Jim Miller and Amanda Nunes UFC Stuff

My wife and I had a pretty busy Saturday, trying to fit as much tourist stuff as we could into the weekend before Monday, when she heads back home and I get back to my training. We kicked the day off by traveling to Old Town San Diego.

Our first stop was the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. I visited it a handful of times when I was a missionary here many years ago, but since then they've remade the building and the tour with a higher-tech interactive presentation. I thought it was pretty good, telling the story of how several hundred Mormons were enlisted into the Army during the Mexican-American War and eventually assigned to build a wagon road to California, winding up in San Diego and helping to build the city.

I even found a wagon to drive, although it was woefully short on livestock to pull it. We panned for gold in the courtyard and looked at some artifacts, and then it was time for lunch. We had some great food at The Tequila Factory. I opted for carnitas, while my wife ordered some shrimp fajitas. It was good. We ate way too much, but it was worth it. After that we wandered down the street a bit and looked at shops and booths.

After that we headed out to Petco Park to watch the Padres take on the Pirates. We had some excitement on the way there, though. A car changed lanes into the side of my car, breaking my mirror and scraping/denting panels along the left side of my car. He looked over at me, then slowed down and pulled over as if to exchange information with us. We started to pull in behind him when he took off again, trying to execute a hit-and-run. We followed him, as did a couple of other cars. Eventually he got caught in traffic and we caught up to him in the left turn lane. He made a U-turn and then a quick right, and my wife got a picture of his license plate. After his next turn we were headed toward a couple of police cars with their lights on for another accident, so he flipped around again and took off. I decided not to chase him anymore, and we pulled up to the police and told them what had happened. We filed a report with them, and he got pulled over somewhere else while we were talking to the police. They couldn't arrest him for the accident because they didn't witness it, but hopefully with the license plate number and the police report we won't have too much trouble with our insurance company. It does stink to have my new car wrecked, though. I've only had it for about six months. Without anything else to do with the car, we continued on to the ballpark. 

It was free hat night, so we got Padres hats as we entered the gates. I posted this selfie on Twitter, and we saw it on the big scoreboard a few times during the game. I tried to take a picture of us on the scoreboard, but it was too bright and it washed out on my camera. It was a pretty good game, and the Padres beat the Pirates 4-2. That makes the Padres 2-0 when I am in attendance.

In addition to free hats, they had fireworks after the game. It was a good show, and between the game and the fireworks it was well worth the price of admission. We had to get one more picture on the way out. We packed a lot into one day, and it was a lot of fun. It stinks that some d-bag pulled a hit-and-run on us and smashed up my car, but I'm glad that neither of us was hurt. Hopefully my insurance company will take care of us. I haven't been extremely impressed with them lately, and if we have too much trouble on this claim I will definitely be switching companies.

There was a pretty big UFC event on Saturday night, but I totally missed it. It sounds like it was an okay event, unless you're a Daniel Cormier fan. I picked up a lot of cards that don't have anything to do with any of the fighters who fought in UFC 214 this weekend, but I can't make everything match current events. These first ones are a trio of Jim Miller autographs along with one Travis Browne signature. One of the Jim Miller cards is an auto-relic from 2017 Topps UFC Knockout. I also have a Miller autograph from 2011 Topps Finest, and the bottom two signatures come from 2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines. Another copy of that Jim Miller Bloodlines autograph appears in a post from a couple of days ago. I guess I am just a sucker for cheap UFC hits and parallels.

Additionally, I grabbed a trio of Jim Miller relic cards. The top one is a Finest Threads relic from 2011 Topps UFC Finest, while the mat relics hail from 2011 Topps UFC Finest and 2012 Topps UFC Finest. The 2011 mat piece comes from UFC 108, where Miller defeated Duane Ludwig. The 2012 mat relic comes from UFC on FX 1, where Miller defeated Melvin Guillard in the main event.

In addition to a bunch of Jim Miller cards, I also got four different parallel cards featuring Amanda Nunes. The biggest grab was the card in the upper left, a Blue Flame parallel from the online-only 2017 Topps UFC Fire product. That one is numbered # 11 / 25. The next two come from 2014 Topps UFC Champions. In the upper right is a Purple parallel numbered # 73 / 88, which was apparently a retail-only parallel. There was also a Hobby parallel numbered to # / 88, but it had blue borders. The card in the lower left is a Black parallel, numbered # 054 / 188. The card in the lower right comes from the next year's Champions release. It's a Black parallel, numbered # 091 / 188.

