Georges St. Pierre delivers the 2nd best pre-fight quote of all time

In predicting a victory this Samedi a la Centre Bell dans Montreal, GSP has questioned if Josh Koscheck should even continue fighting should he lose a second time to the Canadian champ.

During yesterday's title fight press conference GSP delivered this amazing quote which completely trumped any insult or antagonizing Koscheck has done in the past 6 months:

“If he has the same mentality as me, Josh Koscheck, he’ll have to reconsider his career. If he wants to be the best, after he loses two times to me, it’s going to take a long time again before he goes for the title. Maybe, never again. He’ll have to climb up the ladder a long time. I’m going to beat him on Saturday night and that will be the end of it. I’m not going to talk about him for a long, long time and I’m going to feel very happy.”

It was a rare showing of passion for GSP to put on display before a fight. But it was beautiful in every sense of the word.

Now this is why it is only the 2nd greatest pre-fight quote of all time, I don't think a quote like this could ever be topped:

"March 16th, Mike Tyson [vs.] Razor Ruddock, Razor Ruddock dies. If he doesn't die, it doesn't count. If he's not dead, it doesn't count."

Maple Leaf Math

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8 Simple Rules to Winning your Hockey Pool and not Drowning in it

Following these simple rules will give you the best shot at winning your hockey pool.

1) Do not draft Marian Gaborik

This is probably thee most important rule for your fantasy draft. No matter what, if you want to have a stress-free year and limit yourself from one guaranteed questionable injury, the best way to do that is to stay away from Marian Gaborik at all costs. I know it might be tempting if he somehow manages to slip through the cracks and there he is staring at you in round 5... don't do it. You might think, "Well last year he put up 42 goals and 86 points, why wouldn't I take him?" Because Marian Gaborik is a notorious roller coaster of a player, and by roller coaster I mean he's up one year and down the next and I'm not talking just about points, I'm talking games played as well. Yes he has a great points per game average but consider in his last 4 seasons he has put up 48, 77, 17, and 76 games played respectively. Now you don't have to be a pattern specialist to see what this year is calling for. We're talking about a guy who has only once in his career played over 80 games and has never played a full 82 game season. If you can keep your temptations in check and pass on Gaborik at draft day, you should be fine.

(Here Gaborik explains to ESPN that he will be taking a sick day and not playing that night)



2) Stay away from rookies

Obviously every year a crop of rookies come up and dazzle the NHL and you sit there as a poolie thinking "Why didn't I draft Matt Moulson?" But the general rule should be to stay away from rookies unless they're the cream of the crop i.e. the Ovechkin's, Crosby's, Malkin's. Guys like Stamkos, Tavares, and Duchene will get you a solid amount of points, but they will most definitely get drafted many rounds before they should. If you can scoop one of those players in the last few rounds of your draft, go for it, but with the hype they have surrounding them coming into the NHL, they most always go in the top 10 rounds, making it absurd to reach for one of them in earlier rounds.

3) Do not pick with your heart

These are 3 sentences you should never make after drafting a player in your pool: "Well at least I'll get to see him play all the time on TV"; "I had to take him, he's my favorite player"; "How can I not take him? He's Mike Modano!" If you have a habit of dropping these gems at your draft, than we are holding our annual draft this Sunday and message me if you're interested. First of all, seeing "him" play all the time on TV can turn into the biggest nightmare of your pool. Picking a guy just because he's a local player and his games will broadcast every game is what lands you Darcy Tucker, Ken Klee, and Alex Mogilny. Watching those 3 play every night, or in Mogilny's case, watching the IR list every night will not be what you expect it to be. Second, you do not have to take him because he's your favorite player. Actually, chances are you will reach higher than you should to take him just because he is your favorite player which will cause you to miss out on many more players that will put up better numbers. Draft killer right there. Lastly, I know they used to be great, but players do not go out with a bang. They do not put up one last magical season in which they are in the top 10 or even 20 scorers, then retire. Sometimes they don't even make it through their last season i.e. Bret Hull, Jeremy Roenick, and even Mario Lemieux.

