I’m not the most prompt person on the planet, to which my friends and co-workers can attest, but I hate being held at the mercy of “8 a.m. to Noon,” when an appointment is scheduled. So I’ve got a slight plumbing issue (oh the joy of home ownership) and I make an appointment for the local RotoRooter outfit to come out and give the pipes a good scrape. Long story short, I took the whole morning off … and boom, 11:30, I get a call.
Well, tomorrow I’m taking the morning off (Again) to get this situated. Ugh. Derby went well this weekend – the Distel Finks beat the Hex Offenders and I basically scratched off any good deed I’d ever done in my life … by singing Ice Ice Baby on karaoke. On the positive end, I rocked it. On the negative, I still sang Vanilla Ice.
Gas: $3.95
Weather: “Great Day to Be Alive” – in homage to my old P.E. Teacher George Yeager.
MMA Weekend …
After catching most of the EliteXC between karaoke and the Penguins-Red Wings game on Saturday night, Sunday’s World Extreme Cagefighting was a welcomed addition to my normal Sunday line-up. Working from home the first part of my Monday, I’ve been tuning in to ESPN Radio and Mike & Mike, The Herd and now Mike Tirico have been talking about MMA – but they’re talking about Kimbo Slice and the steaming lump CBS handed us Saturday. I’m not the biggest Dana White fan by any means, although I think his f-bombs on The Ultimate Fighter lend some comic relief, but the man has to be happy (at least from a UFC standpoint) to see how bad the EliteXC product really was.
By contrast, not a single thing has been said on mainstream talk radio today about the tremendous battle held on Sunday at WEC 34 between Urijah Faber (left) and Jens Pulver. The heavyweights typically get most of the pop in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, but Faber and Pulver gave fight fans one of the best fights of the year. Faber, a former wrestler at UC Davis and Pulver, a former wrestler at Boise State, went toe-to-toe for five rounds and proved the WEC is a sound product and has some marketable names, fighters and personalities. Mark Munoz, a former two-time All-American and NCAA Champ from Oklahoma State won his WEC debut with a first-round TKO. Munoz, who recently resigned from his post as an assistant wrestling coach at UC Davis, is committing to MMA full-time. While shorter and with a pronounced reach disadvantage, he pummeled Chuck Grigsby.
Danny Castillo, a former Menlo college wrestler, was giving a good effort before getting submitted by Donald Cerone. Chase Beebe, a former Purdue wrestler, lost a split decision to Will Ribeiro. Miguel Torres and Yoshiro Maeda had a colorful, fun fight. WEC’s product was MUCH better than the EliteXC.
Kimbo’s not even worth discussing … neither are the comments by Michelle Tafoya’s on ESPN radio.
Signings Updates
With only one month remaining before juniors become “seniors” in terms of recruiting purposes; InterMat’s collected over 1,350 signings, commitments and appointments from across every division of wrestling. Of the signees, 545 of them are in NCAA Division I. Division III, with the most total programs of any varsity wrestling grouping, has 265 wrestlers committed. Division II has 203 signees and verbals, followed by the NAIA (162) and NJCAA (149).
The top “unsigned/unreported” talent out there remains to be Tyrell Fortune of Oregon, who is rumored to be considering at least three junior colleges. Josh Wiseman of Minnesota hasn’t reported as signed yet, but word is he’s heading to Minnesota State-Mankato, but that’s unconfirmed at the moment. Phillip Henes is also rumored to be going the JUCO route, but because the NJCAA wishes only signings from its website be reported, it’s not confirmed as 100 percent just yet. Alabama’s Kyle Cuthbertson’s considering Utah Valley or Boise State.
Hall of Fame Weekend
Scott Casber of Takedown Wrestling Radio was a jack-of-all-trades over the weekend, lining up interviews from not only those being honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, but also picking up interviews from those on the sidelines in Stillwater. Yes, a shameless plug for more Premium Service content, but I spent the weekend listening to Casber’s interviews and they are spectacular. We’ll be releasing 13 more interviews in the next week and a half with names like Ricky & Rocky Bonomo, Josiah Henson, Jerry Wager, Jay Hammond, Eric Guerrero, Ray Foy and others …
Gary Abbott was the first interview to be released, while the 90 minute interview/radio show from Freddie Paul’s Steakhouse in Stillwater is presented for free and a very different, low-key interview with some of those in attendance this weekend.
Getting to Know
If you don’t know who Spenser Mango is, you really should take notice. One of the up-and-coming stars on the Greco-Roman circuit worldwide, Mango’s the first of the Getting to Know series InterMat’s Premium Service is releasing on our Olympic Hopefuls. Click here for a free preview of Mango’s Q&A. So far, we’ve received Q&A’s back from Mango and fellow Greco stud Harry Lester and women’s freestylers Jenny Wong, Mary Kelly and Katie Downing.