Some Old Pick-Ups that are Surprisingly Relevant Today - UFC 212

I am compounding a bad decision by writing this post after I stayed up too late to watch UFC 212. I have to work in the morning, and I should not still be up. I just couldn't bring myself to miss out on Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Jose Aldo vs. Max Holloway. Those fights didn't disappoint, and neither did the ones earlier on the card. I was pulling for both winners of the two biggest fights on the card, although I missed on a lot of my earlier picks in the UFC Pick'em game.

I picked up these cards months ago, but most of them feature guys who were on tonight's fight card. I must have picked them up in late January, when Nate Marquardt last fought on the Valentina Shevchenko vs. Julianna Peña card. Marquardt lost his fight tonight via a decision that went to Vitor Belfort. I didn't see much of that fight, but the reaction on Twitter told me that there may have been some homer judges in Brazil voting with their hearts instead of their eyes. I guess that's why you don't let the decision go to the scorecards. This autograph comes from 2010 Topps UFC.

This relic card comes from the same set, and features a bit of the mat from UFN 8 in January 2007, where Marquardt defeated Dean Lewis by a unanimous decision. Judging by the scores (30–27, 30–25, 30–25), it was a pretty convincing victory.

Raphael Assuncao won his fight tonight, a decision victory over Marlon Moraes. Cardboard Connection says that this is a Blue parallel out of 2014 Topps UFC Champions, but it sure looks Purple to me. It's numbered # 56 / 88.

Andrei Arlovski didn't fight tonight, but he is scheduled to fight in a couple of weeks at UFC Fight Night 111. He's lost four fights in a row after a six-fight win streak (4 of those were in the UFC), so he really needs to put a victory up against Marcin Tybura to remain as a contender. This is a Gold parallel from 2016 Topps UFC Knockout. I think this one is numbered # 80 / 99.

Recent UFC Pickups of All Kinds

I haven't watched the last couple of UFC events, just because I've been busy when they were on. I'll definitely be tuning in to the upcoming UFC 211, though, as there are some good names on the card, like Stipe Miocic, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, and Demian Maia. There are also some folks I like to watch lower on the card, like Jason Knight. I hope he wins his fight, so he gets some time on the microphone. This post is just a bunch of random UFC cards I've picked up recently, if you define recently pretty loosely.

Urijah Faber cards saw a little bit of a spike when he retired a few months ago, but you can get most of them now without spending much. I like this mat relic card from 2011 Topps UFC Finest because it lists the event the mat was used for. I think I may have looked up pictures from WEC 52 at some point to identify where in the mat this piece came from, but that was a long time ago and I'm not doing that right now.

I also got this Urijah Faber Atomic Refractor die-cut card from 2011 Topps UFC Finest, which lists some of his achievements on the back. It's too bad he never was able to get a belt in the UFC, although his understudy, Cody Garbrandt, managed the task against Faber's nemesis, Dominick Cruz. This card is numbered # 62 / 88.

I also have recently picked up a couple of 1st Autographs, including this Jessamyn Duke card from 2014 Topps UFC Champions. Part of the fun of my UFC collection is that I will pick up pretty much anything that is interesting to me, so there is plenty of variety. Autographs tend to be pretty cheap, too, outside of the really big stars.

The second autograph here is a Shayna Baszler signature from 2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines. This one is numbered # 036 / 225. Interestingly, Baszler also appears on a Japanese wrestling card I just picked up. She hasn't fought in the UFC since 2015, and has spent most of the time between then and now working for professional wrestling promotions, although she did have an MMA bout in Japan earlier this year. Her nickname is 'The Queen of Spades,' and this autograph has a Spade doodled alongside her name.

Another UFC collection of mine is low-numbered parallels. I am especially partial to these Gold parallels from 2015 UFC Champions, but I'll take any # / 25 or lower parallels I can find. This Carla Esparza card is numbered # 07 / 25. Her most recent fight was a split decision loss to Randa Markos in February.

Finally, I chased down this 2017 Topps UFC Fire autograph for my Neil Magny collection. Then I ordered a box of UFC Fire and pulled another copy. I guess it could be worse. This one is numbered # 002 / 199. Magny's most recent fight was a unanimous decision victory over Johny Hendricks in December.

Some PC (FC?) Cards in a Random UFC Lot

I snagged some UFC stuff a while back. Judging by the names in this group of scans, I am guessing I won these auctions in mid-January. That's how far behind I am in my posting. I have scans in my Draft folder that will take me well into May. In theory, I could go over a month without buying a card and still have new stuff to post about. That's not likely to happen, though. I'll hit a slow spot at some point and get this queue reeled in.

The key pieces of this lot were a couple of Neil Magny autos for my PC (FC?)* of him. The most important was this autograph from 2015 Topps UFC Knockout, which has the 1st Autograph designation on the front.

