I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody.
Views from the 617.
Primarily MMA and pop culture takes from down in the rabbit hole. Sports straight out of left field.
And that’s about it folks, not too much to add. Jon Jones does not like Luke Thomas so he will in fact not be answering his question. Minutes after confirming he in fact does “not give a fuck,” Jon Jones supplies us with a tangible example of the lack of fucks he gives.
In all seriousness though, with my resentment towards how entitled sports media can be this was pure gold and made my week.
You’ve by now no doubt seen this little story regarding Stephen A. reporting that Lebron wants to beat up Kyrie. Now add to that Lebron angrily denying it and their ensuing cat-fight. I think Smith actually threatened Lebron today a la the same way he did Kevin Durant awhile back. whatever.
Now, I hate Lebron James with every fiber of my being and I admit that. I think he is an overrated, pretentious, narcissistic asshole. However, I will pay him a compliment. I think he probably does the best “hold me back” in recorded human history. He is a solid actor, as evidenced by all the flopping he does and shocked faces he makes. I can absolutely picture him, standing 6’8, seeing Kyrie Irving from across the nail salon and shouting for his bodyguards, standing 6’9, as a 6’8 man tends to need, to hold him back, or else.
Let’s call it like it is people. Lebron James has been coddled, insulated, and treated like a princess since he was in High School. He, as a product of a single mother, single income household, famously rolled up to St. Francis-St. Mary in a Hummer. At 32 years old, caring more about your #brand than anything else on earth, when your knuckles are part of your livelihood, you don’t decide to take up solving your problems in a physical manner, at least not personally. It would do too much damage to both his d-bag image and possibly his career if he hurt his hand.
Now I’ll say this is also a another one of a growing number huge losses for Stephen A. . He is more and more being called out for the lack of substance in what he says and since Brian Windhorst has the Lebron lapdog market cornered, Stephen A. is grasping at straws when it comes to breaking stories about Queen James.
Overall though this is still a bigger Lebron loss, as he looks like he’s playing Tommy Toughguy. You could tie Kyrie’s hands behind his back and I doubt LBJ would swing. WEST ORANGE, NJ STAND UP.
As I mentioned before this card is fuckin staaAAAAaaaAAcked so I’m going to write a little about it each day (nerdgasms everywhere) and then do the usual preview Friday. Today I’m going to cover the Main Card tilt between two, IMO, future Hall of Famers.
There was once a gym in Bettendorf, Iowa that produced some of the most prominent early-Zuffa era UFC names. Miletich Fighting Systems, established by the first-ever UFC Welterweight Champion, Pat Miletich, forged such fighters as long-time Welterweight Champion and UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes, former Lightweight Champion Jens “Lil’ Evil” Pulver, and former Heavyweight Champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia. In May of 2002, the vaunted Midwestern gym presented to the Octagon 20 year old welterweight Robbie Lawler, who although now has established a solid overall MMA game, is still known for exactly what he was known for then: a fucking grenade of a left hand.
Lawler’s first stint with the UFC lasted 7 fights, with a 4-3 record – including a legendary back-and-forth loss to a then 20 year old Nick Diaz – to show for it. His last fight in the first go-round was contested up a weight class up at 185 pounds, where he stayed for the next act of his career. Lawler turned into a bit of a domestic nomad, plying his trade to whomever in the United States wanted to pay him his asking price and gathering such accolades as the ICON Sport, SuperBrawl, and EliteXC Middleweight Championships. He then found his way to Strikeforce, the only promotion to give the UFC a run for its money the past decade or so, and found mixed results in a pool of, if not top flight, just below it middleweights. Strikeforce, as the story goes, was purchased by Zuffa and its roster, at least the portion that was found to be up to snuff, was absorbed into the UFC. Having gone 11-6 in the span of about 8 years, Robbie Lawler was, in a way, coming home. And a funny thing happened. Now re-stablilized at American Top Team after being a bit of a gym jumper for a spell, “Ruthless” returned to his old stomping ground of 170lbs, won 3 in a row, lost a close decision to Johny Hendricks, won 2 more, and then won the UFC Welterweight Championship. The frag-fisted lefty from Bettendorf was now the 170lb king of the world. And no one was happier for him then two previously mentioned former champs:
Lawler would defend the belt twice before surrendering it to Tyron Woodley via 1st round KO almost a year ago to the date of UFC 214. Some say it was just his time, he was 34 then, 35 now, he had his reign. I would argue that maybe Woodley, a hyper-explosive athlete, was just Lawler’s kryptonite at that moment in time, given, yes, Lawler’s advanced age, but also his combined high level of activity (still averaging three fights per year since 2012 at that point) and ever mounting level of competition. He also left ATT between then and now, so his training camp very well could not of been 100% perfect. When it all shakes out, there is a saying that the simplest answer is usually the right one. Nearing 34 (then) with 38 fights in the bag, maybe Robbie Lawler just needed a break.
