Ryan Bader is now 11-0 with his TKO victory over Keith Jardine.
Ryan Bader showed that he can dig deep when it counts most in a MMA fight. He showed that in his third round TKO victory over veteran Light Heavyweight Keith Jardine Saturday night. Bader looked like the tank was on empty but showed the will and resilience that it takes to secure a victory in the UFC. It is this combination of skills and will that will make him a serious contender to the Light Heavyweight title…
Bader won the first round with the combination of his wrestling and striking skills. He is a superior wrestler and has the striking power to get the TKO at anytime. The second round went to the cage veteran Jardine. Jardine used his awesome kicking skills to keep Bader at bat and secure the second round. With the fight even, it comes down to who wants it more in the decisive third round. Bader wanted it more. Bader looked tired from the kick beating in the second round but mustered up the strength and percision to land a right hand and then followed it up with a ledt hok to get Jardine to the ground anc get the victory at 2:10 of the third round.
While this is Jardine’s third stright loss, he was a fighter that was desperate for a victory and that makes him all that dangerous. Bader can use this victory to bukd confidence and set his eyes on Light Weight Champion Lyoto Machida down the road. He does not have what it takes to beat Machida right know, but does have the skills and drive to contend i the future.
Bader is now 11-0 and his future shines brightly in the MMA worls. I enjoed watching him on the Ultimate Fighter and become champion. I would love to see him eventually become Light heavyweight Champion. Watch out for the Darth Vader.
Herschel Walker did not too bad for a 47 year old man. Walker defeated Greg Nagy at 2:17 of the third round with a fight stoppage. While Walker did not look like a totally polished fighter, his performance was respectful.
Walker, the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner, showed unbelievable conditioning throughout the fight and had plenty in the gas tank when the fight was ended. Walker has always been a conditioning guru and did himself proud for a man of his age.His standup was stiff ,but he continued to take Nagy to the ground where he was the stronger fighter. Walker did have some opportunities for a submission but could not pull them off. Wallker is a sixth degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. You can see that he does possess some fighting skills that are worthy of the MMA game. I love the fact that he wanted to test and challenge himself in the great sport of MMA. MMA has soared in popularity and will continue to attract some of the best athletes in the world to get into the cage.
While you can say that Walker is not threat to any MMA title, I do think that his fight served as some intriguing excitement. You will always have some interest in a former elite athlete when he wants to get in the cage to fight. Walker made people tune into Showtime and did nothing but make the card more appealing to the MMA fan. I am not sure if he will fight again, but I am sure that people would tune in again if that happens. If Walker wants to test himself again that is more than alright with me. I remember how great a running back he was, he gives everything he has when challenged. That is the time of fighter I like to watch. Maybe we will see Herschel fight again. Anyway, Congratulations Herschel.
It’s the end of the year. Its the end of a decade. Nothing great ever ends without a list and a debate over that list. Today, we focus on the 10 best sports stories of the 2000 decade and their impact on sports in America.
10. Emergence of Mixed Martial Arts
In January 2001, Zuffa LLC purchased the fledgling, close-to-bankruptcy MMA promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship for $2 million. They then secured state sanctioning with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Zuffa struggled for a few years to emerge from the shadows of the negativity that surrounded MMA until it secured a reality TV show called The Ultimate Fighter which first aired in January 2005 on Spike TV. The sport then exploded with a multitude of competitive promotion both regional and national. The sport is now on the brink of generating near $1 Billion in revenues per year and is on the cusp of mainstream acceptance. Love him or hate, Dana White is responsible for making MMA the sport it is today.
9. Rulon Gardner Upsets Alexander Karelin
Do you believe in miracles? Most fans of the Olympics are familiar with that saying and its forever bond with the 1980 USA Hockey team’s upset of Russia. In the Summer Olympics of 2000, a much more unimaginable upset of a Russian occured when Rulon Gardner shocked the world with his stunning victory over undefeated superstar Alexander Karelin. Coming into the finals, Karelin had not lost a match in 15 years and had not even surrender a point in the last 10 years. Gardner pulled out a 1-0 victory and delivered the most stunning upset in Olympics history against the 3-time gold medal winner that was deemed to be invincible.
