Category: Sports

https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2024/12/13/we-need-to-talk-about-caitlin-clarks-white-privilege-comments-n2183181… This was an interesting take on Clark statements about white privilege and what makes more interesting is that Washinton Mystic owner demanded the entire league should be honored. Clark essentially gave the WNBA what they wanted, a bend of her knee and her reward was an owner who runs one of the worst team in the WNBA bitching she won the sports woman of the year.

the deal Clarks essentially gave the WNBA a second chance to be relevant as a major league. Without the NBA, there is no WNBA and without Clark, no one would even care about the WNBA. Her impact on college is still there as Iowa women still sell out and Lucy Olsen transfer to Iowa for her last year because it presented her an opportunity to be part of a developing elite program. She made college women basketball something worth watching. Mystic owner should knee to Clark and say thank you since a third of her attendance occurred when the Fevers showed up. The other times no one even cared about the Mystic. When the Fevers were in the playoffs, they averaged more than double what the rest of the teams did. The WNBA championship was seen by half of the audience compared to Fever short playoff run. Clark is the reason why people even cared about the WNBA, and she allowed fans to see other stars. Sabrina Ionescu did appear in NBA three shots competition in a face to face with Curry but beyond that I doubt most fans including many basketball fans could name a WNBA player. Clark took a franchise that averaged 4,000 fans to sell outs this past season and now Indiana Fever moved to upper half of franchise worth and without Clark, WNBA doesn’t even expand. So, Clark next year helped create 12 new jobs.

WNBA is at a fork in the road, where they can move to becoming a major league or be back into irrelevancy. Right now, they are pursing the latter. WNBA has a super star that can lead the league into the next level where they can even make money without subsidies from the NBA. Clark lifted an entire league on her shoulder and made this past summer, WNBA something to actually care about. NBA has seen its own ratings drop and they have their own issues, and WNBA may lose their main support. That will mean Clark takes her talent overseas and no one will even see a professional American woman basketball player and how many will even care when the next Olympics come about women basketball. Without Clark, no one would even know who the other players were or care.

 As it was US women Olympic team messed up when they didn’t include Clark but then most sports fans had some familiarity since they already competed against Clark. Clark can save the WNBA and unrivaled 3 on 3 wanted Clark so badly they were offering some big money because they knew if Clark played, they make bigger money and higher ratings. WNBA needs Clark more than Clark needs them. For Clark, the WNBA allows her to show the world she is one of the best women players but for the WNBA, she is the different if they succeed or simply fade away.

Now on an interesting news on why sometimes boxing shoots itself in the foot.  I wrote recently about MMA vs Boxing, “Another advantage is that UFC is the premier mixed martial arts division and if you are the UFC champion, you are the champion whereas WBO, IBF, WBA, and WBC have their own champions and we have can have as many as 68 champions and I doubt the top boxing writers could list who is champion in each of these sanctioning body. .Dana White of UFC has proved to be superior in promoting his sport than the main promoters of boxing who seem to think of the next big fight but not beyond that.” We just had a competitive great fight between the two best heavyweights, and we crowned an undisputed heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk as he defeated Tyson Fury.  IBF has decided in their wisdom to strip Usyk if he chooses to fight Fury in a rematch.  While I understand that Croatia Filip Hrgovic wants his shot at a heavyweight title but there are two realities, the first is that Usyk and Fury are the two best heavyweight and two, it is the best money-making fight and the one fight that fans want to see. 

Hrgovic is looking to fight British fighter Daniel Dubois June 1^st in  Saudi Arabia and IBF is considering making this as a possible IBF championship fight.  This is why Boxing is losing to MMA, because Dana White would not allow an undisputed champion to lose a championship belt if he chooses a rematch in the UFC.  White would even promote the fight if the fight stood to make money. Here is the kicker, the winner gets to fight Anthony Joshua, who already lost twice to Usyk.   Let take one more thing, Usyk at the age oof 37 has little time to make big bucks plus his country in a fight for its survival so maybe the IBF can wait until after the rematch.  IBF may be excited about a Hrgovic-Dubois fight, but the rest of the boxing world wants a Fury-Usyk battle. IBF shows why boxing fans get frustrated with boxing.  You had a great fight, and fans are now hungry for more, but you have a sanctioning body that decides that maybe we need yet another champion. 

