8/30/2011- UFC: Rio results, Hurricane Irene causes shake up in New York sports schedules, review of WWE Raw, preview of WWE Super SmackDown

Hey guys, I hope you all had a safe weekend. I hope everyone is okay from Hurricane Irene. I know that it caused a lot of shake-ups to occur in New York sports, but at least it wasn't fully cancelled. Here we go.

UFC

UFC Rio (a.k.a. UFC 134: Silva vs Okami) is now in the books. Overall, there were 12 fights on the card and here are the results:

Facebook

• Yves Jabouin def. Ian Loveland via split decision*
• Yuri Alcantra def. Felipe Arantes via unanimous decision
• Erick Silva def. Luis Ramos via TKO at Round 1**
• Raphael Assunção def. Johnny Eduardo via unanimous decision
• Paulo Thiago def. David Mitchell via unanimous decision*

Spike

• Rousimar Palhares def. Dan Miller via unanimous decision
• Thiago Tavares def. Spencer Fisher via TKO at Round 2

PPV

• Stanislav Nedkov def. Luiz Cane via TKO at Round 1
• Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira def. Brendan Schaub via KO at Round 1
• Edson Barbazoa def. Ross Pearson via split decision
• Mauricio Rua def. Forrest Griffin via KO at Round 1
• Anderson Silva def. Yushin Okami via TKO at Round 2 to retain the UFC Middleweight Championship

*= this bout also aired on PPV

**= this bout also aired on Spike and PPV

I only saw the Spike preliminaries, but the fights on the prelims looked nice as well. Most of the fighters who won were of Brazilian descent but that's a good thing for UFC since they were hosting the event in Rio De Janiero and wanted to have the crowd go home happy.

The next UFC live event will be on September 17th as UFC will air Fight Night on Spike.

MLB

Both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets had their schedules messed up due to Hurricane Irene which caused the Yankees five game stand against the Baltimore Orioles to be reduced to 4 while the Mets series against Atlanta had their Saturday and Sunday games cancelled. Nonetheless, the two teams are now back in routine and focused on September which is "crunch time" for them. After the Yankees evened the series against Baltimore yesterday, the Yankees will play against Boston Red Sox this week to determine the race to 1st place. Meanwhile for the Mets, they have defeated the Florida Marlins yesterday in a back-to-back doubleheader. The Mets will continue their series against the Marlins until Thursday.

NFL

After the exhibition game between the New York Jets and New York Giants were rescheduling many times, the two had played each other last night in what was the 1st game of the newly-renamed Metlife Stadium and was considered the Metlife Bowl between the Giants and Jets. After a boring beginning, the Giants made a field goal kick to make it 3 and nothing. However, it was short lived for the Giants as the Jets took the lead for the rest of the game and defeated the Giants 17-3. Here are the highlights of the game:

The two New York football teams will meet again on December 24,2011 in a regular season game.

Later this week, the Giants will head to Gillete Stadium to face Super Bowl rival New England Patriots while the Jets will host Giants fiercest rival, the Philadelphia Eagles to conclude the preseason.

WWE

Last night's Raw was unique in a way as Triple H announced that the performers from SmackDown will appear on Raw more often to have a Raw SuperShow. I don't know what is exactly going on, but it appears that WWE is killing the Brand Extension that was initiated back in 2002. Also, tonight Raw superstars will appear on SmackDown for the live edition. The main event of the show will be Christian vs. Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage match.

On the next edition of the blog, I will give a review of WWE Super SmackDown as well as giving a preview of NCAA College Football. Have a nice day and a good week.

-NYCKNP

8/26/2011- review of WWE Raw, Phillies def. Mets 2 out of 3, Oakland def. Yankees 2 out of 3, preview of UFC: Rio, more

Hey guys, I hope everyone had a great week since this is the last full week of August and for some college students the last week of summer vacation as there are some students who will start the fall semester in September 1st (including me). So, if I blog a little less after September 1st, that doesn't mean I don't want to share anything anymore, it means that I'll be focusing more on schoolwork a little more. Anyways, enjoy the last few days of August left as I will too. Here we go...