8. New England Patriots Near-Perfect Season
The New England Patriots were the darlings of the 2007 NFL season, putting together the first perfect regular season in a dominating fashion never before seen in the sport. One toughed out victory against Baltimore and a valiant effort by the New York Giants in the final game of the season were as close as anyone got during the regular season. The Patriots then carved out two solid, conservative victories in the playoffs, setting up a rematch with the upstart New York Giants to end the season 19-0 and go down in history as the greatest team ever. An Eli Manning circus-like pass to and catch by David Tyree will forever be remembered in NFL lore that drove the nail into the coffin of this special team that was denied greatness. And in the process, the Patriots scored the largest Super Bowl viewing audience in the history of the game.
7. Red Sox Break The Curse
Buck F-ing Dent. Bill Buckner. Aaron Boone. The Red Sox were perhaps the unluckiest team in professional sports. Down 3-0 to their bitter rival New York Yankees in the 2oo4 ALCS, the Red Sox forged the biggest comeback in baseball history to defeat the Yankees and go on to win their first World Series since 1918, the year before they traded Babe Ruth away to those very same Yankees. Curt Schilling pitched one of the most courageous game ever by a pitcher, his bloody sock on display in Cooperstown for all to remember the pivotal moment of that amazing playoff season.
6. Roger Federer Streak at Top Ranking
There having been many great tennis players over the years. Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Bjorg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Federer did something that none of them ever did, holding the #1 ranking in tennis for almost four and half consecutive years between February 2, 2004 to August 17, 2008. During that span, Federer won 65 straight matches at Wimbeldon and holds a 72-1 record on grass over the past seven years. Federer also holds the record for most Grand Slam titles at 15, while finally earning his first French Open championship this past year. Without question, the greatest tennis player in the history of the game and he still has a lot left in the tank to set records that may never be matched.
5. Tiger Woods Wins Four Straight Majors
Woods made history in April 2001 winning his 2nd Masters championship. With that victory, he became only one of five player in the history of golf to win all four major titles in his career. To one up them, Woods won the championships consecutively, becoming the first ever to hold all four major golf championships at the same time, earning him a pseudo Grand Slam. Woods has gone on since that point to win 8 more majors, bringing his career total to 14, leaving him just four shy of the all-time record of 18 held by Jack Nicklaus.
4. 2001 World Series
With the country reeling from the recent terrorist attacks that had taken over 3,000 lives, Major League Baseball gave grieving Americans an outlet to cope with their losses. The New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks provided perhaps the most exciting World Series in history, filled with riveting National Anthems, seventh-inning stretches echoing to God Bless America and some of the most unbelievable ends to World Series games ever seen. In Game 4, Tino Martinez hit a game-tying two run homer in the bottom of the ninth and Derek Jeter closed the game with an opposite field walk-off homer in the 10th to win the game. The very next night, Scott Brosius hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth that would lead to another extra inning victory. The magic would fade in Game 7 though, as Mariano Rivera would surrender two runs in the bottom of the ninth to end the Yankees consecutive World Series run. A truly magical World Series for the ages at a time when America needed its pastime the most.
3. Major League Baseball Steroids Scandal
In a sport defined by stats and where Hall of Fame hitters fail 7 out of 10 times, baseball has been defined by its statistical records and comparison of current ballplayers to those in its past. At the end of the last decade, MLB treated its fans to the most compelling drama in years when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled it out to surpass Roger Maris’ single season home run record. At the turn of the decade came BALCO, a book by Jose Canseco and revelations that MLB owners and execs turned a blind eye to rampant steroids abuse. After a humiliating Congressional hearing where Mark McGwire pleaded the 5th Amendment so, baseball was forced to implement drug testing. The Mitchell Report would then follow, containing over 100 names that were linked to steroids, many of them the biggest names in the sport. In the end, we are left with era that will forever be scarred and represents some of the darkest hours in the sport’s history.
