What's Next For the UFC Heavyweight Division?

Cain Velasquez sits atop the Heavyweight Division in the UFC following his impressive victory over former champion Brock Lesnar. Cain will defend his newly won title vs. the #1 contender Junior Dos Santos. That is what we know. But what about the rest of the top-tier heavyweights including former champions and interim champs. It's as head scratching as a recent M. Knight Shyamalan movie.

Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Frank Mir, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Roy Nelson are all Top 10 Heavyweights in the world of mixed martial arts, and after the recent news that Carwin is injured and had to pull out of his fight with Nelson at UFC 125, all five of these fighters are looking for opponents. Here's a fighter-by-fighter analysis of what could be next. At the end, I will tell you how I would map out the heavyweights.

Brock Lesnar:
Lost UFC title, after 2 defenses, at UFC 121 last weekend to Cain Velasquez. Lesnar suffered a serious cut to the face, just a nasty cut, and could be out at least 6 months to recover. What do you do with Lesnar? Is he 1 fight away from getting another title shot? Some of the options for Lesnar include a trilogy bout with Frank Mir or depending on how serious his injuries are, wait for the loser of Velasquez/Dos Santos. It's difficult to project as Lesnar could be out until at least April.

Shane Carwin:
Carwin was set to be in the co-main event at UFC 125 vs. Roy Nelson. He was forced out of the fight due to injury. Carwin said that an MRI revealed a serious injury, if surgery is NOT needed he is out 8-12 weeks, but if it is required he would be out even longer. Bad news for a guy who just fought for the title and actually won the 1st round against Lesnar. A win over Nelson would have vaulted him back up into contention, but now he must wait.

Frank Mir:
Mir was scheduled to face Big Nog at UFC 119, but an injury to Nogueira allowed Mirko Cro Cop to fill in and get his name in lights. (UFC 119: Mir vs. Cro Cop). It wasn't the most entertaining fight, at all, but Mir came out on top. Mir seems to have a number of options here. The aforementioned trilogy fight with Lesnar, a re-match with Carwin, the originally scheduled re-match with Big Nog, and even Brendan Scaub (coming off a win over Gabe Gonzaga) has called out Mir.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira:
As stated above Big Nog was scratched from the UFC 119 bout with Mir due to injury. Nogueira has not seen a lot of action over the past couple of years, he is also 1-2 in his last 3 with losses to the current champ Velasquez and Mir. You have to wonder how much Nogueira has left in the tank. With his style he can be dangerous for any opponent, but he has taken so much damage in his career.

Roy Nelson:
Nelson, the only guy on this list who seems to be ready to go in the next couple of months. After losing to Dos Santos in a #1 contender bout, he immediately got another chance to prove himself when Joe Silva scheduled him to face Shane Carwin. But now Nelson must wait for a replacement.

If I were in charge of the booking for the UFC, this is how I would schedule the top heavyweights. (Dates of fights all TBD based on length of injuries)

Champ Cain Velasquez vs. Challenger Junior Dos Santos. That was easy.

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, do the trilogy now. With injuries you never know when you'll get a chance to do it, and it wouldn't be exciting if it was 5 years from now a la Liddell vs. Ortiz.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Brendan Schaub. Schaub wanted Mir, but he should get the guy scheduled to face the former champ at UFC 119. Schaub passed his test with a win over Gonzaga, this would be even more impressive and put him squarely in the division's Top 10.

Roy Nelson vs. Ben Rothwell. It might look like something you would see at the Double Duce, but these guys are legit. Rothwell last fought at UFC 115 and picked up a win over Gilbert Yvel, so he could be ready to step right in for Carwin at UFC 125.

Shane Carwin vs. Velasquez/Dos Santos Loser. Especially if Carwin is going to be sidelined for a long time, he can await the loser of the title fight. If Shane comes back much sooner give him someone like Kongo, Cro Cop, or Gonzaga.

What matches in the heavyweight division do you want to see? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.


-Keefe

Brian Wilson & The Machine

Besse has done a great job breaking down the World Series, but something that has been left out to this point and just how great Brian Wilson is... when he's on TV. Check out these clips with a hilrious Wilson and "The Machine," who makes his 1st appearance with Chris Rose, check him out with Rome afterwards.

Brian Wilson is unreal. Best interview out there? Oh yeah, and the Gimp aka The Machine is actually a Giants player, try to guess who.

-Keefe

World Series Thoughts: Games 3 and 4

Game 3:

- Nolan Ryan is a HOF pitcher and he just skipped in the First Pitch. As my brother astutely pointed out, go figure they bring in Pudge to catch the throw and he scoops it out of the dirt. Brilliant irony.




