Filed under: , , , , , ,

PONTIAC, Mich. — Sitting before a mass of reporters in the bowels of the Pontiac Silverdome on Saturday night, southpaw Devon Alexander wore the wounds of a beaten man.

Covering Alexander’s badly-ripped open right eyelid was a bandage that concealed four stitches, and there was a smaller one over the lower, left corner of his left eye which required two more stitches.

But perhaps more damaging was the inner pain felt by the 23-year-old Alexander, who, nearly an hour earlier, had been dethroned as WBC champion by 27-year-old WBO titlist Tim Bradley (27-0, 11 knockouts) in the first loss of his career following an HBO televised, junior welterweight (140 pounds) bout before a sparse crowd of 6,247.

Bradley was awarded a 10-round, technical decision in their brutal scheduled 12-rounder. An accidental clash of heads that caused searing pain in the left eye of Alexander was something he simply could not overcome.

“Bradley’s head went into my eye a little bit. I was pretty dazed when he head-butted me that last time. The head-butts were tremendous. Go back and look at the fight. I don’t bleed often, so, I’m not used to being cut. It was kind of on my mind,” said Alexander, who slipped to 21-1, with 13 knockouts.

“The head-butts cut up both of my eyes, but my left eye was stinging real bad after that last one. I couldn’t open my left eye,” said Alexander. “I’m like, ‘Man, blood was getting into my eye.’ I didn’t even know that this cut [on the left eye] was that bad, but the doctor said that it was down to the bone.”

On the advice of ringside doctor, Peter Samet, referee Frank Garza ruled that Alexander could not continue. The bout’s result would be determined by the ringside judges, whose scorecards read 96-95, 97-93, and, 98-93 for Tim Miller of Ohio, Duane Ford of Nevada and Omar MIntun of Mexico, respectively — all for the victorious Bradley.

“People are going to say what they want to say,” said Alexander. “But, let them get head-butted and try to be in a fight through constant head-butts.”

MENTOR GRAPHICS IMS HEALTH IMATION IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS IDT IBASIS HYPERCOM HEWLETT PACKARD CO HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS

Jens Pulver once was the UFC lightweight champion, but his last win was in 2007 against Cub Swanson in the WEC. Since then, he has lost six times, including two losses to Urijah Faber. He righted the ship on Saturday night at XFO 38 outside Chicago, winning by rear naked choke over Mike Lindquist. The fight starts at about two minutes in.

Lindquist was on a losing streak of his own, with the Pulver fight his fifth loss in a row.

Thanks to Chicago’s MMA for the video.

JDS UNIPHASE JDA SOFTWARE GROUP JACK HENRY and ASSOCIATES IXYS ITRON IRON MOUNTAIN INORATED IOMEGA INTUIT INTERSECTIONS

Santa left one of his reindeer here!

Merry Christmas!

NVIDIA ORACLE POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR PRICELINECOM QIMONDA QUALCOMM QUANTA COMPUTER RESEARCH IN MOTION ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS

This season of "The Ultimate Fighter" is going to be all about coaching the prospects, right? Those were the words of Brock Lesnar on Tuesday in Las Vegas. You get the feeling once the cameras are rolling and Lesnar is fed a few lines from Camp dos Santos, his singular focus may change.

Lesnar hasn’t had to publicly answer many questions about his loss against Cain Velasquez. It was clear that night that the big guy doesn’t like getting hit. Once Velasquez landed a few good punches, Lesnar was on his horse, nearly sprinting from a striking battle.

Dos Santos told the media during the Season 13 media day that Lesnar can’t take a punch. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"He doesn’t accept punches well. I am from boxing, so I have no problem with punches. Guys can punch me and I feel nothing, just keep going. That doesn’t happen with him," dos Santos said with a characteristic smile. "I don’t know why, I guess he’s got a weak chin."

It was surprising for the normally reserved dos Santos to state it so bluntly. He also believes Lesnar is going down again. 

"I believe I can knock him out."

