Category: Sports

  • The MMA Minute – A Brief History of MMA, Part 2

    We return this week to our brief history of MMA to discuss some modern fighters, how the fighting styles have evolved, general rules, the main strategies and ways to win, and also the safety precautions taken to ensure these athletes are protected. Again, I want to thank Wikipedia for really helping make my research on this topic so much easier. You can find much of this article in the form of various articles on Wikipedia, I just merged them together and added my two cents.

    I mentioned at the beginning of my Part 1 post last week that I felt somewhat authorized to speak on this subject because I’ve recently gone back to watch many of the early UFC and Pride events, the two ‘heavyweights’ in the MMA world. But what’s the difference between the two? To understand that, you have to have a little better idea of where they came from, and what philosophy they were based in. We’ll get into that and more after the jump. (more…)

  • T.W.I.S.T. for July 4-10

    No extra fluff this week, no terrible jokes, just the big sports stories of the week. Outside of NBA free agency and the World Cup there’s just not much going on, unless you like baseball, in which case I pity your soul. Here we go:

    NBA

    The free agency period is now in full swing as most of the big names have found their homes. Dirk Nowitzki stayed in DallasJoe Johnson stayed in Atlanta, and Paul Pierce stayed in Boston, but Amare followed his old coach to the New York Knicks and Carlos Boozer joined the young guns in Chicago. Miami ended up reeling in all the big fish in free agency grabbing Lebron James, Chris Bosh and keeping Dwayne Wade. Now the interesting thing is finding out how the Heat can fit more players under their salary cap to fill out their roster. (more…)

  • The MMA Minute – A Brief History of MMA, Part 1

    Typically the MMA Minute will focus on a weekend event, either in a preview or review capacity. However, this is one of the slowest months in MMA over the course of the last year or two, and we’ve already had the only notable event, UFC 116. So instead of our usual focus on a singular event, I decided to take a little turn and focus on the world of MMA, and break it down into small portions for anyone that might be interested in learning more about this increasingly popular sport.

    Now I’m not by any means some sort of MMA aficionado, but I’ve recently gone back to watch most of the UFC and Pride events (2 of the most notable organizations in the history of MMA), so I feel I am at least on stable ground to talk about the sport.

    To start off, MMA is short for Mixed Martial Arts. As usual, Wikipedia (which I used for most of this article, merging various articles and adding my two cents in between), does a great job of summing it up quickly and precisely:

    Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques and skills, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions, to be used in competitions. The rules allow the use of both striking as well as grappling techniques, both while standing and on the ground. Such competitions allow martial artists of different backgrounds to compete.

    Many detractors will write MMA off as some adrenaline infused showcase of brutality, there really is alot of artistry and strategy behind all the mayhem. (more…)

  • This Week In Sports Tomfoolery: Let’s T.W.I.S.T. Again (July 27-July 3)

    If you’ve read my terrible joke of a headline and still chose to glance over the article, I’d like to take a moment to thank you. With the World Cup wrapping up and the football season still about 2 months away, this is the painfully slow portion of the year for sports fans, I feel your pain. Here’s your quick hits from the world of sports:

    NBA

    There’s some talk that the 3 big free agents in this years class (Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, and some dude named Lebron), the ones half the teams in the NBA have been preparing to get for the last 2-3 seasons, may all end up in Miami. This free agent class is perhaps one of the best of all time, and if Miami can indeed fit those 3 under their salary cap, they’ve locked up title contention for the foreseeable future. As much as I’d like to see this, I think there’s a better chance Bosh and LeBron end up in Chicago with someone like Carlos Boozer ending up in Miami with Wade. I’m still holding out hope though that at least LeBron and Wade end up together somewhere. And the latest rumor has Wade interested in Chicago!

    NFL

    Brett Favre has been throwing to the local high school receivers again since late May (which is becoming a yearly tradition in this ‘will he or won’t he?’ saga), and he went and had the surgery he’d need if he wanted to continue playing… let’s face it people, the man is coming back. He might be the first NFL player ever to die of old age on the football field. (more…)

  • The MMA Minute – UFC 116 Aftermath

    The greatest heavyweight fighter of all time fell last week to a triangle armbar submission. This week the two best heavyweights the UFC has to offer went toe to toe and one of them was bound to be knocked out. So of course that’s not how it turned out!

    Quick Recaps

    Win or lose Lesnar was going to walk away from tonights fight with 10 times more money than Carwin. Carwin owned the first round, taking the fight to Lesnar in a big way, but he completely punched himself out and Lesnar managed to survive into the 2nd round. Lesnar easily took Carwin down early in the 2nd and was able to keep the fight there for the rest of the round until he submitted him to hang on the the belt. Lesnar probably gets Cain Velasquez next in a title fight. (more…)