When we arrived Friday evening in Kuala Lumpur, we bumped into Lowen Tynanes at the hotel restaurant. I had seen the video of Tynanes fight against Eduard Folayang but to see him in person, I thought that he reminded me of the late Patrick Swayze in Brock Lesnar's mutant body. When he defeated Vuyusile Colossa, I loved the way he took away the South African's stand up game. Tynanes tried his hand at striking but he got the raw end of Colossa's magnificent striking game. After the second round, Lowen told his trainer that he's confident with his striking. His coach nixed the idea and went back to their original game plan that was to take the battle to the mat where Tynanes was more superior. And how! Colossa tapped out.
On our second day in KL, we went to the Putra Stadium in the morning to check out the set up. It was there where I got the idea to write about the One FC's cage that is in my column for Business Mirror. I went to KLCC where I dropped by Kinokuniya. It was wishful thinking on my part that a couple of books I did not purchase in my last trip would be there. Of course, they weren't. Instead, I picked up Timothy Zahn's Star Wars Scoundrels which is about a smuggling run by Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian and a bunch of other smugglers and High Strung by Stephen Tignor and is about the tennis rivalry between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. As a kid, I grew up watching those guys play. Obviously, I was a McEnroe fan. McNasty! As for Star Wars, I don't really buy the paperback novels except for Timothy Zahn's stuff. There was another book that I wanted to get -- Class of '92 by Ian Marshall. It's about that youth team of Manchester United that came up and helped the Red Devils become a dynasty. That's the Neville brothers, Gigsy, Scholes, Becks, and Nicky Butt. Yeah, I know it's United and I am a Liverpool fan but as a football fan it's an amazing story. I'll regret not picking it up. Maybe in Singapore next month. After spending an hour or so in my fave bookstore (outside Barnes and Noble and The Strand), I was supposed to catch the KL Dragons match versus the Thai Slammers but the traffic was horrendous. Decided to go back to the hotel.
One of the cool things about going on this trip was being able to talk to the MMA fighters in and around the hotel. Lowen Tynanes and some of his friends were checking out my iPad mini. Had breakfast with the Team Lakay guys and heard some cool stories. The other takeaway is hanging out with colleagues I respect and enjoy working with -- Bob Guerrero, Franco Mabanta, and Anthony Suntay. It was a short three-day working trip but I am not complaining.
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