Usyk has been suspended fighting in Great Britain from British Boxing commission until June 2nd, even though no one is certain why but suspected it was due to injuries from his victory over Fury.  My own view is that this is nothing burger and not even worth the effort to do since any rematch will be long after that date and somehow I don’t believe that British isle will get the fight. 

Ryan Garcia story keeps getting worse putting in question his victory over Devin Haney.  He flunked his second drug test and while he still denies he used anything illegal or he has ever had a history in the past, there are no questions he acted erratic. He chugged a beer at weight in, came in three pounds overweight and leaving people wondering what was going on.. Garica was considered the heavier puncher and showed that as he knocked down Haney three times but how much was that power natural power or due to performance enhancing drugs?  It will be interesting to see what state commissions and sanctioning bodies will do?  The possibility of a suspension has to be considered and certainly his victory over Haney needs to be vacated if not reversed. 

Garcia viewed Haney as that fight that would change perception but coming in overweight denied him a shot of winning a championship outright and now the PED controversy now puts even his biggest moment in boxing in jeopardy. 

Boxing was once part of American landscape as big boxing matches competed with Baseball, Football and even basketball for the attention of American sports fans.  Muhammad Ali could sell more newspapers than the Boston Celtics in the mid 1960’s till near the end of the 1970’s.  Today Boxing is a second-tier sport, relegated to rarely mention on most sports network.  There are times that ESPN won’t even cover their boxing matches they broadcast, and they are probably the last cable network that televises boxing as most boxing is going the way of streaming and even Showtime last year said adios to boxing.

MMA has challenged boxing as the leading combat sports and for many fans, surpassed it. There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that MMA has done a better job of marketing its sports than boxing.  Buffalo Wild Wings in Cedar Rapids Iowa will feature  the UFC pay for view and when they do, they fill the bar/restaurant, and I can’t even remember the last time they ever did a boxing match PPV. 

Depending what data you use to judge popularity, there is no doubt there are data that shows that MMA is becoming more popular.  Most popular PPV event was Mayweather versus Pacquiao which drew nearly 5 million buys but that was in 2015 and while many boxing PPV appears to do was well as many MMA events, there are other ways to view the popularity of a sport in today’s world.

In social media and in google trends shows that there is more interest in the MMA.  During 2021 UFC had a TV global reach of 259 million which placed it ninth and just below the NFL and NBA.

1. Tokyo Olympics 2020 — 1.47 billion
2. UEFA EURO 2020 — 741 million
3. UCL — 530 million
4. ONE Championship — 406 million
5. F1 — 368 million
6. Bundesliga — 345 million
7. NFL — 338 million
8. NBA — 307 million
9. UFC — 259 million
10. EPL — 251 million

When it came to social media video views just as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Tik, UFC ranked fifth among major sporing

1. NBA — 14.55 billion views
2. ONE Championship — 13.84 billion views
3. UEFA Champions League — 10.10 billion views
4. NFL — 7.74 billion views
5. UFC — 6.64 billion views
6. F1 — 5.50 billion views
7. MLB — 3.79 billion views
8. EPL — 3.03 billion views
9. UEFA EURO 2020 — 2.25 billion views
10. MotoGP — 1.91 billion views

*Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok

Blacks have the most interest in the combat sports including boxing and MMA followed by Hispanics

1. Black: 52%
2. Hispanic: 50%
3. Other: 37%
4. White: 30%

In a 2023 study with over 2,000 respondents, the middle age group 35 to 44 showed the most interest in combat sports including UFC with the 18-34 following close behind.  In another study, the mixed martial arts targeted audience representing millennials made up the majority of fanbase with 41%. This represents a growing audience in the future. 