2. Michael Phelps’ 8 Olympic Gold Medals
The swimming star from Baltimore MD had prepared for this moment all his life, but nobody expected the drama that would go down at the pool in Beijing. Phelps and his relay teammates were heavily favored in six of his eight races. The remaining two races will go down in Olympic history forever. Teammate Jason Lezak would anchor the final leg of the 4 x 100, facing off against Alain Bernard of France, the current world record holder in the 100 freestyle. The Frenchman was provided an ample lead for the final leg, all but assuring Phelps quest being over. But in the final 25 meters Lezek tracked Bernard down for the gold. The drama was even more amazing a few days later, as Phelps dug deep in the final 25 meters of the 100M butterfly to defeat Serbian Milorad Cavic by 1/100 of a second for his seventh gold medal. You can be assured most Americans will not forget that moment as they cheered and screamed in front of their TVs trying to help will Phelps to victory.
1. Lance Armstrong Winning 7 Tour De France Titles
Armstrong lays claims to the greatest story of the decade. In a sport dominated by Europeans, Armstrong did the unthinkable…he dominated them at their own game. Armstrong set the record of seven victories, besting the previous record of five held by Miguel Indurain. A survivor of testicular cancer, Armstrong became an American hero in a sport that most in this country rarely followed or cared much about. With his unbelievable climbing ability in the mountains and untouchable time-trial sprinting, Armstrong dominated the competition like nobody before him. His victories spawned an explosion of interest in cycling in America and his story gave hope to everyone around the world that you can beat cancer and strive forward to be the best in your craft.
Scott Smith (17-6) stole the show in San Jose, scoring a stunning come-from-behind knockout of former Strikeforce middleweight champions Cung Le (6-1). Smith was being dominated in all aspects of the fight before landing a short left hook that dropped Le to a knee. Smith pounced to close out the fight, scoring the knockout at 3:25 of the third round.
The fight marked the comeback of Le, the previously undefeated MMA champ and world champion kickboxer. Le had taken a 20 month hiatus from the sport since his highlight reel victory over MMA legend Frank Shamrock to win the championship. Instead of defending his title, Le set out on a movie career with a successful release of his movie “Fighter” in April 2009 and the upcoming Tekken. Strikeforce subsequently stripped Le of his belt due to inactivity.
Le’s defeat is stunning in of itself, but more shocking in that this was considered to be a tune up fight. Smith, while a solid fighter, had no victories against substantial competition, losing all the major fights of his career. Le’s resume included a 22-0 kickboxing record and a 17-0 record in Sanshoum, a form of Chinese Kung Fu. Tonight’s defeat was the first in Le’s career in any fighting style. It was a mismatch of grand proportion on paper, but that why they keep the cage locked until the final bell.
The defeat halt’s Le’s progression back to the top of the middleweight conversation at Strikeforce. Le’s inactivity, coupled with his relative MMA inexeperience does not warrant contender status in the division. While his Jackie Chan style of fighting is exciting to watch, total reliance on spinning back kicks and leg strikes leaves a fighter open to counter attacks. And that’s exactly what happened this evening when a second-tier fighter such as Scott Smith knocked him out, leaving him bloodied at the nose and with multiple hematomas on his forehead.
Le still has tremendous upside, but it will take learning how to grapple and dedicating himself to the sport.
Gilbert Melendez (17-2) shed the interim title from his Lightweight championship belt, unifying the division title with an impressive victory over Josh Thomson. With the victory, Melendez avenged a previous loss to Thomson (16-3), to whom he lost the title. In the process, they may have just earned 2009’s fight of the year. Although Melendez won the fight convincingly, earning scores of 49-47, 49-46 and 49-46, Thomson showed heart and determination by continuously coming forward.
Right from the bell, this fight was an all out brawl. Both fighters put martial arts techniques aside and turned this bout into a street fight that rarely found the canvas. Each fighter stunned the other and both had their opportunities to take the upper hand.
The difference in the fight came down to Melendez’s ability to get his punches off quicker, stay more active and unleash flurries of punches. Punch stat number showed that Melendez threw more than double the strikes of Thomson, frustrating Thomson throughout the bout due to Melendez’s speed and counter strikes. Melendez also fended off Thomson’s takedown attempts, a big difference from their first fight.