With a year to rehab and refresh now behind him, Lawler looks to return Saturday and make one last run, his left hand in tow.
***
Across the cage from Robbie Lawler will be none other than the UFC’s resident wild child, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. The longtime fan favorite was actually a decorated kickboxer before debuting in MMA in 2006. To that end, although Cerrone is now also an absolute handful on the ground, particularly off his back, his is still mostly known for some of the prettiest and deadly punch/kick combinations you’ll see in the sport.
As a diehard fan of the late, lighter-weights promotion, I would be doing myself a personal disservice if I didn’t mention Cerrone came to the UFC via the WEC and is a true legend of the WEC canvas, where he thrice tried uncsuccessfully to win the WEC Lightweight crown. More on that in a second. More recently, by happenstance due to a late replacement opponent, “Cowboy” has moved up to 170lbs. He has benefited greatly, it would seem, from no longer having to cut down to 155 and finished the first 4 welterweights he faced. But more on that in a second.
Aside from his success between bells, Cerrone is also known for being an absolute maniac both in terms of how he approaches his career and his exploits outside the cage. He fights at a ridiculous, unheard of clip, entering the octagon 4 times a year from 2013 through 2016. He will take any and all comers at seemingly any weight-class. Indeed it was Cerrone clamoring for the fight Nate Diaz eventually got against Conor McGregor at UFC 196. Outside the cage, Cerrone seeks as much adrenaline as he finds inside of it, participating in any extreme sport he can, regardless of whether or not he has a fight on the horizon.
Now I address the elephant in the room. “Cowboy” has now for awhile leveraged the use of a sports psychologist for his career. The reason for this is he starts slow and often gets in his own head, sometimes seeming unsure and tepid, a complete juxtaposition to the way he acts, thinks, talks, and succeeds the other 99% of the time. This is the main reason he fights so often – it doesn’t give him time to think. Grip it and rip it. He also, as alluded to, seems to falter at the highest pressure and biggest moments, losing all 4 major title fights he has been in as well as his most recent bout, a borderline #1 contender’s contest against Jorge Masvidal. When the lights shine the brightest, Cerrone’s flame burns the lowest. This can’t happen Saturday, as he enters the cage against another returning Welterweight in a fight with, whether the native Coloradoan likes it or not, major implications.
Both Cerrone and Lawler enter the cage Saturday coming off losses. However both of those losses came off the backs of win streaks against top-notch opponents and both men remain in the Top-10 of the welterweight rankings. With Stephen Thompson hurt and the aforementioned “Gambred” Masvidal coming off a loss to Woodley’s UFC 214 title challenger Demian Maia, it would not be a stretch to see the victor of this fight get a title shot, if not a #1 Contenders bout. Either way, two of the best “hitters”, as Nick Diaz so aptly refers to them, in the division and the sport enter the cage Saturday to see who really wants one last shot at the belt. Only one can leave with their hand, or maybe more accurately, their fist, raised.
So real quick just to do a quick callback to one of our recommended binges. You may have noticed a new actor playing Sam’s brother, Dickon Tarley (teehee) on Sunday’s episode. Recasting has long been a headache for GOT fans. They don’t always make it obvious it’s a character you’ve seen before, especially considering, although you may not remeber, pre-“Game Of Thrones” there wasn’t a lot of shows you had to remember 6,000 characters. Anyway, the dude who played Cormac McClaggen in a Harry Potter movie or two is not playing the favored Tarley brother anymore, apparently because of a scheduling conflict with another show he was set to be on – that since has been cancelled. To reiterate, he quit GAME OF THRONES to be on an ABC show, albeit in a more prevalent part, that has already been cancelled, all across about a 6 month time-span. Fire your agent bromigo.
Which brings us to his replacement, which is a curious one as physqiue/size wise they at least appear pretty different. Anyway, the actor in question is Tom Hopper, who played a character by the name of Billy Bones….
ON BLACK MOTHERFUCKIN SAILS
“Black Sails Is A Binge-Worthy Epic Majestic Unicorn”
As a “Black Sails” diehard I obviously fanboy’d out when Hopper did his little turnaround (see: I squealed like a little school girl). Lady Ballgame was not impressed and quite frankly a bit disgusted. But whatever. Believe me when I say these two things.
