Cam Newton, UFC 129 Recap and the Wells Fargo Championship
May
2
Written by:
5/2/2011 11:32 PM
To Navy Seal Team Six and ALL Service people around the world putting their lives on the line each day so that we can go about our everyday lives….THANK YOU. Taking out Osama bin Laden was a great day in US History and the unity it brought to everyone in Washington and New York City was unbelievable to see and something I will not soon forget. One of the talking heads on CNN late last night made a great point by saying the US needed some great news to offset the string of negative or bad news we have been receiving all too frequently.
The NFL Draft is over and the Panthers took Cam Newton #1 overall. As much as I do not agree with the pick, it was the pick they had to make. Much like Kyrie Irving coming back at Duke and playing this season, this staff had no option really, but to pick Newton. Having the #1 pick and in dire need of a QB, the Panthers would have looked even worse had Newton gone onto another franchise and performed. Now, if Newton doesn’t perform in 2011 and you are in a spot to select Andrew Luck #1 next season, can the Panthers literally afford to take another QB (Luck) and lock up the funds for two #1 draft selections at one position? DeAngelo Williams and Jon Beason are up for new contracts very soon and what is going to happen with Steve Smith? While a couple of questions may have been answered this past weekend, there are still a lot of question marks regarding this franchise. It will be very intriguing to watch what this front office and Ron Rivera do over the next few months, once football starts up again, to answer these questions and many more around this franchise.
UFC 129 was held this past Saturday in Toronto in front of 55,724 fans generating a gate of $12.1 Million. George St-Pierre defeated Jake Shields in a fight that was a bit of a let down after the co-main event. GSP was in control the entire five rounds and left many, self included, wondering why Jake did not try to take GSP to the mat early in the fight. It felt like Shields was content on standing and throwing versus trying to get it to the mat where Shields would have had a better opportunity. I really thought Shields would do this early and often before the guys got a good sweat going and making take down attempts much more difficult. GSP won a five round decision 50-45 and two judges scoring it 48-47. I am afraid that someone is going to lose a fight, much like this, where the judges seem to be watching a different fight than what I am seeing. A couple of friends called afterwards and asked how two judges saw that as a 48-47 fight. Finish a guy off and take the decision out of the judge’s hands before the judges take a victory, and possibly a title, away.
The co-main event between Jose Aldo and Mark Hominick was a great fight. Aldo dominated the first two rounds, but seemed to either get injured or tired and held on for
a decision victory. Hominick reminded me of Clay Guida in the way his motor did not seem to slow down during the entire five rounds. In round four, an awful looking hematoma formed on Hominick’s right side of the head and continued to grow as the result of a nasty elbow from Aldo. Big John McCarthy called the physician into the ring to take a look at this hematoma and Hominick was allowed to continue and almost pull off a victory. Anyone that thinks they can stomach a baseball side lump on someone’s head should take a look at this by searching Mark Hominick hematoma.
Lyoto Machida was sitting about three seats down from me at UFC 127 in February when Anderson Silva used a leaping from kick to knock out Vitor Belfort. Obviously Steven Seagal worked with Machida on this kick also as Machida knocked out 47 year old Randy Couture in his last UFC match. UFC President Dana White said in the post-fight press conference that Randy thought it was a punch that caught him, knocking a front tooth out. Machida needed a victory after two consecutive losses and should be back into the title picture with another big victory. Couture said all along this was it and White finally acknowledged Randy is now done at 47. I hope like hell I am able to look at 47 close to what Couture looks like now. Guess we will find out in 13 years.
The UFC nailed UFC 129. Fighting began at 6PM on Facebook for two hours of fights, went to Spike TV for an hour before going to PPV at 9. Showing all the fights across multiple platforms is great exposure for some of the up and comers and provides another way for people to decide if they really want to potentially purchase a PPV. Greater exposure can do nothing but continue to grow this sport.
One of the premier PGA Tour Events, the Wells Fargo Championship, begins Thursday here at the Quail Hollow Club. I will be out at the Club this weekend blogging and you can follow me on twitter Ben_Coggins. I will make my prediction later in the week after I hopefully have a chance to get out to the course one afternoon and see how things are looking. The potential for rain the next two days can make this course playing a bit longer and that will have some weight on my prediction.
My Kentucky Derby prediction will come Wednesday also !!