UFC 92: A Night Of Surprises And Comebacks

Over the last few years, UFC has made the late-December pay-per-view into a must-see. This year’s effort, UFC 92, lived up to the hype. The matches were filled with surprises, redemption, and a certain fighter looking like he’s back. The Rashad Evans/Forrest Griffin main event was worth the buy, but fights like Mir/Nogueira and Jackson/Silva were main-event worthy as well.

The night started off with some nice under-card bouts. Patrick Berry defeated Dan Evenson pretty easy in the first round and Brad Blackburn had the crowd on his side against Ryo Chonan in a unanimous decision for Blackburn. The rest of the early under-card fights could have been mid-card bouts in any other pay-pre-view.

Matt Hamill, who has been on his game lately, faced Reese Andy. Hamill started out very aggressive, but looked like he hit a wall at the end of the first round. Andy took advantage of Hamill’s fatigue and landed some major blows toward the end of the round. After a short breather, Hamill regained his stamina and took the fight to the mat. Hamill took over and broke Andy’s guard and delivered a fury of punches to end the fight. This was a nice win to get Hamill’s career back on track after a loss to Rich Franklin back in September.

Antoni Hardonk faced Mike Wessel in the next match. This was Wessel’s first fight in the UFC and Hardonk has been in the UFC for a couple years. Hardonk took a loss to Frank Mir late last year and has strung up a few wins to get his confidence back up. Wessel started out the fight by out-wrestling Hardonk in the first round. Hardonk did connect with some nice knee shots, but it wasn’t until the second round until he took control of the fight. Wessel ran out of gas and couldn’t defend the barrage of fists he was being delivered. Hardonk won by TKO in the middle of the second round.

Dean Lister had his hands full with Yushin Okami. Okami has a nice resume, he has wins over Anderson Silva, Mick Swick, Evan Tanner. He took over this fight from the beginning and Lister looked lost for most of the fight. Okami won via unanimous decision, he looks like he could be a contender in the middleweight division.

Cheick Kongo, one of my sleeper picks to have a great 2009, faced a newcomer to UFC, Mostapha Al-Turk. This match pits a submission wrestler (Al-Turk) versus a tradition kickboxer (Kongo). Kongo has a long limbs and can really bother fighters who work best on the mat. The fight was marred with low blows by both fighters and a cat-an-mouse atmosphere, luckily it ended early. After a couple restarts, Kongo landed a couple punches that took out Al-Turk. At the end of the match, Al-Turk was bleeding all over the mat while Kongo finished him off with a seven-course meal of punches and elbows.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has had a tough year. He lost his title and had a mental breakdown that lead to an arrest. He faced Wanderlei Silva who he has lost to twice before and needed to win tonight to officially declare a comeback. There wasn’t any love lost between the guys, they didn’t touch gloves. Jackson looked like he wanted to get Silva on the ground, but he wasn’t able to get him down the traditional way. It took a hard left for Silva to hit the mat, but this time, he was out cold. It only took a little more than three minutes for Jackson to prove that he is back.

The interim Heavyweight title was being defended in the Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira/Frank Mir fight. Mir and Nogueira have both looked like monsters in the octagon and it was a perfect pairing of fighters. Mir has been around for awhile and looked really good in his last fight against Brock Lesner, while Nogueira hasn’t lost in the UFC. Mir dominated the fight and Nogueira couldn’t compete with him on any level. Mir took this fight into the middle of the second round until he finished Nogueira with some left hands to become the new champion.

The final fight of the night was hyped up to be the fight of the year. Forrest Griffin won the Light Heavyweight title from “Rampage” Jackson in July and Rashad Evans was the clear pick for his first title defense. Evans hasn’t lost a fight in his professional MMA career, with his only draw coming against Tito Ortiz. This was a nice fight from the start, with Griffin controlling the tempo of the fight. Over the first two round, Griffin contained Evans with controlled kicks and punches. It looked like Griffin was going to win this fight in the cards if it kept at this pace. The third round was when it went bad for Griffin. Evans took him down and thunderstorm of pain was delivered to Griffin. It looked like Griffin was actually knocked out well before the fight was stopped. It was amazing that the referee let the beating go on as long as it did. Evans won the Light Heavyweight title and it will be very difficult to get the title away from this elite fighter.

