UFC Fight Night Recap: March 2nd

Middleweight contender Michael Bisping may have walked out victorious against Anderson Silva during last weekend’s UFC Fight Night London, but he did so with a busted nose and stitches on his face

The bulk of the damage that was inflicted upon "The Count" happened during the dying seconds of the third round when he dropped his mouthpiece. Bisping motioned to referee Herb Dean, notifying him about what happened, but Dean instead let the action continue.

Silva then capitalized on those few moments of inattention by throwing a flying knee that landed squarely on Bisping’s face, immediately opening a deep gash.During a post-fight interview, Bisping pinned the blame on Dean, questioning the latter’s abilities as a referee. Dean has since responded to the fighter’s remarks in his recent appearance on The MMA Hour."Well, I don’t know, maybe he’s not aware of the rules. A lot of fighters, most of them read the fouls but they don’t read all the rules on the mechanics," Dean said. "Maybe he wasn’t aware of that. But the rule is to replace the mouthpiece during a lull in the action."

Dean also explained why he let the fight carry on, despite Bisping’s motions to get his attention."That’s the way the mechanic works, is that you replace the mouthpiece during a lull in the action. And (Bisping) signaled once, and Anderson was actually in the process of attacking him," he explained. For a lot of reasons that are pretty evident you can’t stop to replace the mouthpiece during a heated exchange, and that qualified as a heated exchange."If we were doing that, we’d have guys getting their bell rung, spitting out the mouthpiece to get a little extra time or sometimes you’re feeling a little tired, just spit your mouthpiece out," Dean continued. "So obviously we can’t do that in the middle of an exchange."

As far as determining whether or not Dean should've stopped the fight after Bisping was knocked down, he said Bisping wasn't unconscious when he fell."Well, Silva hit him with the knee and dropped him, and then he walked off and started to celebrate," he said. "He had been dropped, but you know, in MMA we don't stop the match just because someone gets dropped. I saw that when he fell he was not unconscious. He was facing Anderson. Anderson didn't give him a threat to protect himself from, but -- I don't want to start playing what if, what if he attacked and whatnot -- the bottom line is he didn't attack. The round ended and, because Anderson was celebrating, there was some confusion as to what was going on.

UFC 196 Preview

No one is happy that Rafael Dos Anjos was forced to withdraw from UFC 196, but Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz is about as fascinating a replacement fight as you could ask for.

Not only is Diaz the first opponent of McGregor's career to top the Irishman's height and reach, but his technical approach to boxing makes him an interesting test for "The Notorious," who hasn't engaged in a tactical striking battle since the first round of his fight with Max Holloway in 2013.

That's not the only tantalizing matchup on the card, of course. UFC 196 also boasts the first title defense of Holly Holm following her stunning knockout of Ronda Rousey in November of last year. Contending for the belt is veteran bantamweight Miesha Tate. "Cupcake" wasn't happy at the time, but it seems like Holm getting the Rousey fight was the best thing that could have happened to her; now Miesha gets to throw herself at an opponent who has never faced such a dogged, resilient, and crafty mixed martial artist.

Tune in March 6th on Pay-Per-View.

Zach Lowe Summer 2015 Series: State of the NBA Labor Union

Labor Peace In Our Time: How the NBA's Money Train Could Keep Chugging

Lowe’s idea in this article is for the NBA players union and owners agree to actually work together for once at the end of the current CBA agreement.  The league is making astronomical leaps and bounds in revenue.  Players are already wary that they can bank on small term contracts now and sign bigger deals after the agreement.  Its very rare in this day in age that the two sides actually work together.  We often end up with very bizarre negotiation agreements because both sides feel the need to spite each either for greed or pride.

Lowe seems to have faith in the players union and Michelle Roberts.  The quote from her states that the “issue will be hopefully be solved by the end of the season”.  I must say that it may be wishful thinking, however there is no denying that a peaceful look may be the best look for the league as whole.