Dos Santos is 12-1, including 6-0 with the UFC. He’s one of the better strikers in the heavyweight division with five of those UFC victories coming by TKO or KO. Lesnar (5-2 with UFC) has his work cut out for him and should get plenty of motivation if JDS continues to speak his mind. 

GOOGLE GRUPO IUSACELL HARRIS HCL TECHNOLOGIES HEWLETTPACKARD HIGH TECH COMPUTER HON HAI PRECISION IND HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES

Who knew there was such angst and jealousy in the world of Vikings? Brock Lesnar tabbed himself a nordic warrior, grew a gnarly beard and bagged a deer during a hunting trip to Canada. Justin Wren, a fellow American MMA fighter of Scandanavian descent, took Lesnar to task. Apparently, Lesnar isnt Viking enough. Wren posted on the Underground Forum that Lesnar’s beard was weak and phony:

One had a beard for a month… The other was the only student with his own razor at middle school.

One was clean shaven for over 30 years… The other hasn’t shaved once since high school (5 1/2 years)

Wren says deer, schmeer.

One shoots a deer from HUNDREDS of yards away … and carries it out.

The other’s FIRST hunt, he used only a 3 inch knife, chased down hog, flipped it to it’s back, ripped out it’s heart, and carried out the "Brock" sized hog over a 1,000 yards out through heavy brush, creek beds, cactus, 2 & 1/2 weeks after back surgery.

Wren finished by mocking on Lesnar for eating deer sausage while he was feasting hog hearts, one evidently exhibiting the stab wounds. 

This is clearly some good-natured ballbusting. If not, Wren, a former contestant on Season 10 of "The Ultimate Fighter," better get his career into gear so we can see the "Yuppie Viking’ against the "real Viking’ at UFC 154. Check out Wren’s website.

KONINKLIJKE KPN LAM RESEARCH LIBERTY GLOBAL LM ERICSSON LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL LAM RESEARCH L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY KEY

Charlie "The Spaniard" Brenneman hasn’t broken into the mainstream just yet when it comes to his mixed martial arts career. The lightweight will try to improve on that image tomorrow night on the Fight for the Troops 2 card on Spike.

In an odd twist, he’s actually had more success on Spike television than anyone else on this deep Ultimate Fight Night 23 card.

Brenneman was once a competitor on Spike’s "Pros vs. Joes" back in 2006.

The former college wrestler competed against the likes of Darren Daulton, Herschel Walker, Kevin Greene, Dominique Wilkens and Olympic sprinter Justin Gatlin. Episode 9 of Season 1 was titled, "Could you outrun the fastest man alive?"

"He probably beat me by 100 meters in the 200-meter dash," Brenneman told the Canadian Press.

Brenneman bounced back in the football competition against Greene. That was good enough to help him win the episode. He went onto the finale with his brother Ben and won the Season 1 title. He won $20,000 and a Dodge Caliber. It turns out the car was more valuable than the cash.

With Brenneman relocating two years ago from his Pennsylvania home in Hollidaysburg to a spot in East Hanover, N.J., the car came in handy for driving all over northern New Jersey. He trains in Whippany with fellow UFC fighters, Jim and Dan Miller. He also works with Ricardo Almeida to south in Hamilton and occasionally trains at Renzo Gracie’s gym in New York City. Throw in the commute back to East Stroudsburg, Pa. where he helps coach the East Stroudsburg University wrestling team and that’s a lot of driving.

Brenneman is 1-1 in the UFC. He debuted with a win over Jason High and lost via second round TKO against Johny Hendricks at UFC 117. Tomorrow at UFN 23, he gets to show his progress against a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in Amilcar Alves, who fightsout of Jose Aldo’s camp.

If you’re wondering about the nickname. Brenneman did his undergrad work at Lock Haven and got his masters from East Stroudsburg. He went on to teach high school Spanish from 2004-2007.

SYNTEL SYNTAXBRILLIAN SYNOPSYS SYNNEX SYMANTEC SYKES ENTERPRISES INORATED SYBASE SUN MICROSYSTEMS STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS

Santa left one of his reindeer here!

Merry Christmas!