1.) Tom Hopper will be a star within the next couple of years. He’s Charlie Hunnam with a bit better acting chops (and I love Hunnam)
2.) Too much Dickon Tarley is not enough Dickon Tarley from here on out.
Not going to try and make this a PhD thesis about the New England Patriots and their upcoming season, I am going to simply state I strongly disagree with my editor’s opinion (although I respect his right to it cause we’re buds 🙂 ) and give a few reasons why.
A 19-0 season is like an awesome upcoming party that you have to throw. I’m guessing it’s like planning your wedding. That night things are probably going to go great and it’s going to be best night of your life blahblahblah but putting it altogether and paying for it sucks, from what I’ve heard. Sure, it would be great to go undefeated. It’d be cool. But as a fan the stress and strain of winning week in and week out in the National Football League for 16 weeks is a grind. I honestly hate it. I feel like a lot of people, and this does not include Dougie, don’t get that just because the Pats make it look easy sometimes doesn’t mean it is. They are still playing highly trained super-athletes every single week. Every early season loss for me comes with 5 minutes of despair followed by the epiphany of “thank God we got that out of the way”.
I also think that in the grand scheme of things 19-0 is a bit arbitrary. It would be awesome, sure. However there is a reason no one talks about the team we put together in 07′ that was only the second team to ever go undefeated in the regular season and the first to go 16-0: we lost the big one. In other words, The Super Bowl is all that really matters. We’ve won that going 11-5. We’ve lost that going 14-2. Let’s just get there and then let’s win it.
So that’s really it, my rebuttal. I guess I’m not about the glitz and the glam. I don’t care about superfluous records. I’m looking for more hardware.
As I mentioned before this card is fuckin staaAAAAaaaAAcked so I’m going to write a little about it each day (nerdgasms everywhere) and then do the usual preview Friday. Today I’m going to cover the subtleties behind the Welterweight Championship fight between Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia.
You can’t blame Tyron Woodley.
He didn’t make his pro MMA debut until he was just shy of his 27th birthday and he did not get his first major title shot until he was 30, a loss in Strikeforce to Nate Marquardt.
He made his way to the UFC after that fight, beating a couple big-name welterweights such as Carlos Condit but losing to Jake Shields and Rory MacDonald. “The Chosen One” then put together his current undefeated streak(4-0, 1 draw). His delayed ascension wasn’t over though, as he was expected to face Johnny Hendricks in a #1 Contender’s fight at UFC 192 but Hendricks was pulled from the night the day before due to what became a string of bad weight cuts. Woodley defiantly showed up to weigh ins and made weight anyway, angrily promulgating the professionalism that is making wait.
Woodley finally got his shot 7 months later at UFC 201, his patience and frustration leaving his body in the form of an explosive right hand to the face of Robbie Lawler. Woodley was now the champ, and would put on two classics against Stephen Thompson next, a draw then a win, both via razor sharp decisions.
During and after his trilogy with Thompson, now in his mid-30’s, Tyron Woodley began seeking out the “money fights” that have come to define this era in the UFC. He wants PPV fights against big names that will earn him the most money on the back end and through merch sales as possible. With his delayed stardom and thus delayed top-tier paychecks, I ask again – who can really blame him? He’s sought fights with Michael Bisping, on camera and on Twitter. Nick Diaz is a name you’ve heard come out of his mouth multiple times. He has mentioned Georges St. Pierre a couple of times as well, the Québécois seemingly having no interest in a fight with Woodley, whose name is still not considered by many as deserving a top billing. The one man Woodley has sort of avoided, not out of fear or strategy, but due to what it WON’T do for his bank account is Demian Maia.
Maia, arguably among the top 3 (I’d go Jacare, him, Werdum) BJJ players competing succesfully at this high of a level in MMA, has put together a borderline inaudible 7-fight win streak and has not lost in over 3 years. His fighting style is, to say the least, not exactly aesthetically pleasing. He uses solid boxing and movement, as well as some underrated wrestling, to get in range to grab his opponent – and then he doesn’t let go. If he doesn’t execute one of his patented, slicing guard passes to get in position for a submission, he will grind, flatten, and knead his opponent for the duration of a fight. He’s a Brazilian Jon Fitch incarnate, except he’s only 3 months older than the Boilermaker. In short, people, especially those without specially educated eyes, don’t shell out to see Demian Maia fight, which is a shame.
Before dropping to welterweight in 2012, Maia actually was a very successful 185er, going 15-4. He even earned a shot at Anderson Silva for the Middleweight title in what is considered one of the WORST title fights in UFC history. That last note probably did not help his case in pursuing the 170lb title, to say the least. Maia, in the minds of many, should have received his shot from the UFC after his 1st round submission of Carlos Condit at UFC On Fox 21 last August, but they made him pass one more test still, seemingly in hopes, for their sake and Woodley’s, that the measured, cerebral, fan-unfriendly way Maia fights would not have to be brought to the big time – again. Alas, Jorge Masvidal also to stop his momentum in May.