WWE

This week's Monday Night Raw had a number 1 contendership to face WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio at the next WWE PPV called Night of Champions. The match was between former WWE Champions CM Punk and John Cena. Also, the storyline continued from last week consisting of Nash, Triple H, and CM Punk, which resulted in a brief altercation between Nash and Punk. Another thing that occured was Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne winning the WWE Tag Team Championship from David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty. At the end of the episode, John Cena won the number 1 contendership match via interference from Kevin Nash and will now face Alberto Del Rio at Night of Champions.

Also, WWE promoted the live edition of "Super SmackDown" for next Tuesday:

However, that is next week. This Friday, WWE Hall of Famer Bret "The Hitman" Hart will be the guest general manager for the night as SmackDown will eminate from Calgary. Tune in this Friday to see Bret Hart appear for the first time on SmackDown.

MLB

Both the New York Mets and the New York Yankees had a very bad week as they lost to their opposing teams 2 out of 3. However, both teams came through in the end to avoid a sweep. The notable win was the Yankees victory yesterday as they made a comeback after Oakland dominated the first half of the game. The reason why it was no ordinary victory because the Yankees made three grand slams in one single game, making history in MLB.

The Mets will be scheduled to face the Atlanta Braves this weekend, while the Yankees will face the Baltimore Orioles in a 5 game series. Originally, it was scheduled to be 4, but due to an April game being postponed, it became 5 with a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday. However, I say scheduled heavily because of the hurricane this weekend. So, even though the game is scheduled for the weekend, card is subject to change.

(Update: The doubleheader scheduled for Saturday has indeed been postponed)

UFC

As you may know, UFC: Rio will be taking place on Saturday night. Overall, there will be 12 fights on the card. 5 will be streamed on Facebook, 2 will air on Spike, while the remaining will air on PPV. The main event will be Anderson Silva defending his UFC Middleweight Championship against Yushin Okami. Here's a video of the preview of UFC:Rio :

NFL

After the New York Giants defeated Chicago Bears on Monday night, the Giants were hoping to face the Jets this Saturday. However, due to Hurricane Irene coming, the game was postponed to Monday night.

That is all I have to say for sports. If you are in the area where the Hurricane will be affected, take extra precautions to be safe. Have a very safe weekend.

-NYCKNP

8/22/2011- Brewers sweep Mets, Yankees def Twins 3 out of 4, Pat Curran wins Bellator Summer Series Featherweight Tournament, more

Hey guys. I hope you all had a nice weekend. As you may know summer vacation is coming to an end. This means that baseball season is currently in "lame duck" mode before post-season starts, while football is about to begin. Speaking of these sports, let's begin shall we.

MLB

The Mets had a horrible weekend as they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 3 in a row. Although Mets attempted a comeback due to Angel Pagan's home run, the Brewers made sure to clinch a victory on Saturday. As for the Yankees, they defeated the Minnesota Twins 3 out of 4. The Saturday game was the only one they lost due to Minnesota dominating in the 1st inning, therefore avoiding a Yankees sweep. 

This week in New York baseball, the Mets will head to Philadelphia to face the Phillies in a 3-game series while the Yankees will host the Oakland Athletics tomorrow for a 3 game series this week. 

Bellator

Bellator Fighting Championships have concluded their Summer Series on Saturday with the Pat Curran/ Marlon Sandro fight as the Featherweight Tournament Final. The event took place at the Mohegan Sun Casino and aired on MTV 2. Here are the results of the televised card:

• Nazare def. Juan Barrantes via Medical Stoppage at Round 2. 
• Seth Petruzelli def. Ricco Rodriguez via TKO at Round 1
• Ryan Quinn def. Brett Oteri via submission by rear naked choke at Round 1*
• Bellator Heavyweight Champion Cole Konrad def. Paul Buentello via unanimous decision in a non-title fight
• Pat Curran def. Marlon Sandro via KO at Round 2 to win the Bellator Summer Series Featherweight Tournament

