Category: mma

mma

MMA tournaments: How to, how not to

Posted on by Beau Dure

The UFC started with a simple concept — eight men, one tournament, one winner.

Since then, the “tournament” idea has remained but has been spread over more time. Japanese promotions have often held quarterfinals one night, then held semifinals and finals on the same night a couple of months later. Strikeforce will do the same with a women’s tournament Friday night (11 p.m. ET, Showtime).

Bellator, which opens its third season tonight (check with your local FSN affiliate) has opted for season-long tournaments over a couple of months. The UFC isn’t such a fan of the tournament concept, but that’s essentially what you get in The Ultimate Fighter.

Shine Fights has announced an old-school fight card next month in Fairfax, Va. Eight fighters — some notable — fighting up to three times during the night for a tournament title.

Several reasons why this is a tricky concept:

1. No time to promote. With The Ultimate Fighter, we know the fighters by the time they reach the final.

2. Logistics. Shuffling fighters in and out can be a challenge.

3. Fatigue and trivial injuries that can affect the outcomes. When one fighter has a brutal quarterfinal bout and the other sails through with ease, who do you suppose gets the win? And heaven forbid someone breaks a finger or gets a cut that would normally clear up in a couple of weeks but causes him to forfeit the next fight.

4. Serious injuries. Dr. Johnny Benjamin explains.

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mma

MMA: Not pro wrestling

Posted on by Beau Dure

Mixed martial arts has a few historical links to professional wrestling. The connection is stronger in Japan than in the USA, but it exists here. They’ve chased some of the same audiences, and a couple of people have existed in both worlds. Ken Shamrock went back and forth between the two. Brock Lesnar left pro wrestling behind to climb quickly to UFC heavyweight champion. We even have an overlap in journalism — Dave Meltzer, who dove aggressively behind the scenes with Wrestling Observer, is a very good MMA writer.

No one would want to drum Lesnar or Meltzer out of the sport, but MMA fans have every right to play up the differences between their sport and the scripted version. Luke Thomas minced few words on Twitter today (not that Twitter gives anyone much leeway to mince words) in talking about it: “I’m going to start swinging a machete if we keep pretending MMA is professional wrestling.”

Thomas, who hosts “MMA Nation” on WJFK and is the editor of great MMA blog Bloody Elbow, expounded in two more Tweets. Combining them: “The other issue that folks need to consider is the longer you pretend there is a cozy relationship btw MMA & pro wrestling, the longer you put off integration into the larger sporting audience. They will not accept it on those terms. And who can blame them?”

Thomas is a passionate defender of MMA as a sport and not just a spectacle, something Bloody Elbow’s critics in the fight world should remember. And he’s right.

In Japan, fans and the media may be more accepting of close links between the “fake” and “real” worlds. In the USA, that’ll go over as well as the “European carry-all” on the great old Seinfeld episode.

All of this is in the wake of UFC 117, which played out like a pro wrestling storyline, vividly spelled out at Watch Kalib Run. Chael Sonnen hyped the fight with ludicrous overstatement, dominated for most of the fight and then lost when Silva pulled a submission win out of nothing. That’s Sonnen playing the heel to Anderson Silva’s babyface.

It’s not a perfect analogy. Sonnen had a lot of fan support against Silva, whose popularity has suffered through some erratic performances.

But the differences between MMA and pro wrestling were more apparent in the rest of the card, which no one would script:

– Jon Fitch took a typically methodical win over Thiago Alves in the type of bout.

– Matt Hughes, a few years past his championship run, beat Ricardo Almeida with an improbable choke. (Maybe you’d script that one.)

– Clay Guida beat Rafael dos Anjos on an injury — a Guida punch injured dos Anjos’ jaw, and dos Anjos tapped out when he was caught in a hold that made the injury worse.

– Junior dos Santos beat up Roy Nelson in a matchup of contrasting builds.

UFC fight build-up is sometimes nasty. Lesnar and Frank Mir had some pointed exchanges, and Lesnar went way over the top in celebrating his win. But it’s generally a different vibe. Even Sonnen and Silva embraced after the fight, with Silva going out of his way to praise a fighter who had spent several months ridiculing him.

As a journalist who has come to love this sport, I’m with Luke. I can deal with pre-fight confidence-building boasts, but not with pro wrestling-style histrionics. I’d bet I’m not the only one.