(In 03/04 Tucker only notched 32 points but at least you got to see this face nearly every game)




4) Embrace the ugly picks

Do you know how many times I hear something along the lines of: "Well I'd rather pick an exciting rookie then a guy like Ray Whitney." One thing I have noticed in all my years of fantasy, is that it's the guy with the ugly picks who wins. The guy who at draft day you're sitting their laughing because he just drafted Ray Whitney, Vaclav Prospal, and Slava Kozlov. You're thinking this guy has no chance. Well he ugly picks are the journeymen. The ugly picks get it done. If you think Kyle Turris and his drafted 3rd overall tag is going to get more power play time than a vet like Ray Whitney, you're crazy. Yet this mistake is made at draft tables all over Canada. Now don't be fooled into thinking Prospal, Kozlov, and Whitney will win you your pool. The NHL is ever evolving and each year different players are turning into journeymen and subsequently becoming ugly picks. Your mission is to adapt and adopt. Adapt to which players are the veterans getting it done and will drop to the last rounds of your pool, and adopt them.

(Ray Whitney has totaled 334 points and hasn't had less than 55 points in the post-lockout era, with where he usually gets drafted in pools, I don't think he has disappointed too many poolies)



5) Limit the players you take from one team

Sure it's nice to have a player or two that you can root for because he's not only on your fantasy team, but he's also on your favorite team. But be careful, loading up on too many players from one team can be dangerous, and a lot of guys do this with their favorite teams. There's only a certain amount of scoring and more importantly power play time to go around. Having 4 or 5 guys on one team means at least half of them will flop. Take for example an experience I had one year in a hockey pool; In the 2001/2002 season I was able to land Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk, and Alex Tanguay on my team. I thought the pool was over that day, give me my money. Three young studs coming off a Stanley Cup championship and three respectively great seasons. The year before Drury had 65 points, Hejduk had 79 points, and Tanguay had 77 points; not to mention they were all relatively young players. Drury and Hejduk were entering their 4th season and Tanguay his 3rd. Not only were they coming off a Stanley Cup and great individual seasons, they were in a position to only get better right? Wrong! Drury - 46 points, Hejduk - 44 points, and Tanguay 48 points. Not even Joe Sakic or Peter Forsberg could have saved those guys that year.

6) The sophomore jinx is a myth

Every player is different. Don't buy into sophomore jinx hype. It may lead to you missing out on some great years from some great players. From 2006/07 to 2008/09 52.5% of rookies with a minimum 25 points, followed their rookie year with a slump. Half is not a fraction to lead me to believe that this slump is even worthy of being called a jinx. I find those statistics to be skewed as well because how many of those rookies were guys that had a decent rookie year that nobody heard of, and then fell into obscurity the next year like everybody expected? Ahem, Trent Hunter anyone? Did anybody really expect him to follow his 51 point season with 75 points? My point is not that it can't or doesn't happen, but that anything can happen. The players I listed above (Drury, Hejduk, and Tanguay) combined for a 73 point swing from their rookie year to their sophomore year. The onus is on you to study the situations of each team and see what type of opportunities will be presented to a sophomore i.e. playing on the top two lines, power play time, or even centering or being centered by a premiere player.

7) Stay away from the Maple Leafs for the time being

You know that sign that you see sometimes hanging up on s small business shop's door that reads: "Out for lunch, be back in 15" Well, picture that sign being hung on the door of the ACC. Last year in my annual pool, these Leafs were selected in no particular order: Phil Kessel, Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski, Tomas Kaberle, Luke Schenn, Ian White, Jason Blake, Francois Beauchemin, and get this Viktor Stahlberg (yeah you know who you are). Can you believe that? That's 9 players being drafted from a team that finished 29th of 30 teams in the NHL standings and was ranked 26th for most goals for. Now this isn't to say guys like Tyler Bozak and Nikolai Kulemin won't be able to improve in scoring this year, it just means be prepared when you draft a guy like Luke Schenn, getting to watch him play most nights may land you a whopping 17 points.

(Can you name the last Leaf to win the Calder trophy? Art Ross? Hart? Most goals? Top 5 in scoring?)