*= originally a local feature fight 

Overall, it was a good card, with the only exceptions being the Quinn/Oteri and Konrad/Buentello fights being not so good. However, they saved the best for last in the end as the final fight was tremendous and what I consider an OMG moment. Here is the highlight of Bellator 48:

Bellator Fighting Championships will return for Season 5 starting September 10th. You can catch a sneak peek of the 5th season of Bellator on September 6th on MTV 2. Go to Bellator.com for more info

WWE

This past Friday of SmackDown was the episode of which Orton returns as World Heavyweight Champion. Also, a 20 man battle royal took place to determine the Number 1 Contendership to face Randy Orton. Mark Henry has won the Battle Royal and will face Randy Orton at a later date. Also, WWE promoted a special SmackDown that will air live on Tuesday August 30th. Here's a sneak peek:

WWE promoted this as "Super SmackDown" so something special must be taking place. Also, don't forget to tune in to Monday Night Raw to determine what's the situation occurring between CM Punk, Triple H, John Cena, Alberto Del Rio, and Kevin Nash

NFL

The New York Jets played another preseason game as they faced the Cincinnati Bengals last night in a victory. The highlight of the game was Plaxico Burress catching the ball from Mark Sanchez to make a touchdown. The result of the game was Bengals-7, Jets-27. 

The New York Giants will face the Chicago Bears tonight as part of Monday Night Football. 

That is all I have to say for now. Have a good week!

- NYCKNP

 

8/18/2011- UFC on FOX, WWE Storylines Recap, NFL Sunday Ticket coming to PS3, Yankees, Mets, more

What's up everyone. I hope you all are having a good week so far. There's a lot that happened before this week ends so here we go.

WWE

This past Sunday, WWE Summerslam occurred. The match results are:

• Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, & John Morrison def. The Miz, R-Truth, & Alberto Del Rio in a 6-man tag team match
• Mark Henry def. Sheamus via countout
• Kelly Kelly def. Beth Phoenix to retain the WWE Divas Championship
• Wade Barrett def. Daniel Bryan
• Randy Orton def. Christian in a No Holds Barred match to become the NEW World Heavyweight Champion
• CM Punk def. John Cena to become the WWE Undisputed Champion

However, Kevin Nash attacked CM Punk after the match, which caused Alberto Del Rio to cash in Money in the Bank contract to which:

• Alberto Del Rio def. CM Punk in 8 seconds to win the WWE Championship

The next night on Raw, Kevin Nash appeared and explained his actions that he received a text message to appear at Summerslam. CM Punk interrupted and caused a conversation to occur between the two. Later that night, Rey Mysterio would face Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Championship (Rey Mysterio would invoke a rematch clause a week before Summerslam to face the winner of the WWE Championship on the Raw where it took place in his hometown of San Diego). However, Mysterio fell short of regaining the title.

Also, on August 30th 2011, SmackDown will be airing live on Syfy.

ROH

ROH Death before Dishonor IX is an upcoming iPPV that will be streamed live on GFL.tv on September 17, 2011. The iPPV will emanate from New York City at the Manhattan Center. A special match was announced called the "Ringmaster Challenge". ROH Executive Producer Jim Cornette explains it in this video:

UFC

As you may know UFC: Hardy vs Lytle is now in the books. The reason why this was a notable event because it was Chris Lytle's last MMA fight ever as he retired after the event to spend more time with his family. Here are the results of the main card:

• Duane Ludwig def. Amir Sadollah via unanimous decision
• Donald Cerrone def. Charles Oliviera via TKO at Round 1
• Ben Henderson def. Jim Miller via unanimous decision
• Chris Lytle def. Dan Hardy via submission at Round 3

Not a bad show. Although I didn't get to see the conclusion of the main event, it was definitely a good way to end the chapter of Chris Lytle's career.

Also, earlier today UFC had a press conference that confirmed their TV deal with FOX Sports. UFC promoter Dana White mentions that the UFC will broadcast four fights on FOX annually beginning on November 12, 2011 while The Ultimate Fighter will move to FX starting 2012.

