The main event tonight at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is between Josh Koscheck and Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Koscheck is coming off a loss to Thiago Alves on October 25. This is a quick turnaround for a fighter to fight again so quickly and it will be interesting to see how Koscheck performs tonight.

Koscheck stepped in as a replacement for the injured Diego Sanchez and fought Alves on short notice. He did not sustain any major injuries in that fight and was deemed healthy enough to fight on tonight’s card.

Yoshida has a 10-2 MMA record and has won his last nine fights. His last win was against War Machine in UFC 84. Tonight’s fight  will be Yoshida’s second appearance in the Octagon fighting for the UFC.
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UFC 91 will be held tomorrow night in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.  The main event will be a five round heavyweight championship fight between  the champion, Randy Couture, and challenger, Brock Lesnar. 

The UFC is billing this fight as the biggest fight ever in mixed martial arts history. While this fight is a big fight, most fans are eagerly anticipating next year's battle between Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn more than tomorrow's main event. 

The fight between Couture and Lesnar better live up to its hype because the overall card for UFC 91 is very underwhelming. Fans might be interested in the Kenny Florian vs. Joe Stevenson fight but the rest of the card is filled with fighters that the fans don't care about or have heard of. 

The main event is very intriguing because you have a 45-year-old fighter who has not fought in over a year against a younger and stronger fighter. Couture will be giving up about 40 pounds to Lesnar in this fight. Couture has the experience advantage over Lesnar but Lesnar has the strength advantage.

Couture's game plan will be to try to Lesnar on his back. If he can't, then Couture could be in for a very long night. Couture will also try to implement his dirty boxing if they get in the clinch.

Lesnar is very strong and powerful and it won't be an easy task for Couture  to get Lesnar down to the mat. Couture has to watch out for Lesnar's heavy hands as well.

Lesnar needs to avoid Couture's attempted takedowns and try to get Couture on his back. Once he gets Couture on his back, Lesnar will punish Couture with his ground and pound attack. Once Lesnar gets an opponent on the ground, it is hard to get back up due to Lesnar's strength and size.

Lesnar has never fought more than three rounds before so if the fight goes to the fourth and fifth rounds, Couture might have the advantage.

The winner of the Florian and Stevenson fight will be in line to get a title shot against UFC lightweight champion, B.J. Penn. Florian is the favorite to win the fight but Stevenson is a dangerous opponent.

UFC 91 will be shown live on pay-per-view beginning at 7pm PT on November 15. 

UFC 90 was a huge disappointment for MMA fans as the show was very boring and dull. The main event ended prematurely after a knee injury was sustained by Patrick Cote in the third round of his fight with UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva.

Silva was a huge favorite to keep his title and basically toyed with Cote in the cage. Silva was dancing around in the cage and didn’t seem focused or serious at all. His hands were down often and he didn’t seem to have a care in the world inside the cage.

Silva got the best of the few exchanges he and Cote had in the fight. Silva was not aggressive and basically tried to counter instead of pressing the action. There was not much action in the fight at all but a few comedic spots when Silva was impersonating Bruce Lee with his moves. Another funny moment was when Silva was standing and Cote was on the ground. Silva stuck his hand out and offered to help Cote stand up. Silva would most likely never do that with an opponent he feared and respected.

Cote did not have any offense at all and the referee stopped the fight in the third round after Cote suffered a knee injury without Silva even touching him. The knee apparently just gave out and the fight was over.

The best fight of the night was the fight between Thiago Alves and Josh Koscheck. This was a three round stand-up war. Alves inflicted more damage on Koscheck and won by decision.

In an upset, Junior Dos Santos defeated Fabricio Werdum in a heavyweight fight. No one had heard of Dos Santos before the fight and he was a huge underdog but  Dos Santos hit Werdum with a uppercut in the first round which knocked down Werdum and the fight was quickly over after that.

Sean Sherk defeated Tyson Griffin by split decision and Gray Maynard defeated Rich Clementi by unanimous decision in the other two fights on the main card. These two fights were not very interesting at all. Maynard’s fight with Clementi was just terrible and probably made half of the crowd fall asleep.  

The winners of the prelim fights were Dan Miller, Hermes Franca, Pete Sell, Thales Leites, and Spencer Fisher.