Update: At Bloody Elbow, Kid Nate sums up one of the problems — the more MMA resembles pro wrestling, the more likely observers may think it’s predetermined.

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mma, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, track and field

Friday Myriad: Bolt vs. Gay, Silva vs. Sonnen, DPs vs. DPs …

Posted on by Beau Dure

If you’re not a fan of American soccer leagues, this isn’t much of a weekend, though some European leagues (France, Netherlands, English Championship) kick off.

FRIDAY

2 p.m.: Track and field, Diamond League, Stockholm. Bolt vs. Gay. Great stuff. Universal Sports online

SATURDAY

3:35 a.m.: Rugby, Tri-Nations Cup, New Zealand vs. Australia. Travis’ preview will run in an hour or so. RugbyZone.com

3 p.m.: Harness racing, Hambletonian. We don’t cover much horse racing, but this is seriously the most interesting non-league item on USA TODAY’s listings. NBC

7 p.m.: Soccer, PDL championship. As with the W-League, this game is way too early because the players all need to scramble back to college. FSC

10 p.m.: Mixed martial arts, UFC 117, Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen, Roy Nelson-Junior dos Santos, Jon Fitch-Thiago Alves. Good card. Previews at USA TODAY. Pay-per-view

SUNDAY

10 a.m.: Soccer, Community Shield, Chelsea-Manchester United. I tease Eurosnobs, sure, but of course I’m thrilled to see resumption of play in England. FSC

6 p.m.: Soccer, MLS, Dallas-Philadelphia. If you’re a Philly fan, stick around for the next game on FSC

8 p.m.: Soccer, WPS, Philadelphia-Boston. Alternately, you might have made the trip out to West Chester. Yeah, it’s a haul, but isn’t West Chester beautiful? FSC

9 p.m.: Soccer, MLS, Chicago-New York. Counting something like five Designated Players who might be on the field at the same time, which would be a record. Let’s see — Ljungberg, Castillo, Henry, Angel, Marquez. Might not all be ready, though. We had Beckham-cam a couple of years ago when he was on the bench and thinking about coming in — will we see Marquez-cam? ESPN2

MORE MYRIAD

  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America: MLS, international friendlies, France, Mexico, Brazil.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Lots of tennis and lacrosse, plus Australian Rules football, Dutch soccer and the odd friendly.
  • Tennis Channel: Live and delayed coverage of ATP Washington, WTA San Diego.
  • Universal Sports: Volleyball, beach volleyball, USA Swimming.
  • More Olympic sports: Shooting World Championships continue (live TV).
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mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis

Friday Myriad: Not out of our league

Posted on by Beau Dure

To be perfectly honest, we’re in a lull. No Tour, no huge world championships (no disrespect to the folks with rifles and pistols), etc. Plenty of league games, though. Through the weekend, eight Mexican league games are on various networks. On Saturday, seven MLS games are on Direct Kick / MLSSoccer.com. See Soccer America listings below.

And it’s X Games weekend — see TV schedule and ESPN3 schedule.

FRIDAY

2 p.m.: X Games. ESPN

3 p.m.: Tennis, ATP Los Angeles quarterfinals. ESPN2

7 p.m.: X Games. ESPN

11 p.m.: Tennis, WTA Stanford quarterfinals. ESPN2

SATURDAY

9:30 a.m.: Soccer, Emirates Cup, Celtic-Lyon. GolTV

11:30 a.m.: Soccer, Emirates Cup, Arsenal-AC Milan. GolTV

2 p.m.: X Games. ESPN

3 p.m.: Tennis, WTA Stanford semifinals. ESPN2

5 p.m.: Tennis, ATP Los Angeles semifinal. ESPN2

7 p.m.: X Games. ESPN

9 p.m.: Boxing, Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II, pay-per-view

10 p.m.: Soccer, W-League championship. One of the two major U.S./Canada amateur women’s leagues finishes its season absurdly early so that many players can get back to college. Fox Soccer Channel

10:30 p.m.: Tennis, ATP Los Angeles semifinal. ESPN2

SUNDAY

6 a.m.: Soccer, U-20 Women’s World Cup final, Germany-Nigeria. ESPNU / ESPN3.com

9 a.m.: Soccer, U-20 Women’s World Cup third-place game, South Korea-Colombia. ESPNU / ESPN3.com