HYPERCOM HEWLETT PACKARD CO HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS GOOGLE GOOGLE FORMFACTOR FISERV FIRST SOLAR FINISAR

Mike Brown was on top of the world for much of 2008 and 2009, but things change quickly in mixed martial arts. The rest of the field has caught and begun to pass the former WEC featherweight champ. Rani Yahya dominated Brown in a grappling war to take a unanimous decision, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, in an undercard bout at Fight for the Troops 2 at Fort Hood in Killeen, Tx. 

This was actually Brown’s second fight in last three weeks in the UFC. He lost on New Year’s Day at UFC 125 via decision against Diego Nunes. Maybe it was too soon to bounce back. He didn’t look fresh for most of the fight.

Brown (24-8, 0-3 UFC) was a dominant force when he first dropped down to 145, but his fortunes have changed quickly, losing two straight, 3-of-4 and 4-of-6.

Yahya (16-6, 1-0 UFC) set the tone early with his grappling. The Brazilian is slight compared Brown, but he looked like the much stronger fighter in the clinch, and when the fight hit the floor.

Yahya was close to setting up a rear-naked choke at the end of the first. Brown was already breathing heavily. In the second, Brown opted to lock horns again with Yahya. He got it to the ground but could never settle into a dominant position. After a stalemate on the floor for three minutes, the fight got back to the feet. Brown looked sluggish and was missing badly with right hands from a distance. Brown did enough to take the round on two cards, but was out of gas.

In With about 50 seconds gone by in the final round, Yahya scored a takedown. A minute later, Yahya had his back. He did significant damage with punches and worked for a choke. He was pounding away, but referee Mario Yamasaki thought he saw some illegal shots and put the fight back on the feet. Brown couldn’t mount an attack in the final minute. 

Lowe’s wrestling early on too much for Freire

Waylon Lowe isn’t interested much in style points. He’s a grinder, who relies on his wrestling to take the sting away from more well-rounded fighters. Willamy Freire may be a hot shot prospect, but he proved he still needs to work on his takedown defense. Lowe scored takedowns throughout the first two rounds. The American moved out to a 20-18 lead and survived gassing a bit in the final round to post his second UFC victory. Lowe won via unanimous decision, 29-28 on all scorecards.

The thickly muscled Lowe (10-3, 2-1 UFC) had a big advantage in the power department. Freire, 23, was too stationary when standing, allowing Lowe to charge forward for easy takedowns. On the ground, Freire was active from the bottom, but the judges gave the nod to Lowe who controlled things from the top.

Lowe was exhausted in the third and there for the taking, but Freire couldn’t turn on the jets. After a scramble, he momentarily scored the mount. Freire eventually settled into Lowe’s half guard with three minutes left in the fight. He did some damage with 12-15 lefts to Lowe’s face, but the American scrambled and eventually got to his feet.

Non-televised undercard:

Chris Cariaso def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Charlie Brenneman def. Amilcar Alves via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

KEY JDS UNIPHASE JDA SOFTWARE GROUP JACK HENRY and ASSOCIATES IXYS ITRON IRON MOUNTAIN INORATED IOMEGA INTUIT

The UFC’s big press conference at Madison Square Garden unveiled a nice show of support. Scott O’Neil, President of Madison Square Garden Sports, is squarely behind the effort as was N.Y. assemblyman Dean Murray. There was little opposition in the room. As a result, no debate ensued.

There was one interesting moment when Megan Paznik asked this:

"If you’re adding kicking and punching to mixed martial arts, how can you regulate it so that there isn’t serious injuries?"

Dana White was so thrown off he had a tough time answering the question. He turned to referencing the fact that there hasn’t been a death in the history of the UFC. The easiest approach would’ve been to mention that boxing, football and hockey are all contact sports to a certain degree and there really is no way to guarantee a sport is free of injuries. It’s also worth noting that elements of MMA like Judo, karate, boxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling are all legal in New York. Why would a combination of those disciplines be illegal? 

Paznik went on to voice this video. Yes, there is a dogfighting comparison and the producer of the video made sure to include plenty of violent looking images.

