sportsblogger

   After reviewing the other Mixed Martial Arts sites and observing inept ranking systems, I have decided to create my own. You are probably wondering why do this? Well the answer is simple, and that is to give a real look into who fans believe are the top fighters in the World.

Bantamweight (135 pounds and under):

1.) Miguel Torres,(35-1) WEC Champion- You can’t argue with a 35-1 record can you. Torres is with out a doubt the best fighter at 135 and could be the pound-for-pound best fighter in the World.

2.) Brian Bowles, (7-0)- The top contender in the WEC for Torres’ belt, Bowles had to pull out of the fight due to injury. At 7-0, he is still the Sportsblogger top contender.

3.) Masakatsu Ueda, (9-0-2)- He is not really known here in the United States, but his record is impressive fighting Japans elite.

4.) Takeya Mizugaki, (11-2-2)- Mizugaki stepped in for the number one contender Brian Bowles and will face Miguel Torres on April 5th for the Bantamweight Championship.

5.) Manny Tapia, (10-1-1)- When your only loss is to Miguel Torres, I’d like to think your career is pretty good given that your only loss is to the best in the World.

Featherweight (145 pound limit):

1.) Mike Brown, (21-4) WEC Champion- Many people thought his win over former Champion Urijah Faber was a fluke. It was no fluke when Brown walked right through Leonard Garcia.

2.) Urijah Faber, (22-2)- Out of habit, you just want to put Faber in the Number One spot but you can’t. If Faber avenges his loss to Brown on June 7th he will re-establish himself as the best at 145 lbs.

3.) Takeshi “Lion” Inoue, (15-3)- “Lion” needs stronger competition and a move to DREAM would be great for him. Too bad he is signed to Shooto, so until that contract expires we will not know how great he can be.

4.) Wagney Fabiano, (11-1)- With a win at WEC 40, Fabiano could become a top contender if he wins in impressive fashion.

5.) Jose Aldo, (14-1)- Aldo is certainly one of the top young talents in the 145 division. He may need a few more fights to establish himself as a top competitor in the WEC, but surely being top 5 isn’t bad either.

Lightweight (155 pound limit):

1.) B.J. Penn, (13-5-1) UFC Champion- With everyone making a big deal about Penn’s loss to Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre. What everyone needs to remember is that Penn destroyed Sean Sherk and Joe Stevenson at 155 and is still the Champ.

2.) Shinya Aoki, (19-3, 1 no contest), WAMMA Champion- Aoki is not better than Penn, not yet anyway. Aoki has proved himself against top talent in Japan but, like Penn, is trying to also prove himself at Welterweight too.

3.) Eddie Alvarez, (15-2)- Alvarez lost his match against Aoki for the WAMMA Championship but now his eyes are set on the Bellator Fighting Championships which kicks off in April.

4.) Kenny Florian, (11-3)- In the crowded 155 division, some people have forgot that Ken-Flo is the top contender in the UFC for Penns title. That should be a war at UFC 101.

5.) Joachim Hansen, (19-7-1)- Always the warrior, Hansens victory over Aoki will always stand out in my head and is the reason he is still a top 5 Lightweight.

Tomorrow is Welterweights through Heavyweights.

J.M.Saucedo 

   After playing hookie from Sportsblogger on Friday to see my friends off on their tour, I returned valiantly to an overloaded email inbox. The long anticipated Sportsblogger MMA Rankings are just about done and will premier tomorrow so stay tuned, but for now it’s Sports Market Monday.

Final Four- The NCAA Mens Tournament has withered down to its Final Four contestants in Michigan State, North Carolina, Villanova, and UCONN. As I was correct on two of the four teams I will stick with North Carolina as the continued favorite to win the National Championship.

The Final Four is up.

Kentucky Basketball- Last week, I was inclined to believe Kentucky was out of their minds in firing Billy Gillispie after just two years at the school. Currently reports are swirling that the fabled Basketball school is trying to hire John Calipari.

It would be a great hire for Kentucky, the market is up.

Jeff Goerge- Remember him? He hasn’t thrown a pass in the NFL for eight years yet he still wants to play in the league but claims teams will not give him a try-out. There is clearly a reason why he hasn’t played in eight years, sorry Jeff but it’s time to retire.

Jeff George is down.

USC Quarterbacks- A long time ago, the star role of USC Football was being the starting Runningback, but times have changed. There is currently a four man race to become the next starting QB and the leader of the Trojans as their spring training has begun.