- Freddy Sanchez is a damn good ballplayer. This is a guy that won the NL batting title with the Pittsburgh Pirates. And the Red Sox had him. Not to say you shouldn't be happy with Pedroia at second, but I forgot how good of a hitter this guy is because you never get to watch him.

- Pablo Sandoval may not play in the major leagues next season. He's that bad. Watched him ground into a double play in the top of the 2nd. You want to kill a rally? Send him to the plate. Done. Boom.

Hard to believe this is a guy that was all the rage last season. Talk about a one season wonder. I know people that KEPT him in Fantasy Keeper leagues. Woops.

- Coming back from commercial in the bottom of the 2nd, FOX had an aerial few of a small field adjacent to the stadium where kids can go and take some swings. They showed some guy throwing to a left handed hitting youngster. While on TV, the kid hit a dribbler back to the pitcher, fouled one off and swung and missed. Time to quit, son. That guy wasn't throwing 40mph. You have no future and you just choked on national TV.

- Interesting point just came up in the bottom of the 2nd. Cruz had just doubled and Kinsler hit a grounder to short. It looked like Renteria considered throwing to 3rd, and some kid in the room questioned why he didn't try and cut down Cruz. I made the point that Cruz was already past the fielder, and he Renteria wasn't being pulled in that direction. The play was too risky, and instead of 1 out and a runner on 3rd, you could've been looking at 0 outs and 1st and 3rd. Which came up big three batters later after Molina walked and Moreland homered to right. Although it was a 3-run shot, it could easily have been a grand slam.

- Josh Hamilton is Roy Hobbes. No doubt about it. That ball he just hit was a bomb. Prodigious.



I would give up my first born child to watch Hamilton hit. Even when he strikes out, or rolls one over to second, it's a beautiful thing to watch. Imagine him on the Tampa Bay Rays like he was supposed to be? With Upton and Crawford? Crawford-Hamilton-Longoria-Pena. Wow.

- 10-game hitting streak for Cody Ross. Hit safely in 12 of 13 games, 5th homer of the post-season. This guy is in line for a nice, lucrative contract after the season is over.

- Buster Posey has an absolute rocket for an arm. When he throws to second, the throw doesn't get higher than a foot off the ground, and it goes about 95mph. And it's on the mark. This guy might be the most complete catcher in the game right now. And he's a rookie. It's scary.

- As Feliz was overpowering the Giants in the top of the 9th, my buddy Kevin texted me and said, "I would go 0 for 30 with 30 K's against Feliz." I replied with, "0 for 25 with 25 K's and 5 BB's. He tends to lose it now and then."

Regardless, one thing is certain: neither of us would even touch a pitch. Those walks would be because he threw 4 balls in 6 pitches. I wouldn't even be able to foul one off.

Game 4:

- I missed the first couple innings due to an impromptu trip to Walgreens. We went out for Halloween on Saturday night, and I woke up on Sunday stuffed up and feeling like a cold was coming. Naturally, I panicked, especially since October 31 was my final day of health insurance coverage from my last job. Great timing. So I sat around all day watching football then finally got up and hoofed it to Walgreens for a flu shot.

While I was there, I bought some candy for the trick or treaters, a new can opener, and a blender for the apartment. When I got back, I found the blender did not work, and we only had one trick or treater all night. And I woke up this morning sore as shit and feeling groggy from the flu shot. Talk about an efficient trip.

- I have to admit I was shocked that Bumgarner threw as well as he did. Not that I expected him to go all Derek Holland on us, but the kid is 21 years old. And he made the Rangers look terrible. Not only that, but he had Vlad Guerrero looking like he'd never had a major league at bat prior to tonight. Just terrible at-bats for a guy that's incredibly difficult to strike out or look bad because he specializes in bad ball hitting.

- Why did Tommy Hunter get the plug pulled on him so quickly? He gave up the 2-run shot to Huff in the 3rd, and had been in trouble in each of the first three innings. But he gave up a 2-out single to Renteria in the 4th and was only at 83 pitches when he retired the next batter Schierholtz on a fly out to left. Just seemed like Washington was hitting the panic button a little quickly there. I thought he could have saved his bullpen a bit more and kept going with Hunter. If he gets in trouble again in the 5th, I have no problem pulling the plug then, but let the guy keep working. He's keeping you in this game.