NIKON NINTENDO NOKIA NVIDIA ORACLE POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR PRICELINECOM QIMONDA QUALCOMM

Filed under: ,

Jim O’Brien has been fired by the Pacers.

Team president Larry Bird announced the firing Sunday, saying: “This isn’t all on Jim. All of us share in the responsibility for where we’re at and where we need to go.”

Assistant coach Frank Vogel will take over the team on an interim basis.

O’Brien and the Pacers sport a 17-27 record, ranking 10th in the East. The team is also reeling of late, losing their past eight games.

The reported firing comes just one week after Bird told FanHouse’s Chris Tomasson that O’Brien’s job was safe for the remainder of the season. The Star

O’Brien was 121-169 in four seasons with the Pacers. Despite the poor output, the Pacers’ best player in his coaching days was Danny Granger – an All-Star talent, but more help was clearly needed as players such Roy Hibbert and Darren Collison continue to struggle.

Vogel has been a scout for the Los Angeles Lakers and Washington Wizards, and also served as an assistant coach for O’Brien in Philadelphia and Boston.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

ORACLE OPENWAVE SYSTEMS ON SEMICONDUCTOR NVIDIA NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS NOVELLUS SYSTEMS NOVELL NETWORK APPLIANCE NETGEAR

The UFC announced that tickets will go on sale on Feb. 12 for their first Toronto event, UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre. Tickets will range from $50-800, and approximately 42,000 tickets will be available for sale. That’s nearly double the attendance that the UFC has ever gotten for an event.

The deck is stacked for a big event. Canada’s favorite son, Georges St. Pierre will fight Jake Shields on the main event. Jose Aldo will put his belt on the line against Mark Hominick, and Randy Couture, always a draw, will fight Lyoto Machida. Plus, it’s the first time the UFC willl be in Toronto.

Canada is traditionally a boon for the UFC. Most recently, UFC 124 in Montreal broke the North American attendance record. With GSP as the main event fighter, they pulled in 23,152 attendees.

APPLE COMPUTER APPLIED MATERIALS ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ARROW ELECTRONICS ASML HOLDING ASUSTEK COMPUTER ATandT AUTODESK AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING

Filed under: ,

Someone said something shocking on a TNT NBA studio show Thursday night. No shock there, not with Charles Barkley as one of the analysts.

Except, the stunning statement didn’t happen in a studio, but rather on the floor of Madison Square Garden. And it wasn’t said by Barkley, but by comedian Tracy Morgan, who made the startling declaration that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was attractive.

Really, really attractive.

Here’s the set-up: Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson were conducting business at MSG in advance of the Miami Heat-New York Knicks game, which TNT televised. The trio were discussing the pending NBA All-Star Game and Thursday’s announcement of the Eastern and Western Conference starters, when Morgan, who stars in the NBC sitcom “30 Rock” happened by their makeshift set.

Barkley and Smith asked Morgan whom he thought merited inclusion on the All-Star roster. Then Morgan was asked to choose between Palin and Tina Fey, who created “30 Rock,” and has impersonated Palin on “SNL.”

That’s when Morgan said that Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee was “good masturbation material.” It may have marked one of the few times that the normally loquacious Barkley has ever been speechless.

TNT, however, recovered quickly, issuing a statement from spokesman Jeff Pomeroy that read: “It’s unfortunate Mr. Morgan showed a lack of judgment on our air with his inappropriate comments.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FORMFACTOR FISERV FIRST SOLAR FINISAR FEI COMPANY FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL FAIR ISAAC FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS F5 NETWORKS

Filed under: ,

The Portland Trail Blazers have assigned rookie guard Armon Johnson to the NBA Development League’s Idaho Stampede Friday, the team announced.

Johnson, a 6-foot-3 rookie point guard out of Nevada, has appeared in 28 games this season with the Trail Blazers and is averaging 3.1 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 8.1 minutes. Over his last seven appearances, he’s scored just four points — all of which came from a 2-for-7 shooting performance during a 95-77 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 28.

Though it’s possible to make the case that this move should have been made as soon as he was replaced by Patty Mills as Portland’s backup point guard, it seems as though Johnson didn’t see the benefit in playing in the D-League.