USC Quarterbacks are up and soaring as the potential stars of Los Angeles.

Last Week: Curt Schilling is still up as he is retired from baseball but still no word on retiring his mouth; Affliction is still down; the New York Jets have leveled off after rumors surfaced they were interested in Jay Cutler; and the Montreal Canadiens are still down and looking for a buyer.

J.M.Saucedo

   Shocking/Not So Shocking Thursday is usually filled with humorous takes on the days top stories, but I assure you that todays edition is slightly different. Today, I will feature a portion that is inspired by a moral outrage from a loyal reader of Sportsblogger.

   Without further interuption, here is Shocking/Not So Shocking.

Shocking: With plenty of new rules added to the NFL, one in particular struck one of my loyal readers and friend as unjustified, that of course is the “Brady Rule”. The “Brady Rule” was conjured up in hopes to prevent Quarterbacks from being hit in the knees like Tom Brady this season.

Not So Shocking: Like my loyal reader, this new rule has sparked heated debates that the NFL has indeed gone “soft” and only cares about QB’s. As much as I dislike the rule, it is really not going to effect the game as QB’s are not often hit low or at all unless you play for the Detroit Lions.

Shocking: Is there a better big man in the the NBA than Orlando Magic C Dwight Howard? Howard has led the Magic to a Playoff birth and the second spot in the Eastern Conference.

A Second Shocking: Since PG Jameer Nelson was injured for the rest of this season, Howard has stepped up his efforts and is now a legit MVP Candidate.

Shocking: The New York Yankees named P CC Sabathia their opening day starter for the beginning of the season as well as the opening of “The House that Tax Payers Built”, New Yankees Stadium.

Not So Shocking: Once Sabathia starts off slow at the beginning of the season, the Yankees fans will be sure to heckle him like everyother non-Yankee in history.

Shocking: When the news broke yesterday about the apparent rule violations that UConn Mens Basketball made in recruitment of a high school player I expected to hear a top name mentioned.

A Second Shocking: When I heard the name of the player, I had no idea who he was and later learned he never played a single game for the Huskies, I had to laugh. It must be terrible to get burned for violations while recruiting a player, it must be a whole other feeling when the player never plays a game for your team.

J.M.Saucedo

   The media was flying off the handle when it was announced that Terrell Owens missed the his first voluntary workout with the Buffalo Bills. If I am not mistaken, plenty of people chalked it up as T.O. being his typical over-the-top self.

   To all and any people who gave grief to Owens, I hope you will also offer an apology because T.O. has a great reason for missing the workout. Owens is to be awarded the Alzheimers Association’s first Young Champions Award for his contribution to spreading Alzheimers awareness.

   It is not often that T.O. surprises me, but this is just another turn of the page in the Owens saga and I have to say it is a very admirable page. Kudos T.O. for supporting this great cause and you deserve this award for helping the fight of this disease.

   On another encouraging note, it appears Gilbert Arenas, also known as Agent Zero, may finally be making his long-anticipated return the Washington Wizards. After having 3 operations on his left knee, Arenas is rumored to be in great shape for the first time in years.

   Arenas, when healthy, is not only a great player and clearly one of the best “Showmen” in the NBA with his thrilling style of play. It will be great for the Wizards to finally have him back and in good health and I hope he stays that way.

   Personally, I can not wait until he starts calling out players like LeBron James and pushes other players to play their best game. Of course, it will be great to hear him talking about people on and off the court and making headlines for good reasons.

J.M.Saucedo

   With the NFL Owners meetings currently underway, there will be plenty of controversial proposals made and some just have to be made. The NFL Owner meetings are essentially about increasing revenue’s, player safety, and increasing the popularity of the league.

   The biggest proposed change has to be the addition of the long awaited 18th game that will likely need to happen sooner than later. If the NFL decides to do this, I would hope they decide on a possible expansion of the league that in my mind is very important.

   But the expansion that I am proposing is not just adding a team, but plenty of teams to continue with this even division layout. There are currently 32 teams in the NFL, with two Conferences, 8 divisions, and 4 teams to each division that make up the league.

   My proposal consists of the addition of one team per division, that would also include the much hyped return of the NFL to Los Angeles. Los Angeles will need to receive a team in the AFC or NFC West, but my expansion does not end there.

   The AFC or NFC West could add a team from Utah or perhaps Oregon that have long been a great area for professional sports. The AFC and NFC South can look to cities or states like Oklahoma City and San Antonio which would establish a great south rivalry with either the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys.