Money is variable in both MMA and boxing and is dependent on factors including popularity, sponsors, and the match up.  Boxers have the opportunity to earn more, but overall MMA fighters have a better average income.

The UFC payout scheme means a fighter can earn between 10,000 and 3,000.00 dollars and there is additional bonus like fight of the night  which can net fighters 50,000 dollars and there is extra money from sponsors. For many boxers, they start out with 200 to 1,000 dollars per fight and for many young fighters, their first ten fights will net little but on the other hand, Floyd Mayweather received millions of dollars in payouts and Canelo Alveraz is another who gets a nice pay out when he fights. 

In boxing, the average income is between 35 to 40,000 and the average UFC fighter can earn close to 150,000.  Boxing professional are paid per fight with the manager negotiating money and arranging opponents.  Many boxers can even earn only 200 dollars per fight, and many have other jobs, plus any injures in boxing impacts their ability to earn income.

Those at the top of the boxing world, the earnings can astronomical, and one example Floyd Mayweather took 150 million dollars when he fought Manny Pacquiao and Manny got a cool 100 million dollars and others on the card made considerably less. Boxers contribute to  their insurance, travel and training plus their trainers get a percentage of their income and a boxing manager in Nevada may obtain 33 percent of the take.  

Take the case of Andy Ruiz who earned 7 million dollars when he defeated Anthony Joshua and earned 10 million dollars in the rematch. Here is the rest of story, the fight before he defeated Joshua, Ruiz earned 200,000 dollars!

Here are ten of the top boxers earning:

1. Floyd Mayweather 1.1 billion
2. George Foreman 300 million
3. Oscar De Lay Hoya 200 million
4. Manny Pacquiao 200 million
5. Lennox Lewis 135 million
6. Sugar Ray Leonard 120 million
7. Vitali Klitschko 65 million
8. Anthony Joshua 65 million
9. Muhammad Ali 50 million
10. Marvin Hager 45 million

Here are ten of the top MMA fighters

1. Conor McGregor 15,082,000
2. Alistair Overeem 9,569, 500
3. Khabib Nurmagomedov 8,680,000
4. Anderson Silva 8,112,000
5. Michael 7,135,000
6. George St. Pierre 7,037,000
7. Jon Jones 7,025,000
8. Mark Hunt 6,304, 000
9. Donald Cerrone 6,155,000
10. Junior Dos Santos 5,970,000

As mentioned, UFC fighters earn money during fights including bonus for fight of the Night, performance of the night, sponsors just as Reebok add money to the fighters pocket as they wear the sponsors equipment and get a payout from them.  UFC fighters sign a contract for x amounts of fights and pay a fixed amount for every fight they participate inside the Octagon. UFC helps with training expenses.

If you compare the top earnings from the top boxers to their MMA counterpart, they earn far more but the average MMA fighter is earning more than their boxing counterpart and there is less of gap between the top fighters and those below them in the MMA than in boxing. 

Which leaves for combat fighters choices and why MMA is becoming more attractive.  If you are wrestler, martial artist or like Holly Holm, a boxer, MMA can match your skills and you can add the others.  A wrestler can learn to box or kick, a martial artist can learn to grapple unless he or she also has judo or other ground techniques, and a boxer can learn to kick and grapple like Holm.  So, MMA is designed for athlete with multiple combat skills and the pay may be better.  So, boxing may have a money problem where young boxers may go poor before they become good. 

Another aspect was that UFC continued to have programs during Covid while many boxing events were canceled so that MMA made a lot of ground and with ESPN support, UFC has a major network backing it.  Boxing has a few fights on ESPN but for the most part you have to have streaming services like DAZN to watch matches and many bouts are now PPV, but boxing needs more exposure. 