“I think you learn just as much (not playing in the NBA compared with playing in the D-League) because, being the type of person I am, I like to pay attention to it, pay attention to the game any way I can — how people walk, how people talk out there on the court, pregame rituals, little things,” Johnson told the Reno Gazette-Journal earlier this week. “I feel (staying on the Blazers’ bench) is really helping me. And I’m around my teammates.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

EMS TECHNOLOGIES EMC ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS ELECTRONIC ARTS ECLIPSYS EASTMAN KODAK CO EARTHLINK DST SYSTEMS

Mike Brown was on top of the world for much of 2008 and 2009, but things change quickly in mixed martial arts. The rest of the field has caught and begun to pass the former WEC featherweight champ. Rani Yahya dominated Brown in a grappling war to take a unanimous decision, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, in an undercard bout at Fight for the Troops 2 at Fort Hood in Killeen, Tx. 

This was actually Brown’s second fight in last three weeks in the UFC. He lost on New Year’s Day at UFC 125 via decision against Diego Nunes. Maybe it was too soon to bounce back. He didn’t look fresh for most of the fight.

Brown (24-8, 0-3 UFC) was a dominant force when he first dropped down to 145, but his fortunes have changed quickly, losing two straight, 3-of-4 and 4-of-6.

Yahya (16-6, 1-0 UFC) set the tone early with his grappling. The Brazilian is slight compared Brown, but he looked like the much stronger fighter in the clinch, and when the fight hit the floor.

Yahya was close to setting up a rear-naked choke at the end of the first. Brown was already breathing heavily. In the second, Brown opted to lock horns again with Yahya. He got it to the ground but could never settle into a dominant position. After a stalemate on the floor for three minutes, the fight got back to the feet. Brown looked sluggish and was missing badly with right hands from a distance. Brown did enough to take the round on two cards, but was out of gas.

In With about 50 seconds gone by in the final round, Yahya scored a takedown. A minute later, Yahya had his back. He did significant damage with punches and worked for a choke. He was pounding away, but referee Mario Yamasaki thought he saw some illegal shots and put the fight back on the feet. Brown couldn’t mount an attack in the final minute. 

Lowe’s wrestling early on too much for Freire

Waylon Lowe isn’t interested much in style points. He’s a grinder, who relies on his wrestling to take the sting away from more well-rounded fighters. Willamy Freire may be a hot shot prospect, but he proved he still needs to work on his takedown defense. Lowe scored takedowns throughout the first two rounds. The American moved out to a 20-18 lead and survived gassing a bit in the final round to post his second UFC victory. Lowe won via unanimous decision, 29-28 on all scorecards.

The thickly muscled Lowe (10-3, 2-1 UFC) had a big advantage in the power department. Freire, 23, was too stationary when standing, allowing Lowe to charge forward for easy takedowns. On the ground, Freire was active from the bottom, but the judges gave the nod to Lowe who controlled things from the top.

Lowe was exhausted in the third and there for the taking, but Freire couldn’t turn on the jets. After a scramble, he momentarily scored the mount. Freire eventually settled into Lowe’s half guard with three minutes left in the fight. He did some damage with 12-15 lefts to Lowe’s face, but the American scrambled and eventually got to his feet.

Non-televised undercard:

Chris Cariaso def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Charlie Brenneman def. Amilcar Alves via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

NETGEAR NCR NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS MOTOROLA MOODYS MISCROSOFT OFFICE MICROSOFT MICROSEMI

We didn’t intend for today to be Jon Jones day, but this video from the Jackson’s MMA Twitter feed was too fun not to share. Watch the first minute to catch Jones’ tumbling skills. 

Learning from campmate Diego Sanchez, Jones has adopted the "YES! Cartwheel" and turned it into the "YEAH! Cartwheel." Sanchez, a confirmed bag of crazy, has added to his psychotic persona by shaving his head, and he is still wearing his jersey from the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter." 

A bit of training news is dropped at the end of the video: Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix participant Andrei Arlovski is working with Jackson’s camp to prepare. He sparred with Rashad Evans, who is getting ready for his title bout with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. 

