Ahead of Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier's third fight headlining UFC 264, the MMA organization dropped a new video teaser that's aptly titled, "Violence Is Coming."
Those are words uttered by Poirier at the top of the clip, and anyone who watched their two previous bouts knows they can bet the bank on that prediction.
The series so far stands at 1-1. McGregor knocked out Poirier in the first round of a middleweight bout at UFC 178 back in 2014. The next time the two faced off in the Octagon, Poirier returned the favor with a flurry of punches for a TKO in round two of a lightweight bout at UFC 257 earlier this year.
Headed into the threequel, McGregor is still a -115 favorite over Poirier at +105, according to CBS Sports. Whoever wins will not only see a jump in the UFC's rankings, but a probable title shot against reigning lightweight champ Charles Oliveira.
"I'm going to stop Conor McGregor again," Poirier says in the video. "You can have all the money in the world, but you can't buy heart. And I got that."
"I'm gonna go in with one goal in mind," McGregor says. "Get that win back."
UFC 264 kicks off Saturday, July 10 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In the meantime, get pumped with the the hype video above.
For such a simple snack, there's something inherently decadent about pairing red wine and cheese. But — if you ever feel any guilt for indulging in this combo, don't. Turns out a study conducted over the course of ten years at Iowa State University has found what instinct has told people for ages is true: red wine and cheese aren't just good for you; they're literal brain food.
Here's more on that study from Men's Journal:
Researchers from Iowa State University tracked 1,789 people over a 10-year period and found that those who ate cheese and drank red wine daily had higher scores on something called fluid intelligence tests.
“Fluid intelligence is a measure of cognitive function that’s largely based on being able to think logically and problem solve—something that’s particularly susceptible to age,” says study co-author Brandon Klinedinst.
Cheese-block nibbling George Costanza (Jason Alexander) of Seinfeld fame would be glad to know that cheese, in particular, came out of the study looking like a superfood. The Science Daily breakdown of results is telling:
1. Cheese, by far, was shown to be the most protective food against age-related cognitive problems, even late into life;
2. The daily consumption of [alcohol], particularly red wine, was related to improvements in cognitive function;
3. Weekly consumption of lamb, but not other red meats, was shown to improve long-term cognitive prowess; and
4. Excessive consumption of salt is bad, but only individuals already at risk for Alzheimer's Disease may need to watch their intake to avoid cognitive problems over time.
Before hitting the Whole Foods with red wine and cheese heavy shopping list, be advised that this isn't as simple as consuming daily megadoses of queso or vino.
Study co-author Brandon S. Klinedinst indicated "genetic factors" matter as well, stating that "some individuals seem to be more protected from the effects of Alzheimer's, while [others] seem to be at greater risk."
"That said," he continued, "I believe the right food choices can prevent the disease and cognitive decline altogether. Perhaps the silver bullet we're looking for is upgrading how we eat. Knowing what that entails contributes to a better understanding of Alzheimer's and putting this disease in a reverse trajectory."
It's fun to joke about living 100 years on mostly wine and cheese but obviously, it isn't that simple. Lifestyle factors like a smoking habit, stressful job or home life, and exercise make a tremendous difference as well — not only where longevity is concerned but the quality of life as well.
Still, it's nice to know that if someone ever questions that glass of Merlot at lunch you can just say you're taking preventative measures against cognitive decline.
Then while the questioner googles "cognitive decline," just pour another drink and bite into that big hunk of cheddar like Costanza. Science says it's good for you.
Michael Gandolfini eerily channels his legendary father James Gandolfini in the killer first trailer for The Many Saints of Newark, the long-awaited Sopranos prequel by the HBO hit's creator David Chase.
Among other tantalizing tidbits, we see young Tony getting pulled into the mob life by Dickie Moltisanti (Christopher’s father), beat up a kid who calls him a "jerkoff" as he emerges from a phone booth, and get called into his school's office for a meeting with his mom, a young Liva Soprano, who is told her troubled son has a high IQ and is a born leader (no surprise there.)
The 1967-set mob drama co-stars Alessandro Nivola as Moltisanti, Jon Bernthal as Giovanni “Johnny Boy” Soprano, Corey Stoll as Junior Soprano, Vera Farmiga as Tony’s mother Livia Soprano, Billy Magnussen as Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri, John Magaro as Silvio Dante and Leslie Odom Jr., Michaela De Rossi and Goodfellas star Ray Liotta in undisclosed roles.