8) Always keep tabs on the injured players

Seems like an easy rule right? Check the IR list and google any recent injuries on the day of your draft. Ok easy enough. But here is the importance of the rule that you need to be aware of and this happens every year in live drafts all over North America whether it's hockey, baseball, basketball, or football. A really good player that is expected to miss the first 10 games or so of a season will be drafted in the top 2 or 3 rounds and everybody will cross him off their lists, then the poolie will be informed that said player will miss the first month of the season, so he will want to change his pick, and because everybody's friends and easy going, we let him. Now here's your job, write down that players name in big letters somewhere you will see it because if you don't, that player will become forgotten and some lucky schmuck will scoop him up 10 rounds later possibly turning his team into a juggernaut. It happens all the time. Unless of course you pick your pool over the internet or are really cutthroat about guys changing their picks 30 seconds after they make it.


Trust me, take it from a guy who has never won a hockey pool and has habitually broken all 8 of these rules over and over again. It takes a guy who has been tremendously unsuccessful and very unlucky to see what cost him his pool year in and year out. Now if these were rules I followed every year and still lost, than I could see how you would be skeptical. But somewhere down the line I have either witnessed or experienced the breaking of these rules completely massacring and sabotaging teams. It's easier to analyze how you lose then how you win. When you're on top, you're just constantly looking at your own team and you are madly in love with every single one of your players and feel like you have made no mistakes, but when your on the bottom, you're looking at the draft and how it went down, you're looking at which players you should have drafted and which one's you shouldn't have. All you can see are mistakes. It's a lot more of an eye opening experience from the bottom. So take this for what it's worth. I will.

Lebron James Takes Douchebaggery to a New High

"A perfect God is the creation of a conceited man." - Johnny Philosophy

And that is what Lebron James has created of himself.

In light of tonight's 1-hour special to announce the future of Lebron James, I have come up with the top 5 reasons why Lebron James is such a douchebag.

1) He idolizes Jay-Z. And I know what you're thinking "so what I Idolize Jay-Z too", yeah but you're not one of the best basketball players in the world. Rappers should idolize players, and not the other way around. You think Michael Jordan ever idolized MC Hammer or Snooptiy Dogg Dogg? I mean LJ even created his own secret handshake with Jay-Z as some form of street cred greeting to show off to the world after games. Leave the glorifying to the artists. Let them sing/rap about you Lebron, get off of Jigga's dick.

2) He's best friends with the kid in the wheelchair from Degrassi: The Next Generation - Aubrey Graham or more commonly known as Drake. Pipsqueak turned gangsta rapper has been seen at many of Lebron's games and the dude even dedicated a video for the hit song "Forever" to Lebron showcasing his rise to the NBA. OK, now that I think about it, their relationship is getting a little bit weird, not that there is anything wrong with that.

3) He got his ass dunked on in a off-season basketball camp game by an NCAA player, than made sure all footage of the dunk was destroyed by Nike. That is colossal douchebaggery right there. What made things even worse for James was that footage was released of the dunk by a patron who captured the dunk on his camera phone, and it wasn't even that monstrous of a dunk. Which is a testament of how highly Lebron thinks of himself, and how bothered he is by any glimpse that may signify he is not a god.

4) He refused to shake hands with the Orlando Magic after getting eliminated from the playoffs 2 years ago. Not only that, but he skipped the post-game press conference and basically left all his teammates out to dry to the media, especially considering the only comments he gave on his way off the court and out of the arena was "I didn't lose". Sure Lebron, you won and the rest of your teammates lost. Can somebody queue a slow clap for this guy? Now to top it all off, when asked about his disrespectful gesture a few days later, he came up with this gem: "I felt like I got knocked out, when somebody knocks you out in a fight, do you get up and shake their hand?" Uh yes! You do actually. Have you ever watched a pro Boxing fight or a UFC card? I guess not, continue on with the slow clap.

5) Teammate Delonte West is rumoured to have done the horizontal tango with Miss Gloria James. Now I know that technically doesn't make Lebron a douchebag, seeing as how there is no action there from him to qualify as douchebaggery behaviour, but that kind of stuff only happens to douchebags thus justifying my top 5 list. Thank you and have a nice day.