Can Boxing rebuild itself within a new generation?  My own suggestion begins with boxing promoters ensuring that young fighters not only have good coaching but help income that will mean some of the elites fighter give up some of their income for the better good to help build the next generation.  Another advantage is that UFC is the premier mixed martial arts division and if you are the UFC champion, you are the champion whereas WBO, IBF, WBA, and WBC have their own champions and we have can have as many as 68 champions and I doubt the top boxing writers could list who is champion in each of these sanctioning body. 

Dana White of UFC has proved to be superior in promoting his sport than the main promoters of boxing who seem to think of the next big fight but not beyond that.   

Footnotes

MMA vs Boxing – Which is More Popular? Simple Analysis – MMA Channel

UFC Vs Boxing Money: Who Does Earn More? (wayofmartialarts.com)

UFC Viewership Statistics: TV, Social & Audiences (mmahive.com)

Vasiliy Lomachenko faced Australian George Kambosos, Jr. for the IBF lightweight title, and this promised to be an interesting fight as both fighters were looking not just for a title but also a loss could hurt the loser if not end his career as championship contenders.

Lomachenko won the first two rounds as Lomachenko landed Kambosos 18 punches to 5 and controlled the ring and I had Lomachenko ahead 20-18.  In the third round Kambosos landed 8 punches for his best round, but his opponent landed 14 punches and as ESPN announcers Tim Bradley noted as the fourth round progressed, Lomachenko has downloaded his opponent weakness and he simply avoided Kambosos punches while accurately landing 21 punches to only one for Kambosos and after the round, it was 40 to 36 for Lomachenko who is looking as sharp as I seen in a while.

The fifth round was the same as the other rounds as Lomachenko simply landed at will and Kambosos couldn’t even land a punch. Lomachenko landed 41 punches and Kambosos only three in the fourth and fifth round.

The sixth round, Kambosos became more aggressive but unfortunately as he moved forward, he got counter by Lomachenko who landed 19 punches to Kambosos 7, and halfway through the fight 60-54, an easy fight to score.

The seventh-round saw Lomachenko dominate the round with slick boxing, sharp accurate punches and Kambosos was missing when he threw.  Kambosos threw a punch only to find Lomachenko was no longer there.  Lomachenko cut Kambosos’ right eye and now Kambosos was becoming more desperate and after nine rounds, 90-81 since I had not found a round to give Kambosos.

The tenth round saw Lomachenko repeat what he did for the previous nine rounds.  His boxing was masterful, and he moved with fluidity as he maneuver Kambosos into position and bloodied up Kambosos’ face.  With two rounds left, Lomachenko was up on my scorecard 100-90.  In the eleventh round, Lomachenko went to the body and sent Kambosos down for the count with a vicious straight hand to Kambosos’ face.  Kambosos got back up, but it was obvious that Kambosos had little left and Lomachenko attacked Kambosos with two nasty body shots that sent Kambosos down for the count.

Lomachenko spent the past year fighting Russians in his native Ukraine and he came back strongly.  He started fast and you would not known that Lomachenko was 36 years old and had spent a year in combat.  From the opening bell to the very end, he moved and boxed brilliantly, giving Kambosos little chance to hit while taking advantage of any hole in Kambosos’ defense.

This is what domination looks like.  Lomachenko landed 175 punches to Kambosos 40, that means for every punch Kambosos landed, Lomachenko landed 4. Lomachenko landed 70 jabs to only 4 for Kambosos and Lomachenko landed 105 power shots  and landed 50 percent of his power shots.  Lomachenko landed three power shots for every one that Kambosos landed.

There was not one round in which Kambosos out landed Lomachenko in punches and Lomachenko averaged 16 punches landed per round compared to Kambosos 4 punches.  That is what domination of a fight looks like.

This was one of Lomachenko best fights and this was as masterful a performance as one could ever expect, an elite fighter showing at the age of 36, that he still has it.

