Looking for a Fight: UFC on Fuel 6

Will you be asleep while people are being put to sleep? (espn.com)

Sleeping in on a Saturday morning has become a bit overrated. Although it's never been a big deal for me. When I was young enough to enjoy television, I'd wake up at 6am, hop out of bed and go watch TV for most of my Saturday morning. I would want to watch this kids game show based around video games. The only thing I can remember about it, is the final "challenge" was running through a fake video game store, grabbing any game you could and velcro-ing it to your body (each kid had a velcro vest they would wear), and in the end I think there was a slide involved. Completely lame, but as a 6 year-old, all I wanted was to be on that show.

By the time I grew into my teenage years, I was never a pro at sleeping in, but at least made an effort to try. I knew that the earlier I woke up, the earlier my dad would send me out to do yard work. So if I was up and moving at 9am; I'd be working alone until like 11am when my brothers would finally get out of bed.

College, of course, was my sleeping in prime on Saturdays. My college was D-III, and all football games started at 11am. I never made it to one. There wasn't much motivation to go in the first place, but then tack on being out til the early morning, probably hung over, and hungry for some diner food, any effort to wake up early and not sleep in would have been a waste of time.

Now, as I age, I'm back to the Saturday mornings where I don't necessarily sleep in, but I'm also compelled to wake up early. This started when I would watch soccer. Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN, and next season NBC Sports Network air live British Premier League matches starting early in the morning - like 7am since it's live from England. So when my team, Arsenal, would be programmed to play, I'd be up early and even set an alarm (! on a Saturday morning) to catch the action.

It is worth noting that due to my work schedule, I was pretty much automatically waking up by 6:30am anyway. And also, the way Arsenal's season is going, my early Saturday mornings might soon be a thing of the past.

So I'd wake up, turn on the game, french press some freshly ground coffee beans and make an omelette and relax. I continue to enjoy this process immensely. When it comes to this Saturday mornings UFC card live from Macao, China there is no question as to if I will be up for the 9am ET live event, as I probably would have been finishing up a pot of coffee and finished updating my fantasy football line-ups by then.

The question remains for those not so morning motivated to interrupt their sleep. In today's day and age, there's DVR and TIVO to make your decision simple. But beyond that, this fight card isn't one to excite nor one that will make it hard to sleep the night before.

In their inaugural trip to China, the UFC hasn't exactly put a lot of fighters with big names potential title contenders on this card. While it's par for the course to trot out countrymen on foreign located cards, so China isn't exactly booming in the realm of actual combat sports.

They've been notably better in the fictional realm of combat sports.

The card not only has no potential #1 contender fights, there isn't a fighter on the entire card that will probably ever be a #1 contender, with the possible exception being Dong Hyun Kim. But again, that'd be a stretch considering how packed 170 has become.

While there are notable fights with fighters looking to call it a career or reestablish themselves as a regular UFC fighter, there aren't even match-ups that in it of themselves seem to portend to an exciting fight.

This aspect is the one I find the most puzzling. To put together an entire card, where obviously you're not going to get a big main event, but to fill it with fighters that don't jump off the page as an exciting fight is something I hardly remember the UFC ever doing. Granted with the end of the year upon us, many of those highlight reel guys already booked in a crazy busy finish to 2012 that might have tied Joe Silva's hands a bit.

Sure Rich Franklin always shows up for a fight, and Cung Le might have some flashy kicks up his iron fists, but it would be shocking if Franklin busted out the Rich Franklin dazed face against Le. In MMA, Franklin's diverse skill set is more than enough to neutralize the smaller Le. Also, a fight like Mac Danzig v Takanori Gomi, I mean, I feel like we've been here a hundred times before with both of these guys.

For my fight pick, I'm opting for the unknown in Thiago Silva v Stanislav Nedkov. Silva was once quite feared in the light heavyweight division before injuries, losses, and submitting something other than human urine for his mandated post fight piss test (which he served a 1-year suspension for) after beating Brandon Vera. Now that Silva is sufficiently humiliated and presumably healthy it'll be interesting to see if he can still rattle some noggins with his punching power.

One guy that certainly can do that is Nedkov. He KO'd Luiz Cane in the first round of his UFC debut, and by all accounts is not a guy to mess around with. The 30 year old is similar to Silva in that they don't bring much grappling to the cage. This is a stand 'em and bang 'em affair, and the best shot we've got for a really exciting fight.

BREAKDOWN

At this point, Silva is hardly the guy anyone remembers as a Top 10 fighter at 205. Winning only 1 of his last 4 fights, along with the suspension doesn't put him in the UFC's favor either. He's going to have to come out swinging to put on a good show and to protect himself from gassing, as he tends to do.