   The North Divisions could look to a city like Chicago who would like a second team or a second Michigan team, not to mention a team in Iowa would be nice too. Now that leads us to the AFC and NFC East that have to add teams but which ones?

   For the AFC East, the best option would to move the Indianapolis Colts back to the East and add two teams to the AFC South. The second new AFC South team should be from Kentucky, a state that currently has no professional franchise.

   The NFC East can bring in a rival team for the Washington Redskins from none other than West Virginia who would bring a great fan following to the new franchise. So here is a look at my restructure of the NFL Division format, and not to mention an addition of one more playoff birth.

AFC West: Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, and either an Oregon or Los Angeles or Utah Franchise.

AFC South: Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, and two new franchises from either San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and or Kentucky.

AFC North: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and a second Chicago or Michigan franchise, but my vote would go for an Iowa franchise.

AFC East: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Jets, and bring back the Indianapolis Colts.

NFC West: St.Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, and either a Los Angeles or Oregon or Utah franchise.

NFC South: Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and a Oklahoma City or Kentucky franchise.

NFC North: Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and a Iowa franchise since the NFL would not like to have two teams from the same state in the same division.

NFC East: New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys, and a West Virginia franchise.

   Tell me what you think or give me any suggestions.

J.M.Saucedo

   As many other sites are busy covering the NCAA Tournaments, here at Sportsblogger we are keeping our distance until a real story emerges. Until then, we have a big Sports Market Monday in which we take top stories and convert them into our own version of the stock market.

Curt Schilling- The pitcher, who is known more now for his mouth then his pitching, has announced his retirement from Major League Baseball. The real question is will he retire from running his mouth about baseball and other sports to which he has no idea about?

Sportsblogger is hoping so, Schilling is up.

Affliction- The clothing company/MMA promotion will counter-program the huge UFC 100 show on July 11th where Affliction will air on cable television. The rumors are spreading that this will be the last Affliction show and I must say we all new this was coming.

Affliction is down and perhaps has hit rock bottom.

New York Jets- The Jets are continuing there offseason tradition of rescuing un-wanted Quarterbacks from teams that don’t want them. New York is apparently interested in acquiring Jay Cutler from the Denver Broncos who’s relationship has soured in the past 2 months.

Jets rescued Brett Favre, and maybe Cutler is next, the Jets are up.

Montreal Canadiens- The NHL’s oldest organization was in big trouble of folding and are now apparently up for sale in hopes of saving the franchise. Will it get done? Who knows but my guess is that the Canadiens will go the way of the Minnesota Northstars.

So long Montreal, the Canadiens are down unless someone with deep pockets can save them.

Last Week: The Los Angeles Lakers keep getting encouraging news about Andrew Bynum and that keeps them up; the Denver Broncos are still down because of the Cutler situation; Cole Hamels was not seriously injured and he is now up; And the NCAA Mens and Womens Tournaments are both still up.

J.M.Saucedo

   In the NBA, there is one thing that is certain and that is the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and Los Angeles Lakers are clearly the best teams. Each team has a major problem right now and that is they are all missing a top big man.

   The Cavaliers have kept things together by having LeBron James carry the team to the best record in the NBA even though C Ben Wallace is out with a broken leg. LeBron has been on a tear recently, and the team is doing well for now, but how long can they keep this up?

   Cleveland, like the Lakers and Celtics, have started playing well without Wallace but unlike the two other top teams, have not had a bad spell of games. The Celtics are definately hurting without PF Kevin Garnett and the team needs him back at full health which may not happen.

   Without Garnett, the Celtics defense has been struggling and the offense does not look as crisp as it did at the start of this season. The Lakers are in the same boat as the Celtics, C Andrew Bynum needs to return to the Lakers who have been struggling of late.

   Los Angeles’ once great bench has looked defeated of late and also that strain is now hurting the Lakers starters who have to pick up the slack. With Bynum in the line-up, the Lakers have the luxury of adding Lamar Odom to the bench which was the case at the start of the season.

   If the NBA Finals will feature any of the three teams, which many people are predicting, then each of those teams are dependent on their injured big men. Clearly the first team to get their star back and in shape has to be the favorite to win the Championship.

J.M.Saucedo

   As we begin the NCAA Mens Tournament kicked off today and everyone who works in an office will see their production dwindle. It is a proven fact that the March Madness hinders production in and office as people are prone to setting up their own Tournament Brackets.

   Now we get to our March Madness here on Sportsblogger, otherwise known as Shocking/Not So Shocking Thursdays.