Lowe makes his point that this is a transcendent age for the game that seems to have less issues than the other major leagues in the country.  I don’t think the the NBA is going to make the most profit of any league but I do agree that basketball is the ideal sport as far as public relations is concerned.  The only limit which basketball presents is space.  You can only get 10 guys on the court and stadiums are smaller than football and baseball.

Lowe wants both sides to “rock the boat” which I think is definitely possible with valuable players set to gain around 10 million extra dollars per contract in the next CBA projections.  We’ll have to see if teams feel that they are being crunched in the TV deals over the next two to three year period and if they want to make that their ultimatum.

I’m one to believe that greed is predictable, and that negotiations are never a walk in the park.

Zach Lowe Summer 2015 Series: Ciao, Gallo! The Rebirth of Danilo Gallinari

Zach Lowe 2015 Summer Series: Ciao, Gallo! The Rebirth of Danilo Gallinari

I really enjoyed this article from Lowe and you can tell that Derek Lowe really enjoyed writing it.  It’s sort of amazing actually that he was able to write ten pages on a lesser known (or perhaps less remembered) player like Danilo Gallinari and include in game videos to help illustrate his points.  He also used quotes from his old coach George Karl, which really paint the picture of what kind of player Gallinari is.

Lowe doesn’t always do this but it was very cool to see him actually break down game footage and prove what Gallinari does to the spacing on the floor for the Nuggets.  In the modern NBA this is so important, because three point shooting teams have shown the ability to win a high rate.  Danillo Gallinari is definitely an intriguing player because of the versatile offense ability and the fact that he has been hurt for essentially two whole seasons, which can cause people to often forget about the sort promise he showed.

Lowe then also got to what may be considered the larger idea of the article.  Why don’t the Nuggets try to trade away their valuable players like Gallinari to try to rebuild their organization?

While the team does have a small chance of making the playoffs in the west, the team appears stuck in the NBA dead zone.  They aren’t good enough to be a contender, and they aren’t bad enough to get a top draft pick again.

Lowe gave a great in depth analysis of the Kroenke ownership and really helped explain why it is that he wants to keep Gallinari.  Kroenke wants guys that actually want be there, not guys that just want a paycheck.  And Danilo Gallinari is known as a hometown sort of player, and that he will do what the organization asks of him.

I believe the what he wants to convey to us is that he agrees with the decision from Denver management to potentially just play out the season.  After all, they don’t want to go down the same road the Philadelphia 76er’s have gone down.  They don’t want to just be a bad team, because the likelihood that they become a truly great team as a result is low and time consuming.  It’s hard to sell seats when you are starting bench players, and thats why the Nuggets want to keep their value.  Denver fans shouldn’t mind being “just okay” because the only other alternative is to lose games intentionally.

Zach Lowe Summer 2015 Series: Former #1 Overall Pick Anthony Bennett

Run'd Out Rebel: Anthony Bennett

Anthony Bennet is going to go down as one of the worst number one overall picks, but the truth is that the draft class he was a part of is significantly weaker.  As Lowe pointed out, it wasn’t like there was a clear better player which came out of the draft.  The two best players in that draft weren’t lottery picks.

Bennet sure has been out of shape in his first few years, and he doesn’t give enough hustle according to Lowe.  He doesn’t give that kind of effort that makes you think, this guy desperately wants to be on an NBA roster.  Even though he was a no.1 pick, that is the current stage of his career.

I think Lowe played too much with possible trade options for Bennett in the middle of this article.  Too many tangents were explained in the exact middle of the article.  The information is terrific, I only disagree with the placement.  I though that it was likely that Bennett was going to get released and not traded.

Lowe did accurately predict Toronto as the suitor for Bennett.  Anybody could say, well he’s from Toronto so they are probably going to give him an opportunity but Lowe really did his homework explaining the situation.  This is where having in-depth knowledge of relationships in your industry come in handy.  Lowe nailed that one on the head.