9:30 a.m.: Soccer, Emirates Cup, AC Milan-Lyon. GolTV

11:30 a.m.: Soccer, Emirates Cup, Arsenal-Celtic. GolTV

1 p.m.: X Games. ESPN2

3 p.m.: Tennis, WTA Stanford final. ESPN2

5 p.m.: Tennis, ATP Los Angeles final. ESPN2

5 p.m.: Soccer, WPS, Atlanta-Gold Pride. Fox Soccer Channel

7 p.m.: X Games. ESPN2

7:30 p.m.: Soccer, MLS, Los Angeles-Chicago. Fox Soccer Channel

9 p.m.: MMA, UFC on Versus: Jon Jones-Vladimir Matyushenko, Mark Munoz-Yushin Okami, Tyson Griffin-Takanori Gomi. See my main event preview at USA TODAY. Versus

MORE MYRIAD

  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America: MLS, international friendlies, Mexico.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: U-20 Women’s World Cup, Australian Rules football, CFL, cricket, fishing, lacrosse, extra X Games.
  • Tennis Channel: Delayed coverage of ATP Los Angeles, ATP Gstaad, WTA Stanford.
  • Universal Sports: FIVB beach volleyball, European and African track and field.
  • More Olympic sports: FIVB beach volleyball, water polo World Cup, shooting World Championships (live TV).

Upcoming: USA Swimming championships, starting Tuesday.

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cycling, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: Wimbledon, World Cup, le Tour

Posted on by Beau Dure

Funny thing about July 4th weekend – the most important action in the sports world is all overseas.

The three-day absence from posting here won’t happen often. Had a lot of actual paid work to do, plus a week of solo parenting. Shouldn’t have a break like this until vacation.

Off we go (all times ET) …

HEADLINES

Water polo: Big comeback keeps the U.S. women unbeaten in World League final tournament.

Poker: The last weekend before the Main Event — the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold-’em World Championship that draws thousands of entrants and weeks of ESPN coverage — features several events of interest:

  • Tournament of Champions: They’ve only knocked the field down the original 27 to 17, and that’s causing scheduling problems. The idea was to play it across two weekends. They’ll resume Saturday at 10 p.m. IF none of the 17 players is busy in another event. They may have to resume at noon Sunday. That’s 9 a.m. Vegas time. Is anyone awake then?
  • $25,000 buy-in six-handed no-limit hold’em: Several big names just missed out on the final three tables (18 players) — John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Freddy Deeb, Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey. But Daniel Negreanu is still in, threatening Saturday’s Tournament of Champions start. So is Frank Kassela, who’s in position to edge Juanda for Player of the Year honors.
  • Pot-limit Omaha World Championship: Phil Hellmuth is still active in this one and the TOC, and a few other notable names are still going after Day 1.
  • Two smaller no-limit hold’em events that shouldn’t attract may top players.
  • Ante Up for Africa: Poker pro Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle host an annual charity event that usually draws a good crowd of celebrities, some of whom hang around for the Main Event the next week, and many top players, though the crowded schedule may preclude a few people from entering.

FRIDAY (all times ET)

10 a.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Netherlands-Brazil. ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN3 / Univision

10:45ish a.m.: Wimbledon men’s semifinal, Andy Murray-Rafael Nadal. Winner faces Tomas Berdych, who upset Roger Federer this week and Novak Djokovic this morning. Murray’s path of Nadal, always better on clay and inconsistent here, and Berdych is Britain’s best hope in a generation. ESPN2, shifting to NBC at noon

2:30 p.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Uruguay-Ghana. Just think — this could be the USA. ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN3 / Univision

7:30 p.m.: Softball, World Championship final, USA vs. Canada-Japan winner. Not vouching at all for quality, reliability or even safety of this Webcast. Venezuelan government

SATURDAY

9 a.m.: Wimbledon women’s final, Serena Williams-Vera Zvonareva. Also should get some doubles finals, with at least one American player to appear in the women’s doubles. NBC

10 a.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Argentina-Germany. ABC / ESPN Deportes  / Univision

11:30 a.m.: Tour de France, prologue. Lance Armstrong is saying this will be his last, though he has said that before. If he’s trying for an individual win rather than a teammate’s win this year, he’ll need to do well in the time trials, starting here. Versus

2:30 p.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Paraguay-Spain. ABC / ESPN Deportes  / Univision