I wish I knew more about Nedkov, but information on him is limited, not only in the UFC, but in Wikipedia. A 7-0 record in Bulgaria doesn't mean much, but it's something; and his impressive win of Cane was a good welcoming card, but there's a lot to get to know about Nedkov. That's why I'll be watching to see what he's got going for him.

Just because I am so down on Silva, I'm going to choose Nedkov 3rd round TKO. Again, I know nothing about his strategy or cardio, but I'd imagine he'll try to resist Silva's opening overture and try to drag him deep into the fight. Unless of course Silva gets careless and clocked.

And if that's not enough to get you to tune in, there will be Chinese ring girls!

Euro 2012: Bring Your Best Racist Chant

One of these players won't be treated like the others. And that's bad for soccer.

You know how I know soccer has racist fans? When the Dutch team gets racially attacked. I mean you have to be pretty racist to go after the Netherlands for being not white enough.

Now, I know...this doesn't reflect all soccer fans, qualifier, qualifier, ok now I'm being politically correct.

The history of racism in soccer is well documented. What happens when you're the world's biggest sport is that you have to include the entire world. It just so happens that some of these pockets on the planet think skin color provides ample grounds for harassment while enjoying a light brew and watching people run around on a pitch kicking a ball.

Motivation is key in these tirades that many in the Eastern European block go down. This isn't just stupid people making cheap jokes, these are neo-NAZI's and white supremacist groups that use soccer matches as pow-wows for their antiquated ideas.

UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, has made minimal efforts to expunge racism from the sport. It's one thing to see stop racism campaigns pre-match before Arsenal and Chelsea play in England. It's another when the UEFA denies the "racist-ness" of chants in Poland and Ukraine. It's always easier to fight the fight you'll win than the one you'll lose. While UEFA feels like it can pull its parlor tricks among Europe, what it is failing to grasp is the catastrophe that is awaiting their sport overseas in the US.

While racism in sports and life is prevalent everywhere, and shouldn't be treated as non-existent by any means, the, shall we say confidence in which these fans could possibly act will not go over well America. There was an incident earlier this year where Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds had a banana thrown at him during a pre-season game in Canada. That received national attention and the fan was found and fined.

Hockey, as minimal as it is on the US sports scene is still established. Much more so than soccer, and with the US the last great divide between soccer and true global sports domination, it's not hard to imagine how many people will be turned off, and frankly disgusted, by the lewd acts potentially perpetrated by the fans during Euro 2012.

ESPN, which has the rights to the Euros, also just so happens to be the biggest distributor of sports news. It's not impossible for them to cover up smaller incidents during a broadcast or while showing highlights to protect its investment and improve the chances of soccer catching on in the US (note: ESPN has been known to pick and choose moments to jump in on stories where there is a gray area between sports and other news, like the Ben Roethlisberger case, but more often then not, when it's warranted they will be a news organization first), but should something so egregious occur, not even ESPN can mute the effect.

UEFA should be taking more strict actions for their sport. While this may be more par for the course in Europe, this won't be accepted in the US. If certain areas can't be trusted to act with civility, then don't give them a world-wide stage to show their flaws. Aside from soccer itself, there's a lot of mess and ugliness that can occur. Hopefully, for every aspect, the better side emerges from this month long tournament.

Thierry Henry's Return

Thierry Henry celebrates in front of his people.

I was going to write about Thierry Henry's return about sports really delivering a moment. Then I saw many people beat me to the punch. I'm glad there was such praise for the moment itself. A historic clubs all-time leading scorer returning to his club only to net the game winning goal after being on the pitch for 15 minutes.

What makes this great, and really what makes being a sports fan so great is when moments like this fulfill expectations. Your thought goes from "Wouldn't it be great if..." to "No he couldn't..." to the rapturous moment of "He did!" Nothing can really rival that feeling as a sports fan. It can happen in every game, but some times it happens on grand stages that are remembered forever.

Henry's return in the FA Cup probably falls somewhere in the middle, but in the game of soccer where there are so few goals scored, so few opportunities to make a difference, for the "over the hill" Henry to return and emphatically mark his return (on loan from MLS' NY Red Bulls) surely gave all the fans watching chills. 

Sadly, my history with Henry is short. I knew of him before I began getting really into European soccer, but no sooner did I proclaim the team I would follow would be Arsenal, they shipped him off to Barcelona. Seemingly ending the greatest career of any Arsenal player ever. For many Gooners, they will have many different memories of Henry that spans any one of his 226 goals, but goal 227 was my first experience. Knowing what I know about the moment, on top of the situation within the game, made it something I will remember as a great example of why I love sports.

Fans don't get to play, they don't earn millions for watching teams day in and day out, but what fans do get in payment are moments like this that make watching sports so worth it.