I don’t know if Bennett will actually be a bargain for Toronto, but Lowe did end with a positive spin on him.  He won’t get on the floor unless a Raptor player gets hurt which Lowe mentioned.  Now Bennett may be ready to adopt the hustle or die attitude necessary for a player in his stage.

I personally believe that journalists like to pick their battles, and that Lowe may only be putting a positive spin on Bennett to simply keep his interested parties happy.  Maybe I am wrong and he still has a chance to be somebody in this league.  But Lowe’s analysis of his play seemed more like a rap sheet than that of an x-factor.

Zach Lowe Summer 2015 Series: State Of The Los Angeles Clippers

The Edge of Glory: Will the Los Angeles Clippers Make the Leap Or Reset?

The Clippers are arguably the team of the summer and that is why Zach Lowe went extremely in depth in his in game observations to try and explain them.  Lowe using everything he’s got to explain analytically what he thinks about them.  The truth is that they still don’t seem good enough to win the west.  

Advanced saber metrics does make up for a bit of this article but I think there is some merit when explaining that only the Knicks scored at the rim less than the Clippers last year.  Yes I understand that traditional basketball fans may not be as interested in this sort of thing, but advanced metrics are where we are heading as a civilization.  Lowe’s biggest fans are the twenty somethings and the early thirty year olds.

Lowe did a good job of inserting conflict around Doc Rivers.  He has some difficult decisions, mainly who is going to be the guy to run point besides Chris Paul.  Crawford, Stephenson, and his own son are going to be rotating in that role and it’s up to Doc to figure out who works best.  Aslo will Rivers downsize?  The Warriors and other teams proved moving to small ball is a viable option in the modern league.

Ultimately I think Lowe hints that if the Clippers don’t figure out how to win the west or at least make the conference finals, that somebody is going to have to go.  Perhaps the team will shake up or perhaps Doc will leave.  I believe that the team has a lot of questions both on and off of the court and I think that Lowe could be more blunt in explaining that this could be a messy breakup at the end of the season.

Lowe’s title is “Make the Leap or Hit Reset”.  While it is a great title, there isn’t enough about the reset.  Still a great analysis, and the obvious stage of the franchise.

Zach Lowe Summer 2015 Series: Minnesota Timberwolves Zach LaVine VS Kevin Martin

Zach LaVine gets the nod, Martin takes a seat

This article has three parts to it.  The focus of the story is the progression of young wing player Zach LaVine.  Lowe does an excellent job of explaining what basketball savants think about him in comparison to the average fan who has only seen his highlights.  LaVine has a lot to learn, but Lowe realizes that he has only just now learned how to play at a high level.

LaVine was only a reserve at UCLA before NBA teams realized his immense athleticism.  He absolutely is not a point guard, and he was playing out of position as a young player on a bad team.  This is why agree with Lowe.  LaVine’s stock is going up, because even if he is bad on defense, he will only get better with Rubio and Towns coming into the mix.

The next segment featured LaVine’s primary competition for the starting wing position…NBA veteran Kevin Martin.  Martin’s stock is going in the opposite direction.  He like LaVine is a poor defensive player, however his offensive game is undeniably savvy.  That said he is constantly dropping in efficiency year by year.  It might be best that he is relegated to a sixth man role on the Timberwolves.

The late Flip Saunders had great plans for LaVine and it is definitely his chance to show what sort of talent he is this season.  He is definitely a third or fourth option on offense but he will get big opportunities.  And he doesn’t have to try to run the offense like last year.

The third and final segment of this article is classic Lowe.  He loves to talk trade possibilities and he often is able to predict some of the trades which go down.  This must be a thought consideration because if Martin is unhappy in his role, they might need to get something back for him.  He certainly sees that the franchise is going more in the direction of LaVine.

I believe that the Timberwolves will be a top team as soon as next season, even in the western conference.  Zach Lowe wrote a great article and I think he understands that this is a pivotal point in the team’s development.  Decisions like this aren’t obvious.  Every other starter on the team is a no-brainer but LaVine vs Martin could be the kind of decision we look back and define a coach by.