JoshVilla

すごい!

10 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I call him Sven. Him and his brother Seth were friends of my brother in Chelmsford in the 90s. Many, many beers with those guys. No idea why I started calling him Sven though. 

That's awesome! I'm sure I could pick your brains for hours. I met him at a guitar clinic in Walsall a few years back and had a very brief chat. Lovely bloke and a monster guitar player.

These kind of lists are always a nightmare. Like other posters have said, most of it comes down to who you like. Also, does "best" mean most popular? Most influential? Most technically adept?

In terms of a guitarist that can do everything technically, has a great understanding of harmony but still has a brilliant feel and sense of melody, you can go too far wrong with Guthrie Govan.

4 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Bingo.

Its the most popular version of boxing going. 

Which really does show the absolute state of the sport at the minute. There's some fantastic fights going on, but people only really tend to bother watching the heavyweights. And even then, the biggest star in that division is fighting Ngannou - fantastic MMA fighter but has never had a professional boxing match. If I'm honest, I really do hope that Fury fights Ngannou in MMA like he said he would. It'd be hilarious. I don't think he'd last longer than 2 minutes.

Right then, from now on let's keep MMA fighters fighting MMA fighters, boxers fighting boxers and YouTubers doing YouTube.

Oh......it's Fury Vs Ngannou in 2 weeks.

Even the boxers are losing to the YouTubers...

This is worse than the last fight.

4 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

Yes 

Fair enough, each to their own. But it's a very difficult sport that requires a high level of skill in several aspects of martial arts. A helmet like Dillon Danis would get destroyed by any half decent mixed martial artist.

2 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

Tyrone Woodley, Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz also embarrassing losing to Jake Paul

 

40 year old Tyron Woodley who was on a bad losing streak and was cut from the UFC. Nearly 50 year old Anderson Silva and Jiu Jitsu fighter (grappling, not boxing) Nate Diaz. 

I'm not sure if you're saying that MMA is shit? It's a different sport. A boxer would get destroyed in MMA, just as MMA fighters don't generally do well in boxing. Make no mistake, Dillon Danis came here to troll, not fight.

2 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

MMA what a embarrassing sport 

Dillon Danis doesn't represent MMA in the slightest. The majority of MMA fans think that he's an embarrassment to the sport (he's only actually had like 2 or 3 MMA fights). The only reason anyone wanted him to win is because people hate the Paul brothers.

If anything, this just shows how awful Logan Paul is. Danis has basically let him have free shots at him for 6 rounds and he still couldn't finish the fight. These YouTubers are embarrassing.

Lots of UFC news today! This one is not good:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mmafighting.com/platform/amp/2023/10/11/23913573/ufc-usada-parting-ways-2024-usada-claims-relationship-became-untenable-over-conor-mcgregor-situation

Quote

The United States Anti-Doping Agency will no longer oversee the UFC’s anti-doping program once their current contract expires at the end of 2023.

We can confirm that Conor McGregor has re-entered the USADA testing pool as of Sunday, October 8, 2023,” Tygart said. “We have been clear and firm with the UFC that there should be no exception given by the UFC for McGregor to fight until he has returned two negative tests and been in the pool for at least six months. The rules also allow USADA to keep someone in the testing pool longer before competing based on their declarations upon entry in the pool and testing results.

So basically, because USADA wouldn't budge for Dana's golden boy McGregor, the agreement between the UFC and USADA will be finished as of 1st Jan 2024. I'm sure that McGregor's piss would've blown that lab to pieces a few weeks ago. He should have to abide by the same rules as everyone else. The UFC needs to move on from him anyway. I think he's finished at the top end of the division (whatever bloody division he thinks he'll be fighting in, anyway).

Paulo Costa is also out. Usman steps in to fight Chimaev.

Crazy, but a bit weird. Is Usman going to fight at Middleweight now?

3 hours ago, ismail-villa said:

Oliveira out of next week's main event, bummer! Was gonna be a crazy main event. Split his eyebrow open when sparring the day before he was gonna fly out. Volk to replace him!

What an absolute badass Volk is for taking that fight on 11 days notice. I have a sneaky feeling that he might just do it this time...

Great player on his day. Though, I still can't help but think of him kicking that ball boy.

Could see this happening from a mile away. A lot of City fans are spoilt brats in the football World. They had their shiny new toy when Grealish signed, now they don't want to play with him any more and have moved onto the next one.

Would have taken a point if offered before the game, as we never seem to beat these at their place. We'd better do them at ours though...

I feel like there'll be a few injuries on that pitch this season.

This competition is like any other cup competition for us. It doesn't matter what league you're in, or your standing in that league. Anything can happen on any given day and it all comes down to who wants it more. With us being one of the favourites to win the thing, we'll probably see a lot of teams set up like Mostar did yesterday, especially at Villa Park. You could see exactly what their gameplan was. No press at all, just stick everyone behind the ball, be resolute in defence and try to make the most of any breakaway that they can get. They did have a couple of moments where they almost caught us out, and it goes to show that it's still a tough competition to win. It may be sneered at as a third tier European Cup, but it's worth winning.

Wolves are shit, and we should be beating teams of their level, but it's still technically a derby of sorts and they always seem to raise their game against us, especially at home. Our recent record against them is shite, but I'm hoping that we can finally break the curse. I'm sure that Emery didn't have a good record against Lopetegui, so now that he's gone maybe he'll give O'Neil a bit of a masterclass. It'd be great to go into the international break continuing our good form, especially as we often tend to come out of the breaks looking a bit ropey.

2-1 Villa.

He had a much better second half. He was losing his man constantly in the first half. Any sniff of an attacking opportunity for Mostar was coming down that side. He was much better when shifted over to the left.

I was in the upper Doug Ellis, in P3. The atmosphere died in the first half after the first 10 mins or so, but I think that was reflective of how flat the game was. To be fair to Mostar, I think the executed their game plan perfectly - they stood off and let us try and break them down, but our movement off the ball was pretty much non-existent so it made for a pretty dull affair. Second half was much better from where I was sitting. We woke up after we made the changes and it definitely gave the crowd a big lift. 

It'd be brilliant if we could keep the intensity in the stands even when the game's gone flat, as you see with the European teams. As other posters have said, it seems to just be a thing in English football generally, not just a Villa thing. 

Buzzing with the win. A real game of two halves. To be fair, Mostar executed their game plan perfectly in the first half. Frustrated us, silenced the crowd, slowed the game down. There was no press from them at all, they were happy to sit back and make us break them down. We were way too static in the first 45 until we came to life a bit in the last few minutes. Second half, Mostar defended like their lives depended on it, and fair play to them. It did feel like it was only a matter of time before we took one of our chances, though I was fearing the worst on 90 minutes. Can't fault the character of them to keep pushing right til the end. 

Got a birthday card from him when I was a kid. That's going on eBay if Ollie doesn't get a call up...