UNTIL a month or two ago, I’d never even heard of Burning Man festival – but I’ve just had such an incredible weekend, I barely know where to start explaining it to you, but I’ll do my best!
It’s essentially a man-made, purpose built, temporary city in the middle of the desert. It’s run on a “gift economy” – you don’t take money and buy stuff like you would do at a regular festival. You take what you need with you, and you can swap stuff for things you might need – but no cash is involved!
From the outside it does appear to be full of hippies on acid and a lot of nude people – and that’s the reality too, to an extent! But that side of things doesn’t define the festival. I was sober the whole way through, and still had an incredible mind-bending time!
You can wear what you like without judgement. I would have felt more uncomfortable rocking up in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, so I didn’t! I wore bunny ears for the whole weekend! I clocked up 13+ miles each day on my bike, so even though I wasn’t in the gym training, I still got in a work out!
Everybody gets around by these crazy purpose built trikes, bikes or vehicles! There’s so much art, architecture and crazy stuff to look at, as well as an awful lot of people watching to do!
At night it’s pitch black in the desert – so everybody wears lights! On themselves, on their bikes, and on huge double decker party busses! There’s not a lot of alcohol there as there’s no real bars to speak of, so people aren’t getting wasted and causing trouble. It felt incredibly safe – I’d take my son there without a moment of hesitation! I can’t do justice to the incredible experience I had – all I can suggest is that you try it for yourself one day!
I missed out on UFC Hamburg – surprisingly nowhere was showing it in the middle of the desert! But I’ve caught up on some of the action from Germany, but still need to watch the full card. Happy to see Barnett taking the win – representing us old timers! Some of the attending One Punch Army sent me pics from the event; they represent me even when I’m not there myself!
I’m looking forward to UFC 203 this weekend too! Nik Lentz is in great shape and I hope he’ll be coming home with a win. I don’t know anything about his new opponent, but he’s ready for anything, so I’m confident he’ll smash it! Uriah Faber is a veteran who deserves his place near the top of the food chain. Jimmie Rivera has an impressive record – 18 consecutive wins is nothing to turn your nose up at, but Faber has been here too many times before to not come out on top.
CM Punk is an interesting one and everybody wants to know how that’s going to play out. The footage I’ve seen of him shows up a guy with no background in MMA, which is going to cause him big problems. It’s not the same sort of situation as when somebody like Ronda Rousey switched from Judo to MMA – he’s coming from WWE! It’s just not the same.
Mickey Gall has trained a bit at ATT and some of my team mates here are impressed with where he’s at – even though he’s not a hugely experienced athlete either. I’m giving this one to Gall – R1 or R2 either TKO or Sub.
Browne and Werdum are both coming off losses – and neither of them are going to want to go away with another one on their record. Before Werdum lost his belt he was looking great, and although I think anything can happen at this weight class, I see him taking this one with a sub or TKO.
And at the top of the card are two heavyweights again! As is always the way, I think a lot of this comes down to who lands first, who gets their damage in early! Overeem is technically better, and actually I think he’s getting better with age! But Miocic is going to prove to be a bit more durable I think, he’ll weather the storm and win by KO.
As ever, I take no responsibility if you bet your life savings on the guys I’m backing here – but I do have a pretty excellent track record in this department!
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