Shocking: Memphis is a Number 2 seed in their bracket but clearly the Matadors from Cal State Northridge did not get the message.

A Second Shocking: The Matadors were in the game for a great bulk of the contest but came up slightly short. Kudos to Cal State Northridge for coming to play hard even if they were just a 15 seed.

Shocking: Manny “I got 99 problems but a pitch ain’t one” Ramirez is leaving the game of basball for the game of cricket.

Not So Shocking: Strained hamstring and all, Manny went to the Arizona Cricket Club to have some fun on the pitch and have a go at cricket. Ripping Good Lad!!

Shocking: Center Greg Oden got onto the basketball court for the Portland Trail Blazers and played basketball in his home state of Indiana.

A Second Shocking: I really do hope Oden can stay healthy and be the force he has been expected to be. He just needs to stay fit and healthy for the Trail Blazers playoff push.

Shocking: The New Orleans Saints signed Safety Darren Sharper in hopes of bolstering a down-right terrible defense that just needs to be mid-range in order to help the organization.

Not So Shocking: This move would have been great about 4 years ago when Sharper was still one of the best, but Sharper will bring some much needed veteran leadership.

Shocking: Georges St-Pierre will likely not face any action after being caught having Vaseline put on his back by a corner-man during his bout with BJ Penn.

Not So Shocking: Though any action or non-action in this case will not matter as anyone who knows Mixed Martial Arts has deemed this matter as an un-fair advantage. Still, Penn needs to step-up and admit he was not in shape for this fight too.

J.M.Saucedo

   In a past post, I was quite critical of the recently formed World Baseball Classic and the thought of it actually meaning something. I still have to be honest and say it just isn’t that great, but last night my thoughts became a bit scrambled on the event.

   As most countries do not play the sport of baseball, unlike soccer, most of the major competition comes from North and South America. If you look at most of the rosters, some of the best and current great players are from this region of the world.

   My answer came, and has come, in the past week; You see, the bad teams are filtered out of the process in the first round. The second round is a double elimination round and the teams become much more competitive, and thus the games become much more exciting.

   Which brings us full circle to last night, the United States and Puerto Rico were playing a game against eachother in a win or go home scenario. Puerto Rico, was leading the game entering the 9th inning by a score of 5-3 with just 3 outs left.

   That is where the US began their rally in which the team would score 3 runs to win the elimination game in dramatic fashion to say the least. It was hard to change the channel on this game, even as the first game of the NCAA Mens Tournament was also airing.

   To say the WBC has won me over is an understatement and as the years progress the teams will continue to improve on a world wide platform. So here, on my own page I will take back my harsh words for the WBC, it is a great tournament that is starting to resemble October Baseball here in March.

J.M.Saucedo

   Usually on St-Patricks Day, some sports franchises choose to wear some green in their uniforms to pay tribute to all and any Irish fans. Here is a list of some of the best, and worse, teams to bring green into their uni’s for just one game on March 17th.

The Best 3:

1.) Boston Celtics- I know what you are thinking, “They already wear green uniforms!”, well I am refering to the green and gold uniforms the Celtics use on occasion. The uniforms are a real clean looking and have a real Irish feel to them.

2.) Notre Dame- Everyone knows the “Golden Dome” helmets of the Fighting Irish combined with the navy blue jerseys and gold pants. But when a game is big enough, and Notre Dame wants to add a different factor to the game, they bring out their green jerseys with gold numbers which are really one of the best.

3.) Los Angeles Dodgers- It is a rare moment that the Dodgers actually play on March 17th, but when they do, the Dodgers put aside their usual blue and wear hats that are green with a white “LA” on the front. That was a real treat to see the Dodgers wear green for once.

Worst 3:

1.) Chicago Bulls- Chicago has one of the most famous St-Patricks day parades where they actually dye the Chicago River green. The Bulls have no color remotely close to green, yet they ditch their traditional red, white, and black uniforms for green, black and white. Terri-bull.

2.) Toronto Raptors- So, I was watching highlights of the Raptors game last night and was utterly confused as to why they where wearing green uniforms. I know most teams are honoring the Irish, but usually we do that on the 17th of March, not the 16th. Just a bad idea.

3.) Boston Celtics- As a Los Angeles citizen, nothing is worse than the green and white uniforms of the Celtics. That is all, You didn’t think I would give them praise and let them get away with, did you? Just Kidding Boston.

J.M.Saucedo