I live in ACC country. I'm a Virgina Tech fan. When we play UNC it always seems that Ttyler Hansbrough has some lucky-ass last second shot to beat us. Matter of fact, he does it with Duke, FSU, Wake, etc. It seems that he has last second shots to win the game 20 times a season. It dawned on me last year after he did it to us again: if you do it once, it is luck, if you do it twice, it is luck, if you do it 15 times...is it luck or is it skill?

Fedor begs one to ask the same question.

The biggest slam on Fedor (no pun intended) is that he hasn't really fought great competition. At least not top notch competition. The toughest opponent he's ever face (in my opinion) is Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Everyone else was either at a bad point in their career (Sylvia, Arlovski), not really super great to begin with (Coleman, Randellman, Lindland), or just outright silly (Hong Man Choi). With the exception of Sylvia, Nogueira, and Arlovski, anyone Fedor has fought that was in the UFC would be considered 'mid-card' guys at best. The rest couldn't even make it through TUF.

So while Saturday night's even introduced the US casual MMA viewer to Fedor, it doesn't answer some of the questions the more knowledgeable, hard core fans have about the man. In the pre-fight hype Frank Shamrock made the statement that "Fedor is the best in the world but the guy he is facing is the second best in the world". Now I'm not going to fault Shamrock for selling the fight, but he knows, you know, and I know that Brett Rogers, who I have a lot of respect for now, is NOT the second best heavyweight fighter in the world. He isn't even the 10th.

When Fedor came out, got his nose broken with the first punch, got knocked down, pummeled, then came back in the second round and threw one of the 'right on the button' punches we seen him throw before (although Arlovski didn't see it, hehe) to knock Rogers out, was it the 'worlds best fighter doing what he does' or was it 'damn, he got lucky again'?

The one thing I felt I knew after that fight on Saturday night was this: Brock Lesnar would destroy Fedor. Hell, I'd have to be on Randy Coutour still beating him. The top 5 fighters in the UFC would probably beat him. Certainly Lesnar would. But there is that little bug behind my ear asking "or would Fedor weather the storm then knock Brock out 20 seconds into the second round?". Like I said, when a man makes a lucky shot 20 times...it isn't luck. I can't imagine Fedor would do that great in the UFC and it is probably better he is in Strikeforce, then again...

I'm just wondering if he will shut the critics (and fans) up and jump to the UFC and win the title. I'm sure he is not afraid or anyone in the UFC, but then again, there are a few guys that could perhaps beat him, staining his sparkling reputation as the greatest of all time. Pretty much all of the big boys (or at least those left) are in the UFC. I just don't know why he wouldn't go there, honestly, unless he is worried about the competition (well, he probably isn't but his management might be).

What do you think?

From SportingNews.com.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) _ The Atlantic Coast Conference's football championship game is moving back to prime-time television.

The ACC said Wednesday this year's game will kickoff at 8 p.m. on Dec. 5 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. ESPN will broadcast the game.

It's the first prime-time kickoff for the ACC title game since the inaugural contest in 2005. The game has started at 1 p.m. in each of the past three seasons. ABC televised the first four title games.

Finally! Now all we have to do is have it played in Charlotte (I know, I know..its coming) and we will be golden. It will be much more impressive with a packed house, which is what Charlotte offers. Thought I'd just let yall know.

First of all, IMHO this was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen on TUF. Maybe THE most inspiring. It was like friggin Rocky. Frank has impressed me with his attitude, humor, and his toughness beyond what I thought a fighter could that wasn't a proven champ. I mean, this guy was beat up bigtime, clearly sore, and afraid because of that and the fact that he was fighting the Brits 'best' guy. He manned up, took a beating, and dished one out, too. I don't think that, even without his throat issues, Faulkner could have beaten him. He just reminded me of the scrappy American standing toe-to-toe and banging it out. I thought it did Frank, Dan, and the US well. Yeah, sure this isn't the Olympics, but the US team has really come together and taken the national spirit over the past several weeks, and I'm a sucker for all of that stuff!

Dan Henderson has turned out to really be cool. I got that sense from him a couple of years ago, but now he is really cool in my eyes. He didn't back down from Bisping in any way. Not that you would expect him to, but still he does not back down and defends his boys.

I'm really enjoying this season. Things started off bad for Team US and the Brits were getting along a lot better at first, but the US got into a groove and sort of weeded out the jerks and one quitter.

As for Faulkner, I'm really stunned about him. He was supposed to be England's best fighter! Turns out that he wants to be a pro-wrestler. Got news for him...that isn't such an easy life either!

One thing I was really surprised about what how much of a whiny jackass Michael Bisping is. Really immature and a real hypocrite and idiot, actually. I remember him being pretty cool on his TUF, but he acts like a baby. I mean, he really loves to talk shit but when someone else talks shit to him he acts like they are classless and out of line! I mean, yeah, I hate the hypocracy that blacks being making fun of whites are funny while whites making fun of blacks as racist. I personally just make fun of everyone (myself included) and if they can't take a joke, fuck 'em! However, the comment from Johnson was reeeeeeally minor, and not really racist. He just said that Bisping looked whiter than a band-aid because the guy is as white as a sheet of paper (they don't have a sun in England?). It wasn't like he called him a cracker or something. Anyway, Bisping had been talking shit since the beginning, but gets upset when someone hits back. And squirting water in Johnson's face was childish and uncalled for. Then when Johnson gets pissed Bisping acts like 'why can't you take a joke'. Like Dan told him later, he wouldn't like it if someone did that to him. "Fair enough" he replied. Come on, Bisping, did you really think that was appropriate?