It is important to note that Demian Maia is widely, if not unanimously, regarded as one of the nicest and most polite fighters in all of the sport. He is a true professional, a gentleman who publicly stated he was a bit frustrated about his delay in getting a title shot, but refused to go beyond that, quietly going about his business and grappling Masvidal into oblivion for 3 rounds. He is the personification of the sport he came from, the gentle art.
5 weeks before UFC 214, Demian Maia was hesitantly given his title shot. 5 weeks. A short notice camp for a big-time fight. Not that Woodley was any more prepared, but this is the 39 year old Maia’s last chance to climb through the tiniest opening in what has been a rapidly closing window. More than likely the UFC tried like hell to find Woodley another opponent, or considered leaving him off the card altogether. In the end, they decided this was the perfect time to give Maia his opportunity. They probably are hoping he’ll fail, that they won’t have to survive a title reign of a fighter that many fans consider to be boring. However, whether you like their fighting styles or not, the top two welterweights currently in the UFC (it’s true) are going to do battle Saturday to see who is truly the best. That’s exciting enough.
Yahoo -After a tough start to his baseball career, New York Mets outfielder Tim Tebow is starting to knock the rust off. The 29-year-old added to his impressive stat line with the St. Lucie Mets on Sunday, belting a monstrous home run..Tebow has been putting up some strong numbers since his promotion. In 25 games, he’s hitting .317/.398/.549, with four home runs. He’s even managed to cut down on his strikeout rate. At Columbia, Tebow struck out in 28.2 percent of his plate appearances. That’s down to 19.3 percent now. His walk rate has remained stable despite the increase in competition.
Editors Note: I am fully on Team Tim Tebow. I have a Tim Tebow No. 5 Patriots t-shirt so Joey Ballgame is on his own here. #GoTebowGo
This is officially re-Goddam-diculous. From personal punt protector to AA Star. From a guy who was told to “shut the fuck up” when he tried to get his team to pray before the senior bowl to a .317/.398/.549 slash line after hitting .220 BEFORE he was called up.
Tim Tebow another bomb for St. Lucie. Call. Him. Up. #tebowtime pic.twitter.com/UTikos30WB
— Daren Stoltzfus (@DarenStoltzfus) July 23, 2017
My feelings for Tebow at this point make an apt contrast to my feelings for a one Conor McGregor, in case you don’t hear about him enough. I’ve stopped doubting Conor Mac and I love it. Anything he says he is going to do now I just sort of shrug and say “probably”, then laugh and smirk as people get themselves all worked up telling him he can’t. It’s a riot and a lot of fun. I’ve also stopped doubting Tim Tebow and I hate it. GTFO with suddenly being good at professional baseball you strange Jesus freak boy band lookin ass motherfucker. Do you not remember this spring training, mere months ago, when Max Scherzer made you look like a child? I hope you do. I hope you sit on top of toilet with a bat having a mental breakdown like Pyle in “Full Metal Jacket” just reliving that moment. Because I am getting sick and tired of this whole Tebow narrative. Fuckin evangelical Roy Hobbs.
JamaNetwork – In a convenience sample of 202 deceased players of American football from a brain donation program, CTE was neuropathologically diagnosed in 177 players across all levels of play (87%), including 110 of 111 former National Football League players (99%).
So you might have seen this startling, extremely disconcerting news come out yesterday. Some scientists did a study where they tested 202 brains taken from deceased former football players, across all levels of play. Out of those 202, 177 were diagnosed as having chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. The study defines CTE as “progressive neurodegeneration associated with repetitive head trauma” and I like that definition because even for science-stupid people like me it’s easy to digest. Basically if you get hit in the head over and over again your brain and neurological functions are apt to, well, degenerate. Fall apart, in other words.
A lot of people are putting a ton of emphasis on the NFL aspect, which is even more eye opening. Out of 111 brains tested from former NFL players, 110 were diagnosed with CTE. 110/111. 99%. If you ever watched an NFL game, there were a total of 106 players you could have possibly seen play. Think about that long and hard. Just mind blowing stuff.
Honestly though? I’m a little more concerned with the still extremely high rate (about 74% if I’m doing my math right) of CTE found in non-pro players. Men who went on to other careers and lives that just got the short end of the stick and probably had no idea what was going on with them. Imagine not even considering your high school glory days when you’re wondering why you can’t remember what you had for breakfast or why you got so mad at the dog?