Thomson entered the cage after a 15 month layoff due to various injuries. His time away from the cage was evident, as he appeared slow and loafing from the start. Melendez took advantage, getting a clear cut victory with a dominating performance.
Despite the Melendez showcase, it was disappointing to see Strikeforce force Thomson back into the cage not only too soon, but also without a primer fight to get back into a fighting groove. Where former champ Cung Lee gets a warm-up fight as the night’s headliner, Thomson’s desire to schedule the fight in January due to his injury recovery was declined by Strikeforce executives.
Strikeforce owes Josh Thomson a re-match with Melendez soon given their actions that may have led to Thomson being unprepared for the bout. Hopefully this matchup will occur sooner than later, as it will no doubt be another entertaining affair. While Strikeforce is in a heated battle with UFC, the promotion’s success should not supercede the welfare of the fighter.
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (11-2) impressed in his debut, displaying his world-class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu technique, submitting former Olympic gold medalist and MMA veteran Matt Lindland (21-7) by arm triangle choke at 4:18 of the first round. With the victory, Jacare won his debut bout with Strikeforce and ended a two-fight streak that left him winless for over a year.
Souza, the open weight World Jiu-Jitsu Champion in 2004 and 2005, brought an aggressive approach at Lindland immediately from the start. Lindland attempted to apply his wrestling skills to counter the attacking strikes and Jacare was able to defend his body lock and get a clean start. Lindland got a takedown by rolling through Jacare with a arm-pinned body lock, but Jacare was quick to get into guard as Lindland attempted to posture up.
From that point on it was all Jacare. As Lindland came back down and went for a mount, Jacare attempted a triangle choke that Lindland defended. He then got lock on an arm bar and pulled it down tight. Lindland was able to defend and break the hold, which Jacare then shifted into an gogoplata. Lindland again defended where it appeared Jacare had his arm bent in a position that may actually break Lindland’s arm. As the fighters scrambled, Jacare got into an advantage position locking in an arm triangle choke to close out the action.
Jacare’s performance this evening sends a message to the middleweight contenders at Strikeforce. He showed unmatched Jui-Jitsui skills that make him dangerous at any point in any fight, especially for LNP specialist like Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields.
Bellator Fighting Championship is raining down blows on it competitors in the MMA industry. The promotion today announced the high-profile signing of welterweight star Dan Hornbuckle. The comes on the heels of Bellator’s signings last week of former Olympian Ben Askren and Jacob McClintock.
Hornbuckle (19-2), a Sengoku veteran, joins Bellator’s roster of fighters on a four match win streak. His last taste of defeat came at the hands of UFC’s Mike Pyle, a fight which Hornbuckle dominated before getting caught in a surprise triangle choke. Hornbuckle bounced back from the defeat in style, dispatching cage veterans Akihiro Gono and Nick Thompson in back-to-back fights.
“With the addition of Hornbuckle to an already steady tournament field that includes Askren and McClintock, we’ve created a great tournament field in a division that many experts said was thin when it came to available talent,” Rebney said. “What we now have is the beginning of a 170 lbs. field that has created a feeling amongst hardcore MMA fans that April can’t come soon enough.”
The signings for Bellator are coming quick and steady. The quality of fighters that are being signed are clearly beyond the expectations of most industry observers. The tournament approach and flexibility of the promoters fighter control are appealing to the top independent fighters that have chosen to pass on the UFC. Bellator’s welterweight division, perhaps its weakest in Season 1, is panning out to be the most competitive right now for Season 2.
Needless to say, Rebney stole the words right out of my mouth. I can’t wait for Season 2 to get here soon enough.
UFC 107 has come and gone, finalizing a less than exciting year for the leading mixed martial arts promotion. Racked with injuries, fighter defections, controversial results and upstart promotional competition from Strikeforce and Bellator, the year couldn’t have ended sooner for Zuffa and its President Dana White. UFC enters 2010 in a very weird position and last night’s awful mismatch between BJ Penn and Diego Sanchez personifies the problem.
The UFC, outside of its Light Heavyweight division really doesn’t have one marketable championship fight any time in the near future. Its champions BJ Penn, George St. Pierre, Anderson Silva and Brock Lesnar really don’t have any competitive fights on the horizon. These are the headline fighters of the organization and the UFC basically has nobody of quality for them to fight.