We're Talkin Leafs in June

MAYDAY MAYDAY! We have some breaking news to analyze regarding Toronto's sweethearts the Maple Leafs. Brian Burke has left it to Dave Nonis to email all NHL teams with the details on Tomas Kaberle's no-trade clause. The clause has an option that was triggered when the Leafs missed the playoffs, that Kaberle's no-trade clause would be disabled from the NHL entry draft (June 25) to the middle of August. That leaves just under 2 months for the Leafs player-moving GM to move the Leafs puck-moving defenseman.

Brian Burke has a dilemma that has not changed since he traded away two 1st round picks (2010 & 2011) for Phil Kessel. Trading away Kaberle makes our team worse which subsequently leads us to another terrible ranking giving the Bruins another lottery pick, thus making the Kessel trade a total failure. Which is why we have not moved Kaberle up until this point even though Kabs had already been willing to waive his no-trade clause and even had his agent send Burke a list of teams he would be willing to go to. Burke's previous hesitation on moving Kaberle only supports how desperate Burke was to move up in rankings and not give the Bruins a shot at Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin - 2 names that will haunt Burke for the rest of his life. If Burke really believed in the Kessel trade like he says he does, Kaberle would have been moved a long time ago.

The rumours have begun on where Kaberle will land and what the Leafs will get in return. The most recent rumour coming from Steve Simmons of The Toronto Sun had Kaberle going to the Blue Jackets for the 4th overall draft pick. The reason being Colombus's desperation to succeed now and not later. They have had their share of lottery picks and so far it has lead to nothing, so the next step is to attain veteran stars who will help them make the playoffs immediately.

Now I am going to make my case for what I think Burke should be gunning for. With no 1st round pick until 2012 and with pressure to make the playoffs next year, this is going to be very difficult for Burke to turn this team into a contender. What we need is a big game-changing forward to build our offense around. Phil Kessel is a terrific scorer but he does not have the ability to put the team on his back. We need a guy who can carry our team the way Sundin did. Tomas Kaberle also brings with him something other than on-ice ability, he brings with him a bargain - $4.25 million for next year is a steal considering what the price tag is for a puck-moving defenseman of the elite.

With that said, their are 2 names out there in the NHL that are realistically attainable for Burke, and are the only 2 names that could help me forget the Kessel disaster - Jordan Staal and Bobby Ryan. Tomas Kaberle makes sense for both of these teams which is why I am bringing them up.

Pittsburgh will be looking for an elite puck-moving defenseman to replace Sergei Gonchar and Anaheim has yet to lock up Bobby Ryan and could be on the verge of losing Scott Niedermayer. Sure a 4th overall pick would be nice in this year's draft, but a 4th overall pick isn't guaranteed to be as good as the already established Jordan Staal or Bobby Ryan.

I think now is the cheapest J. Staal will ever be. This guy could be a top centre anywhere else in the NHL but is reduced to the checking line in Pittsburgh. I am sure that with a Stanley Cup ring already in his jewelery case, he would enjoy the opportunity to establish himself as an elite scoring forward somewhere else.

Bobby Ryan as most of you know was drafted by Brian Burke and was one of the best players for Team U.S.A. at the Olympics. Whether Scott Niedermayer retires or not, he is definitely far from being the Scott Niedermayer of past. Anaheim is suffering on the back end, and a player like Kaberle could really help the production of Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. To be honest, I think Bobby Ryan will be more of a player than Perry and possibly even Getzlaf, but those 2 are already locked up in contract and have been blessed by the Hockey Canada hype machine. So that leaves Bobby Ryan looking for a contract and Anaheim pushed to the max in cap making Kaberle and his contract something to look at for the Ducks.

With all that said, I really don't think we would be able to land either in one-for-one trades. I believe we would have to up our end to make it even more appealing to the Pens and Ducks. With the situation the Leafs are in, there aren't many players I wouldn't throw in to make a trade of that magnitude happen. Luke Schenn? Pack your bags. Mikael Grabovski? Book a plane ticket.