4:30 p.m.: Track and field, Diamond League Prefontaine Classic. One of the most storied meets in the USA is now part of the world’s top circuit. Full preview coming later today. Really. Hold me to it. NBC

5:30 p.m.: Poker, $25K no-limit hold’em six-handed. See above. ESPN3

7:30 p.m.: Water polo, World League women’s final. TeamUSA.org

8 p.m.: MLS, Columbus-Chicago. FSC

9 p.m.: UFC 116, Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin for the heavyweight title in the main event. Spike has Seth Petruzelli, whose win over Kimbo Slice was erroneously called the biggest upset in MMA history at the time, in one of its two prelims. Spike, shifting to PPV at 10 p.m.

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Chivas USA-Philadelphia. FSC

SUNDAY

8:30 a.m.: Cycling, Tour de France, Stage 1. Cue the sprinters. Thor smash? Versus

9 a.m.: Wimbledon men’s final and possibly mixed doubles final. NBC

Noon: Hot dog eating. No Kobayashi? ESPN3

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Los Angeles-Seattle. ESPN2

MORE MYRIAD

  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Australian Rules football, CFL, golf, lacrosse and poker.
  • Tennis Channel: Classic matches.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball and more Prefontaine Classic coverage.
  • More Olympic sports: Canoe/kayak World Cup final stop, U17 men’s basketball World Championship, U.S. men’s volleyball in Egypt for World League
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mma, olympic sports, soccer, track and field

Monday Myriad: Marry Lolo, beat Phelps

Posted on by Beau Dure

A few things aside from the World Cup, the USA Track and Field Championships, the MLS weekend and Strikeforce, all of which will be covered in greater detail later.

Poker: The World Series of Poker’s Tournament of Champions has run into a small problem: No one’s getting eliminated.

Tennis: The top four men’s seeds — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — are all through the quarterfinals, along with No. 6 Robin Soderling. No. 5 Andy Roddick lost in five (fifth set: 9-7) to unknown Taiwanese player Yen-Hsun Lu. He took it well, as always.

The women’s quarterfinals consist of the Williams sisters, Kim Clijsters (winner of the grudge match against Justine Henin) and five players you’ve never heard of.

MMA: No UFC future for Jamie “Crabman” Yager?

Action sports: Shaun White aggravated an ankle injury and couldn’t compete at the Dew Tour/International Skate Federation World Championship, so he did some commentary and signed some autographs. Nice guy, articulate, humble — he’s an action sports-hater’s worst nightmare.

Swimming: Michael Phelps is quite human in the middle year between Olympics.

Track and field/MLS: As MLS commissioner, Doug Logan presided over the start of youth program Project 40. Now with USA Track and Field, he is overseeing the berth of Project 30. Scaling back?

And in more track and field/MLS news, Lolo Jones is bidding to be the funniest Olympic athlete on Twitter.

Soccer: Soccernet’s scoreboard for Wednesday reads “No matches on this date.” That just means Soccernet doesn’t get scores for the U.S. Open Cup or WPS All-Star Game (7:30 p.m. ET, FSC). This game never, ever stops.

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mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: Enjoy the USA-Ghana game for what it is

Posted on by Beau Dure

At some point, it’s just about the game.

If Landon Donovan scores a hat trick in a crushing 5-2 win over Ghana tomorrow, it won’t suddenly fill every MLS stadium and push Fox Soccer Channel’s MLS broadcasts to NFL levels. Nor would a 3-0 loss send U.S. soccer back to 1985. (The year, not the excellent Bowling for Soup song.)

Saturday’s game is a great opportunity for the USA to match its best modern-day World Cup finish (no, I don’t count 1930 as modern-day in this case) and perhaps move on to more. Nothing more, nothing less.

And it’s part of this complete weekend, which includes the return of MLS.

HEADLINES

Poker: Most recent world champions are Ayaz Mahmood (heads-up no-limit hold’em) and Valdemar Kwaysser (pot-limit hold’em). Phil Ivey won his eighth WSOP bracelet in H.O.R.S.E., but he’s not in the H.O.R.S.E. world championship due to end Friday. The tournament of champions starts Sunday with 27 players and will be whittled to a final nine to resume next Sunday.

