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      MMA Review for Friday, January 30

      January 30, 2009 /

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

      – Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” event featured an unbelievable knockout and possibly the worst color-commentary in sports history.

      – After taking his third-consecutive loss last Sunday, MMA pioneer Jens Pulver may be considering retirement.

      – Cancel your Curves membership: The UFC is launching its own chain of gyms.

      – WEC welterweight champ Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit has been poached by the UFC, and will be making his Octagon debut on April 1st against Martin Kampmann.

      – Brazilian jiu-jitsu co-founder Helio Gracie died at the age of 95. According to his granddaughter, he once choked out a shark.

      – Swing by CagePotato.com tomorrow night starting at 10 p.m. ET as we liveblog UFC 94, which will feature the historic superfight between lightweight champion BJ Penn and welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. For a preview of the action, check out this in-depth analysis of the main events and this on-the-scene report. And please sign our petition to get MMA legalized in New York State!

      Mixed Martial Arts

      London could have its own NFL team in “10 to 12 years”

      January 30, 2009 /

      Commissioner Roger Goodell is suggesting that London could have its own NFL team in the next decade or so.

      London is expected to have its own NFL team within the next 10 to 12 years, according to a senior league official.

      NFL boss Roger Goodell suggested the possibility of a team during the annual game at Wembley last October.

      And Mark Waller, NFL head of sales and marketing, said: “The commissioner and I have talked about 10 years so that’s mentally how we’re framing it.

      “Would we be hugely disappointed if it’s not 10 and it’s 12? No, but that’s the goal,” he told BBC 5 Live.

      “We plan rigorously. There is a view for the future. We’ve taken a west coast team [to London] this year in San Diego and we’ve proved the logistics of that work,” he explained.

      “This year we’re going to have games going on in London and Toronto at the same time so we definitely have a way forward.”

      Come on, seriously? I think it’s great that NFL is reaching out to other countries and having one game played overseas is fine. But giving London their own team? Then what, eight teams will have to travel to London every year as part of their road games? And the London Fill in Team Name Here will have to travel to the States for eight games?

      I don’t like it. There are more than enough teams in the league now – stop expanding.

      NFL

      Australian Open Women’s Finals Preview

      January 30, 2009 /

      Serena Williams (2) vs. Dinara Safina (3)

      serenaAt 27 years of age, Serena Williams has seen more success than all the players on the WTA Tour combined. She has won nine singles Grand Slams and, after yesterday’s championship victory, eight doubles Grand Slams with her sister Venus. She’s been on the Tour so long that a distinctive pattern has emerged particular to the Australian Open: if it’s an odd-numbered year, Serena will win the tournament. She’s previously claimed the title in Melbourne in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Despite playing doubles and having to endure the sweltering heat, Serena has played well in every match and shown no signs of fatigue.

      Her opponent is Dinara Safina, an aggressive Russian with a powerful forehand, an endless supply of energy, and an outspoken dedication to winning. It’s fun to watch her at press conferences as it almost pains her to play the sweetheart. Safina has never won a Grand Slam, though this is supposed to be her breakout year. But that’s a bunch of bunk — just about every player on the WTA Tour is supposedly having their breakout year. There’s such parity that nearly every player ranked in the top 10 will surpass world #1 Jelena Jankovic after this tournament. (Jankovic failed to make it past the fourth round.) Safina is the obvious underdog. She’s lost her last two matches to Serena in straight sets. If she were playing anybody other than Serena, I’d say she had this one in the bag.

      Live coverage of the women’s finals will air early tomorrow morning (Saturday) on ESPN2 at 3:30 AM ET. It will then be replayed on Saturday at 9 AM ET and 8 PM ET on the same network.

      Tennis

      Greg Cossell uses immense film study to predict Super Bowl winner

      January 30, 2009 /

      Greg Cosell of SportingNews.com made his Super Bowl XLIII prediction on Thursday and claimed victory for Pittsburgh because the, “one-dimensional Cardinals can’t beat Steelers D.”

      He even gave a predicted final score:

      Larry FitzgeraldAfter careful deliberation and hours and hours of film study the past 10 days, I have come to this conclusion about Super Bowl 43: Steelers 27, Cardinals 20.

      After reading that, one could come to the conclusion that Cosell was being facetious. He didn’t really spend “hours and hours” of film study the past 10 days – he just said that as a light-hearted way to set up the rest of his column.

      But then he wrote this halfway through his article:

      One of the continuing problems I see on film is that offenses get overly focused on locating and accounting for Harrison. LeBeau understands this and then burdens the offensive line with a lot of movement before the snap, particularly after the pass protection gets set. That creates confusion in many instances, particularly when Harrison and Woodley line up on the same side. Often, another rusher, such as linebacker James Farrior, is not accounted for and has a free path to the quarterback.

      Okay, maybe he was being serious about watching hours and hours of film to come to his prediction. That said, does anyone find his predicted score interesting? He spent hours and hours of film study to determine that the Steelers will win by seven and that the total combined score between the two teams will be 47? Wonder where we’ve seen those numbers before? Ah, yeah –those are the exact numbers that oddsmakers gave for the point spread and over/under total for the game.

      Come on, Greg. It took you hours and hours of film preparation to come up with the exact same numbers oddsmakers set the lines at? You could do a little better than that.

      NFL, Super Bowl

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