Weekend rundown (UFC 114)

Let me start by giving my thoughts on Saturday night's main event. Rashad Evans brought the business and fought his fight. I'm not particularly in love with Rashad's style, but the man is extremely athletic and is a tough guy to beat in the UFC's LHW division. Rampage Jackson no matter how much he tried to convince people otherwise leading up to the fight, was very rusty, and the long layoff of shooting the A-Team movie made Rampage hesitant and slowed down his mobility. I think it is about time Rampage left the Wolfslair and moved to a better camp. In the primetime episodes Rashad's training regime was above and beyond the more superior camp.

Once again, Rashad almost blew the fight in the 3rd round when Rampage seemed to have rocked him with a left cross. It was very similar to when Thiago Silva rocked him in the 3rd round of their fight. This trend will not play out well for Rashad over the course of a few more fights. I think it's time he bought a sledgehammer and a tire.

Rashad is now the #1 contender for Shogun Rua's belt. I love this fight stylistically. It's going to be quite interesting to see how each of these guys counters the other's polar opposite style. Rashad's wrestling, fancy footwork, and ability to push his opponent up against the fence vs Shogun's ferocious Muay Thai, brutal ground and pound, and his ability to sweep from the bottom or get back to his feet upon being taken down.

One thing I noticed in the Rampage/Rashad fight that could be a determining factor for Shogun, was the fact that some of the times when Rashad would push Rampage back against the fence, for some reason Rampage was able to secure a clinch on Rashad. Although Rampage could never mount any significant damage outside of a couple of weak knee attempts, the fact that he was still able to secure the clinch could mean that Rashad has a vulnerable weakness that just so happens to be a huge strength for Shogun.
If Shogun is able to secure a clinch just as Rampage did, he will end the fight with some knees. Bank on it.

Now for the rundown:

- Rumours are circulating that Rampage and Machida will get it on next

- Dana White came out with a statement saying he'd like to see Diego Sanchez go back to 155. “I don’t think Diego belongs at 170,” White said. “It’s easier to be at 170. He looked soft. Diego couldn’t take him down, and Diego’s game is wrestling.” I have to agree with the UFC president, losing to BJ Penn is not a reason to flee the division.

- It seems there won't be a primetime series promoting the upcoming Heavyweight title fight between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. Apparently Lesnar does not want any outside interferences leading up to the fight.

- Jason Brilz, the pudgy pasty dude who put on the spirited performance en route to a controversial decision loss to Lil NOG, actually missed his 10 year anniversary by taking the fight on short notice.

- Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen almost got into it behind the scenes at the MMA Expo. Anderson Silva was signing some autographs and he looked pretty unenthusiastic about the process, so Sonnen noticed this and shouted over "Don't worry Anderson, after we fight people won't give a shit about you and you won't have to sign another autograph again" Silva was bothered with the razzing so he actually tracked Sonnen down outside the Expo, where they got in each others faces, but the situation was quickly defused.

- Eddie Alvarez is still THEE most exciting fighter in the world.

UFC 113 Aftermath

So I went 2-3 with my picks for UFC 113 which is pretty mediocre considering I like to pride myself in being an expert when it comes to MMA. I would like to blame the fact that I let my heart cloud my judgment.

First of all, I am a really big Patrick Cote fan and I enjoy watching him fight, but I should have known that after a very long lay off due to a knee injury, plus a setback, would have had effect on him, especially considering he was fighting a very good fighter in Alan Belcher. Second of all, I really don't like Josh Koscheck and I was hoping more than anything that Paul Daley would have been able to stuff Kos's takedowns like he said he would have been able to. However, I think I did discuss both of these issues regarding each fighter in my preview, so shame on me for picking them wrong, but at least I acknowledged what the determining factor would be had they both lost. Finally, Sam Stout, I would like to say that I do not agree with the decision at all for Jeremy Stephens. I think the judges fell in love with Stephens' style and his heavy hands, and totally neglected the fight overall. Yes, Jeremy Stephens looked brilliant for brief periods of the fight, but like I said it would be, that fight was all Sam Stout. He never backed down, and never left Stephens' personal bubble. Stout ended the fight stronger and I thought he easily could have taken it 2-1 in rounds. I was completely dumbfaced when Bruce Buffer announced that one judge had it 30-27 for Stephens. Just another reason to frown upon the judging in MMA. Just to be clear, I am not so much annoyed with the overall decision as I am with the one judge scoring it 30-27 Stephens.

