Odds and Sods

Strikeforce ran their first major show since their acquisition by Zuffa a few months ago. In the main event, Nick Diaz and Paul Daley had a pretty exciting fight that ended with a Diaz TKO victory. After this, there really is no one left for Strikeforce to match their welterweight champ Diaz up against. I think its time to bring him back into the UFC and unify the two titles by matching him up with Georges St. Pierre. This especially makes sense considering that it doesn’t appear as if the GSP-Silva superfight will happen. Of course, this is all contingent on GSP beating Jake Shields this month. If Shields wins, the odds are against him fighting close friend and training partner Diaz.

The NBA regular season is drawing to a close and there is a rather contentious debate over who the MVP should be. Derrick Rose is considered the frontrunner, but stat hounds act like anything other than a victory for LeBron James or Dwight Howard would be an egregious wrong. I’ll get into this more later when I do my awards picks, but anything other than a D Rose victory is a bit absurd. He led the team to the best record in the East (and 2nd best in the NBA), doesn’t have a superstar like D Wade playing next to him and isn’t a liability in the clutch or getting suspended all the time like Howard. I know I’m partial because I would be willing to take a bullet if it meant the Bulls would win the title, but Rose deserves the award. Have you seen the Bulls try to score without Rose on the floor, or even try to dribble the ball? It isn’t pretty.

According to his mentor and trainer Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Anderson Silva will be defending his middleweight title in August at the UFC show in Brazil against Yushin Okami. Okami was the last man to beat Silva, back in 2006 via a controversial disqualification. This would seem to point to a fight with GSP not happening at all, especially when combined with this other tidbit from Big Nog: After the Okami fight, Anderson will be moving up to 205 lbs. permanently. This would presumably set up a match between Anderson and the winner of the match between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans for early next year. That means Anderson will be doing battle with Bones Jones early next year. As a fight fan, this excites me. As a Silva fan, this terrifies me. Both men legitimately have what it takes to decisively beat the other, and with Silva being considerably older and Jones having a massive size advantage, this fight could mean either the end of Anderson’s undefeated streak or another notch in his resume as the greatest fighter of all time.

And in the occasional pro wrestling story, my brother tells me that WWE Superstar Edge has announced his retirement due to a reaggravation of the neck injury he suffered back in 2003. The internet sites are reporting that this is a legitimate retirement and not a work. If this is true, it marks the end of another Attitude era star and one of the few established names remaining on their talent roster. He had a nice run near the top of the company over the past six years as a heel. One of my favorite moments in WWE history came from Edge. In 2005, my roommate and I went to the live taping of the pay per view New Year’s Revolution. At the end of the show, after John Cena had retained the WWE title to the chagrin of the Albany fans, Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank title shot and beat John Cena for his first world title victory. The fans went nuts, Edge went nuts, my roommate and I went nuts. It was pretty wild, and preserved on DVD forever if you don’t believe me about my celebration.

In the final bit of news, it appears Strikeforce is going to air a live pay per view event this summer and its main event will apparently be Dan Henderson vs Fedor Emelianenko. Originally, the talk was that this was going to be for Henderson’s light heavyweight title, but it is looking more like it will be fought at a 220 lb. catchweight. If this is so, this fight puts Hendo at a major disadvantage. He is small for 205, as evidenced by the fact that he is also capable of fighting at 185. Fedor is a small heavyweight, coming in around 225-230 lbs and he is doughy at that weight. Only having to cut ten pounds while Hendo has to try to gain near fifteen is unfair. I think a 215 catchweight makes more sense for both men. Fedor still would have a size advantage, but I don’t think it would be as glaring at that weight, plus it better situates him for a run at light heavyweight if he wins this fight. For Henderson, he wouldn’t have to bulk up as much so he wouldn’t be in the same position as his fight against Big Nog in Pride where he gave up around thirty pounds and lost.

That does it for this installment of Odds and Sods. Check back for posts previewing the NBA Playoffs and Awards, the tribute to Pride, and predictions for this month’s UFC pay per view.

Odds and Sods

Didn't really have any particular topic to discuss today, but there are a bunch of little stories I felt like going over.

• This topic has already been gone over extensively by the mainstream media and on this page, but allegedly the Miami Heat had players crying after their loss to the Bulls over the weekend.  I don't necessarily think its a sign of them being weak, but to cry after a losing streak in March is a bit weak.  If anyone on that team should be crying it should be Coach Spoelstra and Dwyane Wade.  Spo because he's going to get fired after this season when the losses aren't his fault.  Dwyane Wade because he has become the odd man out on his own team.  LeBron needs to stop shooting so much in the fourth quarter, as he becomes a stagnant jump shooter or lofts challenged layups that have little chance of going in.  Get Wade, a proven closer, the ball more in the clutch and there won't be so many choke jobs.  Also, perhaps implementing the Triangle/Motion offense would greatly help them, that and an offseason of learning to work off the ball.  Also, don't hold a championship celebration before the season starts and perhaps the media and fans won't revel in your failures.
• Dan Henderson justified my ranking him as the ninth best MMA fighter of all-time by winning the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Title this past Saturday.  He probably couldn't contend for that same title in the UFC, but he is still relevant at the age of 40 and has a nuclear missile of a right hand.  I think the UFC missed the boat by not keeping him around, as he can still fight and win against a high level of competition.  Anderson Silva would still eat him for lunch, but he is still probably capable of winning a round against him like he did in their first fight.
• I don't know how ESPN's John Hollinger develops his metric statistics, but his playoff odds now features the Chicago Bulls as the team most likely to make it to and win the NBA Finals.  Hollinger has not expressed much in the way of praise of the Bulls, so this came as quite a shock to me.  I don't want to talk too much about it, since I'm a die-hard Bulls fan and I fear jinxing them, but it is about time the Bulls get some respect from ESPN.  They are the only team to beat all the Lakers, Spurs, Mavericks, Celtics, Magic, and Heat.  They have managed to do this with Noah and Boozer both missing significant chunks of the season and without a decent starting shooting guard.  I'm not certain of their championship chances, but that team has believed in themselves from day one and have had great chemistry and it is nice to see that paying off.
• ,UFC 128 is coming up next week, and I believe that both my brother and I will have our predictions up for that.  The main event is Jon "Bones" Jones against UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.  Jones has been very vocal in his confidence by saying things like, "In my mind I've already won."  Nothing major, but over the past year it seems as if Jones has started to buy into his hype as the future of MMA.  Shogun is coming into this fight after knee surgery and a lengthy layoff (nearly a year).  This, and the aforementioned hype contribute to the fact Jones is a slight favorite heading into their fight.  But it seems to me that Jones and a lot of fans are forgetting that Shogun Rua is a bad, bad man.  Jones has never faced a man with the power and striking abilities of Shogun.  Also, Shogun is no slouch off his back either and at age 28, should be in his athletic prime.  While Jones is inexperienced with someone of Rua's style, Shogun has fought and defeated a wide range of people, from strong wrestlers like Mark Coleman to another skilled striker and grappler with a huge size advantage in Alistair Overeem, and was the first man to figure out how to beat Lyoto Machida.  While Jones is favored and rightly so, I just think that people are overlooking just how good Shogun Rua is.

That's it for now.  I do have some other articles coming up in the future, like how to fix the NBA salary cap and about Rashad Evans and his refusal to fight people he trains with.  In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment or something.