Watching the Royals playing the Angels and I know it is early in the season, but this Royals team looks different, and it begins with pitching.  The Royals are now 8^th overall with a 3.36 ERA, and their starting pitchers have improved with Brady Singer is 3-1 with 2.36 ERA, Cole Ragan is 2-2 with 3.38 ERA, Lugo who they obtained via free agency, is 5-1 with 1.92 ERA.  Alec Marsh is 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA and presently he is on the injured list, but he is due back shortly.  Wacha is only 1-4 with 4.85 but overall, that is a solid starting rotation. Relief pitching has been  spotty in particular in the beginning of the year and so far there have been 5 blown saves.  However, James McArthur has 8 saves, Angel Zerpa has a 1.69 and dependable left hander plus John Schreiber has a 3-0 record out of the bullpen with 1.04 ERA.  Another dependable reliever was Nick Anderson with a 3.29 ERA. Overall, they are third, allowing only  132 runs allowed and 29 homers.  They are better at pitching compared to last year, which last year was a disaster.

As for the offense, it has been essentially Salvy Perez who is hitting .326 with 8 home runs and 32 RBI while Witt is hitting .322 along with scoring  36 runs scored, 5 home runs and 13 stolen bases. Vinnie Pasquantino had a slow start, but he has 5 home runs and coming into this game, hitting .252 but Maikel Garcia has been hot and cold as he started hot but had extended slump but has comeback recently, but the outfield has been disappointment with Melendez at .182, Isabel .217, Renfore .147 and Nelson Velazquez at .207, hardly a killer’s row.

Overall, though, Royals is 8^th with 184 runs, 8^TH with 175 RBI’s  fifth with 42 stolen bases, 5^th in doubles, and even 14^th in home runs at 39 and considering they play in the spacious Kauffman stadium, this is impressive.

The Royals have 18 quality starts, ranking third in the major league and Lugo leads the lead with 8.  And the Royals defense has been an asset as well.  They are second in fielding percentage, second with only 13 errors.  In some ways there are similarities between the 2024 Royals and the 2014-15 edition, with solid defense, good starting pitching and timely hitting and now it appears that the bullpen is coming around. 

Jamie Munguia faced his toughest tough in his 44^th fight against one of the best fighters of this generation, Canelo Alvarez and Munguia would be part of an Alvarez tradition of the Cinco de Mayo weekend where Alvarez was 9-1 with his only lost to undefeated light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.  This was the first time two Mexican fighters fought for an undisputed championship fight. And this was the first super Middleweight championship bout featuring two Mexican born fighters and in fact this was the first world title bout above 160 pounds featuring two Mexican fighters.  So, this weekend history was being made.

Munguia took the center as the crowd was excited.  Munguia jabs to set the range and starts aggressively. Canelo goes to the body with a glancing right while Munguia jab looks fast as he jabs to the body and ties up Alvarez as Alvarez comes forward. Alavarez lands left hooks to the body and then lands a right hand to the other side.  Munguia wants this to be a brawl.

Alvarez in the second round takes the middle of ring but Munguia is letting his punches earlier and landing jabs.  Munguia landing straight punches and forcing Canelo to lean back but Canelo work the body.  The score was 10-9 and 20-18.after two rounds.

Munguia pumping jab and following with right hand plus doubles up on left hook that cracked Canelo midsection.  Both men trade punches and Munguia throwing punches plenty of volume while cutting off the ring as he took the third round. Munguia using great head movement and throws punches in volume at the beginning of the fourth round but Canelo landed hooks to the body with upper cuts and sent Munguia down with a left hook and uppercut in the fourth round.  Alvarez won the fifth round with his body shots and cleaner punching After five rounds, I had it 49-44.

Canelo using left hook to counter Munguia jab and Canelo connected 1-2 and left hook along with body shot in the sixth round and at the halfway mark, Canelo landed 65 power shots and connecting at 47 percent  versus Munguia 42 power shots and only connecting at 30 percent.