I believe that this is a good move for the UFC to bring awareness to the product and what better way than to have a show on FOX. However, keep in mind that this isn't the first time that UFC has ever had a televised event aired on FOX programming as they did a UFC event back in 2002 on Fox Sports Net. Now, that the UFC has a multi-year deal with FOX, expect a lot of changes to occur.

More details can be found here: http://www.ufc.com/news/ufc-on-fox-announcement081811

MLB

After a weekend at home with the Yankees hosting Tampa Bay for 2 games since a 3rd game was rained out, the Yankees headed to Kansas City earlier that week to defeat them 2 out of 3. The final game at Kansas City was controversial regarding a home run that costed the Yankees a victory. Meanwhile for the Mets, they had completed part 2 of their West Coast tour to which they defeated San Diego Padres 2 out of 3.

The Yankees are currently in a 4 game series with the Minnesota Twins which will occur throughout the weekend. Tomorrow, the Mets will head home to host the Milwaukee Brewers for the weekend.

NFL

As you may know the NFL preseason has already started. For the New York teams, the two didn't do so well as the Giants lost to the Panthers on Saturday while the Jets fell short of a victory to Houston this past Monday. However, this was pre-season so win-losses don't exactly matter unlike the regular season. The Jets will host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday while the Giants will host the Chicago Bears on Monday.

The newsworthy thing that occurred earlier in the week was that both DirecTV and PlayStation announced that NFL Sunday Ticket will be coming to the PS3. For this, you don't exactly have to be a subscriber to DirecTV if you get NFL Sunday Ticket at the price of $339.95. However, if you are currently a DirecTV customer who has NFL Sunday Ticket, you can have it at no additional charge. More details can be found here: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/17/directv-and-playstation-bring-nfl-sunday-ticket-to-ps3/

Bellator

Bellator Fighting Championships will be concluding their Summer Series with the finals of the featherweight tournament scheduled to be held at the Mohegan Sun and will air on MTV 2. The Featherweight Tournament Final will be Pat Curran vs Marlon Sandro.

That is all I have to say this week. Hope you all have a good weekend.

-NYCKNP

8/12/2011- WWE Raw Review, preview of UFC on Versus: Hardy vs Lytle, preview of WWE SummerSlam, Yankees, Mets, more

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great week so far as we get set to this weekend in sports. Here we go!

WWE

This week's WWE Raw was the final Raw before SummerSlam 2011. The main focus of this week was the contract signing between the two disputed WWE Champions CM Punk and John Cena. Also the two WWE Champions were in respective singles matches with John Cena defeating Jack Swagger and CM Punk defeating Mr. Raw Money in the Bank Alberto Del Rio. Therefore, the two looked very strong going into Sunday. Also, World Heavyweight Champion Christian made an appearance via satellite to promote SmackDown since he has an "announcement to make". Tune in this Friday to find out what is the announcement.

Here is the video of the contract signing:

Also, here is the WWE SummerSlam 2011 match card:

Currently, 4 matches have been advertised thus far. More matches might be advertised soon as we get closer to Sunday.

ROH

As you may know, this Saturday is the TV tapings for Ring of Honor Wrestling that is scheduled to air on September 24th 2011. The tapings will be held at Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, IL. For more info on ROH Wrestling, go to http://www.rohwrestling.com/

UFC

UFC will be having an upcoming live event called UFC Live: Hardy vs Lytle which is taking place at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin & is scheduled to air this Sunday night on Versus. Currently, 12 fights are scheduled. 8 fights will be streamed live on Facebook while the remaining 4 will air on Versus. Here is the fight card:

Preliminaries (Facebook)

• Edwin Figueroa vs Jason Reinhardt
• Jacob Volkmann vs Danny Castillo
• Cole Miller vs TJ O'Brien
• Alex Caceres vs Jimy Hettes
• Karlos Vemola vs Ronny Markes
• Ed Herman vs Kyle Noke
• Joseph Benavidez vs Eddie Wineland
• C.B. Dollaway vs Jared Hamman

Main Card (Versus)

• Amir Sadollah vs Duane Ludwig
• Charles Oliviera vs Donald Cerrone
• Jim Miller vs Ben Henderson
• Dan Hardy vs Chris Lytle (Main Event)

MLB

After a devastating weekend in Boston, the Yankees returned home and turned things around on Wednesday as they have defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2 out of 3. For the Mets, they have ended their bad weekend by defeating San Diego on Monday and Tuesday. However, they have fell short the last 2 days, which makes the series 2-2.

