This week in sports

Hi all,

This was not the busiest weekend for sports, but it was a huge weekend for “Mixed Martial Arts”. Saturday was the first network TV broadcast of MMA on CBS. Everyone is talking about this show (blogers, sports radio, ESPN Sportscenter) even my assistant watched it.

Here is my review of the action. I liked the beginning of the show when Frank Shamrock showed the moves of MMA and some of the terms used on the show. My fight of the night goes to the ladies, Gina Carano Vs. Kaitlin Young. This was the first time I got to see women fight and I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised at how good they were. The next match was "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler VS. Scott Smith for the Elite XC Middleweight title. This was a great match until the referee stopped the fight because of Lawler inadvertently stuck his finger into the right eye of Smith. This action by Lawler caused the fight to end because it was ruled as a no contest. The rules state that a title fight must last at least three full rounds, or result in a no contest. Championship fights are 5-5 minute rounds. The good thing about this event is that we will have a remacth between the two.
The main event of the evenining was Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson VS. James "The Colossus" Thompson. Kimbo won after 38 seconds into the third round. Slice landed a punch to the left side of Thompson's head bursting his already heavily cauliflowered ear. Thompson was not ready to quite but I belive the fight was stopped because of the blood coming out of his ear and The Elite XC did not what its drawing card, Kimbo, to loose. I believe if you put Kimbo in the Ultimate Fighting Championship he would loose because he wouldn’t be able to get past the first round.

This first show, overall, was very good. The real question will be the second show. You’re not going to get the same type of fighters, (hard hiters and strikers) like you had this time. The only thing I did not like about the show was that they announced the fighters twice, once coming down to the cage and then again in the cage for the offical announcement. The announcers on the show were very good. I was surprized how knowable of the sport Gus Johnson was and just how good Frank Shamrock is as a commentator. Mauro Ranallo was great. I liked the fact that they talked about the fighter’s past with other organizations like the UFC and Pride Fighting Chanpionship. It was interesting to read that the show was produed by CBS Entertainment and not CBS Sports. Interesting, maybe next time CBS will realize that it is a sport and will cover it as such.

Did you watch this show? If you did let my know what your thoughts are. Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net. You can give the show a thumps up, thumps down, or thump in the middle and what you throught was the fight of the night.

What’s Ahead this weekend?

The NBA Finals start this Thursday with the “Boston Celtics” taking on the “Los Angles Lakers”. This is an old school matchup with these two teams meeting for a record 11 times in the finals. This is tied with the New York Yankees VS. the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for meetings in a championship series across all sports. These two franchises combined to win 30 of 60 NBA campionships since 1947. In the 80’s these two teams played in some of the greatest games in NBA history. With Larry Bird and Magic Johnson battling it out for the NBA championship was the reason I and a lot of people starting watching basketball. This year is a great matchup with Kobe Bryant VS. Boston’s big three of KG, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. I think Boston will win it in six games.

Also this weekend is the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown has a change to do something that has not happened in 30 years, which is to win horse racing’s “Triple Crown”. The Belmont is the longest of the three races at 1mile and a half. I think he can do it and win the “Test of the Champions”. The race is Saturday on ABC Sports at 5PM. Before this is 6 hours of pre race hype on ESPN starting at noon.

The last major event this weekend is the start of the “UEFA Euro 2008 Soccer Championship”. This event goes for three weeks. There will be 16 teams in this championship tournament. Ten of these teams are ranked among the top 15 in the FIFA World Ranking. The UEFA European Football Championship is one of the most prestigious and competitive tournaments among national soccer teams. Fourteen of these teams have earned a spot in the finals following a two-year qualification process among 50 UEFA member nations while the host nations – Austria and Switzerland – received automatic berths. Since its inception in 1960, the competition is held every four years. Greece won the last Championship – UEFA Euro 2004 – hosted by Portugal.

Do you plan on watching any of there events or did you over the weekend? Drop me a line at jman200086@netscape.net and let me know what you think or give me your report on them?

Enjoy the weekend and I will be back next week with a recap. Saturday I’M off to Boston for the Visa Championships for Woman’s Gymnastics, I think this is the Olympic trails.

Good night and good luck.
Jamie Lazaroff