INTUIT INTERSECTIONS INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES (IBM) INTERDIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS INTEL INSIGHT ENTERPRISES INGRAM MICRO

by Michael David SmithThe UFC is using its status as the industry leader in pay-per-view television to also become the leader in cracking down on companies that allow people to watch pay-per-view events online, without paying.

Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company, announced Friday that it filed a lawsuit against Justin.tv, for what it calls “Justin.tv’s repeated and ongoing failure to meaningfully address the rampant and illegal uploading of video of live Pay-Per-View UFC events by members and users of the Justin.tv website.

Justin.tv (which did not immediately respond to a request for comment) calls itself “the easiest way to create live video and show anyone in the world.” The site says that it respects copyright law and bans users who violate it.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

SYBASE SUN MICROSYSTEMS STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS SRA INTERNATIONAL SPSS SPANSION SONUS NETWORKS SONIC AUTOMOTIVE SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS

Filed under: , ,

AUBURN, Ala. — Cam Newton and Auburn‘s football team put on one last Saturday afternoon show at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

With an estimated 78,000 fans on hand, including hundreds of students crowded onto the field before the stage, the Tigers celebrated their first national championship in 53 years.

It also turned into a farewell for stars Newton and Nick Fairley, both skipping their senior seasons to enter the NFL draft. Newton slapped hands as he danced along the line of students, then struck a Heisman pose at the podium and sang out, “War Eagle.”

He thanked the fans for standing by him through the revelations that his father, Cecil, sought payment to sign with Mississippi State, a scandal that shadowed Newton for the season’s final two months.

“You never stopped believing in me,” Newton said. “People have asked me over and over, how did I handle the distractions. The simple answer is, God, family and you, my Auburn family. You never lost faith in me and that means more to me than words can ever say. You will be in my heart forever.”

The biggest applause came when Auburn introduced Fairley and Newton. Both took turns at the podium, along with Gov. Robert Bentley — who is from Tuscaloosa — and others.

Coach Gene Chizik related a story that he said demonstrated what kind of teammates Newton and Fairley were.

“Thirty minutes before the national championship game, and I didn’t know whether they were going to come back or not,” he said. “I called them in and said, ‘I want you guys to be team captains.’

“I didn’t know if they were ever going to get a chance to walk out on that field again. They looked at me simultaneously and said, ‘Coach we can’t do that. You’ve got to pick two more seniors.’ “

Former players presented Newton with the Heisman Trophy and Fairley with the Lombardi Award on the stage. The Southeastern Conference and various national title trophies also were presented, before fans gathered for a reverse Tiger Walk back to the football complex.

The scoreboard clock had 20:10 remaining. And the board read 22-19, the final score of the title game against Oregon.

Auburn topped rival Alabama in one category. The Crimson Tide’s similar event last year drew an estimated 38,000, but those fans hadn’t waited nearly as long.

The Tigers hadn’t won a national title since 1957, and that team’s quarterback, Lloyd Nix, was among the speakers.

Chizik took the opportunity to praise the fans and his team once again.

“You are the best fans in the United States of America,” he said. “And you have helped us and been a huge part of being the best football team in the United States of America.”

As for the team: “I was asked right before the national championship, ‘Coach, do you have a great team?’ We’d won 13, and I said, ‘Ask me in one more week.’ I can emphatically say this is a great football team.”

Chizik said he told athletic director Jay Jacobs before his hiring that a title was coming.

“I said, ‘I don’t know how long it’s going to take. I’m not going to put a timeline on it — but we will win a championship. You can bank that one,’ ” the coach said.

This team will lose 23 seniors, 13 of them starters, and its two biggest stars.

Newton and Fairley are projected first-round picks, with the All-American defensive tackle drawing buzz that he might be the No. 1 overall selection.

Newton was asked if it was worth it to leave Auburn with labor problems and a potential lockout hovering over the NFL.