Anyway, I'm very happy Team Dan/US came back and is meshed well, fought well, and shown guts. It's just a shame that Bisping turned out to be such a prick.

While there are many, many reported stories involving Bas Rutten, this is my favorite

Bas and a couple of buddies (one was famous but I can't remember who it was) were out at a bar in Japan. Several US soldiers were sitting in a corner and for some reason one came up and started giving Bas shit. The guy said he was a SEAL but Bas says that 'yeah, lots of people say that' (because lets face it, a SEAL or Special Forces have enough deadly hand-to-hand to give Bas some problems, plus they are disciplined to the max). Anyway, Bas said he tried to walk away and the guy hit him. Bas got the guy in a leg-lock and the guy screams 'please let me go, i'm sorry!'. Bas said, 'okay, i'll let you up, but this is over, right?', and the guy said 'yes'. Bas let him go and the guy attacked him again. So Bas put him in another submission and the guy starts screaming again 'im sorry im sorry! i won't do it again.' Bas let him up and the guy attacked him YET AGAIN! (now we know the guy wasn't a SEAL or SF because those guys are not stupid). So this time Bas choked him out, pulled his pants down to his ankles and left him laying there with his weenie hanging out for all to see. Bas and his friends left the bar.

Damn, I love that story!

For those of you who have not yet seen Mtv's Bully Beatdown, here is a link to some of the episodes to give you reference: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/bully_beatdown/series.jhtml

If you have never seen this show, here is a breakdown:

Jason "Mayhem" Miller hears stories from people who have to deal with a bully in their life. Usually we hear from a couple of folks telling anticdotes relaying just what an asshole the 'bully' is. Let's make no mistake, these guys ARE assholes. They beat-up on friends who generally don't have the guts or skill to defend themselves. Of course, there is alwasy the LAW. Or the old trick where they are walking down their sidewalk and you just come out of nowhere and cold-cock them with a bat, but I digress. Usually the bully's response to why they pick on these people is that 'if they don't stand up for themselves they deserve to be bullied', which shows just how stupid a bully generally is.

Anyway, the process of the show is always the same, but that doesn't make it less entertaining.

1 - Mayhem confronts the bully.
2 - Bully threatens Mayhem, clearly not knowing who he is and what he can actually do to him.
3 - He offers the money. That is $10k to enter the cage and take on a pro MMA fighter. The catch? The worse they do the more money they lose to the victim.
4 - Bully shows up at Mayhem's gym to 'show his stuff'.
5 - Victim(s) are introduced to the MMA fighter...which results in the victim(s) getting excited about the fact that their bully is about to take a beatdown.
6 - First round: Bully goes 3 minutes in GRAPPLE ONLY with MMA fighter. Bully starts off with $5000 and loses $1000 for each time he taps.
7 - Second round: Bully puts on headgear and larger gloves (MMA fighter has no headgear and the same larger gloves). If he lasts 3 minutes with the MMA fighter without getting knocked out, quitting, or having Big John McCarthey stopping the beating, he gets the other $5000. If not, he loses it all to his victim. 

Of course, the bully never gets past the beating of the second round, but some times they don't get tapped 5 times in 3 minutes, which sucks because by this time you hate the jerk.

The only two non-domination 'fights' were with Jake Shields and Thomas Denny. I thought for sure both of these guys would kill the bully, but it didn't really happen that way. Shields had no excuse. He should have easily tapped the assclown he was against 5 times in 3 minutes. Thomas Denny, well, he at least had a decent excuse. The bully he was against was a weightlifter who was clearly rather powerful. He couldn't match Denny, of course, but he did have the ability to keep his arms and legs inside at all times and just stiffened up so Denny couldn't do much. He still made him tap twice, but that meant that bully walked away with $3K.

The nut of it is, if you haven't seen it, you should. It is funny to watch these punks come straight of the street (one guy was smoking right before he walked in the door), and actually BELIEVE they stand a chance. It is funny to watch them humbled on TV. Of course, at the end of every episode they apologize to their victims and all is well.

I'm just writing this to let fans know about it. Plus, like I said, Mayhem is a TOTAL RIOT. Truely and entertaining guy.

A coworker and I were watching Pacquiao fight and we started talking about if a boxer near that level (Mayweather in particular) fought an MMA guy. That lead to 'what if Mayweather were at a bar and started a fight with ME'. A coworker said 'turn and run'. I'm not the turn and run kind of guy. I never, ever turn my back on a known enemy, of course. Anyway, I said 'If I have no chance to get out of fighting him I will fight since I would have basically no choice'. I told him that I would recognize if someone were a boxer, wrestler (by their stance) or just some redneck who has no idea what he is doing.

Anyway, I said that if I had no choice but to fight someone like Mayweather that I would try and take them down before they knocked me out and once down I would try ground and pound or some of the basic BJJ moves I know. I have 2 years American Freestyle Karate and now like 4 months Krav Maga. I also have some wrestling in my background.  In other words, I'm not a complete putz. Anyway, he insisted that, even if I got him on the ground that I would have no chance. I explained that I have only seen one person get a knock out from his back and that it is highly unlikely. I told him that I didn't think I would win, but did believe that I could, under those circumstances. Anyway, my question is this:

If a person with some experience had to fight a world class boxer, what do you think would happen? What would be the chances of getting a boxer down? Once on the ground, if the other guy has a year or so of training in MMA, would he stand a chance against someone of the caliber of boxer like Mayweather?