Maybe the worse part of all this is you really can’t test for CTE in a living person. It has to be looked for in a brain, extracted from a dead person. You can’t know until it is way too late to do anything about it. I also think about the other misunderstandings regarding CTE, one in particular. Look again at the definition. See that word “repetitive”. A lot of people think CTE comes from taking a handful of huge shots, and that certainly does not help, at all. I’m sure we all saw that image of Luke Kuechly crying on the back of that stretcher and thought “fuck that can’t be good”. In reality, it doesn’t take a big pop. The term “punch drunk” comes from boxers with what is now known as CTE who maybe or maybe not got knocked out a ton but got jabbed and countered and hit even with pillow-fisted crosses over and over again, fight after fight. And those shots added up. Remember Muhammed Ali’s arm shaking as he lit the torch at the 96′ Olympic games in Atlanta? I do.
Put all this together and I really start to reflect. I played hockey from 5 to about 15, I played rugby in college, and now I kickbox ,very subparly. I have friends who followed similar recreational paths. I know Dougie played Lacrosse and now does BJJ, a sport from which a headbutt-induced concussion plagues former UFC Lightweight #1 Contender T.J Grant to this day. 4 years later. So what do we do? Do we stop participating in any of these activities? Do we not teach them to our kids? If not what the fuck do we teach our kids? I have no idea. I just know 110/111 or 177/202 aren’t good odds.
Now mind you I’m not that huge of a baseball fan so I don’t really follow the Sox with a great amount of zeal until the playoffs/a tight end of year playoff race, but I keep tabs on them enough to know that there have been a couple of long ones recently. I also am on social media and listening to the radio enough to know that people love nothing more than to humblebrag about having “stayed up for it” only to see them lose.
I’m here to tell you this: if you stay up until “3:00am”, “2:00am” etc. for an extra innings baseball game, win OR lose, you have no one to blame but yourself. There are 162 baseball games a year, all of them count the same, and you know if you have work the next day, so it is on you and you alone, a Goddam adult, to make the decision if you want to stay up to watch one specific game. More to the point, watching a game through extra’s and then bitching about it is like if movie goers of yore walked out of the theater bitching about how they sat all the way through 3 hours of “Titanic” only to watch Jack die and then went home and wrote one of the first dozen scathing Rotten Tomatoes reviews about it. You decided to see this through. Keep your whining to yourself.
As I mentioned before this card is fuckin staaAAAAaaaAAcked so I’m going to write a little about it each day (nerdgasms everywhere) and then do the usual preview Friday. Today I’m going to cover up and coming featherweight Jason Knight, and the future of the 145lb division.
At the tail end of 2015, a young, little known featherweight from the backwoods of Mississippi debuted in the UFC, dropping a unanimous decision to Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri. Since then that same fighter has gone 4-0 with 2 finishes, over arguably the 2 toughest of those 4 opponents, and 3 post-fight bonuses. That fighter is Jason Knight.
Jason Knight’s official nickname is “The Kid”. However, a growing number of endeared UFC fans refer to him as “Hick Diaz”. Knight is long and lean, and quite tall for his division as well standing at 5’10. At age 14 he took up martial arts to divert himself from the street fights and general mischief he was getting into. He likes to stand, trade, and talk some shit. Knight is also accomplished on the mat, a brown belt under retired UFC middleweight contender Alan Belcher with 13 submission victories on his resume, the last of which was over Alex Caceres and earned him one of those aforementioned bonuses. Any of this sound familiar? Maybe a little like a couple of fiercely independent, supremely talented brothers from Stockton? I thought so.
Overall, Knight has an 80% finishing rate over his 20 wins, 15 of them coming before the start of Round 3. He is a brash, talented upstart with a ton of potential who, at UFC 214, is going into the biggest fight of his career against Ricardo Lamas, the top-15 opponent he demanded after knocking out respected veteran Chas Kelly in the 1st round in May. Should he impress against Lamas, Hick Diaz’s brand of “Mississippi Mean” might be ready for the big time.
As a quick prologue to all this, Knight is a part of a growing list of young, promising featherweights, such as Doo Ho Choi, Brian Ortega, Mirsad Bektic (all 26), Yair Rodriguez (25), and Andre Fili (27) that should make 145 division one of the more exciting for years to come, especially when you factor in the champ, 25 year old Max Holloway. Ortega will actually be fighting on the 214 card as well against another prospect, 28 year old Renato Carneiro.
So tune in Saturday to see if Jason Knight makes the leap. Don’t be scared, homie.
The 300s 