What's going on Tailgaters, what a weekend it was in the world of sports this weekend. From Thursday to Sunday was just a great, action packed weekend. From an 18 year old from Manchester, lighting the world on fire, to Bellator putting on its best show since Alvarez-Chandler, UFC welcoming Anderson Silva back with a London and a baby-face Steph Curry dropping a 32 foot bomb to win at OKC. Terence "Bud" Crawford, Leo Santa Cruz, and Carl Frampton put Boxing back on the world map this past weekend as well.
Lets get started with Thursday, I was privilaged to watch Man United right their wrong in Denmark by destroying Midjtylland 5-1 on the night in their 2nd leg of the Europa League round of 32 and 6-3 aggregate score. The world was introduced to an 18 year old by the name of Marcus Rashford who scored twice on his senior debut for the Red Devils. Also scoring in the match was Memphis Depay, and Ander Herrera. It was a great night for me!!! The Reds went marching ON ON ON!!!
I also watched a little bit of the NBA before crashing out for the night.
On to Friday, it was a bit of a slow day, a production meeting and lunch, I settled in and watched the NFL combine where I was just blown away by the athleticism of Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry as he had a vertical leap of 37.5", a 40 time of 4.57 and measured close to 6'3" and 247 pounds... the same thing that Von Miller performed, leaped and measured at the 2011 combine. Ezekiel Elliott had a great day as well, but the guy I really was impressed by was the performance of Keith Marshall, who according to the official combine results ran a 4.31 and a 4.34 40. Whats more impressive, he's coming off ACL surgery and various foot and ankle ailments over the past two years.
Later in the day, I got my Friday night off to a pretty good start, I watched my Bulls get beat down by the Hawks, but the highlight of the night was the Bellator card. I was not going to watch the fights at all but I just wanted to see what kind of crap was go on. Instead, I was pleasantly impressed especially by Chieck Kongo who won his fight and Kendall Grove, who fought in his last Bellator fight before free agency. It was a real solid night of fights.
Saturday started off with a bang, I got up fairly early so I could watch Leicester City play and get a Juan Ulloa late goal to go five points clear in the Barclays Premier League table. Then I settled in and watched the combine and today the QB's, wide recievers and tight ends took stage and there were some standouts among the recievers as the TCU duo Kolby Listenbee and Josh Doctson lit it up with their hands and speed. Listenbee had a blistering 4.32 40 while Doctson ran a 4.62. Other recievers that impressed were Oklahoma's Sterling Shepard, Ohio State's Braxton Miller, Auburn's D'aquille "Duke" Williams, and Ole Miss duo Cody Core and Lequon Treadwell.
My focus was the QBs for sure. North Dakota State's Carson Wentz, by far stole the show as he made some great throws and showed great touch. Michigan State's Connor Cook, had a good day as well, as did Wisconsin's Joel Stave and USC's Cody Kessler may have helped his stock. As for other QBs, Christian Hackenberg and Paxton Lynch may have thrown themselves out of the first two rounds of the draft. Cardale Jones could not throw after straining a hamstring running the 40.
Later in the day, I was privilaged to watch the return of Anderson Silva to the UFC octagon against Miichael Bisping, unfortunately "The Spider" was beaten by the "The Count" but not without controversy, at the end of the 3rd round as the horn sounded Silva connected with a knee that crumpled Bisping to the ground, seemingly knocking him out. The referee in the bout ruled that the knee landed after the round. When replays showed it didnt. Bisping went to dominate the last two rounds and consequently the win. Big wins also for Gegard Mousassi and Brad Pickett also highlight this rather impressive card. The big question is does this vault Michael Bisping into a title match against the winner of Rockhold-Weidman 2? I think so....
Before the Silva-Bisping fight took place, I had the rare opportunity to see two of the best british fighters in the past 5 years fight in a title unification fight. Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg are two of the best 126 pound fighters in the World right now and were both world champions going in to this fight. This fight did not disappoint as Carl Frampton unified unified the WBA and IBF super bantamweight championships by unanimous decision, what made this fight interesting is the fact Scott Quigg fought the last seven, yes I said seven rounds with a broken jaw. This win could set up a super fight with Leo Santa Cruz, possibly at 130, provided Leo held up his end of the bargain... to be continued.
Later Saturday night, I was switching back and forth between COPS (yes, people still watch COPS!) and the Warriors-Thunder game. Steph, Klay and Dray are showing the NBA that they are the true BIG 3, but to end that game in Overtime the way Steph did, further lets me know that the Warriors will go back-to-back... enough said about that.
The Main Event of Saturday was the HBO boxing doubleheader featuring Terence "Bud" Crawford and Showtime Championship Boxing featuring the aforementioned Leo Santa Cruz. Leo Santa Cruz made short work of Abner Mares on Showtime in what could be a fight of the year. It was action-packed and for the 5 rounds it went....with the win, its has set up a possible July fight at 130 for Santa Cruz and 126 pound kingpin Carl Frampton, possibly in Belfast, Frampton's hometown.
Meanwhile, on HBO, Terence Crawford cemented his status as a fighter worthy of the big fight, hes ready for the big time after beating Hank Lundy by 6th round TKO. Crawford is a fighter who has asked for the big fight against Pacquiao and could be the type of fighter to possibly goad the "retired" Floyd Mayweather out into one last go around. Some big fights could be on the horizon, some at 140, others at 147 and would not surprise me for him to go to 154, that's another story for another blog.
Sunday morning, I woke up to the birds chirping... and my cat's meowing, just in time to watch Man United play Arsenal. This game has lost its luster in the last few years, but I really dont like Arsenal. Much like Thursday it was the Marcus Rachford show as he scored two goals and set up the third, a Ander Herrera strike all but cemented the match but goals from Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil made the game close but my Red Devils won 3-2.
After the Man United win, I watched the Chicago Blackhawks play and beat the Washington Capitals while switching back and forth to the NASCAR race, which was won by six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson. The win was actually bittersweet because he tied with the Intimidator on the wins list with 76, congrats to "Six Time".
Overall, it was a solid weekend of sports and the amount of time watching sports is abundant, but we cannot over look the value of family. Hold the people you love close and the people who mean the most closer.
This weekend on the Tailgate Crew, we will project the NCAA tournament field with guest Audrey Gunther, talk about free agency as the NFL free agency period has begun and Spring Football. Let's Go Tailgatin'!!!
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