UFC 92 was one of the best pay-per-views in a few years. The Ortiz/Lidell pay-per-views two years ago could only top UFC 92, this is a high compliment. Wvans and Mir look like they are legit champions, while Jackson and Okami look like possible contenders. Dana White has done a great job with these pay-per-views and I can’t wait until the next one.

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The Biggest Choke Jobs of 2008

Since the year is winding down, we can look over the past year and put certain things in context. Some teams were supposed to have monumental years, but fell short. Some teams have better excuses for their lack of success. Injuries, arrests, or suspensions can lead to a team not fulfilling their potential, the following teams didn’t have any of those reasons for not living up to their hype by failing to win a championship.

6. 2008 New York Yankees – With a payroll of over $200 million dollars, this Yankess team was supposed to make the playoffs, if not win a championship. They were so cocky about their chances of have a good team, that they didn’t pull the trigger on a deal that would have landed them Johan Santana. The Minnesota Twins wanted either or both of the Yankees top pitching prospects, Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes. The Yankees wanted to keep their young guns and it ended up hurting them in the end. Johan Santana had a Cy Young caliber season and the Kennedy/Hughes tandem struggled to stay in the Majors. The Yankees didn’t win the AL East and failed to win the Wild Card, making this the first season many of the Yankees players didn’t see a pitch in the post-season.

5. 2007-2008 NBA Western Conference – The Western Conference was the superior conference in the NBA last season. The Western Conference owned the Eastern Conference in head-to-head competition and looked like they would come out with the NBA Championship at season’s end. The only team that stood in their way was a team from Boston. The Lakers, Suns, Rockets, Hornets, Mavericks, San Antonio, and Utah had great seasons and looked like championship teams. After a long season of beating on each other, the Western Conference team that would make the Finals, had a long run. The Lakers finally won the Western Conference, but lost in seven games to the Boston Celtics. A few calls here and there would have changed the outcome, but the Western Conference definitely fell short of expectations in the end.

4. 2008 Detroit Tigers – With the move that brought Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Detroit Tigers and getting Edgar Renteria in another deal, Detroit was a lock for a World Series ring. The addition of Cabrera and Willis would have added to the depth of talent Detroit already had on their team. Magglio Ordonez, Ivan Rodriguez, Jason Verlander, and Gary Sheffield were already leaders on the team and could only perform better with the addition of more All-Stars. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as expected in Motown. Verlander’s ERA rose to around 6.00, Renteria couldn’t handle AL pitching, and Willis ended up in A-ball and struggled with command. The Tigers ended the season under .500 and started blowing up the team by trading Rodriguez mid-season.

3. 2007-2008 UCLA Men’s Basketball – After making the Final Four in the two previous seasons, the UCLA Bruins had their eyes on an NCAA Championship. Darren Collison, Russell Westbrook, and Josh Shipp were all coming back and they would add top recruit, Kevin Love, to an already great team. UCLA coasted into the NCAA tournament with a top seed and made another Final Four. The other teams in the Final Four were some of the best teams in the country, but UCLA was the only team with players who had Final Four experience. UCLA lost in the National Semi-Final game to a much younger Memphis squad.

2. 2008 Chicago Cubs – The Chicago Cubs have a history of letting their fans down, but 2008 seemed different. They had the pitching and offense to finally end the curse and win a championship. The Cubs didn’t stand pat and even improved their team by adding Rich Harden in a deadline trade. They had a great season and won the NL Central in a close race. The finished the regular season with the best record in the National League and faced the NL West champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the first round of the playoffs. The Dodgers were red hot going into the post-season and beat the Cubs in three games. The Cubs pitching and lack of left-handed bats were too much to overcome. This may have been one of the most disappointing ends to a Cubs season since 1984.