UFC’s next pay-per-view show will be on November 15 in Las Vegas.

UFC 90 will take place this Saturday night in Rosemont, Illinois at the Allstate Arena. The main event will be a  middleweight title fight between current champion, Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Patrick “The Predator” Cote.  The fight is scheduled for five rounds but no one expects it to last more than a few rounds at best.

This is because Silva is considered the best pound for pound fighter in the world, and he is heavily favored to win this fight. Cote is a big underdog who is not in Silva’s class as a fighter.

Cote has a puncher’s chance to defeat Silva but that is about it. Cote is a heavy puncher and a tough guy but  Silva is better than Cote in every single aspect.  The question is not who will win this fight but in what round will Silva beat Cote in.  

Both fighters expect each other to stand and bang the whole fight. Cote has no ground game to speak of and is primarily a stand-up fighter.  Silva is equally comfortable on the ground or on the feet.

This fight should be very entertaining as these two fighters will both go for a knockout win.

The co-main event on the card is a welterweight fight between Josh Koscheck and Thiago “The Pitbull” Alves.  The winner will be in contention for a title shot against UFC welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre.

Alves was scheduled to fight Diego Sanchez but Sanchez had to pull out due to an injury. Koscheck has stepped in to fight Alves on short notice.

Alves’ last loss was to Koscheck’s training partner, Jon Fitch. Since the loss to Fitch, Alves  has won his last six fights.  Koscheck is on a two fight winning streak.

Another interesting fight on the main card is a fight between Tyson Griffin and Sean Sherk.  This will be Sherk’s first fight since coming off a loss to UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn.

Griffin has been training hard with his training partner Gray Maynard at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Maynard is a great wrestler and helped Griffin prepare for Sherk’s wrestling ability and takedowns.

Sherk questioned Griffin’s cardio and thinks he will tire Griffin out in the later rounds. Sherk  should not be tired at all since he was fighting in five round title matches for the last two years.

The first prelim fight is scheduled to commence at 6:30pm CT.

Fans can watch the main card live on pay-per-view beginning at 10pm ET.

The World Series begins tonight in St. Petersburg, Florida when the Philadelphia Phillies meet the Tampa Bay Rays in a best of seven series.

The Phillies made it into the World Series by defeating the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs. The Rays defeated the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox to get into the World Series.

The first two games of the series will begin in Tropicana Field before the two teams travel to Citizens Park in Philadelphia for Games 3, 4, and 5. If there is a need for Games 6 and 7, the games will move back to Tropicana Field.

The starting pitchers for Game 1 are lefties Cole Hamels and Scott Kazmir. Hamels has proved that he is a big-game pitcher by pitching great in the playoffs this season. He is the Phillies’ ace and he has the stuff to throw a no-hitter. He gives the pitching edge to his team for Game 1.

Kazmir is another talented lefty but he is not as effective as Hamels. Unlike Hamels, who usually goes at least seven innings or more, Kazmir usually only lasts five plus innings due to his high pitch counts.

The bullpens for both teams will be very important in this series. Both teams have a great bullpen.

The Rays and Phillies also have a strong offense. The Rays are led by Carlos Pena, B.J. Upton, and Evan Longoria and the Phillies’ power is supplied by Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, and Chase Utley.

This year’s World Series should be very competitive. You can make an argument for each team to win the World Series.

The Rays have the momentum after beating the Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last Sunday night. The Phillies have had a week off and have not played a game since beating the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

The first pitch tonight should be around 8:35 pm EST and the game will be shown on Fox.

The Denver Broncos visit Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts  on Monday night to face the New England Patriots in a key AFC matchup.

The Broncos are 4-2 and the Patriots are 3-2. Both teams are coming off a loss.

How will the Patriots respond after losing in a blowout to the Chargers last week? In order for the Patriots to win, they must contain Denver quarterback Jay Cutler.

Cutler has one of the strongest arms in the NFL and he can also be very accurate as well. The key for the Patriots defense will be applying pressure and forcing Cutler to make quick throws.

That will be easier said than done as the Broncos offensive line has only given up two sacks this year.

