Torrents and MMA
I did end up getting a torrent invite from a very kind blog reader. I am now a member of a TV torrent site. I know that it’s illegal piracy, but I’m in Costa Rica most of the time now. It’s hard to get American TV shows when you live out of the country and, without time-shifting devices like TiVo, it’s impossible to watch what you want to watch. So I’m left with BitTorrent and AppleTV (and sometimes the websites of the networks, but some of them won’t let you watch shows on a non-US IP address) to get what I want to watch.
I wouldn’t mind belonging to a movie torrent site too because a lot of movies here are dubbed into Spanish and it can be dangerous to go to some theaters at night. Some movie rental stores get pirated versions of new movies, but the DVD and recording quality is pretty spotty.
Regarding something like music, I’m in pretty good shape there. At least the Amazon MP3 store lets me buy what I want to hear… it’s pretty much the only form of copyrighted entertainment material that I use 100% legally. And that’s because the record industry has basically been forced into a reasonable distribution arrangement. I’m the perfect example of someone who WANTS to pay for this stuff. If I have the option to pay or not pay, I always pay. But if I want to watch The Ultimate Fighter (great first two episodes in Season 7 btw) I’m left with no choice but to download it on BitTorrent. I simply don’t know of a way to pay for the content without waiting for the DVD — which is something that I’m unwilling to do.
Anyway, moving on… speaking of MMA. I keep getting more and more addicted to this stuff. For the uninitiated, MMA is mixed martial arts. It’s basically boxing, ju jitsu, muay thai, wrestling and more all rolled into one. The big organizations are the UFC, WEC (owned by the same company as the UFC), PRIDE (no longer exists, also owned by the UFC parent company), EliteXC/Strikeforce, K-1, etc. There are a lot of them, but UFC is the biggest. Fighters are matched up by weight class, but they often come from different backgrounds. It’s common to see a Brazilian Ju Jitsu fighter (often fighters from Brazil have a ju jitsu background) matched up with an American with a wrestling background. Lots of former NCAA champion wrestlers have gone on to become professional fighters in one of the various promotions.
Anyway, it’s really interesting to see styles collide and to see elite athletes compete on a pretty raw level. There are rules. No upkicks to the face (ie, while you’re on the ground, you can’t kick your opponent in the face), no hitting the back of the head, no eye gouging, no groin shots, etc. But the rules are pretty limited. For the most part, it’s just about finding a way to beat the crap out of the other guy. Fights end either when a ref calls a fight because one fighter is in danger of serious injury (ie, his arm is about to get broken if he’s in an armbar and he isn’t tapping) or when a fighter submits. You can submit either by tapping out or by verbally stating that you submit. Of course, fights can also go to a decision in a similar manner to boxing.
I’m still relatively new to MMA. I’ve been watching as much as I can to familiarize myself with styles and fighters. I also am interested in learning as much about the history of MMA as possible. So I’ll be reading a lot, watching a lot and I’m sure I’ll be posting about it a lot too.
Who out there is an MMA fan?
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You should just go to MiniNova.org for all the torrents you need. do a search for axxo and you will find good quality movies. No need to sign up or upload or any of that crap. I use Azureus as my client and it just works great.
As far as MMA – You should check out MMAJunkie.com – I think it’s partly owned or run by the poker blogfather himself. Let me know if you need any other help.
Enjoy the rich coast. I hear it’s amazing.
MMA is awesome. I downloaded a bunch of Fedor fights. He’s a solid russian who was ranked #1 for awhile, but hasn’t fought any good competition in awhile because Dana White won’t negotiate with him…..but he’s been in some legit brawls.
Also, as far as exciting fights go, anything with Anderson Silva is nasty.
The ultimate fighter TV show just started up too, which is a great show.
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No upkicks to the face (ie, while you’re on the ground, you can’t kick your opponent in the face)
To pick a nit, you can upkick to the face, just only when your opponent is on your feet. That is, if your opponent is standing over you in your guard, you can kick him in the face, but if he’s on his knees in your guard, you can’t (the latter is how Anderson Silva got DQ’d in his fight Yushin Okami in their Rumble on the Rock fight).
If you haven’t been to the Cartago movie theatre yet in Mall Cartago, give it a go. The VIP theatre is pretty awesome. And Cartago is much safer than San Jose at night.