UFC 327: Procházka vs. Ulberg and The Story of Yanxi Palace

UFC 327: Procházka vs. Ulberg happened, and it was just a great fight card. With the exception of one or two fights, this UFC event had a Fight of the Year contender, a Knockout of the Year contender, a retirement, some good finishes, and good fights overall. The name that many are talking about coming from this event is Josh Hokit. He has a professional wrestling gimmick and persona that some people like, and some people absolutely abhor. In his fight against Curtis Blaydes though, they had a fight of the year contender that was something of a heavyweight barroom brawl in the cage. Hokit gained some fans from that and is going to fight Derrick Lewis on the White House card. In the main event, Carlos Ulberg knocked out Jiri Procházka, but Ulberg clearly injured his leg early in the fight. Ulberg was on his way to lose had Prochazka just kicked the leg one of two times more, but he threw a punch, and Ulberg threw a left hook that dropped him. Procházka was eventually finished, and Carlos Ulberg became the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. However, with that injury, it is up in the air what happens with hi and the title. Other standouts on the card were Paulo Costa, who got a big win moving up to Light Heavyweight beating an undefeated contender, Aaron Pico, who showed why he was a top prospect and Cub Swanson, who retired after a TKO victory.

My wife and I started to watch the “Story of Yanxi Palace” on Amazon Prime, a 70-episode Chinese historical drama. It greatly reminds me of the two anime, The Apothecary Diaries and The Raven of the Inner Palace. The main character, Wei Yingluo, is a clever maid not dissimilar to Mao Mao of Apothecary Diaries. The palace intrigue and politics is also similar to those anime with harems, concubines, pecking orders, treachery, palace intrigue, political maneuvering, and other things. Reading some wuxia novels and watching Asian Inner Palace anime, I have always been into this sort of inner palace genre and dynamic. There is a lot going on with so many different characters, so it can get difficult to follow along, but what is presented has been very interesting and intriguing. We are still at the beginning of the series, so there is obviously a lot that we are going to witness with this series, and we cannot wait.