Welcome to the first edition of Mercer’s Mondayitis, an idea that I thought up at the start of the year to get me back into writing but unfortunately I did have a few hiccups at the start of the year which pushed it back to now. I’m hoping to make this a regular thing to break up Mondays for everyone that reads. Hopefully you enjoy.
Aldo and Poirier shine at UFC Calgary
Former Featherweight champion Jose Aldo made a triumphant return at the weekend defeating Jeremy Stephens in the first round. Aldo ate some shots early from the man known as ‘Lil Heathen’ but was able to turn the tide hitting Stephens with a beautiful body shot. From there Aldo was able to finish the job and get his first win in the Octagon since 2016.
In the Main event Dustin Poirier was able to get revenge on Eddie Alverez by TKOing the former Lightweight champion in the second round. Their first fight ended in controversy when Alverez hit Stephens with an illegal knee at UFC 211 back in May. The win sees Poirier move to 8 wins out of 10 fights since his return to the Lightweight division and knocking on the door of a title shot.
What goes around comes around
Against the Raiders in round 19, the Sharks got away with one of the worst calls seen this season and one that cost the Raiders the game. After the game Shane Flanagan said that players needed to “play to the whistle” a statement that rings very true in the game. The lost to the Broncos on Thursday night was a different story however with the referees and the Bunker copping a bit from Flanagan, especially after centre Ricky Letuele was denied saying “The Bunker needs sufficient evidence that the ball didn’t touch the ground”. A week sure is a long time in sport.
Retro Round
Every year I look forward to the NRL’s Retro Round and after how well they did it last year my expectations were pretty high. Unfortunately, I feel that they missed the boat with it this year as number of games would of benefitted from it. While I understand that things would come down to scheduling but surely you would know a little bit about what you wanted for the round. With the theme being the 90s games like Raiders v Panthers, Dragons v Broncos and Knights v Sea Eagles would have been fantastic since each club had rivalries during that decade. Lets hope the NRL can get it right next year.
NRL Country Round
There has been a bit of void for country folk ever since the City v Country game was scrapped from the NRL calendar and it kind of sucks. They’ve taken a few games to country areas like Toowoomba and Bathurst but I feel a round dedicated to heading out to those areas will help the game.
Waratahs fall short
The last and only Australian team in the Super Rugby finals won’t get the chance to challenge for the trophy as the Waratahs went down to the Lions in South Africa at the weekend. After a great start that saw the Waratahs take a 14-0 lead, the Lions came roaring back to lead 19-14 with some brilliance from winger Aphiwe Dyantyi before Waratahs scored to level the score at half time. The second half started out tough with the Lions kicking ahead through a penalty goal to number 10 Elton Jantjies (Jantijies had a bit of a shocker with the boot, one of his misses was almost like Chad Townsend’s on Thursday night). The Lions asserted their dominance after Waratahs lost Damien Fitzpatrick for 10 mins, scoring two tries with the one-man advantage. The Waratahs managed a consolation try in the 75 min the Lions however finished the game with a try of their own to make the score 44-26. The Lions will meet the Crusaders in next Saturdays final in Christchurch.
Rockhold quiet on Lovato Hospitalisation
As some of you may or may not know, Demi Lovato was hospitalised after suffering an alleged overdose. The Disney channel start that has had a struggle with addiction the past is said to be recovering well now which is good news. While she received an outpouring of support from stars Macklemore, Brad Paisley and former UFC champion Randy Couture, one person who has remained tight-lipped is her ex and former UFC Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. Rockhold and Lovato started dating back in 2017 before calling it quits in February of this year.
Play of the Weekend
While there was some brilliance across a number of sports from the weekend, I can’t go past Gold Coast Titans winger Phillip Semi standing up Warriors Fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Semi took a pass from fullback Michael Gordon and put on a step that Tuivasa-Sheck is normally known for himself to score in the 66thminute of the match. Phillip Semi has been a shining light for the Titans this season.
That ends the first ‘Mercer’s Mondayitis’, I hope that you enjoy the read, let me know in the comments section if there was anything you did or didn’t like in this post.
Until next time
Josh Mercer
Nice post Josh 🙂
Thank you 🙂