bigg jay

It's also tough to promote since it's a best of the rest kind of deal. IIRC, most of the top prospects will not be participating.

Not completely accurate. Calgary did have a PPV event (UFC 149) back in 2012 that was completely ravaged by injuries (9 fighters out due to injury & a couple fights lost due to contract issues) but they did come back in 2018 (UFC on FOX 30: Alvarez vs. Poirier 2). It wasn't a PPV but it was a good event and they only had 1 undercard fight fall off the card.

No, they got rid of his role a while back (2016?) when the UFC shutdown the vast majority of their foreign offices. I think they laid off like 80% of the Canadian office. Not even sure they have one now.

They were set run another show in Saskatoon in June of 2020 (even though their first show only there had like 7k in the crowd). They aren't (or weren't at least) against returning to a city that wasn't a smash hit the last time. That being said, unless things change, most smaller cities in Canada are going to be off their list. Now that they've been running their smaller shows in their Apex Center, they don't really have a need to travel for their Fight Night events. it's much cheaper and easier (logistically) to have those shows there. They're only doing the odd smaller event outside of Vegas which pretty much takes places like Saskatoon or Winnipeg out of the running. There are new laws in place in Manitoba which allows amateur MMA (previously not sanctioned but fights still happened). Hopefully we can get some promoters here to start following the Alberta/BC model that has been very successful out there - a mainly amateur card but headlined with 2-3 pro fights. It helps keeps the costs down for promoters by only having to pay a few fighters and gives fans some higher lever fights to watch.

I was referring to live events, not PPV. There are no active local promotions in Saskatchewan or Manitoba - Alberta does have a few promotions but not at the pre-pandemic levels. The UFC has come back to Canada a couple times now but even that is not the same as before. They were coming up here 2-4 times a year prior to 2020. Anyone (especially a Mike Tyson) has a punchers chance but Paul is the heavy favorite for a reason. A responsible commission is most likely not sanctioning that fight but too many aren't overly concerned with fighter safety. There's politics involved in that stuff though. A lot of the time, the financial benefits for state/city hosting an event like that will over-ride other issues - it's big business.

My main hobby/interest is anything related to fighting. I was a fan of wrestling and boxing as a kid and my favorite hockey players were always the enforcers. Dave Semenko was a cousin so as a kid in the early 80's that was a huge deal and probably influenced a lot of my interests. When the UFC came around in the early 90's, I was obsessed with that and eventually turned it from an interest to a paying side gig. I started out working behind the scenes for a local MMA promotion before getting hired by our provincial commission. I worked my way up to being a fight judge (mma, boxing, kickboxing), to a level that had me travelling across the country, working for the biggest promotions (UFC, Bellator). The pandemic has really changed the industry though (it's basically dead in the prairies at the moment) so I'm back to being a fan mostly now but hopefully one day things will pick up again.

And released two days ago. https://www.si.com/fannation/ufl/news/dc-defenders-release-players-first-wave-ufl-roster-cuts

Walters said they knew that was the case before the season even started. Brown was clear with them after 2022 that he felt he had grown as much as he could here and needed to be on the field more. He knew he was not going to get that chance here so he was leaving. It was not a matter of money or the club not wanting him, they just couldn't give him the one thing he wanted the most - playing time. The only way things may have played out differently is if Zach had gotten hurt last season. A serious injury could have forced the team to move on from Zach before they were ready but it didn't play out like that so here we are. Getting Strevy back just means things worked out for the best for everyone. Dru gets his playing time & we get to roll with Zach/Strevy while we develop a rookie as our 3rd string QB.

He didn't have Canadian status before now so he didn't qualify for the draft. He hadn't been neg listed either so I don't see any issue with it. He's still a rookie since he's played no regular season games in the NFL.

And now he's off to prepare to climb Mt. Everest (legitimately). Just a guess but he maybe the only wrestler to have attempted this.

Just looked outside and saw no signs of this terrible weather you guys are talking about? 😂 Seems like I picked a good time to head south!

TBF, some of their players weren't actually scouted by them. Stiggers, for example, was not discovered by their scouts. He happened to play in the Fan Controlled league for an old Argo Assistant (John Jenkins) who told Toronto about him. I'm sure this happens for every team to some extent though - you're not going to be able to see everyone so it pays to have connections.

Yup, she's been doing this, at a high level for such a long time now. It's been 30 years since I first heard about Jennifer Jones - the curler. We went to the same high school (she's a few years older than me so we only overlapped for a year I think) and it was a pretty big deal when she won the junior nationals in 94. Looking at what she's accomplished since then is amazing - definitely the GOAT in my books.

The worst case scenario for me would have been Sheed signing in Saskatchewan. I did not want to have to hate that guy.

They should. The Stamps also have Huff as a "special advisor".

This. Here's one of his quotes on it. He also tweeted about it so he definitely wanted it out there that it was not his fault.

Was it said verbatim? No but this implies men can't control themselves and it's just in their nature. "I'd advise taking a job working intimately with 100 football players with no other women in sight was not a good idea, something was bound to happen, and it did." Yes, they do. I have a few family members (male and female) currently working at the same men's penitentiary in Alberta right now.

Suggesting a woman shouldn't take certain jobs because "boys will be boys" is in fact a s****y take. These incidents are not limited to "testosterone filled locker rooms", they happen in all work places, unfortunately. Would you advise your daughter to not take an office job or work at McDonalds because it can happen there too? Yup, I have multiple family members who are or have been guards at federal penitentiaries - it's not a safe, healthy environment regardless of who/what you are.

We were interested in him before and after he stepped away from the game to work on his issues so it doesn't seem like the team is put off by it. I think it's a good sign that he was aware enough to decline offers last year, knowing he wasn't in the right mind set to be playing. Still something he (and the team) need to be mindful of, but if he feels he's ready to play again, I think he's worth taking a look at.

Reminds me of an old Ken Shamrock fight where he starts going down before the punch lands.

It's BC - Farhan has activated the cone of silence.

4 currently (Nairn by Shapes, Regent by Fat Burger, KP food court & Reenders by Famous Daves) - the 5th was inside Home Depot but it's gone (google maps still shows it though). The one on Concordia could be the 5th as it's less than 5 minutes away from the one on Reenders.

Yeah and he did not want to leave. On IG today, he acknowledged his time with the team was done but he still can't say goodbye, Winnipeg means too much to him, so it's see you later. Love that guy. 😞

We didn't develop January either, he just spent the most time with us (much like Neufeld has). January started 28 games between Sask & Toronto before we got him.

Mekhi Tyrell - he played a few games for the Edmonton Wildcats team last year. 3 games, 5 receptions for 140 yards & 1 TD. 8 kick returns for 164 yards. Not sure if he got hurt or what but he only played in 3 of the first 4 games and then nothing. **Edit** The Elks had added him as a territorial exemption in August but he was removed from their list in November.