Sorry for the delay, here's what happened Saturday night in Oregon.
Under Card:
Evan Dunham beat Marcus Aurelio by split decision Mark Munoz beat Nick Catone by split decision
Todd Duffee beat Tim Hague by first-round knockout Mike Russow beat Justin McCully by unanimous decision Gabriel Gonzaga beat Chris Tuchscherer by first-round TKO Aaron Simpson beat Ed Herman by second-round TKO
Main Card:
Brandon Vera beat Krzysztof Soszynski by unanimous decision Nate Marquardt beat Demian Maia by first-round KO (punch) Jake Rosholt beat Chris Leben by third-round submission (head-and-arm choke) Thiago Silva beat Keith Jardine by first-round KO Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira beat Randy Couture by unanimous decision
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
What is a tractor doing on home plate? The American Defenders, a Can-Am League team located in Nashua, New Hampshire, that is co-run by former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette is a little behind on their payments to the city. In fact, between the city itself, the Police, and Fire, the Defenders owe more than $50,000.
How can they send a message that says, you are not playing baseball here tonight. They could lock the gates. They did that, but we all know the team can still get in and play the game, even if a crowd isn't on hand, which it hasn't been anyway. What if they place a huge tractor on home plate to teach them a lesson? Bingo. And there you have it. Complements to Chris the Intern who risked his life to take this picture.
Josh Beckett takes the mound tonight for the struggling Red Sox looking to become the major's first 15 game winner. Boston is in a playoff race for the Wild Card, but Beckett might be in an even tighter race for the most prestigious pitching award in the league.
Here our my finalists with a about a month and half left in the season for the American League Cy Young Award, in no particular order.
Josh Beckett (14-4, 3.10, 145 K) AL Ranks: (IP - 10th, Wins - 1st, ERA - 6th, K - 5th)
Roy Halladay (13-5, 2.65, 144 K) AL Ranks: (IP - 1st, Wins - t2nd, ERA - 2nd, K - 6th)
Zach Greinke (11-7, 2.33, 174 K) AL Ranks: (IP - 6th, Wins - t8th, ERA - 1st, K - 3rd)
Felix Hernandez (12-4, 2.72, 158 K) AL Ranks: (IP - 7th, Wins - 5th, ERA - 3rd, K - 4th)
Justin Verlander (13-6, 3.28, 194 K) AL Ranks: (IP - 3rd, Wins - 2nd, ERA - 8th, K - 1st)
It is rarely a closer but if it is it could be one of these two shutdown artists.
So who do you got? Looking at the numbers I have to lean towards Halladay. He also has the fewest amount of walks with the most innings pitched out of these five starters. I've made it easy to answer the question, just vote on the poll found at the upper right of the page. If I missed anyone deserving of consideration let me know in the comments section.
It's time now for another edition of The Sports Brief's MMA Rankings. A few major cards have already taken place this month, including UFC 101 and Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborgs, that have shaken up the Top 10s. One major change is Gegard Mousasi, who defeated Babablu in just 60 seconds time over the weekend in first fight in the US. He is now the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champ, therefore he is out of the middleweight rankings.
The king of the middleweights, Anderson Silva, shows up in the LHW rankings as well after his distruction of Forrest Griffin at UFC 101. Also you will see the return of our Pound 4 Pound Rankings. Take a look at them all and let the debate begin.
Heavyweight:
1. Fedor Emelianenko 2. Brock Lesnar 3. Josh Barnett 4. Frank Mir 5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 6. Randy Couture 7. Alistair Overeem 8. Shane Carwin 9. Cain Velasquez 10. Brett Rogers
Chiek Kongo, Andrei Arlovski, Gabriel Gonzaga, Ben Rothwell, Fabricio Werdum, Heath Herring, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop, Junior Dos Santos
Keith Jardine, Thiago Silva, Chuck Liddell, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Tito Ortiz, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Vladimir Matyushenko, Brandon Vera, Jon Jones
Middleweight:
1. Anderson Silva 2. Dan Henderson 3. Yushin Okami 4. Vitor Belfort 5. Robbie Lawler 6. Nathan Marquardt 7. Demian Maia 8. Jorge Santiago 9. Yoshihiro Akiyama 10. Cung Le
Michael Bisping, Thales Leites, Ricardo Almeida, Matt Lindland, Denis Kang, Chael Sonnen, Paulo Filho, Frank Trigg, Patrick Cote, Frank Shamrock, Kazuo Misaki, Chris Leben, Ronaldo Souza
We know Cung Le hasn't fought in 20 years (March of 2008 to be exact), but we heard he's coming back to action. Plus someone had to replace Mousasi on the Top 10 and we couldn't find anyone truly deserving.
