Following the world of sports you learn one thing, never predict anything, because when you do, you'll be wrong roughly 100% of the time and everyone will laugh at your stupidity.
Take Sherdog for example, who had their picks on the three big UFC fights on the last card, and predicted victories by Wanderlei Silva, Big Nog, and Forrest Griffin. They went so far as to predict Silva would win in highlight reel fashion, allowing us to study 'blunt force trauma'. They amazingly enough went 0-3 on the night
This takes us to the NFL, where our weekend of football action just concluded and we have the absurdly arrogent Cold Hard Football Facts, who if you head over to their site, will show you a post stating the based on the Cold Hard Football Facts Quality Win stat, the Colts were headed for their second Super Bowl championship. After their loss to the Chargers on Saturday the same Cold Hard Football Facts began their standard, merciless burying of the Colts, declaring the loss to be the 'same old song and dance', declaring 'victory' in that an Indy pundit agreed that the Colts were a 'paper tiger'. It is pretty amazing how one can stop on a dime and browbeat the very team that you said looked good to win it all.
Then again the staff at CHFF are a bunch of neo-con troglodytes who deny global warming, love George W Bush and the war in Iraq, and spent an entire post condemning the BCS in college football as 'socialism' that was really awful and crummy, but of course, given their blind obedience to their ideology, they could not bring up the fact that President Elect-Barack Obama is against the BCS at all, and that this has been a story that's generated a lot of news, because Obama's an evil commie pinko Democrat. You would think the CHFF could find common ground with Obama on this issue, you would be wrong.
Last on our last is Bill Simmons, America's hero, who had spent the whole season just hoping to get the bungling Tavaris Jackson into the playoffs, then had him make it, which normally would mean you would expect Bill to go off to Vegas to get his money in ASAP against Jackson. I know I did, rushing off to Leroy's and getting my bet in before the line moved, which Vegas fought tooth and nail to do, instead charging progressively worse and worse odds while keeping Philly a 3 point favorite (MGM broke down and moved the line to 4 by kick off)
Of course Bill didn't do this, he instead was so horrified that America had followed his advice and was shoveling money hand over fist against the Vikings made it such that Bill had to find the 'error' in America's judgement, the grand flaw in betting against Brad Childress and Tavaris Jackson, and so he did all he could and finally managed to reason his way into backing the Vikings to win the game. Hell he even predicted the Vikings in a bit of a blowout (Vikings 27, Eagles 16)
How it turned out? Tavaris threw a TAINT as Bill would call it, but beyond that had a solid first half, then completely and totally fell apart in the second half, and the Eagles cruised to a 26-14 win.
Bill used to be known as "BSG" for Boston Sports Guy...He should now be known as "IBT" I Bet Tavaris.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Fedor needs UFC
As Fedor Emelianenko gets ready for his upcoming bout with Andre Arlovski this month at the latest Affliction PPV, one has to wonder what will really be left for the man to do after this show. While history will likely be kind to the man, with his domination of PRIDE and his crushing under-a-minute dismantling of former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia, one has to wonder exactly what Affliction will have to truly offer Fedor if he gets past Arlovski. I know Affliction has Josh Barnett under contract, but Barnett has little name appeal to causal fans in America. I doubt the Arlovski/Fedor PPV will be a big hit and Barnett/Fedor is even less likely to bring home the big dollars needed for any company to compete with UFC.
While it is clear Fedor isn't worried about signing the biggest offer sheet, and wants the freedom to compete in Sambo and other events, the question of his legacy will always be there. the PRIDE crossovers to UFC, in the form of Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, and Shogun Rua have been less then successful in the octogon.
I mean it seems moronic to say something like "Frank Mir or Brock Lesnar would kill Fedor" but wouldn't have predicting Forrest Griffin over Shogun or Chieck Kongo and Gabe Gonzaga would beat Cro Cop?
Given the unpredictable nature of MMA and knowing that it really only takes one punch or one mistake to end up losing, Fedor walks into his fight with Arlovski with nothing to gain and everything to lose. The folks watching this fight will be the hardcore MMA fans who knew about PRIDE and know of the legend of Fedor, maybe a few casual fans might tune in due to Arlovski's name, but it's doubtful. A win merely shows his supporters what they already knew, that Fedor is an unstoppable force. A loss would effectively end UFC's efforts to recruit him, having been 'exposed' by Arlovski, who himself might find a large contract forthcoming from UFC for being the "Fedor Killer".
UFC is the biggest stage for MMA in the world today. One could make the arguement for PRIDE back when it existed, but it hasn't existed for nearly 2 years now and there is no true rival on the level of UFC currently. While most people would believe that Fedor would make short work of anyone in the UFC, until he does so and shows America, and it's casual fans, what he is capable of, he will remain the subject of acclaim only to hardcore MMA fans in America. Maybe he believes his hype and thinks he doesn't need the UFC, but to put the final stamp on his career, he needs to walk through UFC's heavyweight division and show everyone that he is as good as all the talking heads say he is.
While it is clear Fedor isn't worried about signing the biggest offer sheet, and wants the freedom to compete in Sambo and other events, the question of his legacy will always be there. the PRIDE crossovers to UFC, in the form of Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, and Shogun Rua have been less then successful in the octogon.
I mean it seems moronic to say something like "Frank Mir or Brock Lesnar would kill Fedor" but wouldn't have predicting Forrest Griffin over Shogun or Chieck Kongo and Gabe Gonzaga would beat Cro Cop?
Given the unpredictable nature of MMA and knowing that it really only takes one punch or one mistake to end up losing, Fedor walks into his fight with Arlovski with nothing to gain and everything to lose. The folks watching this fight will be the hardcore MMA fans who knew about PRIDE and know of the legend of Fedor, maybe a few casual fans might tune in due to Arlovski's name, but it's doubtful. A win merely shows his supporters what they already knew, that Fedor is an unstoppable force. A loss would effectively end UFC's efforts to recruit him, having been 'exposed' by Arlovski, who himself might find a large contract forthcoming from UFC for being the "Fedor Killer".
UFC is the biggest stage for MMA in the world today. One could make the arguement for PRIDE back when it existed, but it hasn't existed for nearly 2 years now and there is no true rival on the level of UFC currently. While most people would believe that Fedor would make short work of anyone in the UFC, until he does so and shows America, and it's casual fans, what he is capable of, he will remain the subject of acclaim only to hardcore MMA fans in America. Maybe he believes his hype and thinks he doesn't need the UFC, but to put the final stamp on his career, he needs to walk through UFC's heavyweight division and show everyone that he is as good as all the talking heads say he is.
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