This weekend, the Yankees will host the Tampa Bay Rays in a 3-game stand before heading to the road to Kansas City for Monday. The Mets will be in the West Coast for the next few days as they face the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 1st half of the West Coast Tour this weekend.

NFL

It's official. NFL is back in business as yesterday marked the first day of Preseason games. Speaking of which, this Saturday the New York Giants will head to Bank of America Stadium to face the Carolina Panthers and on Monday the New York Jets will head to Reliant Stadium to face the Houston Texans. The Giants-Panthers game will be televised locally in the New York DMA on WNBC while the Jets-Texans game will be telecasted nationally on ESPN (also simulcasted on WWOR).

That is all I have to say for now. Have a great weekend!

-NYCKNP

The Rise and Fall of Partisan Democracy | The Pragmatic Center

The Rise and Fall of Partisan Democracy The Pragmatic Center

8/8/2011- Yankees Stuck in Wild Card Hell?, Mets out of Wild Card contendership, UFC 133 results, more

Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of the NYCKNP Blog. A lot has happened this weekend in sports especially Yankees and Mets baseball so let's get to it. Also, I have reactions regarding American Football coming to India that I will also share.

MLB

After the New York Yankees swept the Chicago White Sox at the South Side, the Bombers went to Fenway to face their rival the Boston Red Sox. The only highlight of the weekend was Friday as they have defeated the Red Sox after a long time since April and had a brief taste to be in 1st place. However, that was short lived as they lost really bad to Red Sox and their spot in 1st place. Which bring to my question, will the Yankees be stuck in wild card hell for the remainder of the season?

The Mets didn't have a good weekend either as they not only lost to the Braves 2 out of 3, but have lost their spot in wild card contendership. Mets have lost on Friday, but did gain a victory on Saturday. However, they fell short by 1 run yesterday.

After a depressing weekend by both teams, the two has to step it up this week as the Mets will face the San Diego Padres in a 4 game series, while the Yankees will head home to host the Los Angeles Angels starting Tuesday.

UFC

UFC 133 has occurred this past Saturday and is now in the history books. Overall, there were 11 fights on the card. 4 were streamed on Facebook, 2 were televised on Spike, while the remainder aired on PPV. Here are the results and my reactions to the Spike portion of the event.

Facebook

• Rafael Natal def. Paul Bradley via unanimous decision
• Mike Brown def. Nam Phan via unanimous decision
• Johny Hendricks def. Mike Pierce via split decision*
• Ivan Menjivar def. Nick Pace via unanimous decision*

Spike

• Chad Mendes def. Rani Yahya via unanimous decision. It was an okay bout to start the Spike preliminaries. Mendes definitely proved to be the better man in this fight.
• Alexander Gustafsson def. Matt Hamill via TKO in Round 2. Hamill was definitely the crowd favorite in this fight while Gustafsson was jeered by the crowd in Philly. The crowd was so polarized in this fight that the fans chanted USA. Going back to the fight, both of those guys showed a lot of effort but Gustafsson found a way to clinch a victory.

PPV

• Rory MacDonald def. Mike Pyle via TKO in Round 1
• Constantinos Philippou def. Jorge Rivera via split decision
• Brian Ebersole def. Dennis Hallman via TKO in Round 1
• Vitor Belfort def. Yoshihiro Akiyama via KO in Round 1
• Rashad Evans def. Tito Ortiz via TKO in Round 2

*- denotes that the fight also aired in the PPV broadcast

WWE

SmackDown was a little out of the ordinary this week as Christian finally pinned cleanly Randy Orton in a tag team match in the main event. Also a good match was between Daniel Bryan and Tyson Kidd. It appears that WWE is building up Bryan to be a credible threat to the main event guys. Also, Natalya turned heel once again and implied a reformation of her alliance with Beth Phoenix. The only problem on SmackDown is commentary. I'm sorry to say this but commentary is a complete mess on SmackDown as none of them are doing their job right. I wish there was Spanish audio for SmackDown in my area, but there isn't.

