79-73. Pryor is the son of Hall of Fame junior welterweight champion Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor.

This bout was the first one that I saw. Whereas I agree with the overall decision, I can understand the last score at all. I had Pryor carrying 5 rounds and Williams, three, with one of Williams rounds being a 10-8. Pryor is 6′ 4″ whereas Williams is only 5′ 8″, and Pryor used his reach to his advantage (weight limit: 162). Early on, I thought that Williams had won one of the earlier rounds but mostly Pryor peppered Williams with right hands; Teddy Atlas said that Williams was attempting to slip punches by moving his head in the wrong direction. Ironically, things improved for Williams when he started to fight in a left handed style. But in the seventh round:

In the seventh, the 32-year old Williams, 162.5 lbs., came off the ropes with a perfect straight right-left hook combo that disconnected Pryor’s legs from his senses. Pryor stayed on his feet, barely, as Williams stalked him around the ring in pursuit of the kill. Slipping and grabbing, Pryor survived again as he had in the first. In the eighth, his legs back beneath him, Pryor managed to turn the tables, stunning Williams with a long right and left hook before cruising to the closing bell.

But it appeared that Williams, either due to fatigue, or due to being weary of Pryor’s right hand, didn’t pursue Pryor aggressively; to us Pryor looked ready to go.

In the second fight:

Undefeated jr lightweight Matt Remillard (14-0, 8 KOs) dropped veteran Jesus Salvador Perez (25-19, 14 KOs) in round one, but was forced to go the four round route to win by scores 40-35, 40-35, 39-36.

Perez is one of those “tough as nails” veterans who has lost a step and just a tad of quickness, but has enough toughness and savvy to test the up and comers.

The main event saw the underdog (from Austin, Texas) come from behind to give a hot prospect his first loss. Fight News writes:

In a colossal upset, The Contender’s Brian Vera (16-1, 10 KOs) scored a totally unexpected seventh round TKO over previously unbeaten middleweight prospect Andy Lee (15-1, 12 KOs) on Friday night before a shocked audience at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Lee, who had been hyped as the future of the middleweight division, looked like he would have a short night when he dropped Vera in round one.

Teddy Atlas had said that Vera’s style was tailor made for Lee; though he started off the bout by “boxing” Vera resumed his straight forward attack. Lee scored early and often but Vera kept up the relentless pressure even as he fell behind in the scorecards. Vera did use his jab effectively, much to the surprise to Atlas.

Though Lee was ahead on points, Vera was doing damage. Boxing Scene writes:

A back and forth war was birthed in a second round controlled by his opponent. Vera stunned Lee with a right hand and followed it with jarring rights and lefts to carry the frame. He gave back the advantage in the third as Lee slammed home some sizzling left hand counters. The momentum would swing again in the fourth with Vera opening a cut over Lee’s right eye and settle into a fifth fought on largely even terms.

Each man was landing harsh leather and bringing the crowd to its feet.

Then came a savage sixth round.

Lee carried the frame, hurting Vera with numerous left hooks but never landed the finishing blow he needed. Breathing out of his mouth and unable to answer Vera’s pressure on the inside, Lee let it all hang out. Vera’s perseverance in the sixth foretold the future. He never fell, never failed to answer Lee’s fire with some of his own. Lee headed to the corner at the bell an exhausted man. He didn’t know yet that he was a beaten one.

Vera let him in on that knowledge early in the seventh, landing right hand after right hand that had Lee’s shoulders slumping, head snapping, and legs shaking as he struggled to survive. To Lee’s credit, he continued to punch back but his body wasn’t keeping up with his heart. Vera landed the telling blow at mid-ring, another flush right hand that sent blood and sweat flying. A left hand counter from Lee landed a split second before referee Tony Chiarantano leapt in to stop the fight in Vera’s favor.

It was a split second too late.

The pro-Lee crowd cascaded the ring with boos, unable to understand how a fighter still punching back could be stopped. According to the television announcers, Lee’s trainer, Emmanuel Steward, did not join their discontent. While it appeared a tad premature, the stoppage may have been the best result for the long term hopes of the 23-year old Lee who was taking a beating as the fight wore on.

It is true that Lee was attempting to punch back, but to me, it looked as if he were extending his arms almost as if by instinct; these were sort of aimless arm extensions rather than focused punches. Lee was bleeding heavily, one of his eyes was closing and he was getting hit repeatedly in the head with punishing shots. It appeared to me that fatigue kept Vera from landing the single haymaker that would have ended it beyond all doubt.

But was was beyond doubt (to me, anyway) is that this was going to be the last round of this fight and that Vera was going to win.

Well, it is almost time to get out there and do my walking.

So, I’ll leave you with probably the best last three rounds of a heavyweight championship that I’ve seen. Note: the judges (all 3) had the fight tied at the start of round 13.

The fight ended 143-142, 142-143, 143-142 Holmes.