“It’s kind of a bittersweet situation that we’re in right now, because what other way can you picture us going out than the way we went out this year?” he said. “With a lockout looming, will it happen? That’s the risk you’ve got to take.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FEI COMPANY FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL FAIR ISAAC FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS F5 NETWORKS EPICOR SOFTWARE EMULEX EMS TECHNOLOGIES EMC

All is good in the world of fighting when it comes to Las Vegas. At least for the next few weeks. Beyond the mega-card at UFC 126, Sin City has turned into a tough place to hold a fight. If the timing isn’t right and the card isn’t stacked, Vegas fight fans seem to be staying home in larger numbers.

UFC 126 features Anderson Silva-Vitor Belfort, Jon Jones-Ryan Bader and Forrest Griffin-Rich Franklin on top of the card. It’s also on Super Bowl weekend. So it comes as no surprise that the card is nearly sold out and the UFC is working on adding closed-circuit viewing.

It’s an amazing turnaround from UFC 125. The New Year’s Day card headlined by the Frank Edgar-Gray Maynard fight had an announced attendance of 12,874, but MMAjunkie points out that 5,896 of those tickets were free. With the momentum UFC has going in markets around the U.S. and the world, to hear numbers reminiscent of 2005, it must’ve been startling for some readers, but it wasn’t to Las Vegas media and residents.

Three excellent boxing cards in November and December all failed to eclipse the 5,000 mark in attendance. Vegas has become a fickle city and because of the economy, the residents don’t have the extra income they did four years ago.

Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole says it’s probably not going to get any better for fight promoters in the near future in Las Vegas. He suggests it may be time to bail on the city unless the fight card is an absolute slam dunk. 

BHARTI AIRTEL BT GROUP CANON MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS MICROSOFT MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR MOBILE TELESYSTEMS NANYA TECHNOLOGY NII HOLDINGS

Cody McKenzie lost to Yves Edwards, but he proved he’s a pretty solid mixed martial artist. The goofiest character to emerge from Season 12 of "The Ultimate Fighter" built his reputation on finishing opponents with a guillotine choke and talking to smack to Josh Koscheck. At Fight for the Troops 2, Edwards finished McKenzie with a rear-naked choke, but the bearded Alaskan showed he’s got more to his arsenal.

McKenzie (12-1, 1-1 UFC) is learning on the job. His striking is very unorthodox, so he got picked apart in the first by Edwards. That may have led the veteran to sleep on him a bit to start the second.

McKenzie dragged Edwards (40-16, 8-4 UFC) to the ground with 3:33 left in the second, eventually got his back and pounded away for a few minutes. McKenzie’s attack was relentless. Edwards survived that near two-minute onslaught and scrambled back to his feet. McKenzie got a little overanxious when he tried to get it down again. Edwards won the scramble this time and McKenzie found himself mounted. He eventually gave up his back where Edwards slapped on a nasty choke. McKenzie refused to tap and went out at 4:33 of the second.  

Johnson finishes Guymon with nasty body lock

DaMarques Johnson has had trouble showing consistency since his stint on TUF 9. Tonight might be a leaping point for Johnson. He schooled Mike Guymon on the ground eventually taking the veteran’s back and locking his legs in a body lock. Guymon tried to get to his knees, but was flattened out. Johnson (12-8, 3-2 UFC) wisely squeezed the hold and pulled up on Guymon’s neck. "The Joker" couldn’t take the pain for more than a few seconds and verbally tapped.

When he tried to rise to his feet, Guymon (12-5, 1-3 UFC) yelped and rolled back to the floor. UFC analyst Joe Rogan said he thought he saw something protruding from Guymon’s back. 

JACK HENRY and ASSOCIATES IXYS ITRON IRON MOUNTAIN INORATED IOMEGA INTUIT INTERSECTIONS INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY

Filed under: ,

After a stellar performance at the D-League National Tryout, FanHouse’s own Jordan Schultz was one of ten (out of 200) callbacks to the Idaho Stampede tryout in Boise. With the competition stiffened, find out how the former all-state and college shooting guard handled the pressures, one step closer to realizing the D-League dream.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

ADOBE SYSTEMS ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS ALLTEL AMAZONCOM AMERICA MOVIL AMKOR TECHNOLOGY AMPHENOL ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL