|
|
By Anthony De Franco  September 30, 2009, at 6:32 pm  Sam Stout was supposed to take on Phillipe Nover at UFC Fight Night 19, but Nover had a seizure backstage that forced the fight to be cancelled. While Nover’s career is now in jepordy, Stout is going to fight again. Instead of taking on a New Yorker, he’ll take on Joe Lauzon, a Boston native. Here’s the news slug from MMA Weekly:
Lightweights Sam Stout and Joe Lauzon are set to meet at UFC 108 on Jan. 2.
MMAmania first reported the bout Monday and MMAWeekly.com subsequently confirmed it via sources close to the fight.
UFC 108 is expected for the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., though the UFC has yet to officially announce the event.
Lauzon (18-4) has been on the bench since tearing the ACL in his right knee in February. On Wednesday he told MMAWeekly.com that while everything isn’t 100-percent yet, he’ll be ready in January.
“There’s some things that I notice that are a little bit off, but I’m back to training hard,” said Lauzon. “I’ve got something to train for, so that helps with motivation.”
The East Bridgewater, Mass., resident said Stout’s preference for the stand-up game played a part in his decision to take the fight.
Stout’s stand-up has already been broken down on this website many a time. He’s an exciting fighter, but against someone with a good ground game, Stout is a fish completely out of water. With Lauzon’s excellence on the ground, Stout is the perfect opponent for Lauzon’s comeback.
Basically, push my prediction for Nover-Stout back to January. Lauzon will submit Stout easily and get on the comeback trail.
By Anthony De Franco September 30, 2009, at 12:00 pm Chuck surprised a lot of people, including my mother who referred to his performance as pretty horrible, and survived week one of the DWTS. Here’s his performance from week 2, in which he apparently had to do a tango.
Really? How much longer can this go on?
By Anthony De Franco September 30, 2009, at 10:00 am Oh my god. He did it to me again.
Yes, Brett Favre did to this me personally. I know that the people who should really be upset are 49er fans, but I remain destroyed by another Brett Favre “just having fun out there” moment.
I spend a shocking amount of my life trying to untangle to web of Brett Favre man-love that the mainstream media has spun around the average football fan. Between this column, my website, and any radio that I do, I try to preach the following doctrine: Favre has been overrated since his days as a Falcon. He throws too many interceptions and has cost his teams as many big games as he’s won. He had some great years in the late nineties, but since then, he is more of the problem than he is the solution. Yet, people in our line of work make excuses for him every day because he’s weaved this “good ol’ boy” persona that the middle of this country loves.
In last week’s column, I listed who I thought the top eleven quarterbacks in the NFL are, and it made some waves. Some people agreed with me, and most didn’t, but the thing I was happiest about was that no one brought up number four. I felt vindicated.
But, that’s the worst part about this guy. He won’t go away. Every single time I think that I’ve convinced people that he’s awful, he’s got to go and do something like this.
This week, I sat through the entirety of Favre’s pedestrian performance against a good 49ers defense. In fact, I would go as far as to say that he had become a middle man between the center and “Purple Jesus” Adrian Peterson. He routinely missed on key third downs that could have put San Francisco away much earlier in the game. After all, Favre has always been sub-par on third down because he’d rather throw it down the field and miss than take the safe completion and move the chains.
On that final drive, Favre still hadn’t been anything special. He was dinking and dunking against a prevent defense and it looked like the clock would inevitably run out on him. Going into that last play, he was 23-of-45 with 269 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He had a quarterback rating of 67, for what that’s worth.
Then, he rolls away from pressure and throws a heave downfield moments before defensive end Manny Lawson ate his soul. A play where Niners coach Mike Singletary decided to rush only three and allow Favre all the time in the world to throw. This heave that should have been intercepted had safety Mark Roman not practically had a seizure in front of the receiver that he should have been covering. A heave to a receiver that had recently been signed because of his ability on special teams. This heave that made him a national hero again.
Within moments, Favre’s face was the on the front page of every major website. The world loved number four all over again. Now, I have to mention his 311 career interceptions. I have to mention his playoff failures that almost exactly match his playoff successes. I have to mention that he isn’t the reason that Vikings were even in that game; the run defense that allowed only 58 yards on 26 rushes was.
Just when I thought I was done, Brett had to pull me back in.
By Anthony De Franco September 30, 2009, at 3:48 am Bad Boy is quietely one of the more important brands in MMA clothing. If you look at the fighters who wear their gear, it’s virtual who’s who of fighters from Latin America. Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Roger Huerta are just some of the people who have worn Bad Boy gear while walking into the octagon. Now, Bad Boy has started producing a line of pretty awesome, non-fighter specific shirts. Here’s the first:
Pretty cool looking spray paint design in the classic black and white colors. Notice the three flags on the side: America, Brazil and Japan, the three countries that lead the world of MMA right now.
MMA Warehouse has got it for 29.99.
By Zach Schiff September 30, 2009, at 12:50 am Okay, I’ll do them. I’ll do some predictions for next year, if only so I can do my yearly look back at preseason predictions to see how good everyone did. For the record, out of 6 last year, I came in 6th, and Isles’ Writer Bryan came in 2nd place.
So.
East
1. Washington
2. Boston
3. Pittsburgh
4. Carolina
5. Rangers
6. Philly
7. Devils
8. Atlanta
9. Montreal
10. Ottawa
11. Islanders
12. Toronto
13. Tampa Bay
14. Buffalo
15. Florida
Notes: Let’s start with the hometown boys – Why the Rangers over the Flyers? Simple: goaltending. Who would you rather have, 3-time Vezina finalist Henrik Lundqvist or NHL-castaway Ray Emery and career-backup Brian Boucher? Plus, I think Matt Gilroy and Mike Del Zotto can add a lot while limited Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden on the power play can only help. I also think Ales Kotalik and Vinny Prospal are nice compliments to Marian Gaborik, one of the best in the league when healthy (13-10-23 in 17 games last year).
The Islanders? Either way you slice it, Dwayne Roloson and Marty Biron are a solid 1-1A combo. Johnny Tavares is better than people are letting on. Rob Schremp was almost traded to the Isles for a 2nd round pick at the draft and they just got him for nothing. Mark Streit is excellent. Going to be a good team. Playoffs are a stretch, but I had them bordering at 10th or 11th.
Other Teams: NJ can never be counted out; Montreal improved but not that much. Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta were magical one season. Only one season; Tim Thomas and Zdeno Chara can lead you to the top of the conference when you’re in a weak division, but then what?; Eric Staal is going to be a monster this year in Carolina; Atlanta! Bryan Little centering Ilya Kovalchuk and Nik Antropov is going to be a sick line; and Florida in 15th because their best player hates the team (Nathan Horton) and the 4,000 fans at every game can’t put them in good spirits.
West
1. San Jose
2. Calgary
3. Detroit
4. Chicago
5. Anaheim
6. Minnesota
7. Columbus
8. Dallas
9. Vancouver
10. St. Louis
11. Phoenix
12. Nashville
13. Edmonton
14. LA
15. Colorado
Notes: What has Colorado done to improve themselves from being a lottery pick? David Koci and Craig Anderson? No way. Anderson is good but can’t carry a team on his shoulders; I see nothing in Vancouver while others are predicting them to win the Cup. Roberto Luongo gave up SEVEN GOALS with the season on the line last year. And when your 2 biggest acquistions are a player once part of a 4-player package for Alex Kovalev (Mikael Samuelsson) and a goalie even Colorado didn’t want (Andrew Raycroft), you aren’t going far; Phoenix might be a mess, but they made a few good moves and have a great goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov to fall back on. Plus, Kyle Turris should come into his own this year; Detroit is setting up for a 1st round exit this year but again will dominate in the regular season; LA should actually be good and could surprise, if Dustin Brown bounces back from an awful year and if Jack Johnson plays as good as he could, but they have no goaltending, do they?; Anaheim and San Jose should beat each other senseless in the regular season and if they meet in the Conference Finals, we’re in for a treat (the way I have it worked out, they’ll meet in the 2nd round and it will be brutal); Minnesota’s new system and new coach should help them into the playoffs. Plus, Brent Burns, Marek Zidlicky, and Martin Havlat are in for huge years without the trap to hold them down.
If it all shakes down as it should, I have the Sharks over the Penguins for the 2010 Stanley Cup. Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley are going to be unstoppable together. Danny Boyle and Rob Blake are going to be a great tandem, and Evgeni Nabokov will slam the door shut in goal.
|
|
Tags: 
