Fight #6 Results...

Robbie was the victor of this engagement (in a bit of an upset I believe). We are past the halfway point now, look for the next fight "Before" image sometime tomorrow.

Fight #6 "Before"

Make your pick in the comments....

Fight #5 Results...

These guys were both great. I hated to see either of them lose, but Ryan was the victor. And no James didn't lose the tooth in the fight.

According to the account firm of Lexi, Malia, and Manoa we have a tight race. "Fiscalgorilla" and "Dansgal" both have correctly picked three of the fights, "Shelia" and "SS" are close behind with two correct picks and a number of folks are in with one correct pick. I think we have a three horse race at this point between Shelia, Dansgal, and Fiscalgorilla. We will see who finishes strong.

As I said a couple posts back I am planning on taking the contest through ten fights so we have reached the halfway point. Thanks again for playing along I hope you are enjoying as much as I am.

Some linkage:

A quick break from the "before and after" series to pass on some sites worth spending some time on.

If you love exploring music definitely check out Lastfm.com. It is like Pandora.com on crack. Plug in your favorite musical artist and explore other artists with similar sounds. Just a fair warning it can be highly addictive and can lead you to spend lots of money on new music.

Another site worth checking out, although for completely different reasons is "Remember Me" it is an extensive documentation of one family's experience in dealing with a terminal illness. I think every now and then it is good to have something that shocks us to our core and this multimedia piece definitely did that to me. So tell Tito to grab you some tissues and check it out when you have some time.

Fight #5 "Before"

These dudes were awesome....make your pick in the coments!

Fight #4 Results...

Josh was the victor in this battle. Zach left with a dislocated elbow and some camera shyness. Good times.

The contest is tightening up....a few of you have asked how many fights there are. I actually shot fourteen fights that night but am planning on limiting the contest to ten or until everyone completely loses interest :)

Fight #5 will launch tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

Before Fight #4

Pick the winner in the comments....enjoy!

Fight #3 Results...

Joey pushed his record to a perfect 3-0 with the win. Bobby didn't have any interest in having his picture taken after the fight. He wasn't in bad shape or anything just a little camera shy...unfortunately he wasn't the only one that got camera shy on me as you will see in the next few fights.

I will keep this rolling by posting the "Fight #4 Before" image sometime on Tuesday. Thanks again for playing along...

Fight #3 "Before"

You should know the drill by now make your picks in the comments.

Fight #2 Results...

In one of the best fights of the night Eli was victorious. And based on the comments he enjoys a mix of pool and jalapeno poppers.

We have two early leaders in the contest...."dansgal" and "ss" are 2 for 2. But leads can evaporate quickly. Should be fun.

I will post "Fight #3 Before"on Sunday morning.

Fight #2 "Before"

Click on the image above to see it larger.

Just like last time select who you think won the fight in the comments. I will post the results on Saturday evening. Who will take themselves a step closer to a free print??

Good luck!

Fight #1....the results.

Thanks to those that are playing along and congrats to those that picked Jordan (I truly enjoyed all the various reasons for your choices). Many of you are off to a good start but can you keep it rolling?

I will post the "Fight #2 Before" image first thing on Friday morning. Good luck!

For those that missed the first fight you still have a legitimate chance of winning the contest so jump in on the action. I also have heard from a few folks that didn't want to create a google account (you don't know what you are missing by the way) in order to leave their comment/pick. I switched the settings on the blog to allow for anyone to leave a comment but I am going to stick with using the comments (rather than e-mail) so everyone can see the picks for themselves. I want everyone to see that I don't have the contest fixed for my mom to win the print. By the way to leave a comment just click on "Comments" under the post and it will take you to a separate page where you can leave your comment/pick.

And one last thing....if you input your e-mail address into the box at the top right corner of the blog these posts will come directly to your e-mail and you won't have to check the blog everyday.

Until next time...

Fight #1...

Click on the image to see it larger. Post who you think the winner was in the comments. I will post the "After" image tomorrow evening with the results....enjoy!

EFL "Before and After" Images and Contest

As you can imagine February 16th was an interesting evening. I went into this self assigned project with a few simple goals (the most important being to avoid any bodily harm at the hands of a disgruntled fighter). I have watched a little bit of MMA (stands for Mixed Martial Arts if you didn't know) on television but had no idea of what to expect from a local amateur league in Kansas City.

I was surprised by a number of things, mostly the fighters themselves. As you will see from the series of images the fighters came in all sizes and ethnic backgrounds as did the crowd. I was even more surprised how generally friendly the fighters were to each other after the fights. Literally seconds after trying to cause major physical harm to each other many of the fighters were hugging and congratulating each other after the fight. That was unexpected and cool all at the same time.

I also thought based on the time I would have with the fighters before their matches that I might be able to pick the winners. Lets just say I have no future as a MMA fight handicapper. I was wrong on half of the matches.

I thought it would be interesting to see if the readers of this blog could have a little more luck predicting the winners of the matches just by looking at the "before" images (heck you have a 50/50 shot). Starting on Thursday, May 15th I will post the "before" image of the fighters from the first fight and ask everyone to guess the winner in the comments section. On Friday I will post the "after" image with the results of the fight. The following day I will post the "before" image of the second fight and continue the pattern until we get through the entire series (which is fourteen fights by the way).

And to keep things interesting, whoever correctly guesses the highest number of matches I will send a "11 x 14" print of their choice from the series (or if preferred another image from my archive).

So if you want to compete for the prize you will have to check back at least every other day to make your guess. Should be fun.

One minor note...I didn't get a chance to shoot everyone (particularly after the fights) some refused to be photographed and a few were receiving medical attention. All in all I shot 28 total fighters before their fights and 20 afterwards. Should make for an interesting couple weeks of posts.