Another week of Twittering along with coverage of the Yankees and MMA has come to an end, but not before a nice 4-2 road trip through Baltimore and Toronto. Not to shabby for the Yankees considering the plethora of injuries. I see this team being back to full strength by June 15, meaning a lineup with Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and hopefully Xavier Nady, along with a rotation that includes a healthy and productive Chien-Ming Wang. That's when all the excuses come to an end. The Yankees will be healthy and any acclimation period for Mark Teixeira (.203 as of this writing) will be long over. For the all the hype surrounding this team, it'll be put up or shut up, or the season will be over sooner than anyone will want to believe.
I interviewed Thiago "Pit Bull" Alves on Thursday for a story running on Junkie Saturday. Alves is preparing for the biggest fight of his life, a challenge to Georges St. Pierre for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 100. Not only is the robust 25-year-old Brazilian not unnerved by the hype nor the magnitude of the fight and event, he told me this: "I'm not going to win. I'm going to knock him out. I'm going to shock the world. I will make history. I promise you that." This is what's great about covering MMA: Shock value!
Cain Velasquez is an up-and-comer in the UFC's rebuilding heavyweight division, one ruled by Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir and ripe with talent in Velasquez, Shane Carwin and Cheick Kongo. He's facing the biggest challenge of his young career at UFC 99 in Germany, veteran Heath Herring. I expect to be interviewing Cain next week as part of a full-length feature to run the week of the event.
Props to MMAMadness for getting Chuck Liddell's take on whether he's retiring or not. The Iceman hasn't made up his mind, but as John Hackleman told me, he believes Liddell has at least one fight left in him. That feature generated a hell of response and intense debate, which shows you the passion of the Iceman's loyal following.
My Junkie colleague John Morgan has been keeping a video blog of Urijah Faber's preparation for his rematch with featherweight champion Mike Brown at WEC 41 June 7. From what I've read, this could end up the most successful show in the history of the UFC's sister promotion. Every MMA fan wanted a Brown-Faber rematch and they'll get it. Many have "The California Kid" pegged to regain the title he lost to Brown in a shocking first-round knockout, but I'm not so sure. Brown proved he wasn't a fluke with his destruction of Leonard Garcia and he's grounded enough to not let this success swell his head. Like Alves, Brown trains at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla., who recently employed the services of 1976 Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. Brown, like Faber, is as classy as they come, but extremely intense and focused on keeping his belt. I'm expecting another deep conversation as Judgment Day in Sacramento draws closer.
Hermes Franca is feeling great while continuing to rehab a torn ACL. We traded a few text messages in which he was trying to convince me to come out to Las Vegas for UFC 98 next Saturday. If only money wasn't so tight. Someday I'll get out there and when I do it'll be worth it that much more.
I end today's posting with a flashback of Eric Bischoff's challenge to Vince McMahon. Affliction Entertainment promoter Tom Atencio has challenged UFC president Dana White to a fight. White was on a corporate retreat, but upon learning that Atencio had called him out, the one-time amateur boxer told Yahoo! Sports, "If I were him, I'd want to fight me, too," White said. "I'm the guy who is killing all of his hopes and dreams."
Like I said, shock value!
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