Floyd Mayweather

The Spotlight On UFC 193

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Well I just got back from a nice time over at Dave & Busters where we viewed UFC 193 and let me tell you I’m still in shock after that finish.  I’m not going to claim to be a UFC enthusiast.  As a matter of fact, I’m not even going to talk about any of the other fights on the card here tonight.  It’s not that I don’t like UFC, I actually became a pretty big fan when I started watching the shows for Brock Lesnar when he starting fighting for them in February 2008.  But I’ll be honest, many of the personalities in UFC just didn’t catch my attention after Brock left in 2011.  I liked GSP but he really toned down his schedule, I liked Rashad Evans but then he got hurt.  Then in late 2012, Dana White announced that Ronda Rousey had signed with the promotion and was going to be the promotion’s first ever women’s champion, as the Bantamweight champion, and I was immediately intrigued.

It had been a long time coming for UFC and I was surprised it took that long for UFC to embrace female fighters.  I also noticed that my girlfriend was also intrigued as she asked to join me when I went to see UFC 157 with my friends, the event that had the first ever women’s fight in UFC history(Rousey vs.Carmouche).  Her interest in the entire sport really grew and I noticed that a lot more females I spoke to suddenly became fans of UFC, all thanks to Ronda. I also found myself pretty engulfed, again in UFC thanks to this new movement.  Fighters like Conor McGregor, Daniel Cromier and Hofstra’s own Chris Weidman became favorites of mine but nothing compared to Ronda Rousey.  My girlfriend and I made sure that no matter what we were doing, we went out of our way to catch every one of Ronda’s fights.  In particular, there was a time that we were both away on a snowboarding trip in the poconos and we traveled 30 miles in the snow to the one Buffalo Wild Wings in town showing Ronda’s fight.

Tonight was no different tonight as despite her working a 12 hour shift, I picked my girlfriend up from work at 8pm and we gathered a few friends and went to Dave and Busters to see the fight.  I’ll tell you that I was pretty nervous going into this one because of the fact that Ronda was going up against an undefeated fighter but, to be fair, she did the same with Bethe Correia and knocked her out in under a minute.  Holly Holm was much different though, she came in with a clear gameplan and right away you knew this fight wasn’t going to be one minute, or even one round.  Of course, I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted a second round knockout for Holm.  This was easily the most shocked I’ve been since Brock Lesnar beat Rany Couture or maybe when Chris Weidman knocked out Anderson Silva.  Holm deserves all of the credit in the world for not allowing herself to become intimidated by the aura that is Ronda Rousey and pulling off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

As for Ronda Rousey, you really got to wonder where she goes from here.  She is obviously a very driven individual and I know that she isn’t going to take this loss lightly.  I also believe that she has one more fight left on her contract and a rematch with Holm would make perfect sense.  That being said, Ronda is getting ready to star as the lead role in the new Roadhouse movie and it seems like she has plenty of offers in Hollywood.  I also know that Ronda is a huge WWE fan and has stated that she’ll be back at some point, which she won’t be able to do (at least in a match capacity) while under contract with UFC. So while tonight’s loss was heartbreaking, the fact remains that Ronda is currently sitting in a hospital bed for observation following her fight and has to have some thought if she’d like to continue risking all of these other opportunities, or her health, by continuing to fight.

So in the end, yes this loss was heartbreaking but it’s very hard for a fighter to go undefeated no matter how dominant you are (give the devil his due, what Floyd Mayweather has done is unprecedented).  While it was a shame to see someone who has revolutionized the entire UFC by spearheading the Women’s fighting movement go down in defeat, the loss doesn’t tarnish her legacy at all. Ronda really made history, as evidenced by UFC headlining and co-headling with two womens fights tonight.  In many ways, you can also make a strong case that Ronda is indirectly responsible for the Divas Revolution you currently see in WWE.

As for UFC, they should be commended for changing with the times and featuring women more prominently on the top of their cards.  It’ll be interesting to see if this continues without Ronda Rousey but I hope it does as their is obvious interest as evidenced by the 56,000+ that were in attendance tonight.  I can confirm that UFC will return to Austrailia on March 20th, this time running Brisbane.  If you would like more UFC 193 coverage might I suggest you check out f4wonline.com or the fight network as they both do a great job.  I’d also like to suggest you give @RobinBlackMMA a follow as he did a great breakdown of the Ronda-Holm fight.

