Latest news with #Roadto
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Mansher Khera happy UFC finally gave him a look – and now awaits the real call-up
Mansher Khera happy UFC finally gave him a look – and now awaits the real call-up Mansher Khera waited and waited... and waited some more. When a call from his manager Jason House finally came, the timing and circumstances weren't ideal – but Khera (9-0) found a way to emphatically make things work. "I got the contract two weeks before the fight," Khera recently told MMA Junkie. "I think my opponent was supposed to fight somebody else. I don't know what happened. But then, two weeks before the fight, I got the opportunity, and of course, I was not going to turn it down. These opportunities come once in a lifetime, so I was like, 'Hell yeah, man.'" While it wasn't the direct UFC call he'd hoped for, Khera was happy to accept a Road to UFC bout on short notice. On May 22, he dominated experienced Chinese fighter Aziz Khaydarov en route to a unanimous decision. Khera sees room for improvement, despite sweeping the scorecards. He has already identified specific factors that suppressed his potential. "It was a pretty sh*tty performance, to be honest with you," Khera said. "Not getting the finish. If I had gotten the finish, I'd have been really, really happy. I was happy with my composure. I was happy with my composure and the things that I could control. I just know that there is so much more to my performance than I showed last night. I just felt like that was maybe me at 40 percent. I found out two weeks before. I literally got my visa last-minute. I was in Canada. "... So everything that went into it was hectic and my time in Shanghai, I didn't really have time to adapt to the time zone. It's 12-hour difference. I was not getting any sleep. I had to cut weight and like I said, I didn't have a big fight camp. So I had a lot of weight to lose. Everything was just hectic. If I'm being honest, I didn't feel like my best self. But that's the fight game. Everybody has something going into the fight. That helped me power through it because I knew my opponent had his own struggles as well." Khera, 33, is an accomplished BJJ black-belt, who transitioned fully into MMA in 2021. His record is unblemished and he won Fury FC lightweight gold in November. While he's a little on the older side for a fighter the UFC would typically onboard, Khera is an atypical talent. Complementing his abilities, Khera is a proud Indian-American, a group underrepresented in MMA. Despite his self-criticism, the win certainly didn't harm Khera's chances of a real UFC call. Even though he's a bigger lightweight, he'll stay by the phone ready to accept whatever offer comes through. "I haven't heard anything from the UFC yet," Khera said. "I'm just going off of what my manager is telling me. He told me that this is a really good opportunity and whatever happens after is going to lead me toward the path of being in the UFC. But what exactly? I'm not sure. I should fight out soon. He did tell me that this gets in the system. Now, I'm in the UFC system. I have my bloodwork done. I have my brain scan, everything, done. I just stay ready because who knows? It could be another short-notice fight pretty soon. I'm just trying to stay prepared so I'm in the gym today."
Barnama
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Barnama
Malaysia Has Done A Great Job As ASEAN Chair At A Critical Juncture -- FPCI Chairman
By Rohani Ibrahim KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has done a great job being the Chair of ASEAN during this critical period, said Founder and Chairman of Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), Dr Dino Patti Djalal. According to the former Indonesian Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, this is a very difficult time for world affairs, and the global system is under duress. bootstrap slideshow 'But Malaysia's chairmanship has been steady. It has consulted all stakeholders. And I do believe that Malaysia's chairmanship, when it ends, it is not just going to be a normal ending. 'It is going to be something that will lay the plan for the next 20 years. That is huge achievement,' he said in his opening remarks at a public discussion titled 'Road to ASEAN Vision 2045: When Expectations Meet the Reality', organised by the FPCI here on Thursday. Dino, who was also the former Indonesian Ambassador to the United States, said that as an arms race is taking place in many parts of the world, ASEAN needs to come closer and decide what to do together, especially to maintain the region's resilience. Senior Political Secretary to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri ShamsuI Iskandar Mohd Akin, who was one of the panelists, said that for ASEAN to realise the ASEAN Community Vision (ACV) 2045, the institutional frameworks must be more agile while still respecting the principles of inclusivity and sovereignty. 'Streamlining decision-making and strengthening ASEAN's capacity to act in real time will be essential to addressing both regional and global issues efficiently, and maintaining ASEAN's relevance,' he added. Sharing his vision on ASEAN in 2045, Shamsul Iskandar expressed hoped that by then, all ASEAN citizens would be able travel, live, and study easily across the region.
