Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

- Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, and Dan Henderson were dominant at UFC 100 — but Lesnar’s post-fight antics made him a villain in the eyes of many fans.

- The UFC’s new ring girl is hot, blonde, and all-natural.

- Kimbo Slice’s “Ultimate Fighter” housemates should be thankful he wasn’t allowed to bring a gun on the set.

- Fedor Emelianenko will probably never face Brock Lesnar in the UFC due to disagreements on contract terms. But that isn’t stopping some bookmakers from offering bets on the non-existant fight.

- Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg visited New York to hype the biggest women’s MMA match of all time. Sounds like a perfect time for Carano’s scumbag ex-boyfriend to release that sex tape.

- Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is not a fan of either Rashad Evans or Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal.

- PRIDE legend Igor Vovchanchyn will return to action in September, while Jose Aldo and Mike Brown will get it on for the WEC featherweight belt in November.

- Floyd Mayweather Jr. says white people invented MMA because they couldn’t compete in boxing. What a fascinating theory, Professor Money…

Mike Brown’s rematch with Urijah Faber is tonight at 9 PM ET on VERSUS. In preparation, be sure to check out Drew Ellis’s in-depth interview with Brown, as well as Drew’s preview of WEC 41. (Scroll down, you’ll see it.)

You may not have known who Mike Thomas Brown was a year ago, but chances are you do now if you’re a fan of Mixed Martial Arts. Brown is the WEC (World Extreme Cage fighting) featherweight champion. His career record is 21-4-0 and Brown has won his last nine fights, with his last loss coming on Dec. 2, 2005 by submission. On Nov. 5, 2008, Brown defeated Urijah Faber by TKO in 2:23 to win the WEC title. Faber was then considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world as he had won 13-straight fights lasting over three years before losing to Brown. Since beating Faber, Brown defended his belt successfully against Leonard Garcia on March 1 of this year with a submission in under two minutes after staggering Garcia on his feet with a solid combination of punches. Fighting out of American Top Team in Florida, Brown appeared in the UFC in 2004 in a submission loss to Genki Sudo, but now the former Norwich University wrestler prepares for his rematch with Faber, which takes place Sunday, June 7 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif. The fight can be seen on VERSUS at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Brown took a few minutes away from his training for the fight to speak with us on the rematch and his MMA career.

The Scores Report: How has your life changed since your first win over Faber?

Mike Thomas Brown: Since the Faber win, I probably do a few more interviews and get recognized a little more. You know, each time you win, your pay goes up a little bit, so I am making a little bit more money, but nothing major has changed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cavs head coach Mike Brown was named Coach in the Year in a near-landslide.

“Offensively, the last three years, we weren’t good mainly because of me,” Brown admitted after Game 1 against the Pistons on Saturday. “I wanted to establish an identity here, and that was on the defensive end of the floor.”

The Cavs made a huge leap offensively this season. They went from the 20th-most efficient offense to the fourth-most efficient. Part of that was due to the addition of point guard Mo Williams, but the willingness of Brown and his staff to find a new direction was critical.

Brown led all vote-getters with 55 first place votes. Rick Adelman (13) narrowly beat out Stan Van Gundy (13) in total points to finish second, while Nate McMillan (15) finished fourth. I thought Adelman did more with less, but Brown’s Cavs surprised a lot of people and sure didn’t look like a 66-win team heading into the season.

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

- Mike Brown beat Leonard Garcia’s ass at last Sunday’s WEC 39 show, proving that yes, he is the real deal. A rematch with Urijah Faber is slated for this summer.

- The UFC will be partying in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day and Philadelphia later this year.

- The weakest, flabbiest fighter from Affliction’s last show just got popped for steroids.

- Kimbo Slice scores a supporting role in a porno flick.

- Major fight-booking alert: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir in May Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin in June, and Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida a week later.

- UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock recently shared his life story at a conference for Christian fighters. He’s scheduled to be beaten to death by Bobby Lashley later this month.

