Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, psychology and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.
Vegan alcohol free bar Hinterland host the Sober Silent Reading Club, ‘a chill session of reading with like-minded folks. Bring your favourite book and enjoy the quiet.’
There’s a meetup with Manc Mates to coincide.
Next: big contrast here, but different strokes and all that...
It’s fight week. UFC 321 on Saturday night has the UK’s Tom Aspinall, from Atherton Bolton no less, makes his first defence of his heavyweight title against Frenchman Ciryl Gane. Joshua Brooks is showing the main card, starting from 7pm, and Manchester Nightlife meetup group will be there. I’ve got my free ticket.
JB’s isn’t far from Circle Square, so it might be good to have a look around that area after.
Journal Club Wednesday at Hinterland. The last one (the first one) was really interesting. There’s a meetup on Manc Mates. Discussion and practice on the art of journaling, on the theme of Freedom according to Eventbrite. That’s the same theme as last time. Dunno if that’s a mistake.
Thursday night: Poetry night again at Hinterland. I have nothing to read out. I just can’t think of anything that would work. So I’ll probably miss it, but if anyone else likes a good poem...
Saturday Night: Manchester Nightlife is out once again this time to new food outlet Dave’s Hot Chicken in the Printworks. There are a million fried chicken outlets. Will this be better? It’s certainly newer. Come find out. We might do a few drinks around there after.
Still haven’t met with the original Manchester Social group that they left.
Ran my own meetup to Brotherhood bar near the Town Hall, to watch UFC. Taking place in London, this time the main card was on at a reasonable hour and a handful from Manchester Nightlife showed up to watch the fights. Disappointing night for Brits as both Leon Edwards and Molly McCann were beat. The latter retired.
Good venue and crowd. Some familiar and new faces from the meetup group.
Busy week, working on fitness and reading. Argued with UFC fighter Kenny Florian about gun crime / gun control.The UK banned handguns after the Dunblane massacre in 1996. We haven't had a mass shooting since. I can't remember the details of Florian's original post.
Someone is trying to access my LinkedIn account at the moment. Can’t log in. Not sure what’s going on there. I just use it as a place to post blog links.
I seem to have got my primary Facebook back on my desktop, meaning I can access my inbox, which is a relief. Facebook is still a toxic hellhole full of stalkers, socially clueless individuals, anti-vaxxers and rabid Tories, though, so I still spend as little time as possible on it.
Training for the Santa Dash, like other projects I’ve done, had kept me focussed and to a degree away from social media. Now it’s passed, I’ll be starting another project soon.
In other news, UFC’sPaddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett is due to be Paddy the Daddy too. His wife Laura is pregnant. I had to put my 2 pennies in, didn’t I.
Speaking of MMA, For the Love of MMA have released their full line-up for their second convention. Last year’s was astounding, featuring the UK’s first UFC champ Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping (whom I met).
For Monopoly Events' second MMA convention, entrance tickets, photo opps, autographs and even training seminars are now available to buy on the site.
Here are a few prices:
That’s right. Train in the matted area with the stars of the UFC. I regret not going for this last year, opting for one photo op. The line-up features other big UFC names. I expect the event, the photos and the training sessions will sell quickly, so don’t hesitate. Event runs 29-30th April at Bowlers Exhibition Centre Manchester.
Saturday morning, the extended family darted over to Harewood Court in Leeds for a 5K Inflatable Run. I prepped for this with a local route of a similar distance, without any obstacles, plus a lot of gym sessions / classes. We had the younger – and older - generations with us so was a leisurely paced jog around a country manor, interspersed with giant inflatable obstacles to climb over, under and through.
Mum had prepped some amazing Power is a State of Mind t-shirts that the family wore on the course! Find more Inflatable 5K info.
Next, my parents and I dropped into The Northern Quarter for food – I had a few ideas, but we stumbled on Purezza, a vegan joint serving convincing and tasty pizzas.
I then managed to stumble into a house party, then onto Genting Casino, by which time it was pissing it down. I somehow used a Jedi mind trick on the manager to get him to put UFC on, but then the casino shut just before the Nunes v Pena fight. Not the greatest ending to an evening, but a brilliant weekend nontheless.
“There wasn’t one fighter that didn’t make me nervous before the event,” says Georges St-Pierre. “Particularly Matt Sera,” he says referring to their 2007 bout in UFC 69, “and I got knocked out! Fear is a good thing. It’s made me better.”
It’s Saturday, 2nd April 2022 and former welterweight UFC champion St-Pierre is the first speaking guest at For the Love of MMA, a new Mixed Martial Arts convention in Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Trafford Park. The venue has been kitted out with a cinema room with a large, concave LCD screen showing classic UFC fights, a punch machine, a stage, photo areas including an MMA cage, merchandise stalls, UFC guest signing stalls, health food and drink outlets, gaming rooms with fight games loaded into consoles from different eras, and a matted area for MMA seminars. The other half of Bowlers is set aside for a Cage Warriors event taking place later that night, with a cage, lights and plenty of seating.
For a little extra, you can buy training seminars with the fighters, who you can see here drilling padwork and takedown techniques. Spot Brit Lerone Murphy and American veteran Randy Cotoure.
But the main attraction today is the stage, where first to grace it is 4-time, 2-division former champion, Georges St Pierre. A microphone is passed around the audience seats for a Q+A session.
The first asks about his transition to movies, and his appearance as Georges Batroc in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. GSP tells of having to exaggerate movements for the camera, and dishes behind-the-scenes details. “I’d rather play the villain,” he claims. “It’s more charismatic. I like to be opposite of myself. They want me to be the bad guy!”