Los Angeles Times
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Old friends on different trajectories reunite in ‘Sacramento,' a comedy with wisdom
From the 'Road to' series through buddy action movies and bromances, male friendship as comic fodder has been a constant pull, one that has increasingly favored immaturity as the catharsis. Smart plus stupid became stupid hates smarts, until dumb felt ubiquitous. It's been getting tiresome of late to watch grown men devolve for laughs, which makes actor-turned-writer-director Michael Angarano's old-pals-in-crisis comedy 'Sacramento' a bittersweet kick. The film explores what's funny — and terrifyingly truthful — about being wrenched into adulthood. Angarano, who wrote the screenplay with actor Chris Smith, also stars as Rickey, a happy-go-lucky manchild who shows up at the Los Angeles house of onetime bestie Glenn, played by Michael Cera, to convince him it's time to hang out more deeply again. This unannounced visit occurs after we've just gotten a taste of who Glenn is: a loving but edgy, nervous and needy husband to his very pregnant wife, Rosie, played by Kristen Stewart with such deadpan spousal sobriety it's a masterclass in the everyday tolerance that undergirds genuine love. (With Glenn, she's clearly had chances to do some pre-mommying.) Rickey would rather they retrench into a nostalgia tour of laughs and revelry — he's even found the tan Chrysler LeBaron they used to ride in. Glenn is loath to go backward, much less indulge in personality quirks he's outgrown because fatherhood awaits. Right away, the perfectly (mis)matched Angarano and Cera do a deft job with the undercurrent in their awkward reunion. Rickey's energy is harmless yet seems mysteriously pained by unmet expectations, as when he gently admonishes Glenn: 'Loosen up, you haven't said anything funny.' Meanwhile, Glenn's judgmental attitude is its own worrying mask. He likes to remind people that he keeps his phone on silent to 'stay present.' The tension eases, though, when Rickey finally opens up about his father's recent death; he wants Glenn to road-trip with him to the title city for a spreading of ashes. Glenn acquiesces — a real adult supports someone in need, after all. But we know something's afoot when, away from Glenn's eyes, Rickey quickly empties a tennis-ball can and fills it with dirt from the side of the road. For a good while, the breezy chuckles in 'Sacramento' stem from the eccentric clash of priorities and temperaments of a certain kind of limbo male whose sociability skills have soured. Whether fake-wrestling or barhopping with women or trying to psychologize each other, neither guy really knows what's fun or illuminating anymore. They're just papering over the crushing weight of impending responsibility. Rickey, all forced smiles and performative boyishness, wants to charm his way into blissful indecision, while Glenn, a classically Cera-esque misfit of unearned confidence, talks himself into an illusion of control over his destiny. But when it's revealed what Rickey's true dilemma is — an abandoned relationship with an old fling (Maya Erskine) — the movie's sense of humor morphs, too, into an affectionate, even mildly scary study in self-delusion. Erskine's salt-and-vinegar comic timing and unforced soulfulness is a national treasure. Thankfully, her real-life husband (Angarano) appreciates this and is wonderfully dialed in to why her no-nonsense character's dose of third-act frankness should be the triggering sincerity needed to bring 'Sacramento' to a believably offbeat (but no less pleasurable) conclusion. The movie is also smart enough to recognize that its women aren't there to save anyone, just to remind these well-intentioned men about getting over themselves. The prickly comedy of male-pattern personality collapse gives way to wisdom, something that 'Sacramento' has in abundance.