Here's the official plot description of the New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures movie:
“Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark’s history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters begin to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family’s hold over the increasingly race-torn city.
Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, who struggles to manage both his professional and personal responsibilities — and whose influence over his impressionable nephew will help make the teenager into the all-powerful mob boss we’ll later come to know: Tony Soprano.”
The trailer comes with the tagline, “legends aren’t born, they’re made,” and it suggests the long-awaited movie will be an intense, action-packed thrill ride.
Sopranos creator David Chase wrote the film along with Lawrence Konner while Sopranos veteran Alan Taylor directed. The Many Saints of Newark will be in theaters on Oct. 1 and on HBO Max for 31 days following theatrical release. Watch the trailer above.
Cypress Hill rapper and noted cannabis connoisseur B Real is teaming with glassmaker Stundenglass to create a luxury gravity hookah for his weed-centric brand Dr. Greenthumb's.
Hot on the heels of the hip-hop legend's cheaper collaboration with G Pen, this fancy new contraption is a far cry from the typical communal water pipes found at your local hookah lounge.
As the cannabis collab announcement puts it, the pipe "elicits a powerful experience without having to share contact by generating kinetic motion activation via cascading water, opposing airflow technology and the natural force of gravity."
The promotional video above shows how it works. There's two separate glass globe chambers—one for water, one for smoke—attached to an anodized aluminum frame on a swivel, allowing for 360 degrees of vertical rotation.
When the smoke chamber is filled in the upper position, it's then lowered to the bottom position. Gravity pushes the water from the upper chamber into the lower chamber, which in turn pushes the smoke out of the hose and mouthpiece. Hence the far-out "gravity hookah" moniker.
Aside from your preferred cannabis flower, everything you need to keep the smoky times rolling is included in the package:
Priced at a decidedly mellow-harshing $599.95, the truly unique Dr. Greenthumb's x Stundenglass gravity hookah is available now.
If it’s a watch with stylish heritage and rugged appeal that you want, Tudor is still the way to go. In fact, there’s one Tudor model that rises above the rest, and that’d be the Black Bay Fifty-Eight, which today gets an update in the form of the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze.
This iteration of the famed Black Bay, a design originally launched in 1958, is available in about 50 of the watchmaker’s boutiques worldwide for a cool $4,525. It takes its name from the distinctive shaded matte "brown-bronze" dial and satin-brushed bronze case, both designed to age gracefully over time.
When you see what’s gone into the production of this watch, you’ll understand why Tudor watches are rarely matched as far as material innovation is concerned.
And since the watch is classically sized at 39mm and boasts a waterproof rating down to 200 meters (like the original Black Bay), this handsome timepiece will certainly see its fair share of wear. “Tear” is out of the question, though. This watch is made out of a “living metal,” in this instance a high-performance aluminum bronze alloy preferred by naval engineers when working with parts prone to corrosion, like propellers.
That should tell you how strong and durable that material can be, and when you find yourself with a watch on your wrist made out of said material, consider yourself fortunate. This timepiece will develop a patina over time, but won’t break down.
The process Tudor used to develop this bronze is as exacting as deep-sea engineering itself. Once produced, Tudor forms the bronze alloy into bars, which are then cut down into slugs a few centimeters in length. Once these small cylinders are heated up, they’re stamped individually with a “friction screw press, applying a pressure of many tons” -- that’s only the start, but the material is close to the watch’s middle case.
A whopping 40 steps take the material from there towards its final destination as a rugged, uniquely handsome watch, including forming and shaping the case, testing its waterproof capabilities and adding other functional components, like threading or drilling.
The bracelet is also the first from the lauded watchmaker to be made entirely from bronze, with satin-brushed links that will patina at the same rate as the case. It’s a watch born out of processes that work closely with one another, and the end result of wearing this watch mimics that same effect.
As far as the dial itself is concerned, it features Tudor’s characteristic “snowflake” hands and a design meant to call to mind 1950s watches from the brand. It’s a remarkable watch that’s so much more than the sum of its parts: You’ve got your own stories to craft with this watch, after all.
Nearly two decades after the late Carroll Shelby and former Ford Vice President Chris Theodore announced a secret Shelby Cobra-based project codenamed "Daisy" at the iconic Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance car show, the ride is returning to the very site as a hot-ticket item in Mecum's upcoming Monterey auction.
As Autoblog notes, Ford assembled an bang-up team to work on the concept, including prestigious designer J. Mays. Throughout the process, they had the full participation and cooperation of Shelby, who put more than 150 miles of high-speed runs on an Ford's oval track upon completion.