- UFC 96: Jackson vs. Jardine goes down tomorrow night in Columbus, Ohio. Come back to CagePotato at 10 p.m. ET for a liveblog of the pay-per-view broadcast, and get acquainted with the lineup by checking out our betting advice [link: http://www.cagepotato.com/gambling-addiction-enabler-ufc-96], our look at two debuting fighters, and our heated debate about the headlining fights.

- We almost went an entire week without someone getting arrested and then 0-13 Scott Blevins gets popped for child molestation.

The Chicago Bears have decided to part ways with nine-year veteran free safety Mike Brown.

The decision on Brown was not a shock as general manager Jerry Angelo had made it clear Brown was no longer in the team’s plan. Angelo told the Tribune the Bears couldn’t afford to bring Brown back considering what they wanted to accomplish in other areas, including the development of Danieal Manning.

Now the Bears move forward with plans to fill voids on both sides of the ball.

Brown came into the league like a bat out of hell, but injuries absolutely destroyed a once promising career. Brown’s knack for coming up with the big play defined his career early on, but even he admitted he resembled a porcelain doll when it came to his body.

It’s hard to blame the Bears for cutting him, but they’ll miss his leadership. With safeties always in high demand, some team will take a shot at him.

The Cavs were up 61-51 at halftime, but a 22-8 run to start the third quarter put the Lakers in control of the game, and they went on to win, 101-91. That run included an 11-0 spurt at the start of the quarter, and Mike Brown failed to call a timeout to stop the bleeding. After all, the Cavs are still a young team, so they are not as adept at playing through adversity as, say, the Celtics, Spurs or even the Lakers. I kept waiting for Brown to call a timeout but it never happened, and in many ways, that shift of momentum at the beginning of the second half was the difference in the game.

But it didn’t help that LeBron James shot 5 of 20 from the field. He had a near triple-double (16 points, 12 assists, eight rebounds) but he’d be the first to admit that he didn’t play very well. It’s not often that the Cavs get 57 combined points from Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Wally Szczerbiak and still find a way to lose, but they did just that today.

After the loss of Andrew Bynum for 8-12 weeks, the Lakers have to feel great about completing this five-game road trip with consecutive wins against the Celtics and Cavs. Kobe was apparently battling the flu, but still managed to outscore LeBron (with 19 points) and hit a crucial rainbow jumper with just 2:48 remaining to put the Lakers up six. Lamar Odom (28 points, 17 rebounds) continues to play big basketball in Bynum’s absence, and is doing wonders for the contract that he’ll be signing this summer as a free agent.

So with a 1-3 combined record against the Celtics and Lakers, do the Cavs make a move with Szczerbiak’s expiring contract or do they stand pat and hope for the best? I think they have to do everything they can to win a title (or at least get to the Finals this year) if they hope to keep LeBron next summer, but clearly they have to hold out for a deal that has a great chance to make them better. I think they could package Szczerbiak with Hickson (and maybe a first round pick or two) and get themselves an impact big like Jermaine O’Neal.

Is that worth the risk? Well, O’Neal had 22 points, nine boards and nine blocks in a recent loss against the Lakers and his contract expires in 2010, so it wouldn’t affect the team’s cap flexibility in the long term.

In a game that was closer than the final score, the Cavaliers went on a 9-2 run in the middle of the fourth quarter to coast to an impressive 98-83 victory over the struggling Celtics. Cleveland benefited from a couple of favorable calls to start that run. First, there was a phantom offensive foul on Leon Powe, and then there was the officials’ decision not to reset the shot clock after LeBron stole the ball and lost it out of bounds (which ultimately resulted in a shot clock violation for the Celtics). Even though the Cavs outplayed the Celtics for much of the game, Boston was hanging around and it was those two defensive stops that ignited the run that ultimately put the game out of reach.