MMA: Like occasional U.S. wrestling teammate Ben Askren, Joe Warren has won a Bellator tournament. Russia’s Alexander Shlemenko is the middleweight winner. (MMA Fighting Stances)

FRIDAY

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Chile-Spain. Chile has two wins but technically isn’t safe — a loss here and a Swiss win would send us to goal difference (currently Chile +2, Switzerland 0 – so the Swiss would at least tie them with a win and Chile loss), goals scored (Chile 2, Switzerland 1) , then head-to-head (Chile). Not lots. Spain, the pick of many to win it all, would advance with a win or likely by matching Switzerland’s result (points AND goal difference on the day). The other wild-card scenario that would keep Spain out: a loss and a Honduras rout. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Switzerland-Honduras. See above. A rout would clinch Switzerland’s spot, but that’s not their style. Realistically, they need a win plus any of the following: Chile win, Chile-Spain draw, Spain rout. A draw does Switzerland no good unless Spain loses. Honduras needs a rout and a Spain loss. ESPN2/TeleFutura/ESPN3

9 p.m.: MLS, Salt Lake-San Jose. Welcome back to league play with a good one. Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

SATURDAY

7 a.m.: Wimbledon, ESPN2, over to NBC at noon

10 a.m.: World Cup round of 16, Uruguay-South Korea. Winner gets USA-Ghana winner. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

1 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. ESPN

2:30 p.m.: World Cup round of 16, USA-Ghana. No more to say. ABC/ESPN Deportes/Univision … NOT ESPN3

3 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Should include men’s 400, men’s 400 hurdles, women’s 1,500, women’s 100 hurdles. NBC

4 p.m.: Action sports, Dew Tour Skate Open/ISF World Championships. Shaun White and Ryan Sheckler expected. NBC

7:30 p.m.: MLS, Toronto-Los Angeles. Can the Galaxy keep winning without Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle against the excellent Dwayne De Rosario and the less-excellent rogue’s gallery that fouls effectively? Fox Soccer Channel

10 p.m.: MMA, Strikeforce, featuring Fedor Emelianenko-Fabricio Werdum heavyweight bout. Also a women’s title fight between Cris Cyborg and Jan Finney, a rematch for Cung Le against Scott Smith, and a lightweight bout between Josh Thomson and Pat Healy.

SUNDAY

10 a.m.: World Cup round of 16, Germany-England. Just a bit of history here. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

1 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Should have a healthy dose of live field events and taped track events. ESPN

2 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Belmar (N.J.) Open, women’s final. ESPN2

2:30 p.m.: World Cup round of 16, Argentina-Mexico. For Spanish-speaking U.S. viewers, this is the non-USA game of the tournament. ABC/ESPN Deportes/Univision … NOT ESPN3

3 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Includes men’s and women’s 200 finals, plus men’s 1,500 and 110 hurdles. NBC

4 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Belmar (N.J.) Open, men’s final. Universal Sports

5 p.m.: MLS, Seattle-Philadelphia. ESPN2

6 p.m.: WPS, Bay Area-New Jersey (Gold Pride-Sky Blue). Front-runners break in new stadium against defending champs. FSC/WPS online

OLYMPIC SPORTS

  • Softball: Well, it’s still an Olympic sport to us. The World Championships are in progress in Venezuela. USA opened with 1-0 win over China and will continue pool play against New Zealand (Friday), Venezuela (Friday), Botswana (yes, really — Saturday), rival Australia (Sunday), Dominican Republic (Monday) and Czech Republic (Monday). Japan and Canada are in the other pool. Live stats at USA Softball.
  • Water polo: Women’s World League Super Final starts Monday in SoCal.
  • More events: Canoe/kayak World Cup, U.S. Rowing championships.

MORE MYRIAD

  • USA Track and Field Championships: Webcasting when not on TV.
  • World Series of Poker: How to follow.
  • College World Series (NCAA baseball): UCLA, TCU, South Carolina and Clemson remaining. ESPN/2/3 splitting coverage.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Plenty of Wimbledon matches, Australian Rules football and poker, plus World Cup and college baseball simulcasts.
  • Tennis Channel: Wimbledon analysis and classic matches.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball and triathlon.
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mma, soccer

The single-sport future

Posted on by Beau Dure

A few days ago, I set up a second Twitter feed at @duresportmma.