That’s going to do it for after a history making night at UFC193 and the end of an era as it’s nearly 3AM here on the east coast.  Tomorrow is a Football sunday so I will be back bright and early, coffee cup in hand with my football picks and a lot more fun stuff right here on thedailyspotlight.com

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Spotlight On Today’s Sports: 05/05/2015

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Happy Cinco De Mayo everybody! I hope all those who are celebrating have a good but safe time. I’ll be celebrating by attending at 10:20 showing of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron tonight. But if you aren’t celebrating there’s a good amount of events and stories to monitor in the world of sports, let’s take a look at the big three for today.

1) E:60- WWE: Behind The Curtain– when I was a kid I always hoped that following a WWE I would turn on ESPN & get the results. I remember the first time I actually say it was in 1995 when Sportscenter talked about Lawrence Taylor’s Wrestlemania 11 main event. I thought it was cool to see WWE get a rub from LT & get a little coverage on Sportscenter. Well tonight on ESPN, a 60 minute documentary will air featuring a behind the scenes at the world of WWE & NXT. The special is unprecedented not only because their is a WWE special being promoted on ESPN but also because the special promises a rare behind the scenes look at the often guarded world of professional wrestling. If the special is as good as past E60 specials, then we’re in for a treat.

2) Welcome Back- It was announced today that Madison Square Garden will look to hire IsiahThomas as the new Co Owner of the New York Liberty  as well as the president of basketball operations. Wow, talk about someone having nine lives! Not only did Isiah Thomas have five unsuccessful seasons as Knicks team president & a record of 56-108 in his two years as Knicks head coach but he also cost MSG 11.8 million dollars in an ugly sexual harassment lawsuit. It should be pointed out that Thomas needs to be approved by the WNBA board of Governors before being recognized as a co owner. 

3) The Greatest Fight Of The Century…Again- It was revealed today that Floyd Mayweather sent a text to Stephen A Smith of ESPN confirming that he will in fact grant Manny Pacquiao a rematch when he recovers from shoulder surgery. While I felt their first fight was underwhelming, it’s rumored to have done record number of pay per view buys and I’m sure the rematch will be much of the same. I’m actually surprised that Floyd is so willing to do a rematch, maybe as his final fight, being that Manny had him on the ropes on several occasions in their first fight, bad shoulder and all. 

That’s going to do it for today, again happy cinco de mayo to all. 

Spotlight On Today’s Sports 5/2/2015

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So I know I’ve off the grid this week. I’ll be back business as usual starting on Monday when I return from my trip to Orlando, Florida where I was a best man for the first time in my life but there’s a lot of sports to get to today so I didn’t want to leave you stranded. Let’s jump right into it! 

1) The Fight Of The Century- The dream fight of dream fights finally takes place tonight. Some say boxing is dead but whether it was in California, New York or Florida this month all I’ve heard is who do you got Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao. I don’t know if my family and I have gotten a boxing fight since Sugar Ray Leonard returned but we will seeking out MayPac tonight on our last night in Florida. As for who I have? I gotta go Money Mayweather because of his affliation with WWE. I’m a wrestling fan sucker, I know but he was a highlight of Wrestlemania 24!

2) Game 7- There really hasn’t been any series in round 1 of the NBA Playoffs that’s been worth anyone’s time except for the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Clippers. The NBA Playoffs only series to reach a seventh and deciding game finally comes to a head tonight. I’ve seen this script so many times & I just don’t see the Spurs losing game 7, even on the road. 

3) NFL Draft- If there’s one draft that I really go out of my to watch it’s the NFL draft. It’s the unofficial kickoff to the NFL season and its a lot of fun now that’s it’s been spread out over a long weekend. My New York Jets continued their impressive offseason by trading up this morning to draft Baylor Quarterback Bryce Petty. 

4) Rivalry Weekend- On the baseball side of things many of the greatest rivalries in the sport take the focus today as the New York Mets take on the Washington Nationals, the Detroit Tigers face off with the Kansas City Royals for the American Leagues best record and of course, it’s Yankees- Red Sox. No matter how the teams are doing there’s still nothing like Yankees- Ref Sox. I’m not a Alex Rodriguez fan but the fact that he hit his 660th career homerun tying Willie Mays for fourth all time over the big green monster in Fenway Park? That’s pretty cool to say the least! 

So yes today may be one of the biggest days in sports history as with all I mentioned I didn’t even get into round 2 of the NHL playoffs or the Kentucky Derby. Whatever your sport of choice I hope you have a great time viewing it!