LeBron was outstanding — 38 points, seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks. Truly, it was an MVP performance for all of the doubters out there. In the past, I’ve been critical of his defense, but it looks as if his stint with Team USA has done wonders for his intensity on that end of the court. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s extremely motivated when he faces Paul Pierce. Pierce struggled for much of the night and that had everything to do with LeBron’s defense.

A few random thoughts about the game…

- Where was the crowd? Given a game of this magnitude, I was expecting to tune in to see a playoff atmosphere, but the Cleveland fans sat on their hands for much of the game. They didn’t really get loud until that aforementioned run in the middle of the fourth quarter. It looked like a typical NBA crowd and that’s pretty sad given the relative importance of this game.

- I don’t like the call to wear the throwback uniforms in a game like this — it’s just too important of a game to throw crazy unis on your players. Basketball players are creatures of habit and it messes with their psyche to be wearing road throwbacks in a game of this magnitude. Ultimately, it didn’t matter, but it might have.

- Did anyone else see KG intentionally run into LeBron after the refs refused to reset the shot clock? He walked right past LeBron and hit him with a shoulder. He looked like a high school bully trying to pick a fight. LeBron reacted by turning and glancing at Garnett, but kept his cool.

- The Celtics have to do something about their bench. They lost James Posey and P.J. Brown and the guys they currently have aren’t ready to step in and play crunch time minutes like those guys did in the playoffs last season. This will be one of the more interesting storylines between now and the trade deadline and then throughout the playoffs. If the Celtics don’t repeat or at least make the Finals, then Danny Ainge is going to be second-guessed for electing not to re-sign Posey. He is likely to make a move or two to bolster the bench, but as I wrote earlier this week, they don’t have any expendable pieces to offer in trade.

- I brought this up last season, but I don’t like the way Doc Rivers uses Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen. When you have three players of that caliber, there’s no reason to have more than one of them out of the game at any given time. Rivers elects to bench Pierce and KG at the same time and have Ray Ray out there with the reserves, but he’s not capable of carrying that unit night in and night out, especially now that they’re without Posey and Brown. I would have two of the Big Three on the court at all times. But that’s me.

- Mo Williams looks like a great fit in Cleveland. He had 13 points on 5-9 shooting, and was the Cavs’ main playmaker when LeBron went to the bench. I was sad to see the Bucks trade him away, but apparently he didn’t get along with Michael Redd — who knows, maybe Milwaukee should have jettisoned Redd instead. Williams has always struggled with his defense, but now that LeBron is doing most of the playmaking on offense, Mo can focus more on defending his guy and getting after loose balls. He had a couple of nice hustle plays tonight.

- Wally Szczerbiak is washed up. I don’t know if Mike Brown was trying to showcase him tonight for a trade, but it’s mind-boggling to me that this guy is getting minutes over Daniel Gibson and Sasha Pavlovic. He can’t really defend and if his shot isn’t falling (and it wasn’t tonight), he’s basically useless. It will be interesting to see if the Cavs decide to trade him for some more help or if they let his contract expire at the end of the season and take the salary cap relief.

- J.J. Hickson looks like a player. He’s raw, but he’s athletic and has some moves down low.

The Detroit Lions improved their backfield situation by signing former Bengal Rudi Johnson to a one-year contract. Tatum Bell is expected to be released.

After practice on Monday, Lions head coach Rod Marinelli said, “I just had a chance to watch him in some drills (during a workout) and he’s impressive. He’s a big, thick guy who has great feet. I played against him over the years so I know he’s a very physical back. He’s a guy with a lot of talent and a lot of experience.”

I can’t believe the Cincinnati Bengals let Johnson go without getting anything in return. He had a bad hamstring last year and again this year in training camp, but he came to camp in shape and he’s a proven back. Frankly, it looks like the Bengals are returning to their penny-pinching ways. Mike Brown is proving once again that he’s one of the worst owners in professional sports.

From a fantasy football perspective, anyone who drafted Kevin Smith has to be a little disappointed, as Rudi Johnson might steal plenty of carries as the year goes on.