1. 2007-2008 New England Patriots – The New England Patriots played like they had something to prove during the 2007-2008 season. They won every game during the regular season very easily. The Vegas odds makers even started to fall for the Patriots dominance by throwing up point spreads in the 20s, something usually only seen in college games. New England used their 16-0 momentum by winning both the divisional game and AFC championship game and punching their ticket to the Super Bowl. The NFC champion, the New York Giants, was a team that barely made the playoffs and had to win on the road three times to just make the Super Bowl. Even though the Giants nearly beat New England in the final game of the season, no one gave them a shot at winning the Super Bowl. New England had trouble with the Giants from the start of the game to the finish. The Giants defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, had the perfect gameplan, he blitzed Tom Brady and caused chaos for the New England offense. The New York Giants, thanks to an insane catch by David Tyree, ended up ruining the Patriots perfect season. 18-1 is usually as good as it gets in the NFL, but 19-0 was so close, but the Patriots couldn’t finish.

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Merry Christmas

America’s White Boy would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas. I hope everyone is enjoying NBA basketball while your children are playing with their gifts. I’m sure the children’s favorite white boy, Santa, brought them plenty of gifts to keep them occupied so you can watch some amazing NBA action today.

What did Santa bring to you?

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Will Charlies Weis Wear A Hawaiian Shirt?

Christmas Eve isn’t much of a sports hotbed this year. The only game on in all four major sports is the Hawaii Bowl. This year’s Hawaii Bowl is getting a lot more attention than the usual match-up since Notre Dame is traveling to Hawaii to take on the Hawaii Warriors in essentially a home game for the islands. No matter the outcome of the game, Notre Dame football will be headed in a new direction.

If Notre Dame wins the game, they will finally erase the stigma of have a 15-year winless bowl game streak. A win against Hawaii would help Notre Dame escape back-to-back losing seasons and 7-6 would actually seem like a nice season overall for this young Irish team. A win to cap off the season will help rejuvenate the rabid Irish fanbase and give them some juice going into the off-season. They haven’t felt good ending a season since Raghib Ismail and Rick Mirer wore the golden helmets.

If Notre Dame loses, Weis’s seat will get hotter, I know he has gotten the thumbs up from the athletic director, but a beating by Hawaii could change his mind. It could put a damper on recruiting and the overall feel of Notre Dame going into next season. If Jimmy Clausen has a bad game, you have to think that they will look for an open competition going into spring. He will be a junior and needs to keep getting better, since Weis’s offense relies heavily on the quarterback. Dayne Crist could be a decent option if they grow sour of Clausen.

If Notre Dame hopes to win this game, Clausen will have to protect the ball and get the ball into the hands of his receivers. Notre Dame’s receivers are quite elusive in the open field. Golden Tate and Michael Floyd need huge games for them to beat the Warriors.

The Hawaii Bowl line started out with Hawaii favored by two points, but as of today, the line moved and now the Irish is favored by two. I do think the Irish will win this game, but if Hawaii scores more than 24 points, the Irish probably won’t be able to keep up. The score needs to be low and Clausen can’t throw more than one interception. Let’s hope that Weis doesn’t shoot himself in the leg and start going deep early in the first quarter.

No Charlie! Put the gun away!

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Teixeira Will Be In Pinstripes

It took long enough, but the Yankees got their man. Mark Teixeira will sign an 8-year deal worth $180 million dollars. That is $22.5 million a year for a man who has been the last two years’ trading deadline prize. This deal will shore up the 28-year old for the prime of his career. With the signings of C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, it looks like the Yankees are back to buying their way to the World Series.

The Red Sox, Orioles, and the Nationals were the only other teams left in the bidding war after the Angels pulled out earlier this week. As of yesterday, it didn’t even look like the Yankees were in the mix for Teixeira, but money talks and the Yankees threw too much on the table for anyone to resist. New York will now try to move either Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Xavier Nady, or the newly acquired, Nick Swisher.

The Yankees are opening up a new stadium and look like they are wanting to bless the new ground with not one World Series championship, but a string of championships with the years attached to these monster deals this off-season. I’m waiting for the Red Sox to make their move, I don’t know what could trump these moves the Evil Empire has made the last month. The Red Sox will have to sign Jesus of Nazareth.