- Tim McCarver talked about Posey's catching ability and his arm. Nice to see them give Posey props for his hose. It really is remarkable. He threw another guy out and it wasn't even close. Then McCarver went and made comparisons to Johnny Bench. Interestingly enough, Posey was the 2008 winner of the Johnny Bench award given to the best collegiate catcher. Check out Posey's Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Posey

The more I read and research this guy, the more I realize he might be the most talented all-around player in the game today. He was the starting shortstop for the Y-D Red Sox in the Cape League in 2006, and the starting catcher for the same team in 2007. Both teams won the Cape League title. He also played every position in one game for Florida State, and was their closer. WTF. I just spent 20 minutes watching videos of him on YouTube. What a treat. I have a crush.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=buster+posey&aq=f

- During the game, Joe Buck and McCarver started discussing the topic of Tommy John. At one point McCarver referred to Tommy John as "TJ". That led me to text my buddy Kevin about how McCarver is just insufferable sometimes. Kevin referred to him as "obnoxious", which I realized is the best way to describe McCarver.

Kevin also made a fair point a few minutes later. As pompous and arrogant as Joe Buck is, you have to acknowledge that there's no one you'd rather have calling a game, whether it be the World Series, Super Bowl, whatever. This also led to Kevin and I agreeing that FOX should bring in Troy Aikman to do color for World Series games. Because let's face it, the same comfort level you get with Buck you get with Aikman during football games. And I'd rather listen to Aikman, a quarterback, talk about baseball than McCarver talk about anything.

- Brian Wilson is a bad ass. You kind of have to believe him when he says he signed up for this job the day he was born.

I'm still sick but I'll be watching Game 5 tonight. I'm predicting Cliff Lee returns to form and this Series returns to San Francisco on Wednesday. In fact I'm predicting a Game 7, as well. Giants will drop the next two and provide the most exciting, all hands on deck Game 7 we've ever seen.

-Bess

Happy Halloween!

Solid sports Halloween as well, Week 8 of the NFL with the Patriots vs. Randy Moss, Brett Favre, AP, and the Minnesota Vikings. Also Game 4 of the World Series from Texas where the Giants are up 2-1 over the Rangers.

World Series thoughts: Games 1 and 2

For those of you that still read this blog, and for those of you that don't know, I recently moved from Massachusetts to San Francisco. With that move I apparently brought my championship spirit, as the Giants held off the defending NLCS champion Phillies and advanced to the World Series to face the equally postseason novice Texas Rangers. With that, I have decided to share some thoughts on the Series as I take it in here in San Francisco, amongst all the bandwagoners that suddenly care about baseball again.



Game 1


- Can you imagine if you had put your mortgage payment on the over for runs scored? You almost had to think it might happen given all the hype on this pitching matchup. And let's face it, none of the "marquee" pitching matchups have really lived up to the hype. Cliff Lee dominated David Price both times; Halladay and Lincecum both seemed mortal at times in their two tilts; Sabathia never got a chance to face off against Lee, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The best pitchers duel of the postseason came in Game 1 of the NLDS between Lincecum and Lowe, one that did not come with all the festive pre-game hype as the others, and Lowe didn't even make it out of the 6th.



- Speaking of Lee, the Giants better win this Series as quickly as possible. No one does that to Cliff Lee and lives to tell about it. You can bet your ass he's coming back two more times in this Series. And he will bring the Giants back to Earth.



- Speaking of Lincecum, I've never seen someone let the moment get too big for him like he did on Wednesday night. Runners on 1st and 3rd in the top of the 1st, pitching at home with an entire city behind you, and he fields a slow roller back to him and has the runner dead between 3rd and home. With Uribe calling for the ball, Lincecum froze like a deer in headlights. Renteria came running over to back up the play, which is standard practice, and Lincecum must have thought he was the trailing runner because he ran the guy back to 3rd as if he could tag them both and get an out. Unfortunately Renteria plays for his team. Get your mind right, dude.



- Staying on Lincecum, the guy had a pretty pedestrian outing. Didn't make it out of the 6th inning, gave up 4 runs and looked shaky all night. Yet when Bochy pulled him and went to the bullpen, the Giants fans gave him a standing ovation. Really? That's that not even a quality start. My buddy Kevin made a great point when I texted this to him: "If that's Boston, New York or Philadelphia, he gets booed."



I don't care if he left with a lead; the only reason they were winning is because the Giants hitters got lucky against Lee. If that's vintage Lee out there, that game was over in the first inning. Lincecum was lucky his team even had a chance to win with that poor outing. This just goes to show how uneducated and desperate this city is for a championship. They'll cheer for moral victories. Champions don't do that.



- Vladimir Guerrero still has a freakin rocket for an arm. Some of the throws he made from the outfield were downright scary. The guy has a rocket launcher. Too bad he's trying to field the ball with a wooden paddle. Some of those errors were egregious. No wonder he got benched in Game 2 via David Murphy - yes, the player the Red Sox packaged in that Eric Gagne deal. Worked out alright for Murph, didn't it?







