Fractured Nut

Men everywhere can sympathize…Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder got hit by a pitch in the groin (video below) and fractured a testicle. He is on the 15-day disabled list, although it seems to me it should take a lot longer than 15 days to recover from a fastball to the jewels.  

Quick Thoughts on the Pacquiao – Diaz Fight

The Pacman has always been impressive, but last night he took it to a new level in my eyes. I don’t care what anyone says, David Diaz is no slouch, he’s tough as hell, and he’s bigger and stronger than most of the fighters Manny has previously faced.

Pacquiao’s performance can be summed up in three words, speed, speed, and speed. His speed was just incredible. Really, the whole package was incredible. Manny has it all, blazing speed, power, great footwork and head movement, and pretty much anything else you need to be a world class boxer. The Pacman is one of the elites in boxing to be sure, maybe one of the best ever, and on top of it he’s a classy guy too.

Diaz has nothing to be ashamed of either. Even though he was totally out-classed as far as skill goes, he showed tremendous heart to take that kind of beating and frustration and still keep coming. The guy has no quit in him, period.

 Overall, I’d say it was a very entertaining, though one-sided fight. Normally, fights this one-sided are not very entertaining, but Manny’s performance was just so impressive, it didn’t matter.

My Thoughts On The Ultimate Fighter Finale

Here are my initial thoughts on the TUF Finale, in no particular order.

Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti – Diego’s standup has obviously improved tremendously. But there were elements of Fioravanti’s game that impressed me–His takedown defense and scrambles were great, but he needed to be way more aggressive in the striking department…Easier said than done when you are fighting someone like The Nightmare.

Marvin Eastman vs. Drew McFedries – Poor Marvin, lol. It was over before it started.

Amir Sadollah vs CB Dollaway – I do think CB tapped. I think what probably happened is that he instictively started to tap, and then caught himself. I don’t remember exactly what Forrest said about C.B. during the show, something along the lines of him being too arrogant or cocky. Whatever it was I tend to agree, he seems a little too impressed with himself or somethig and it just rubs me the wrong way. So I didn’t really feel too bad for him and how the fight turned out. That’s not to say of course that it wasn’t a disappointing fight, it was, and anyway, I could be wrong about CB, he might be the nicest guy in the world for all I know.

Dante Rivera vs. Matthew Riddle - Gritty performance by both fighters I thought, but Matt was physically too much for Rivera. I think Riddle has the potential to become a great fighter, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds for him.

Spencer Fisher vs Jeremy Stephens - Great fight. Like Joe Rogan said, these guys are both animals! It was almost a shame there had to be a loser in this one. Equally impressive was Kevin James choking out Rampage and then savagely continuing to drop elbows after Rampage was already asleep.

I don’t know if I saw all the televised fights or not, as my recording was messed up. It seems like I did miss a couple though and I haven’t checked what other blogs are saying about the event, because I don’t like spoilers. If I did miss some, I will catch them and update this post. From what I did see though, I would have to say that overall it wasn’t a very impressive event. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. 

The Ultimate Fighter Finale Tonight

I’m super busy and barely have time to post, but I wanted to say that that the Ultimate Fighter Finale is on tonight and actually looks to be pretty good. There’s a lot of talent on the card, including Dean Lister, Diego Sanchez, Jeremy Horn, and many others. Hopefully I will have some more time, and post my thoughts on the fights afterwards.