This is probably why, he reveals, he’s coming back to the UK next week to play a hitman in another production.
Would he fight again?
“It’s a question of timing. The UFC had other plans.”
The next question comes from a guy who compliments GSP on his ‘immaculate’ hair (GSP has let it grow out and now sports frosted tips), calls him a ‘legend of the sport’ and asks him about his title loss to Sera.
“It taught me a valuable lesson. You mustn’t have too much confidence. It’s about who fights best.”
And so, in his distinctive French-Canadian accent, he reels off other nuggets of fight wisdom in response to audience questions. He believes he would beat (no1 welterweight contender) Colby Covington, and has no doubt Covington would say the say about him. Eventually, GSP says, someone will beat his own record for the most takedowns in UFC history (standing at 90).
But would he add to his record? What would it take to get him back in the octagon?
This gets a chuckle from GSP, but he’s too wise to bite. “People stay too long in the sport, and too late. I didn’t want that to happen to me. There’s more opportunity (in other areas). Don’t stay around too long or you’ll pay with your health.”
How would he beat (now retired undefeated lightweight champ) Khabib Nurmagomedov?
“Movement, creativity, and not be afraid. But we’ll never find out.”
If he wasn't fighting, GSP claims he’d be a palaeontologist. “I was 6 years old, out looking for dinosaur fossils.”
Trash talking is prevalent in the UFC. GSP, however, was always calm. Did anyone make him want to throw something?
“None. Trash talk doesn’t get to me. It’s just for business.”
Dominic Cruz was the “perfect nemesis,” GSP claims. Cruz could take his opponent out of the comfort zone. But GSP’s fight with BJ Penn was the fight in which he was most damaged. Carlos Condit (also appearing at the event) was close. “Bisping hurt me. After a big punch I was putting on ‘cruise control.’ BJ was closest.”
“I’m not coming back, but I would choose Usman. It’s not about money; more my legacy. I’d rather win for zero dollars than lose for money.”
What is his mental process for dealing with a loss?
“When you lose, 2 things happen. It can drag you down, or you can learn. You have to decide why you lost, and it doesn’t have to be true as long as you believe it. This makes you more confident.”
Next up: a photoshoot with British former middleweight champ, the UK's only champ, and current commentator Michael 'The Count' Bisping.
Soon after this, a change of style as the Canadian star makes way for veteran fighter Mark Coleman, The UFC’s first heavyweight champion. He takes the stage to tell fascinating tales of the early days of MMA.
BBC Interviewer Jamal Niaz (BBC Sport, Seconds Out) next welcomes Michael Bisping to the stage. “It’s great to have you here,” he begins.
“Shut the fuck up,” Bisping interrupts. He’s joking, of course, playing the big mouth, the clown. But to contradict that, he reminds us if it wasn’t for the fans he wouldn’t be there. He insists we go straight into audience questions.
A very enthusiastic young lad takes the roaming mic first. “You choked Luke Rockhold and won,” he says, referring to Bisping’s title win at UFC199 in 2016. “How did you feel?” Then, yelling, “HOW DID YOU FEEL?!”
“It felt very good, thank you,” states a composed Bisping. He jests, “Someone take the mic off him!”
It goes to another bloke who Bisping recognises from the photoshoot earlier in the day. “The way you were looking at me this morning,” Bisping says, “I thought you were gonna give me a kiss!”
His win over Rockhold he reveals as his favourite fight. “I knocked him out,” he says, “jumped onto the cage, and said, ‘fuck you!’ Everyone thought (that in the fight) I was gonna get swamped.”
He reveals Jake Paul, the YouTuber who transitioned into boxing, had offered him an undisclosed sum to fight him, “but I’m retired.”
But what about his son, Callum, currently doing well in wrestling? Would he transition to MMA?
“He’s a good kid. I’m not sure he’s got the nastiness. (In MMA) you’ve got to fucking knee a guy in the face. I’m a wanker, he’s a nice guy.”
Leon Edwards, Bisping claims, will probably be the next British champ, but Kamaru Usman, current welterweight champ and pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet, is a problem in that regard. The UK’s Arnold Allen, he says, has potential. Darren Till, 28, will soon be champ.
What was his best non-professional fight?
“I don’t really wanna talk about it,” Bisping says… But tells of being 18 and dealing with some guys bullying people. The upshot was, someone called Bisping out, he went to see one of the group, and ended up knocking the guy out. “But I don’t wanna glamourise it,” he stresses.
Which felt better, losing his virginity or knocking out Rockhold?
“I didn’t actually lose it, so let’s go with Rockhold.”
What was the funniest thing that happened at a fight?
"When I fought GSP I ripped all the cartilage in my ribs. The doctor said to inject Lidocaine (a local anaesthetic). ‘But be careful,’ he said: ‘if you do it wrong, you’ll puncture your lung and die.’ The Las Vegas Commission guy (overseeing the legality of the fight) watched me everywhere. I was going to do it in the toilet, whilst Facetiming my doctor. I thought, what am I doing? And I backed out.”
He ends answering a question about his wife, Rebecca. “Without her, I wouldn’t have achieved. I’d be out getting into fights.”
Before leaving the stage, Bisping poses for a selfie with the crowd.
Last to take the stage is British heavyweight and current 6th ranked heavyweight fighter, Tom Aspinall. Mr Niaz asks about his career aspirations.
A packed day and a real treat for Mixed Martial Arts fans. You can only be in one place at one time, so a lot of fighters I didn’t get much more of than a sighting. Next year’s event is already in the pipeline. See Monopoly Events for more.