- Joe Buck makes me ill. Watch his HBO show "Joe Buck Live", that was canceled quickly, by the way, and you'll realize why I hate this man. He might the most arrogant, pompous asshole in broadcasting. What bothers me the most is when they "welcome you into the booth" and he's lounging back in his chair with his arms on the arm rest and his hands up by his face. It just oozes arrogance. Then while McCarver is talking he'll periodically looked at the camera and crack this half hearted smile as if he's trying to engage viewers. Wait till your partner is done talking. It's awkward when you do that.


- McCarver made the most asinine comment in the top of the 9th. The Rangers are obviously getting smoked but they scored a run to pull within 6 or 7. Guys in the dugout were up high fiving and greeting the runner that had just scored. McCarver chimes in with how he doesn't understand why the Rangers would be doing that. The Sac Fly got the run in, sure, but they now have two outs and are still trailing by an assload of runs. Well what are they supposed to do, Tim? Ignore the friggin guy? It's important for them to keep morale up because they need to find some sort silver lining that can carry them into Game 2. I thought this was the dumbest thing for him to weigh in on. Talk about something else.


- My roommates and I played a couple hours of Big Buck Hunter on the Wii after the game. At one point I thought it must be midnight. Instead, it was 9:15pm. That's the luxury of living on the West Coast. After a primetime game you can actually do other things instead of watching the game in bed and wondering if you'll be able to stay awake until the end. And for the record, Big Buck Hunter might be the best game ever. I am the new hunter hero.

Game 2:


- Matt Cain is an ugly dude.


- What was up with the pre-game introductions for the Rangers? I had to sit there and listen to them tell us what their nicknames were (don't care), who their favorite players were growing up (still don't care), and what Benjie Molina's favorite foods are (kind of interested). Although I did enjoy when it got to CJ Wilson and he hit us with, "CJ Wilson...Pitcher................"

He just left FOX hanging. Well done.


- When Ian Kinsler is healthy he's the second best second baseman in the game. Cano is untouchable, but Kinsler is definitely better than Pedroia (again, when healthy). The guy can hit for average, more power, and can run up a shitstorm. That ball he hit off the top of the wall was crushed. It's amazing it could actually carom off of that backwards. I guess that was an ominous sign for the Rangers last night. Almost telling them no matter what you do, you will NOT score tonight.


- CJ Wilson is solid, but I'm fully convinced he asked his way out of that game last night. Try and look at it from his perspective. You're carrying a shutout into the 7th inning against a team that hit the crap out of one of the best post season pitchers of all time the night before. You just spiked a 3-2 curveball and now have a base runner on first. It's a 1-0 game. If I complain about a little irritation on my finger and sell it as a blister, I can get taken out and leave it in the hands of the bullpen. Even if that run scores and we lose the game, I can still sit there and talk about how I pitched into the 7th, only gave up 2 runs and my offense choked. If we win, I'll be heralded as a stud keeping my team in it and giving us a chance while the offense scraped and clawed its way back into the game. His first World Series start, this was a win/win move for him. He was afraid of what was about to happen to him, so he let Darren Oliver take the bullet for him. Poor guy had to warm up on the mound in front of 40,000 people, all watching you and pressuring you to hurry the f up and get loose already. Far different from tossing a few balls in the bullpen at your leisure while no one notices you're even up. That sucks.


- I mentioned earlier how Lincecum let Game 1 get the best of him. Well Derek Holland let life get the best of him last night. I'm not sure we will ever see someone let the moment get too big for him like Holland did last night. This had Rick Ankiel written all over it. Holland might want to grab a bat and start taking some swings. And find a shrink. That was incredible. For 11 pitches he couldn't throw a strike, nor even come close. Then he finally dots the zone, and comes back with a belt high 3-1 fastball. Huff easily could have hit that ball out, but instead he takes it and the umpire gives one of the biggest squeeze jobs ever. FOX showed a replay with the strike zone up and it was actually a strike. As an umpire, a) how do you miss that? b) how do you not, as a human being, give Holland anything remotely close, especially a pitch like that? I'll be shocked if he pitches again in this series.


- The Rangers bullpen is terrible. Joe Buck referred to them as "talented, but young" last night. That's a nice way of saying the bullpen sucks and is melting in front of our eyes under the spotlight.


- Who looks more miserable through the first two games: Nolan Ryan or Jon Daniels? Push.


- Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz are a combined 2 for 17 in the World Series. Something tells me they're about to bust out in a big way.