That’s not something I plan to do often. You won’t see @duresportchess, @duresportbiathlon or @duresportmodernpentathlon. I just sensed that, despite a rush of interest from some MMA buddies in the World Cup, I had little overlap between MMA followers and those who know me mostly from soccer.

Splitting my Twitter audience doesn’t mean I’m giving up on the notion of a multisport blog here at Sports Myriad. If I were going all out for high traffic, I’d probably pick a focus. Frankly, it’d most likely be MMA — even with the glut of MMA blogs out there, many of whom get the same access to athletes that I get with my USA TODAY cred, I still get the highest traffic here for my MMA content. The recaps of The Ultimate Fighter outdraw everything by several multiples. The link from USA TODAY helps, but it’s also search traffic — the same search traffic I’m hoping to get for other sports when I really get moving on Olympic sports.

It wasn’t just that I was getting unfollowed when I posted about MMA, though that happened quite a bit. (Yes, a couple of them are fellow journalists.) I was also trying to reach an MMA audience that had little interest in other sports.

Anecdotally, I find MMA fans tend to ignore other sports unless they’re closely related on the sports family tree. Many follow wrestling, especially with college wrestling slowly turning into MMA’s amateur ranks, and quite a few maintain a healthy respect for boxing.

That’s not too surprising. MMA offers a different experience than other sports, and it’s selling itself as an alternative lifestyle. It’s a postmodern hybrid of traditional martial arts self-reliance and “action” sports’ self-expression. For some reason, those attitudes manifest themselves in expensive, ornate T-shirts.

But MMA fans aren’t the only ones who tend to sequester themselves with a single sport. Soccer fans are getting that way as well.

That’s also not too surprising, given the newfound capability for soccer fans to immerse themselves in their sport year-round. Two soccer-specific channels keep the games flowing constantly. European clubs barely take a break between the end of the season and preseason friendlies in the USA.

And so we have a paradox. Given unlimited choice, with practically every sport in the world streamed somewhere, are we really going to focus on just one sport?

2
cycling, mind games, mma, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, tennis

Friday Myriad: World Cup by day, MMA by night

Posted on by Beau Dure

Going back to the chronological look at the weekend, after some …

HEADLINES

Rugby: NBC and Universal Sports will show the 2011 and 2015 World Cups. Huge step forward for the sport in this country. And the UK media will surely appreciate having another sport in which they can do stories about American ignorance — the soccer-ignorance stories are turning into more of a challenge these days.

Chess: Searching for Bobby Fischer is a terrific film. Exhuming Bobby Fischer merely prolongs the sad demise of a troubled genius. If you want a happier story, check this piece from the NYTimes‘ excellent chess blog on the post-chess careers of several phenoms who decided not to stick with it.

Poker: David Baker emerged from a final table that included Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and Erik Seidel to win the 2-7 Draw Lowball world title. Sammy Farha took an Omaha world title. The limit hold-em world title will be decided by the time we all wake up to watch soccer Friday morning.

MMA: A few days after competing in USA Wrestling’s team trials for the upcoming world championships, 2008 Olympic wrestler Ben Askren went back to MMA and won Bellator’s welterweight tournament over veteran Dan Hornbuckle. (MMA Fighting Stances)

Soccer: World Cup are also on ESPN Deportes, Univision and ESPN3.com. DirecTV also has countless broadcasts and re-broadcasts in several languages.

FRIDAY

7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Germany-Serbia. Germany routed hapless Australia 4-0 in their opener; Serbia lost 1-0 to Ghana and may need a miracle here or some help from Australia tomorrow. ESPN

*** 10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, USA-Slovenia. Can the U.S. men win a game they really should win? One that would go a long way toward seeing them through to the next round? Will soccer fans across the country collectively lose it? ESPN ***

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, England-Algeria. The other two teams in the U.S. group are in action. Broadcast bumped from ESPN by U.S. Open golf. ESPN2

7 p.m. (highlights): Cycling, Tour de Suisse, seventh stage. The story so far: Fabian Cancellara showed his Swiss pride after learning of Switzerland’s staggering upset over Spain, but he abruptly fell out of contention in Thursday’s mountain stage (Velo News coverage). Lance Armstrong, gearing up for France (the Tour, not the underachieving soccer team), is in seventh place overall after a good showing Thursday. The race finishes with a time trial Sunday. Versus

SATURDAY

7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Netherlands-Japan. Numbers wizards Nate Silver now has the Dutch as the second favorite in the tournament after Brazil. Japan also has three points from its first game. ESPN