The key Broncos WR is Brandon Marshall. Although Marshall might not be as well known as other wide receivers such as Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson, Marshall is just as productive and talented as those two stars.

The Patriots had a tough time defending the pass last week and this week should be no different. The two starting corners on the team, Deltha O’ Neal and Ellis Hobbs, have given up too many long passes.

The Patriots  have two playmakers on offense and they are WRs Wes Welker and Randy Moss. You can expect Welker to catch at least five balls in each game. Matt Cassel, the Patriots quarterback, loves to pass to Welker,  especially on third downs.

The Broncos defense is weak and they give up a lot of yardage  in passes but can Cassel capitalize? He was effective two weeks ago in San Francisco but suffered a setback in San Diego last week.

It is Monday Night Football and all the players on the two rosters know that America will be watching  so the spotlight is on them. Who will step up and put on a good performance? Will it be Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall or Matt Cassel and Randy Moss?

My prediction is a very high-scoring game with the Broncos winning 36-30. Cutler’s rifle arm will be in full display and he will outperform his counterpart, Cassel.

The game will start at 8:30 pm ET and it will be shown live on ESPN.

The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) last night in Tropicana Field. The final score was 3-1 as pitcher Matt Garza led the way with his terrific pitching performance.

Garza pitched seven superb innings and left after throwing 118 pitches. He only gave up two hits in the game and one run. The one run came in the first inning thanks to a home run by Dustin Pedroia. Garza struck out nine batters.

Tampa’s bullpen worked the last two innings as four relievers came in to help get the final six outs of the game. Rookie David Price got the save. Price, the number one draft pick in the 2007 MLB draft, was not even on the Rays’ roster until getting recalled from the minors late this season.

Price struck out J.D. Drew with the bases loaded in the top of the 8^th to help the Rays preserve  a 3-1 lead. That strikeout was the biggest out of the game since a hit by Drew would have probably tied the game.

The Rays got on the board in the fourth inning thanks to a RBI by Evan Longoria that drove Carlos Pena home. The Rays then took the lead for good in the next inning when Rocco Baldelli singled Willy Aybar in. Aybar homered in the seventh inning to give the Rays an insurance run.

All the runs by the Rays were given up by Red Sox starting pitcher, Jon Lester. Lester pitched a lot better than he did in Game 3 but once again, he took the loss.

With the win, the Rays will go on to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series which starts this Wednesday night.

UFC 89 was held in Birmingham, England last Saturday night, at the National Indoor Arena. In the main event, Michael Bisping defeated Chris Leben by unanimous decision.

The main event lasted the whole three rounds it was scheduled for, and each round was similar to each other. Leben would apply pressure and press the action, and Bisping would be moving backward and counter.

Leben would be moving forward while Bisping was moving backwards so this led to some dull moments during the fight. Leben clearly was frustrated with Bisping’s strategy and he showed his frustration by dropping his hands a few times and basically daring Bisping to hit him.

Bisping did just enough to be awarded the fight by the judges. Although Bisping won, he was not overly impressive at all and probably did not gain any new fans with his performance.

On the other hand, Leben brought the fight to Bisping and he showed fans why he is one of the more exciting middleweights in the UFC.

Leben might not be a title contender but he will always try to entertain fans by trying to knock out his opponents.

In the co-main event, Keith Jardine defeated Brandon Vera by split decision. This fight was one of the most anticipated fights of the night, but fans were let down by the slow pace of the three-round fight.  The two fighters had a lot of respect for each other and were just too cautious throughout the whole fight.

The fighters stayed on their feet for most of the fight but there was not  just a  lot of action going on.

In other fights on the main card, Luiz Cane defeated Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in the second round by TKO due to strikes. It was a very impressive showing for the Brazilian.

The winners of the first two fights shown on Spike TV were Marcus Davis and Chris Lytle. Davis defeated Paul Kelly by submission, and Lytle battled Paul Taylor to a unanimous decision.

Lytle challenged Davis to a match  in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

UFC 89 had a lot of potential to be very exciting, but most of the fights were a letdown to fans. The fans who were  expecting knockouts were left disappointed as only Cane was  able to finish his opponent with strikes.

The next UFC show is next Saturday night in Illinois. The main event for that night will be UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva against Patrick Cote.