"At 81 years old, how lucky can you get to be part of a continuation of something that happened 40 years ago?" Shelby said at the end of his test drives. It's going to be a real ass kicker!”
Sadly, Ford's plans to do a production run were shelved in 2007 due to the recession, which is why this totally unique one-off is now known as the "Last Shelby Cobra." Upon debut in 2004 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it was awarded Best-in-Show by Autoweek.
Daisy has since had something of an entertainment career, appearing in 2005's XXX: State of the Union with star Ice Cube behind the wheel and Jay Leno's Garage in 2020. She's also the subject of Theodore's award-winning book, The Last Shelby Cobra, My Times with Carroll Shelby.
Under the hood is one of only four 6.4-liter V10s produced by Ford's Advanced Powertrain group. A formidable 605 horsepower is transferred through a torque tube to a rear-mounted Ricardo 6-speed manual transaxle from a Ford GT, which contributes to an almost perfect 50/50 weight distribution. The Ford supercar's front and rear suspensions also serve double duty in the specially tuned for Daisy.
The body is made of double -wall fiberglass to increase rigidity, while the one-piece tilting hood is hydraulically operated to show off the unique power plant. Inside is a totally custom interior featuring a billet aluminum dash and headrests, carbon fiber release handles, leather-covered carbon fiber seats, four-point seatbelts, and as much legroom as Crown Vic, despite the Cobra's short length.
There isn't a pre-auction estimate, but based on the $5.5 million sale of Shelby's personal 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake, the sky's the limit. The Mecum Monterey 2021 auction kicks off on August 12.
At one point in this freaky new trailer for James Gunn's The Suicide Squad a character tells Idris Elba's Bloodsport that the big bad the world is facing is essentially worse than anything he can imagine and she asks, "Are you in or out?"
He's obviously "in" and we are too, after watching this preview for the freaky reboot. It's got everything: King Shark, Margot Robbie's brilliantly scary Harley Quinn, and SNL's own Pete Davidson sporting lots of guns and sitting beside a dog-person. Or weasel person. Just watch the video.
Here's the synopsis from Warner Bros:
Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn.
Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement.
And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
Gunn has proven with Guardians of the Galaxy that he really knows his way around that peculiar blend of comedy and action that makes superhero — or in this case, supervillain — movies pop off the screen. Will this be a palate cleanser from the previous Suicide Squad?
Too soon to tell, but with a cast that includes Elba, Robbie, and Davidson as well as John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi and Michael Rooker it's looking pretty promising.
James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad will hit theaters and HBO Max on August 6, 2021.
Kendall Jenner just dunked on the so-called "Kardashian curse" that supposedly afflicts NBA players who dare to date one of the Kardashian-Jenner clan's five sisters.
In a TMZ clip of following the series finale of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Bravo host Andy Cohen relayed a question from a fan, "Who in the family believes in the Kardashian curse?"
"I'm very excited about this question," Kendall responded. "What I don't like about this narrative is that the blame is on us. I think the men need to take that responsibility. It's almost offensive, personally."
TMZ notes the laundry list of high-profile NBA athletes who have been romantically tied to a Kardashian or Jenner sibling, including Kris Humphries, Lamar Odom, Tristan Thompson, James Harden, and Ben Simmons. Kendall also publicly confirmed with Cohen that the Phoenix Suns' Devin Booker is her current boyfriend.
"I think that we're all extremely giving and caring and loving women. And, when there is a man in our lives we like, give everything to them and as a family, we all love them so much," Kendall said.
Family matriarch Kris Jenner added that two of the aforementioned players, Odom and Thompson, are NBA champions. Former NFL star Reggie Bush, who dated Kim Kardashian, has a Super Bowl ring.
The idea of a Kardashian Curse certainly doesn't apply to musical artists. Kim's soon-to-be-ex-husband Kanye West is a hip-hop superstar and megarich fashion mogul, and Kylie Jenner's rapper ex Travis Scott is also hugely successful.
Jenner and Scott, who share 3-year-old daughter Stormi, are still friendly co-parents and shared this Father's Day IG tribute.
"One day isn’t enough to honor the dad you are," Kylie captioned the cuddly photo. "We are so blessed to have you."
But despite Kendall officially slapping down the Kardashian Curse, we've got a feeling haters will continue to unfairly fuel the fire—just ask beleaguered 76ers guard Ben Simmons, whose poor play is being blamed for the Sixers collapsing in the playoffs.