I am torn as to what to call PC's of subjects who aren't ballplayers, like wrestlers, fighters, and NASCAR drivers. My understanding is that PC means Player Collection. I guess it could mean Personal Collection, but that doesn't sound right. If it's in my collection, it's automatically a Personal Collection piece. But a Player Collection refers to a subdivision of your collection made up of cards of that individual. So do I call my Magny collection a Player Collection? Or do I call it a Fighter Collection and use the abbreviated FC? Do I have PCs or DCs (Driver Collections) of Danica Patrick and Josh Wise? I guess my life is pretty good if I can sit here and consider these questions.

The other Magny card in this lot was a 2016 Topps UFC Top of the Class autograph relic card. Typically autographs and relics are serially-numbered in these products, but neither of these Magny cards have numbering that I can see in the scans. I could go look at the cards themselves, but it's been two months since I received them, and that means they are in a 5000-count box downstairs waiting for me to complete the sorting project I began a couple of years ago.

Even though the shine has come off her star a bit after losses in her last two fights, I'll still put in a bid on a Ronda Rousey parallel. There's no denying that she put Women's MMA on the map for most of the population. This Green parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles is numbered # 078 / 288.

I will also put in a bid on nearly any UFC parallel numbered to # / 25 or less. I especially like Gold ones. I lose a lot of them, but I win one every now and then. This Johny Hendricks card comes from 2014 Topps UFC Champions. I like these Predictor programs, but I have never won anything from one of them. They probably just make me feel some kind of nostalgia for the Collector's Choice brand from the mid-90's. This card is numbered # 22 / 25.

Urijah Faber prices have come down since his retirement. I've been able to grab some parallels and relics of his over the last couple of months. This Gold parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles is numbered # 52 / 88.

This Gold parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Champions is even better, as it's numbered # 13 / 25. I was pretty happy to get this one.

I have pretty much nothing to say about this card. I was scanning the other cards in the lot, so this one got scanned as well. I probably had the intent to at least put the pictures into the Trading Card Database. It looks like this is a 2011 Topps UFC Finest Gold parallel, and it is numbered # 57 / 88.

I also like picking up relic cards that featured relic swatches linked to a particular event. This swatch of green and black looks like it came from the Mickey's Fine Malt Liquor ad on the UFC 63 Octagon mat. It looks like the picture on the card actually comes from Lauzon's win against Jens Pulver at that event. The card come from 2010 Topps UFC. There were a couple of other cards in the lot, but nothing that was interesting enough for me to write about. I literally (not literally) fell asleep thinking about writing about them, so I just deleted the pictures from the post. It was freeing, in a way.

2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines Group Break

Late last year I joined a  UFC group break to see if I could add anything interesting to my collection. I don't follow MMA very closely, but usually if there is a big fight I hear about it because I follow a lot of sports blogs and news sites. One of the fighters I got in the break was Cat Zingano, the fighter who got beaten in 14 seconds by Ronda Rousey in UFC 184. I don't see much news about her recently outside of commentary leading up to UFC 190. Allison Glock wrote a pretty good ESPN article about Zingano earlier this year. The Zingano card I got in the break was this relic card with a single-colored red swatch of fabric embedded in it.

The back of the card contains the usual message congratulating the card's owner for obtaining the card. If I remember right, this break featured a box or two each of several different products. This relic card came from 2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines. It is numbered # 012 / 208.

This Jessamyn Duke New Guard card is also from 2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines. Duke had a 3-0 record after her first four fights (one loss was overturned due to illegal moves by the other fighter), but has lost her last three fights, including one about a week ago, to fall to 3-3 in her UFC career.

Also included in the package was a pack of 2014 UFC Champions cards. I don't know most of the UFC fighters, but it was essentially a free chance to open a pack of something new.

These were the only two vertically-oriented cards in the pack. Jacare Souza is 22-3 on his career and according to Wikipedia is ranked #2 in the Middleweight division. Ovince Saint Preux is 18-6 and rated #6 in the Light Heavyweight division.

The horizontal cards feature seven more fighters' individual cards and a Fight Nights Highlights card of the UFC 157 match between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche, which was the first women's fight in UFC MMA history.

Ronda Rousey is in the news right now for her fight tonight against Bethe Correia in UFC 190. She defeated Correia in 34 seconds by knockout, which is kind of notable because 9 of her 12 professional wins so far have come by armbar submissions. I don't know if anyone is going to be able to beat her. Everyone who tries gets embarrassed. You can watch the entirety of her last three fights in just over a minute.

I don't see myself really going out of my way to start an MMA collection, but it was fun to dabble in the cards a little bit.