BJ Penn’s destruction of Diego Sanchez last night was the prime example. Dana White gave us the Vince McMahon sale that Diego Sanchez was the unquestioned second best lightweight fighter in the world and that Penn was going to get his first real test. Sanchez told us he was going to storm across the cage, attack Penn like nobody has before and take him down to the mat for a beating.
None of this transpired.
Instead, Penn manhandled Sanchez like a rag doll and displayed just how weak the talent level is in the UFC at lightweight. Sanchez, the former TUF 1 Champion, displayed no real martial arts skills. His fighting approach that got his the championhsip fight invite was to bullrush, takedown and pound. Last night, the talented Penn nullified these basic skills, fended off every weak takedown attempt and handed out one of the most brutal beatings ever seen in the cage. So if Sanchez really was #2 as Dana White told us, Penn is out of competitors to fight under the UFC banner.
This leads us to the problem with the UFC…its refusal to cross promote. What killed boxing were promoters that overprotected their fighters, controlled the matchups and didn’t deliver the fights people demanded to see. Multiple title holders from different organizations that were not making the fights to protect and hold their crowns. Dana White is displaying his Napoleanistic complex and is dooming the sport in front of our eyes.
Fans are calling for the UFC to sign new top lightweight fighters. The bloom is off the rose. The fans will only drink so much kool-aid. People have figured out that they are not being served shinola now.
Every forum board last night online had discussion threads discussing what fight matchups would look like for Penn with all the great lightweights that are not fighting at UFC. Even commentator Joe Rogan called for it during the broadcast, something I am sure he will get admonished for by Zuffa. The UFC can make these matchups and they don’t have to sign anybody.
Penn is in the driver seat now to help take MMA mainstream. He can push UFC to start cross-promoting to make the biggest fights for him or threaten to bolt to another promotion that will do so. He has reached the point in his career where he controls his destiny, not the UFC.
The fights that matter for Penn which hold the greatest monetary take for him reside with fighters in other organizations. The fans don’t want to see him maul another second-rate UFC fighter. They want to see him fight Dream’s Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri or Joachim Hansen. They want to see him square off against Bellator’s Eddie Alvarez or Jorge Masvidal. Or perhaps throw him in the cage with Sengoku’s Mizuto Hirota. These are the fights that fans want to see, not matchups against an overrated 10 loss fighter like Joe Stevenson or a wrestler with no martial arts skills like Gray Maynard.
As this year comes to end, UFC needs to make some big decisions on how it runs its business and its impact on the sport as a whole. The WWE coattails that have been ridden thus far need to be cut and the UFC needs to recognize it is a promotion, not a league or “sports entertainment”. The sooner this happens the better.
Strikeforce announced today they have signed the immensely popular former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley (4-0) to a multiple fight contract. Lashley will compete in the heavyweight division at Strikeforce, adding to a division group that includes Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers, Fabricio Werdum and former Olympian Daniel Cormier. Lashley is expected to debut on Strikeforce January 30, 2010 card.
The major signing comes on the heels of Strikeforce’s reported signing earlier this week of former UFC star Dan Henderson who will likely compete in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. Lashley bolsters the heavyweight division given his name recognition and solid start to his MMA career. Choosing to go with Strikeforce has the industry abuzz Strikeforce now has more talent depth than the UFC, a huge chink in the armor for the leading promotion.
Leading up to the Strikeforce signing, Lashley’s career has been more carnival than sport. In his bout under Maximum Fighting Championships, his opponent Mike Cook (7-5) donned a mask during his cage entry to mock Lashley’s former professional wrestling gig. Lashley went on to dispatch Cook in 24 seconds.
Lashley’s handlers made matters worse with his next MMA fight, pitting him against Bob Sapp under the Fight Force International promotion. Sapp is a Japanese fighting treasure due to unusually large size, but brings forward limited fighting skills. Lashley won the circus-natured fight by submission through punches at 3:17 of the first round.