Now for my winning calls, my bet the house calls. I can take solace in my 2-3 record with the fact that I won both of my money bets. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Matt Mitrione, who I am quickly becoming a fan of for his approach to the game and for that stupid fucking grin that he chooses to not wipe off his face. I loved it.

Let's start with Mitrione. I don't want to take credit in predicting this fight because to me it was just too obvious. Kimbo Slice brings with him a lot of hype and a lot of fair weather fans from his youtube days. For instance, the venue I was watch hing it at was filled with guys prepping everybody for a vicious KO by Slice. I didn't think Mitrione was going to win, and I didn't necessarily want Mitrione to win, I knew Mitrione was going to win. Kimbo Slice is just way too small to be a heavyweight. Considering he weighed in at 225 with not an ounce of fat on his body, it was just too apparent that Mitrione was going to be able to will himself on Kimbo. Matt Mitrione has a lot of things he needs to work on to be successful in the HW division, one being that fact that Kimbo was able to land some nice shots and also slam him down at one point in the fight. Kimbo hits hard, but he hits 225 pound hard. Mitrione was at around 250 pounds.

I think it's too bad Kimbo Slice was cut from the UFC shortly after by Dana White. I would have liked to have seen Kimbo drop down to the LHW division at 205, but I'm guessing weight cutting does not come easily to Kimbo with the little amount of body fat he has. Too bad because there are some pretty exciting matches for him at 205 with guys like Keith Jardine, Forrest Griffin, and even Chuck Liddell.

Now for the main event. I am going to try my best to give my thoughts without explaining how revenge or justice was served with Shogun's win because I have done enough of that already. I also just want to look at the positives surrounding Shogun.

I called Shogun to win the first fight and I called him to win this fight as well. But I never expected it to end as fast as it did or in the fashion it ended. I never could imagine either fighter being KO'd or TKO'd. I was absolutely shocked. I expected Shogun to come with a similar yet a bit more aggressive style than his first fight, and win a decision. Him getting a KO just goes to show how motivated he was and how he wasn't going to let another judging debacle ruin his chances at the UFC LHW title. His first fight with Machida he respected Machida's striking to the point where it made him hesitant for the first 4 rounds to attack. He chose to just pick his shots. I'm guessing after 5 rounds of going unscathed against Machida, all of that respect went out the window and Shogun went for the kill.

My observation on why Shogun was able to KO Machida, and how Machida left himself vulnerable to such a shot is that the first fight played into the mind of Machida and distracted him in the second fight. I try to tell people all the time a fight is different from a game. It's not basketball, hockey, or football. It's a fight. A lot of people thought Machida would have not outstanding effects from the first fight and would be able to alter his game plan so much so for the rematch, that he would be able to just walk through Shogun. I on the other hand tried to relate it to real life. When somebody beats you up in life, it takes a toll on you emotionally, mentally, and physically whether the judges scored it for you or not, the fact of the matter was Shogun beat up Machida in the first fight. He didn't dominate, but he cracked him and solved him enough to land strikes almost at will and the beating seemed to get worse as the fight went on. The punishment was accumulating with the rounds.

I think once Machida got hit with a few shots by Shogun he mentally packed it in and physically did not want to endure another 5 round attack from Shogun, especially considering this time Shogun was being much more aggressive, hence the 2 takedowns form Machida. Shogun getting up so easily from those takedowns didn't help Machida's mental state either. Like I said earlier, when you get beat up in MMA, it's not like any other sport where you can acquire new players, or practice harder, or win using some new and improved style, or even get saved by a great individual performance from a pitcher, goalie, or a running back. It's a fight, and most fighters are limited to the tools they already have. A Muay Thai guy can work on his BJJ as much as he desires, but rarely will it ever turn him into a BJJ styled fighter. Same goes for American wrestling, Wanderlei Silva can train with Randy Couture as much as he wants, but he will never be able to use wrestling as an advantage for him in a fight.

Don't get me wrong, fighters do win rematches against opponents they have previously lost to, but it mostly happens with age and deteriorating skills playing a major role in the result.

My .02