10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Ghana-Australia. No pressure or anything, but Ghana looks very much like the African team most likely to do something in this tournament. ESPN

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Cameroon-Denmark. This was an odd pick for network TV. ABC

2:30 p.m.: Rugby, Churchill Cup final, England Saxons (their B-team) vs. Canada, in Red Bull Arena. Universal Sports

5:15 p.m.: Rugby, Churchill Cup third place, USA vs. France B. Universal Sports

** 9 p.m.: MMA, The Ultimate Fighter season finale. Court McGee faces Kris McCray in the tournament final. The non-tournament co-main event has two intriguing light heavyweights who aren’t quite in contention: Matt Hamill, a deaf fighter whose rise is chronicled in a long-delayed film, and Keith Jardine, whose fighting stance suggests a drunk swatting away flies. But the most-anticipated fight might be Jamie “Crabman” Yager vs. Rich Attonito, who won a hotly contested race to oppose the brash loudmouth who has shown a tendency not to back up his words. The card also has reliably entertaining fighters Chris Leben (vs. Aaron Simpson) and Spencer “The King” Fisher (vs. Dennis Siver). Spike **

10 p.m.: Boxing, Super Six super middleweight tournament, Andre Ward vs. Allan Green. Check the USA TODAY preview. Ward is 1-0 in the tournament; Green replaced Jermain Taylor. Showtime

SUNDAY

7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Slovakia-Paraguay. Each team drew its first game, though those games have been erased from my memory. Might still have nightmares about them. ESPN

10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Italy-New Zealand. Might ask the family if there’s anything else we can do. ESPN

** 2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Brazil-Ivory Coast. Ahhhhhh. Actual soccer might be played in this one. ABC **

4 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Virginia Beach men’s final. Universal Sports

5 p.m. (same-day delay): Cycling, Tour de Suisse, final stage (time trial). Versus

9 p.m.: MMA, WEC returns with a lightweight main event between former champion Jamie Varner and up-and-coming fighter Kamal Shalorus, who has had an interesting journey from a small town in Iran to an international wrestling career for Britain to mixed martial arts. The card also has two bantamweights with gaudy records — Josh Grispi vs. LC Davis. Versus

OLYMPIC SPORTS

  • Modern pentathlon: Margaux Isaksen and Will Brady are in the World Cup Final.
  • Volleyball: The U.S. men beat Finland twice in World League play last weekend to get their record up to 2-2. Egypt visits this weekend in the Charlotte suburb of Concord, N.C.
  • Track and field: Basically an off week before the USA Championships.
  • More events: Canoe/kayak World Cup, badminton N.Y. Open

MISC

  • World Series of Poker: The most intriguing event of the weekend is the heads-up no-limit hold-em world championship, which starts with 256 and runs like a slow-moving basketball bracket. How to follow.
  • College World Series (NCAA baseball): ESPN, Saturday and Sunday.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America. (OK, it’s all World Cup right now.)
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • Tennis Channel: WTA Eastbourne, with Friday semis and Saturday final. Nothing Sunday; Wimbledon starts Monday.
  • Universal Sports: Swimming (Santa Clara Invitational) is on TV and online.
  • Cycling.TV: Live audio and highlights from Tour de Suisse

And for the final word on South African history this weekend, we check in with Little Steven. And Bono. And Pat Benatar. And Bob Dylan.

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mma, olympic sports, rugby, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: USA-England II, Liddell-Franklin I, Track-Field II

Posted on by Beau Dure

No, we’re not going to forget the rest of the sports world during the big month in South Africa. That said, I’m backing off from the chronological viewing program this week and doing a more basic linking spree. Enjoy.

SOCCER TV NEWS

World Cup: DirecTV has everything in HD, some in 3D and a total of seven languages — English, Spanish, Arabic, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese. (press release)

WPS: The league is getting more pickup from Comcast regional networks. Best off checking your local affiliate for delayed broadcasts; the league site’s schedule just has the live ones.

RUGBY: USA-ENGLAND II

Well, sort of. It’s the USA against the England Saxons, essentially England’s B team, Sunday at the Churchill Cup. That’s one day after that other USA-England game in South Africa.