Regardless of where Lashley has come from, he is a true athlete with real fighting skills. To date, he has just taken bad advisement from his management team and focused on quick money by utilizing his name recognition. In signing with Strikeforce, it shows Lashley is committed to the sport. It will be interesting to see how he fares against increasing competition and whether he can make a similar transition such as Brock Lesnar.
It has been a whirlwind week in the sport of MMA with a rash of signings of top talent. Strikeforce’s announcements of Lashley and Henderson coupled with Bellator’s announcements of former Olympian Ben Askren and Jacob McClintock have highlighted a big week of news. Interestingly, the UFC has been dropping fighters while losing out on major signings. A new day appears to be dawning and UFC’s grip on the MMA appears to be loosening.
Confirming rumors circling the MMA news boards, Bellator Fighting Championships officially announced the signing of mixed martial artist Jacob McClintock. The undefeated McClintock (6-0) recently fought under the Ultimate Warrior Challenge banner, a regional MMA promotion in the Washington D.C. area.
McClintock comes from the stable of fighters under the Arizona Combat Sports team. That outfit is home to other top MMA fighters that include WEC champion Jamie Varner, TUF 8 champion Ryan Bader, and UFC top contender Aaron Simpson. McClintock is consider by many to be the next future star coming out of that group.
“Jacob’s ability, coupled with his exciting and aggressive style, falls right in line with what we are looking for at Bellator,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “Last season, Joe Soto and Lyman Good went from anonymity to become world champions. Jacob has the tools to do the same. With his addition, welterweight is shaping up to be a great division for our Season 2 tournament.”
McClintock is the second major signing in as many days for Bellator, having announced the signing of former Olympian Ben Askren on December 9th. McClintock and Askren will both compete in the welterweight (170lbs.) division for Bellator. The winner of the 8-man tournament receives an automatic title shot at reigning undefeated champion, Lyman Good (10-0).
Bellator appears to be off to a great start in courting top-class fighters for its upcoming Season 2. With the format of controlling your own destiny in the tournament coupled with a live national broadcast, it seems to be generating the appeal to fighters ready for a breakthrough. Not to mention that MMA fans will now longer have to pay extra to see their favorite sport.
In January 2001, Zuffa LLC purchased the fledgling, close-to-bankruptcy MMA promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship for $2 million. They then secured state sanctioning with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Zuffa struggled for a few years to emerge from the shadows of the negativity that surrounded MMA until it secured a reality TV show called The Ultimate Fighter which first aired in January 2005 on Spike TV. The sport then exploded with a multitude of competitive promotion both regional and national. The sport is now on the brink of generating near $1 Billion in revenues per year and is on the cusp of mainstream acceptance. Love him or hate, Dana White is responsible for making MMA the sport it is today.
Do you believe in miracles? Most fans of the Olympics are familiar with that saying and its forever bond with the 1980 USA Hockey team’s upset of Russia. In the Summer Olympics of 2000, a much more unimaginable upset of a Russian occured when Rulon Gardner shocked the world with his stunning victory over undefeated superstar Alexander Karelin. Coming into the finals, Karelin had not lost a match in 15 years and had not even surrender a point in the last 10 years. Gardner pulled out a 1-0 victory and delivered the most stunning upset in Olympics history against the 3-time gold medal winner that was deemed to be invincible.
The New England Patriots were the darlings of the 2007 NFL season, putting together the first perfect regular season in a dominating fashion never before seen in the sport. One toughed out victory against Baltimore and a valiant effort by the New York Giants in the final game of the season were as close as anyone got during the regular season. The Patriots then carved out two solid, conservative victories in the playoffs, setting up a rematch with the upstart New York Giants to end the season 19-0 and go down in history as the greatest team ever. An Eli Manning circus-like pass to and catch by David Tyree will forever be remembered in NFL lore that drove the nail into the coffin of this special team that was denied greatness. And in the process, the Patriots scored the largest Super Bowl viewing audience in the history of the game.
Buck F-ing Dent. Bill Buckner. Aaron Boone. The Red Sox were perhaps the unluckiest team in professional sports. Down 3-0 to their bitter rival New York Yankees in the 2oo4 ALCS, the Red Sox forged the biggest comeback in baseball history to defeat the Yankees and go on to win their first World Series since 1918, the year before they traded Babe Ruth away to those very same Yankees. Curt Schilling pitched one of the most courageous game ever by a pitcher, his bloody sock on display in Cooperstown for all to remember the pivotal moment of that amazing playoff season.