As a consolation prize for not signing Teixeira, the Nationals signed Corey Patterson. I can’t even imagine trying to explain that move to their fanbase.

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The Redskins Are Clueless

After A Week One loss to the New York Giants, everyone was calling for Jim Zorn’s head. The Redskins looked bad and their offense couldn’t even run an average 2-minute offense. Then somehow the Redskins go on a hot streak and win a few games in a row and suddenly Zorn is a lifesaver. Well, it didn’t take long for the Redskins to fall back to Earth. They were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention and now the village people are calling for Zorn’s head again. If Daniel Snyder was smart, he would listen to the village.

Vinny Cerrato, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, said Monday that Jim Zorn will return next season. This doesn’t seem like a Dan Snyder move to me. Is this the same man who basically has a blank check when it comes to the Redskins? Has the economy hurt Snyder?

He has coaches like Mike Holmgren, Josh McDaniels, and Bill Cowher just waiting out there for the picking and he’s not doubling down. You have Bill Cowher, who has a home on the East Coast (North Carolina area), which isn’t a great distance from the nation’s capital. There are arguments for and against bringing in a new coach, but you can clearly see the upside on bringing in an elite head coach, not a guy that you got last second after all the other coaches you interviewed didn’t seem interested.

I know the fans of the Redskins think Jason Campbell could be the quarterback of the future. Does he have the skills to win a game with his arm? I’m not sold and if you bring in Josh McDaniels, he would bring Matt Cassel with him. You have a pretty good tandem with a head-start on learning the offense. Clinton Portis has a few years left on him, but the Redskins are in need of an elite, prototypical receiver. Receivers like Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle-El are more possession receivers that lack size.

Redskins fans need to write letters, text, or contact Dan Snyder in some way to get him to explore the idea of getting in an experience coach to lead this team. The Redskins are just a couple of pieces of away from being in the top-tier of the NFC, they just need the leadership to guide them.

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Lions Can’t Take A Joke

I guess when you’re going “defeated” all year, your job has a 0% chance of going past this week, and you’ve been slung through the mud since Week 1, you don’t have much of a sense of humor. Rob Parker, a columnist for the Detroit News, made a joke during a post-game press conference about Detroit’s defensive coordinator. It usually wouldn’t make national headlines, but this joke made fun of the coach’s wife and son-in-law.

The defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions is Joe Barry, the son-in-law of coach Rod Marinelli. Parker has been a critic of Barry’s all season. He asked “On a light note, do you wish your daughter would have married a better defensive coordinator?”. Apparently, Parker didn’t mean it as a personal attack, he actually meant to lighten up a down moment during the press conference. Marinelli didn’t like the question and after many attempts by Parker to apologize to the coach, Marinelli will not accept.

FOX Post-game show aired the clip of Parker’s question and Terry Bradshaw called Parker a “disgrace to his profession.” I think that is a little strong coming from Bradshaw, who’s press credentials are colored in crayon.

The only disgrace Rob Parker has done to his profession is appearing on ESPN’s “1st and 10” with Skip Bayless. Other than that occasional lapse in judgment, Parker is an amazing journalist and hopefully this story will blow over once the Lions go 0-16.

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Everybody Still Hates Skip Bayless

I have written about Skip Bayless in the past and my opinion of him has not changed. I think he’s overly-opinionated, takes stands on issues that is purposely against the minority, and he’s a pompous jerk. This week we are “lucky” to have Stephen A. Smith as Skip’s opponent on ESPN’s 1st and 10. Having Stephen A. and Skip on the same show is like having the Iron Sheik vs. Nikita Koloff going against each other. Sorry to reference an old-school WWF reference to describe the scenario, but it fits. I don’t like either of these guys and I really want Skip and Stephen A. end up hitting each other with a steel chair.

Today’s episode was insane. Skip screamed for the first 15 minutes and then tagged Stephen A. in and he screamed for the rest of the show. I can’t imagine these guys eating dinner with each other, they would have to put them in their own food and give each other riot masks to protect themselves against flying spit. The highlight of the show was when they got in a heated argument against and for Brett Favre in New York. I will DV-R the episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday in hopes of Stephen A. finally pulling out a folding table and sending Skip through it via Powerbomb.

