Cyber Week Breaks: Day 11 - Knockout Steps in Again, and Hulkamania Runs Wild

Once again, I have a break that needs a little something extra to make it worth posting about. I guess if I were a better writer, I could make a good post out of anything, but that's just not going to happen today. The packs that were scheduled for today were 8 packs of Topps Star Wars: Jedi Legacy and a box of 2016 Topps UFC High Impact. I am adding a pack of 2017 Topps UFC Knockout to the post, too, as well as a surprise item that appeared on my doorstep this morning.

Not much came out of the Jedi Legacy packs. I guess the highlights were these die-cut inserts that fit together to make a circle. I think there was a promotion when this product was released that allowed collectors to obtain a disc card that fit in the middle when the puzzle was complete.

These Magenta parallels aren't that rare, but there wasn't much else to go with. I think you get four of these per box.

The High Impact box had a Felice Herrig Blue parallel in it, a Julianna Pena Femme Fighters insert that I already have at least one copy of, and an autograph of Al Iaquinta that I also pulled a copy of on Day 7 of Cyber Week Breaks.

With those breaks out of the way, here are the hits from the pack of Knockout that I opened. First up is a Fight Mat Relic of Ronda Rousey. Her last couple of fights didn't end well, but she is still pretty much responsible for the rise of women's MMA into the limelight. I am not certain, but this might be the first Rousey hit I've ever pulled. This is the base version, and it is numbered # 16 / 99. The mat relic piece is supposedly from UFC 157, where the first UFC Women's bout was held. That fight involved Rousey and Liz Carmouche, with Rousey coming out on top.

The next hit is a Fearless Fighters Autograph Copper Ink parallel of Matt Hughes. These are pretty tough to come by, as the Copper Ink autographs only fall 1:77 packs, or about 1 in 20 boxes. This one is numbered # 08 / 10. This box of knockout has been pretty amazing so far. It will be fun to see what else comes out of this product for me. And now it's time for the bonus item!

This is a terrible cell phone picture, but I couldn't scan this thing and it came rolled up in a tube and won't lay flat for a photo. Hulk Hogan's official storefront, Hogan's Beach Shop, was clearing out some stuff and I grabbed this poster featuring his signature x2, once as Hulk Hogan and once as Hollywood Hogan. He also added some nice inscriptions to the poster, with my favorite being the '12x Champion Brother!' on the right. It also included a Certificate of Authenticity with a little story about Hulk's rise to fame. I've been thinking about buying an autographed tear-away shirt from the shop for a while now, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get two signatures on a poster for the price of one. I'm pretty happy with this piece.

Also, Hulk Hogan retweeted my Tweet about the poster, so that's pretty awesome.

The UFC Rewards Program's Last Gasp

The UFC had a pretty decent rewards program, where you could earn points for things like visiting the website, reading articles, posting on Twitter with their hashtags, and stuff like that. I enjoyed the program, and usually made sure to get my points each day. There were various rewards available, usually a range of tickets to events, memorabilia, and digital subscriptions.

Shortly after the UFC was purchased by William Morris Endeavor-International Marketing Group, I got an e-mail that the program was closing down and that any points earned needed to be used by a certain date.

I hadn't accumulated many points yet, so I was limited mostly to autographed 8" x 10" photos of fighters outside of the top tiers of popularity. Out of the choices available in my points range, Felice Herrig seemed to be the best of the bunch. The site said it would take several weeks to process the order, and it did take about two months to ship out from Fanatics.com. It's got a nice big signature in silver ink and a hologram sticker with a number that can be input on the Fanatics website for verification. It's probably not something I'd go out and purchase on my own, but it's pretty cool as a free reward. Herrig has a fight coming up in February against Alexa Grasso. A win might put her into the Top 15 in the Women's Strawweight rankings.

I was kind of disappointed to see the points program go away. I'm sure they had their reasons for it ($), but for me the points program did the job of keeping me engaged with the UFC's online presence. I don't visit their website as often anymore, and I am not usually motivated to Tweet or read their articles. Maybe I am an outlier in that regard, but they lost my attention a little bit by taking those little rewards away.

Tonight is UFC 207, with the much-hyped return of Ronda Rousey to the Octagon. I will be watching to see how she does against current Champion Amanda Nunes. A fighter whose cards I collect, Neil Magny, is also on the fight card, so I am excited to see that fight. There are a few other good bouts on the card. Hopefully it will be a good event.