Welterweight:
1. Georges St. Pierre 2. Jake Shields 3. Jon Fitch 4. Thiago Alves 5. Martin Kampmann 6. Josh Koscheck 7. Mike Swick 8. Matt Hughes 9. Paulo Thiago 10. Marius Zaromskis
Jay Hieron Nick Thompson, Dan Hardy, Karo Parisyan, Matt Serra, Carlos Condit, Marcus Davis, Drew Fickett, Frank Trigg
Lightweight:
1. BJ Penn 2. Shinya Aoki 3. Eddie Alverez 4. Joachim Hansen 5. Tatsuya Kawajiri 6. Kenny Florian 7. Gray Maynard 8. Frankie Edgar 9. Diego Sanchez 10. Gilbert Melendez
JZ Cavalcante, Mizuto Hirota, Satoru Kitaoka, Sean Sherk, Josh Thomson, Takanori Gomi, KJ Noons, Nick Diaz, Victor Ribero, Joe Stevenson, Roger Huerta
Pound 4 Pound
1. Anderson Silva 2. Fedor Emelianenko 3. Georges St. Pierre 4. BJ Penn 5. Lyoto Machida 6. Mike Brown 7. Quinton Jackson 8. Brian Bowles 9. Gegard Mousasi 10. Brock Lesnar
Prelims: Jesse Lennox def. Danillo Villefort via TKO (cut) - Round 3, 3:37 George Sotiropoulos def. George Roop via submission (kimura) - Round 2, 1:59 Matthew Riddle def. Dan Cramer via unanimous decision (29-27, 30-26, 30-27) Alessio Sakara def. Thales Leites via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28) John Howard def. Tamdan McCrory via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) Aaron Riley def. Shane Nelson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Main Card: Kurt Pellegrino def. Josh Neer via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) Ricardo Almeida def. Kendall Grove via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 20-27) Johnny Hendricks def. Amir Sadollah via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 0:29 Anderson Silva def. Forrest Griffin via knockout (punch) - Round 1, 3:23. Then Forrest burst through the cage and nearly sprinted back stage. Very strange. Very gracious in defeat! B.J. Penn def. Kenny Florian via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 4, 3:54. To remain Lightweight Champion
Every year SI comes out with their "Where Are They Now?" issue. Well it's time that The SB drops one of our own.
Where Are They Now?
Craig Kilborn; Sportscenter, The Daily Show, The Late Late Show, a cameo in Old School. Quit the Late Show gig back in 2004.
Ricardo Arona; Former PRIDE fighting 205 pound fighter who holds wins over Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, and Wanderlei Silva. His last fight was a KO loss in April of 2007. Arona just turned 32 last month.
Ron Mercer; the 6th pick in the 1997 draft, Mercer played his last game in the NBA at the age of 28 in 2005. Mercer actually averaged double figures in his first 5 years in the league including a career high 19.7 in the 2000-01 season for the Bulls.
Jim Breuer; SNL castmate from 95-98, starred in Half-Baked, and most recently showed up out of no where in Beer League... in 2006.
Fozzie Bear; star of Muppet films starting in 1979 as well as "The Muppet Show." Let's face it the Muppets have not been the same since Jim Henson passed, and that's taken a toll on poor Fozzie.
Unfortunately I do not have the access that Sports Illustrated has nor the time to spend researching the current whereabouts of these 4 people and 1 bear. Therefore I can simply just ask the question...
"Uh oh, light heavyweights. Tito Ortiz is baaaaaaaaaack."
Yesterday, Dana White held a press conference to make a litany of announcements regarding UFC. First and foremost, he addressed the Fedor situation, expressing disappointment in negotiations and clarifying that he had made every effort to sign the top heavyweight in the world, but felt negotiations were at an impasse.
In addition, White also announced the new main event for UFC 103 on Sept. 19 in Dallas, TX. Rich Franklin is still one half of that main event, but instead of a rematch with Dan Henderson, he'll be taking on newly signed Vitor Belfort, who will take part in his first UFC fight since a split decision loss to Tito Ortiz at UFC 51.
Speaking of Tito Ortiz, White confirmed after weeks of speculation that the former UFC light heavyweight champion is in fact returning to the UFC fold. After setting aside their differences, the two polarizing figures were able to reach an agreement that, according to White, will allow the fighter to "retire in the UFC."
Ortiz, who last fought at UFC 84 in a decision loss to current light heavyweight kingpin Lyota Machida, returns after back surgery which actually fused his spinal cord. It's similar to the surgery Nate Quarry had a couple years ago. Ortiz, battling back injuries dating back several years, has stated that this surgery will allow him to compete at 100% for the first time in a long time. While it remains to be seen how much of a difference this procedure will make at this stage of his career, the prospect of a "healthy" Ortiz is certainly enticing. Couple that with his incredible drawing power as a PPV machine, and you can see why White made a concerted effort to bridge the gap and make amends with the former champion. Certainly a victory for everyone involved, and personally, I'm hoping "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" has one more run left in him.
That being said, Ortiz posted a video on YouTube yesterday documenting his first full day back in training. While it shows nothing ground breaking, the brutal honesty of the video should be received well. After showing several minutes of footage of Ortiz jump roping, working on strikes on a heavy bag and then practicing his infamous ground and pound, the video actually shows Ortiz rise up from the bag and scurry over to a garbage can, where he spends several moments vomiting into a garbage can in the corner. Props to Ortiz for including this in the video. I assume most fighters would be too embarassed to admit it even happened, never mind let you see first hand. He's embracing the fact that he's a long way away from being ready, which is a reason he declined a co-headliner at UFC 103 and is looking towards a November or December return. According to White, that could be against former UFC heavyweight champion and current Hall-0f-Famer Mark "The Hammer" Coleman. That could be an excellent matchup given that Coleman always comes to fight and would pit two extremely talented wrestlers against each other. For Ortiz, Coleman would present a solid threat, but also be the type of fight where Ortiz could likely survive the ring rust he'll expectedly have and still be able to earn a victory.
Here's the video of Ortiz's first day back training. It's a good watch, and a great intro into the LL Cool J track...
What is a tractor doing on home plate? The American Defenders, a Can-Am League team located in Nashua, New Hampshire, that is co-run by former Red 
Ricardo Arona; Former PRIDE fighting 205 pound fighter who holds wins over Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, and Wanderlei Silva. His last fight was a KO loss in April of 2007. Arona just turned 32 last month.
Jim Breuer; SNL castmate from 95-98, starred in Half-Baked, and most recently showed up out of no where in Beer League... in 2006.
Fozzie Bear; star of Muppet films starting in 1979 as well as "The Muppet Show." Let's face it the Muppets have not been the same since Jim Henson passed, and that's taken a toll on poor Fozzie.