Two contestants join the TQBR Prediction Game Hall of Champions this day: David Schraub and Migs88, who tied for first place after 13 rounds of tremendous battle that ended in a draw. They join previous champions Spidershark and Pretty Toney in the kind of immortality that being good at predicting fights on a blog can bring. Which is to say, PERMANENT AND MASSIVE IMMORTALITY.
Join me in congratulating them. Mr. Schraub’s prize is a prominent plug for his most excellent blog, The Debate Link. Go visit it now, and bask in his takes on contemporary events and more that rival his takes on who will win boxing matches.
Schraub ended up in a tie with Migs88 by virtue of picking Yuri Foreman this weekend, and by virtue of Migs88’s excellent final weekend, which featured two perfect picks and some bonus points for calling the kind of victory — knockout or decision — in a third.
Migs88 uses few words, and sometimes is Miggs88. What kind of prize do you get someone mysterious like that? Going by the name, I could include a commemorative picture of an airplane, or I could include a commemorative picture of Multiple Miggs from Silence of the Lambs in Migs88’s honor. Which one do you think I’ll go with? (Migs88, get in touch with me if you want to switch it to an airplane or something else, and I will. Nothing more annoying than name jokes to the person who’s name is joked about, and I want a prize that can make you proud.)
Everyone, congratulate the champeens of TQBR Prediction Game 2.0. And don’t be a stranger, now that you’ve won. It’s always hard to win a second championship, as the performances of previous champs post-championship shows.
So now that we’ve congratulated the champeens, any suggestions for how we might resolve a tie in version 3.0 of the game? We made no provisions for that occurrence, so I had no alternative but to go with a tie as the final result.
Before we gear up for 3.0 — which won’t really kick off for a while because there are no major fights until June 19, and which will go in slow motion as the June and July boxing schedule slows down a bit — let’s revisit some of the noteworthy results of the final weekend. (And I assume everyone wants to do 3.0, by the way. Some people really dropped off in their prediction frequency toward the end, and I’m assuming it’s because they threw in the towel when they were out of winning range, not because they stopped being interested.)
There were five accuracy kings who stood out for Saturday’s fights. Migs88, PJ Prediction King and Team Fingermonkey aka ScottB all called a 9th round stoppage for Miguel Cotto over Yuri Foreman. Two people — Ben Olson and Not Sure aka Jay Ari Yin — came within one round of calling when Steve Cunningham would stop Troy Ross, so they get the premium accuracy bonus. Sixteen people got the accuracy bonus for Vanes Martirosyan’s unanimous decision win over Joe Greene. Foreman was the most popular upset pick for the weekend, with 10 people picking him, followed by nine for Greene and four for Ross. Some of you clearly were throwing Hail Marys, though, which is totally fine — it just doesn’t create a strong sense of what everyone really thought.
I now give you your final standings; if you see any errors in the tabulation, please notify me, and we can adjudicate. Thanks to everyone who played 2.0.
STANDINGS
David Schraub: 5800
Migs88: 5800
PJ Prediction King (PJ): 5700
Apemantus: 5650
Chris: 5500
Doug Fischer’s Ponytail (ALEXMAC): 5500
Arthur Billette: 5450
PI Joe (Irvin Ryan): 5100
Cardscott5: 5050
Drederick Tatum (Scott Kraus): 4950
Team Tell Me I’m The Greatest (me): 4850
Manila Ice (JB): 4850
cNcEDDIE: 4700
Bigmaxy: 4650
Team Great Santini (willfrank): 4600
Hit Dog: 4450
the legend: 4400
Geordie Dancer (Andrew Harrison): 4300
stickfigure: 4050
team individuality: 4050
johnkzoo: 4000
Paul Kelly: 3900
ShortFuse (RoWyN): 3900
Southern Comfort (Dobbler): 3800
DukeShadeBlue: 3800
Ben Olson: 3650
Not Sure (Jay Ari Yin): 3350
D.C. Senators (edub): 3300
sam.fong: 3250
Unifythebelts: 2850
The Weasel (Funky Badger): 2800
nazarioz: 2800
Team Fingermonkey (ScottB): 2800
beccapooka: 2700
epark88: 2450
Malignant Narcissism (Eric Naff): 2350
fadein2bolivian: 2200
BOB77: 2150
The Queensberry Fools (Eugene Dammrod): 1700
Pretty Toney: 1200
I likea da predictions (morelandj): 1200
queensberry wench: 1050
Jordan Adair: 500
gavaniacono: 500
College Wolf: 500
gavia: 0
PalookaJoe: 0
Stats: 0
Fish Hook Combo (FlorencioR): 0
Burbank Baker: 0
venom.0420: 0
Paolo: 0
Donkey Puncher (Brian.McNeeley): 0
BoricuaBasher: 0