Here is an old clip of the two going at it, I hope it gives you an idea of how insane it is to have both of these guys on the same show. You may need earplugs, the decibels alone could do some ear damage.

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Lendale White Hates Towels

After a very competitive game, “Big Fat” Lendale White decided to perform some towel abuse on the sideline. This abuse wasn’t the kind Jerry Tarkanian used to perform as the coach of UNLV, White took a “Terrible Towel” and stomped on it. If you don’t know what a “Terrible Towel” is, it’s the yellow towels that Steeler fans have been throwing around in the stands for decades. It is Pittsburgh’s version of the “Homer Hanky” or “Rally Monkey.”

After the game Bill Cowher was fuming that Keith Bullock and Lendale White decided to disgrace the towel. Of couse he said that because he is still a Pittsburgh homer. I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I’m sure Towelie would not approve.
Here is the video of Lendale White doing the Tennesse Waltz all over a Terrible Towel.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

2008 Men’s College Basketball – All-Name Team

Not everyone can have the last name ‘Jordan’ or ‘Chamberlain’, some of us have to go through life with a pretty ridiculous name. Most of these names are pretty rough to grow up with, but some are names you wish you may have, especially if you are named something bland like Joe Smith or Bobby Roberts.

Once again this year the lesser-known Division I teams make up the majority of the list, keep up the good recruiting work.

Woody Payne – G – Detroit
Scoop Jardine – G – Syracuse
Cashmere Wright – G – Cincinnati
Idong Ibok – C – Michigan State
Pawel Kielbasa – F – Chicago State
Chop Tang – F – Wisconsin-Green Bay
Hyman Taylor – C – San Francisco
Beloved Rogers – G – Oral Roberts
Chief Kickingstallionsims – C – Alabama State
King Cannon – F – Central Arkansas
Picasso Simmons – G – Murray State
Tweety Carter – G – Baylor
Lex Mongo – G – Massachusetts
Ookie Clayton – G – Tennessee-Martin

and of course…

Lil’ Romeo – G – USC

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God, Help Me!

After a rough day of college football and non-competitive college basketball games, I am stuck with the Browns/Bengals game on my television. These teams are two of the worst teams to watch since 50% of each of their teams are on injured reserve. Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson (Ocho Cinco), Kellen Winslow, and about thirty other players are not going to play in this game. This leaves me with watching a Ken Dorsey vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick match-up.

I want to have fun while watching this game, so these are the things that are going to keep me interested.

– Drink every time Braylon Edwards drops a ball.

– Over/Under 2 minutes into the game that they start talking about next season for both of these teams.

– Over/Under 4 times, that the announcers talk about Ken Dorsey’s college career.

– Count the amount of people with bags over their heads vs. the idiots without any shirts on

– The Bengals should have less points than people in the team with felony charges

– Realize that Romeo Crennel outweighs most of his offensive linemen

– Laugh repeatedly when the announcers describe the history of this rivalry and try to make it sound watchable.

I’m not sure if I will be able to make it through this game, this might be my last post. If I don’t make it, I hereby bequeath this blog to my roommate.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

And the Riddler Is….

I am a big Batman fan and I’m basically interested in news about any comic book character that is going to appear in a movie. I am a fan of the movies that feature X-Men, Iron Man, the new Hulk, and many others. I loved “The Dark Knight” and I’m excited about the next movie in the franchise. They have recently announced who they cast to play The Riddler in the next Batman movie. The man who is set to play The Riddler is Eddie Murphy…say what?! Really? This guy?

This guy?

The guy who wore this?

The guy who made this movie?!

Okay, so that guy is going to be this guy?!

Okay, I give up. I really don’t know where they are going with this at all. I know that Heath Ledger wasn’t the normal casting for the Joker and he hit it out of the park, but this seems like they didn’t even try. I hope Eddie Murphy proves me wrong, but at this point I expect the casting for the Penguin to be played by Yao Ming.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.