OK, so here’s the deal: TQBR Prediction Game 1.0 ends after two fights next weekend, the HBO double-header of Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez and Lucian Bute-Edison Miranda. Only four people can win the whole shebang: JB, Pretty Toney, David Schraub and Hit Dog, with the latter two needing brilliant predictions and a collapse by the first two to pull it off.
While the rest of us watch the final countdown (depicted below) between these titans of prescience and file our last predictions out of pride alone, please be thinking of whether you’ve enjoyed playing enough to want to do a 2.0; whether you’d play if I offered no physical prize as the ramifications of anything but $5 gift certificates every couple months begins to sound daunting on my wallet, at least until I cash my first real paycheck at Bloguin and get a sense how rich it will make me; and whether you think we need to change some rules — points system? deadline of filing predictions? shortening the length of the game? I know I’m enjoying it and want to keep going, but my vote is but one man’s. We’ll have a summit about this next week, but you’d do me a big favor by getting the discussion started here, now.
This past weekend still offers grist for discussion, though. Knees Up Neville Brown aka Dobbler gets points for the call of the weekend, an Andre Berto stoppage of Carlos Quintana in the 8th round. Many of you were close, but none so spot on. Nine people got the Celestino Caballero unanimous decision over Daud Yordan exactly right, for an equally accurate but less cool-feeling call of the exact round Berto would win.
A surprising six people picked Yordan for the upset, to three for Quintana. Eight people got things flip-flopped — Berto decision, Caballero knockout — and four of us called the proper decision-to-knockout ratio.
So here are your penultimate standings. If you see any tabulation errors, notify me and we can adjudicate:
STANDINGS
JB: 5700
Pretty Toney: 5550
David Schraub: 4950
Hit Dog: 4850
Paul Kelly: 4400
Arthur Billette: 4400
Team Monica (edub): 4350
Unifythebelts: 4300
Cardscott5: 4300
Knees Up Neville Brown (Dobbler): 4300
B-Side Meth (Tim Starks): 4300
cguenard (Chris): 4250
cNceddie: 4200
Geordie Dancer (Andrew Harrison): 4000
PI Joe (Irvin Ryan): 3850
Alexmac: 3800
severuck: 3700
PJ Prediction King (PJ): 3650
Kid Gruesome (Scott Kraus): 3650
Always Wrong (RoWyN): 3600
fadein2bolivian: 3550
The Queensberry Fools (Eugene Dammrod): 3200
Not Sure (Jay Ari Yin): 3200
willfrank: 3200
DukeShadeBlue: 3100
ScottB: 2750
Bigmaxy: 2600
stickfigure: 2300
the legend: 2050
Donkey Puncher (Brian.McNeely): 2050
epark88 1750
sam.fong: 1700
marlon vera 650
Israel: 600
gavaniacono: 550
venom.0420: 500
Bob77: 500
Beccapooka: 500
Jay Cliff: 500
Eric Naff: 500
Baron: 500
mekiko: 0
nameless: 0
faz: 0