TRACK AND FIELD

Diamond League raced in Rome on Thursday and will resume Saturday in New York, where 5,000-seat Icahn Stadium is sold out. Universal Sports, 8 p.m. ET

The Rome highlights:

  • Men’s 400: Jeremy Wariner barely held off Angelo Taylor in a thriller, winning in a world-leading 44.73. (Universal Sports video)
  • Men’s long jump: Dwight Phillips with a world-leading 8.42 meters.
  • Women’s high jump: Another duel between the USA’s Chaunte Lowe and Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic, another win for Vlasic on fewer misses.
  • Men’s 100: No Bolt or Gay, so Jamaica’s Asafa Powell just shaved a little bit off his world-leading time. Down to 9.84 seconds.
  • Women’s 400 hurdles: Also a routine world-leader for Lashinda Demus (52.82).
  • Men’s 200: Walter Dix’s 19.86 broke Michael Johnson’s 11-year-old meet record.
  • Men’s shot put: Christian Cantwell’s 14-meet win streak went down to the last throw. Nailed it. 21.67 meters.

Expected in New York (entry list PDF):

  • Women’s pole vault: Silver medalist Jenn Suhr, formerly Jenn Stuczynski, is due back in action after an Achilles injury
  • Men’s 1,500: Bernard Lagat and Lopez Lomong
  • Men’s 400 hurdles: Bershawn Jackson and Kerron Clement
  • Men’s pole vault: Aussie favorite Steve Hooker and U.S. veteran Tim Mack
  • Women’s 1,500: Shannon Rowbury, not just mentioned here because she went to Duke. Also Cristin Wurth-Thomas.
  • Women’s 200: Allyson Felix and Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown
  • Women’s 100 hurdles: Lolo Jones and a lot of people with comparable PBs

OLYMPIC SPORTS (all times ET)

Beach volleyball: Men and women both in Moscow for FIVB action that Universal Sports’ blogger says will draw huge crowds. (Russia’s soccer team, coincidentally, isn’t in the World Cup.) Online at UniversalSports.com: women’s medal matches, 10 a.m. Sunday / men’s medal matches, 9:30 a.m. Monday

Wrestling: The U.S. team for this year’s World Championships is being determined tonight and tomorrow. (USOC; video highlights at themat.com)

Volleyball: Like Frank Zappa and the Mothers, the U.S. women are in Montreux. (USOC)

Figure skating: Sorry, ice dancing fans and infatuated guys on the Web — Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are hanging up the skates.

Triathlon: Hunter Kemper is injured and will miss Hy-Vee Race. (Twitter – @vmichaelis)

TENNIS

Nadal lost, leaving Sam Querrey a nice opportunity to win a title at Queen’s Club. Maria Sharapova is in the women’s semis. Men’s semis and final on Tennis Channel

Former No. 1 Roger Federer is still in at the Gerry Weber Open.

MMA

UFC 115: We have Chuck Liddell–Rich Franklin, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic-Pat Barry, Martin Kampmann-Paulo Thiago and a host of others heading into a very busy stretch of fights. And yes, I was busy writing all that with Sergio Non this week.

Bellator: Pat Curran is the Season 2 lightweight champion in a decision Sergio didn’t like. On Thursday, it’s the welterweight tournament finale between Dan Hornbuckle and Ben Askren, the 2008 Olympic wrestler who has a very quick turnaround from attempting to make the Olympic wrestling team today (see above). The good news is that Askren was wrestling at 163 pounds and will fight at 170, so he shouldn’t worry about making weight.

WORLD SERIES OF POKER

World Championships: Frank Cassela took the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Name This *&*$ing Event So We Don’t Have to Type All That Stuff title on Tuesday, beating notables such as Jennifer Harman (third) and John Juanda (fifth).

The 2-7 Draw Lowball championship is down a final table that includes Juanda, Erik Seidel and Daniel Negreanu. Check the official updates or get Negreanu’s colorful first-hand Tweets about the event and whatever else springs to mind.

The Ladies event is underway, though a few men have elbowed their way to the tables. Shaun Deeb said he was doing it for charity after losing a bet, which we wouldn’t believe except that they are indeed in Vegas. Duke grad Vanessa Rousso is already out, so we’re rooting for chess GM and SportsMyriad interviewee Jennifer Shahade. Shannon Elizabeth has a healthy chip stack at the moment.

Back in the a.m. for World Cup Virtual Viewing.

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