- During Game 6 of the NLCS, Jonathan Sanchez, the Giants' Game 3 starter, hit Chase Utley with a pitch. Utley tossed the ball back at Sanchez and words were exchanged before the benches cleared. No one except Utley knows if his toss back to Sanchez was malicious or not, but nonetheless it was a classic case of a veteran employing the ultimate gamesmanship on a hot-headed postseason novice. Regardless, Sanchez lost his shit and had an epic meltdown.

A word to the wise for Sanchez: Take a look at some of the guys in the Rangers lineup. They're down 2-0 and most likely pretty angry. If you hit them and/or cop an attitude like you did to the Phillies you will die on the field in front of a national audience. Just think about that.


- Giants fans gave Cain a standing ovation when he got pulled in the 8th last night. I guess if you give everyone a standing ovation, you're bound to get one right from time to time. Well done.


- Javier Lopez is filthy. I always thought so when he was with the Red Sox. Guy throws 87 from the ground across the zone. Seems almost impossible for a left handed hitter to handle. He's been huge for this bullpen and could definitely be an Achilles heel for the Rangers late in ball games, especially if Hamilton is coming up in a big spot.


- My buddy Mike was here in SF for Games 1 and 2 for his company gathering footage. He posted a status update on Facebook last night that the fans were in the streets celebrating like they just won the World Series, and reminding them it's a Best-of-7 series. He couldn't be more right. I go back to the fans giving Lincecum a standing ovation after a half-ass outing. They're clueless, uneducated and uber excited. No wonder every article I've read is about how fans have been tortured and crushed time and time again. It's because they lose perspective so easily and get ahead of themselves way too easily. The Rangers are a great offense returning home for 3 games in a hitters ballpark. And they have Cliff Lee. This series could easily come back here with the Rangers leading 3-2 and only a win away from winning the Series. And let's not forget, the Giants were 8 outs away from a title in Game 6, 2002. It's never over until you've actually won a fourth game. Relax. You could easily lose this series.


I'll be back with more thoughts after Game 3 tomorrow night. Go Rangers.


-Bess

The Jim Brockmire Story

With the World Series underway what better time to hear the story of perhaps the greatest baseball commentator of all time, the one and only Jim Brockmire. Enjoy.

Gamechangers Ep 3: A Legend in the Booth with Hank Azaria from Hank Azaria

-Keefe

Rich Reviews: Trick 'r Treat

Rich Reviews is back with a special Halloween Edition. I recently saw the direct-to-DVD film Trick ‘r Treat. It stars Dylan Baker (Dr. Connors in the Spidermans) and Anna Paquin (True Blood and X-Men). First, a little back story. The movie was made back in 2007 and scheduled for a Halloween release. However, Saw IV was opening the same time, from a different production company and they feared getting smoked at the Box Office.

The idea then became to move it to an October 2008 release, but that also didn’t happen. Much of the production team on Trick ‘r Treat, including producer Bryan Singer, who directed Superman Returns worked on the Man of Steel sequel, which was a failure. This may have been another reason that Warner Bros. decided to avoid a wide release, or a theatrical release all together.

So you may have been as surprised as me to see previews on TV for Trick ‘r Treat this month and have the commercial end with “Now Available on DVD.” I had never heard of it, it had a couple major movie stars, and they seem to release a lot of horror movie junk, so what was the deal? I did 2 minutes of research and that’s what I found.

As for the film itself, Baker plays a single dad who is a high school principal and a… serial killer. Paquin plays a college student virgin, there’s some kids who play a horrible prank, a young couple, a weird old man who lives alone (Brian Cox), and this little creep kid/man that seems to be everywhere (pictured above). Instead of focusing on just 1 story they bounce around to about 5 and try to have them overlap when they can with characters from other stories in the background here and there.

There are some good ideas within the stories, but for the most part it just doesn’t work. I was confused at parts, and it seemed to either over explain certain things or completely under explain them.

Best part? The run time, only 82 minutes. That’s like a long episode of The Wire, expect no where near as good. There were some really good death scenes… and I’m still talking about The Wire.

Trick ‘r Treat did bring some uniqueness which is very rare for horror, and since it was less than an hour and a half, I’m not pissed off that I sat through it. Ultimately they did make the right decision by not putting it in theatres. It’s not worth that, probably not worth renting (can you still rent movies?), I did Netflix it, but you might not want to take up the top spot in the queue with it. If it comes on TV next Halloween and you have nothing to do, I mean nothing, there’s no MLB playoffs, NFL, college football, NBA opening week, etc., then feel free to give it a watch and let me know what you think.

In the end Trick ‘r Treat was a lot more Trick than Treat.

-Keefe