There having been many great tennis players over the years. Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Bjorg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Federer did something that none of them ever did, holding the #1 ranking in tennis for almost four and half consecutive years between February 2, 2004 to August 17, 2008. During that span, Federer won 65 straight matches at Wimbeldon and holds a 72-1 record on grass over the past seven years. Federer also holds the record for most Grand Slam titles at 15, while finally earning his first French Open championship this past year. Without question, the greatest tennis player in the history of the game and he still has a lot left in the tank to set records that may never be matched.
Woods made history in April 2001 winning his 2nd Masters championship. With that victory, he became only one of five player in the history of golf to win all four major titles in his career. To one up them, Woods won the championships consecutively, becoming the first ever to hold all four major golf championships at the same time, earning him a pseudo Grand Slam. Woods has gone on since that point to win 8 more majors, bringing his career total to 14, leaving him just four shy of the all-time record of 18 held by Jack Nicklaus.
With the country reeling from the recent terrorist attacks that had taken over 3,000 lives, Major League Baseball gave grieving Americans an outlet to cope with their losses. The New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks provided perhaps the most exciting World Series in history, filled with riveting National Anthems, seventh-inning stretches echoing to God Bless America and some of the most unbelievable ends to World Series games ever seen. In Game 4, Tino Martinez hit a game-tying two run homer in the bottom of the ninth and Derek Jeter closed the game with an opposite field walk-off homer in the 10th to win the game. The very next night, Scott Brosius hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth that would lead to another extra inning victory. The magic would fade in Game 7 though, as Mariano Rivera would surrender two runs in the bottom of the ninth to end the Yankees consecutive World Series run. A truly magical World Series for the ages at a time when America needed its pastime the most.
In a sport defined by stats and where Hall of Fame hitters fail 7 out of 10 times, baseball has been defined by its statistical records and comparison of current ballplayers to those in its past. At the end of the last decade, MLB treated its fans to the most compelling drama in years when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battled it out to surpass Roger Maris’ single season home run record. At the turn of the decade came BALCO, a book by Jose Canseco and revelations that MLB owners and execs turned a blind eye to rampant steroids abuse. After a humiliating Congressional hearing where Mark McGwire pleaded the 5th Amendment so, baseball was forced to implement drug testing. The Mitchell Report would then follow, containing over 100 names that were linked to steroids, many of them the biggest names in the sport. In the end, we are left with era that will forever be scarred and represents some of the darkest hours in the sport’s history.
The swimming star from Baltimore MD had prepared for this moment all his life, but nobody expected the drama that would go down at the pool in Beijing. Phelps and his relay teammates were heavily favored in six of his eight races. The remaining two races will go down in Olympic history forever. Teammate Jason Lezak would anchor the final leg of the 4 x 100, facing off against Alain Bernard of France, the current world record holder in the 100 freestyle. The Frenchman was provided an ample lead for the final leg, all but assuring Phelps quest being over. But in the final 25 meters Lezek tracked Bernard down for the gold. The drama was even more amazing a few days later, as Phelps dug deep in the final 25 meters of the 100M butterfly to defeat Serbian Milorad Cavic by 1/100 of a second for his seventh gold medal. You can be assured most Americans will not forget that moment as they cheered and screamed in front of their TVs trying to help will Phelps to victory.
Armstrong lays claims to the greatest story of the decade. In a sport dominated by Europeans, Armstrong did the unthinkable…he dominated them at their own game. Armstrong set the record of seven victories, besting the previous record of five held by Miguel Indurain. A survivor of testicular cancer, Armstrong became an American hero in a sport that most in this country rarely followed or cared much about. With his unbelievable climbing ability in the mountains and untouchable time-trial sprinting, Armstrong dominated the competition like nobody before him. His victories spawned an explosion of interest in cycling in America and his story gave hope to everyone around the world that you can beat cancer and strive forward to be the best in your craft.