Also, this week is the last week before SummerSlam. WWE has advertised a contract signing between John Cena and CM Punk for the WWE Undisputed Championship on Raw. More info will come on the Friday edition of the blog.

Other

As you probably heard, American Football is expanding to India with a league called Elite Football League of India. I asked about if American Football will make an impact in India to people via poll on Facebook and WrestleZone message boards. On the Facebook poll, 6 voted Yes while 2 voted No. However, it was a different story on WrestleZone message boards:

25% Yes

75% No

Also, I asked WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross on his blog called J.R.'s Family Bar B.Q. in the Q&A section. Ross has responded and gave his answer on his recent blog post. Here is what Ross has to say:

"Will American Football come to India in a new league? I've heard nothing of this seemingly wacky venture. I personally would not invest a nickel in American football to be played in India. I do know that India is a priority on the WWE international, growth map."

To read more about JR's recent blog post, you can visit his website:  http://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/sunday-update-ufc-vs-nfl-luger-yoko-diva-tv-show-masked-kane-anglewwe-dvd-announce-table-insult/

That is all for this Monday. Coming up on Friday is the WWE Raw review, Yankees, Mets, and the NFL Preseason hype for Giants and Jets.

Have a nice day,

NYCKNP

8/5/2011- American Football coming to India?, WWE Future Endeavors, Yankees sweep White Sox, Mets in bad luck?, more

Hey guys, I hope everyone had a great week this week. A lot has happened this week (including today), so let's get to it.

Gridiron/Football

I have read yesterday on Time.com that the sport of American Football is coming to India. Notable NFL personalities such as Ron Jaworski, Michael Irvin, Mike Ditka, and Brandon Chillar are investing in the organization called Elite Football League of India (or EFLI for short). EFLI has already created 8 teams in the league and are schedule to start their inaugural season in November 2012. More details can be found on their official website http://www.efli.com/ 

MLB

The New York Yankees had a great week as they have swept the Chicago White Sox in a 4-game series. The notables were the great runs that occurred from the Yankees (including a home run from Russell Martin) & the fact that Tuesday's game ended early in the 7th inning due to rain. The Yankees may have had a great time at US Cellular Field, but the color of the socks have now changed as they go from White to Red as the Yankees will face their fiercest rival Boston Red Sox. Both Yankees and Red Sox are currently tied in the AL East and the question is, Who will prevail and go to first place?

Usually rivalry games I recommend are "must see" but NOT one-sided rivalries. This rivalry has lately become one-sided so I suggest this as "must skip" as the Yankees will lose again. And this is coming from a Yankees fan because I can't understand why the Bombers haven't been able to defeat Boston since April.

For the Mets, they had bad luck as they have lost to the Florida Marlins two games in a row. A third game was supposed to be played but due to rain it was a no contest. The Mets will however face the Atlanta Braves this weekend and it's a possibility that the Mets can turn it around.

WWE

This Monday on Raw was mainly about the solution to fix the disputed WWE Championship. It's confirmed that both CM Punk and John Cena are co-holders of the WWE Championship. Other than that, the rest of the show was just an average Raw with a strong beginning and end. Here's a video that gives the reactions of Cena and Punk regarding their WWE Championship match at SummerSlam:

More information will be given out later regarding WWE Summerslam.

Also, WWE has announced the departures of Melina, Vladimir Kozlov, Chris Masters and David Hart Smith from the company today. It was rumored that Gail Kim had quit the company as well as she posted on her Twitter that she quit the WWE, but WWE has not acknowledged her departure yet.

UFC

UFC will be having a PPV this weekend called UFC 133 that is schedule to take place this Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. The advertised main event is Rashad Evans vs Tito Ortiz. The preliminary card will be aired on Facebook with the remaining two airing on Spike. I will be giving my reaction to the Spike preliminaries and give the results of the entire PPV.

That will do it for now. Have a great weekend everyone!

-NYCKNP