Canelo came out firing in the seventh round, as Munguia tried to work his jab.  Munguia landed uppercuts and Alvarez retreated to the rope before he punched his way out of trouble I gave the round to Canelo. In the eighth round was Munguia round as he went to Canelo body and Munguia landed upper cuts but Alvarez jabbing effectively.  After eight rounds 78-73 in favor of the champion.

Canelo was using his jab as Munguia landed a straight right, and even landed big punches but Canelo landed his own power shots.  Munguia landed a volume of punches to take the round after nine rounds it was 87-83.  In the tenth round, Munguia tried to keep Alvarez on the rope, but Canelo stayed close to unleashing his power shots including upper cuts along with body shots.  The score in my view was 97 -92 with two rounds left. 

Round eleventh saw Munguia picking up the pace, but it didn’t stop Alvarez from scoring as he moved backward but as both fighters exchanged punches over the last thirty seconds and Munguia ended the round with a left hook.  With one more round, 106-102.

As the final round began, Munguia charged ahead as he figured he was behind on the cards, and he wasn’t wrong.  Canelo landed a pair of hooks and Munguia missed against Alvarez tight defense. Munguia missed shots and lost the decision, 116-111, 117-110, 115-113 and I had it 116-111.

The autonomy of Alvarez victory begins with Alvarez out landing Munguia in total punches 234 to 170 connecting on 44 percent of his punches whereas Munguia only landed 26 percent.  Alvarez out jab Munguia and landed more power punches.  Munguia failed to penetrate Alvarez defense.

Alvarez landed more combinations and when you look at three and four punch combinations, Alvarez landed 32 percent versus 25 percent for Munguia which led to significant differences between the two.

Alvarez was more efficient with his combinations punching and when you add all the data,  Alvarez was more efficient and accurate with his punches  and better at defending against Munguia. 

Munguia chose to fight and not be a punching bag but as he discovered, Alavarez was not easy to hit and could land power shots in return.  Munguia was competitive but while he was a good fighter, Alavarez was an elite fighter. 

As for Alvarez the one fight that everyone wants is David Benavidez but there is also a rematch with Dmitry Bivol and WBA has Edgar Berlanga as a mandatory challenger.  The biggest money makers will be Benavidez or Bivol. Bivol has its own potential fight against Artur Beterbiev, in a battle of undefeated light heavyweight.  Benavidez has been waiting for his shot at Alvarez. 

Like Alvarez, he has shown himself to be one of the best pounds for pound over the past two decades and his only losses were to the  great Floyd Mayweather and Dmitry Bivol.  And he has used the Cinco de Mayo weekend to highlight his greatness.  

Is Caitlin Clark underpaid?  If one looks at her impact on WNBA, you can easily make the case that she is underpaid.  The WNBA attendance averages 7,000 vs 18,000 in the NBA and NBA revenues are 10 billion and WNBA doesn’t even make 100 million in revenues.  NBA viewership during the season is three times the WNBA even though WNBA has seen increases in 2023. 

NBA tickets range from 95 dollars to 600 dollars, and there is fluctuation depending  on the opponents, the average ticket price in WNBA is 47 dollars.  Last year post season, the NBA averaged over 6 million viewers and Miami-Denver finals had almost 12 million whereas WNBA finals peaked at 1.1 million.

Clark impact is being felt just in ticket sales as Indiana Fevers ticket sales have increased and other teams are noticing that there is increase demand for Indiana Fevers games.   New York Liberty have already sold out their game with the Fevers and ticket prices have gone through the roof.  Conservatively speaking, Liberty will see an increase of at least half a million dollars when Clark and her Fevers teammate come to town.   Considering that Clark salary is less than 400,000 dollars for four years, she has already paid off her salary just for this game.   And this is being repeated throughout the league and Nike is already investing in a 28 million dollars contract with Ms. Clark and she has a good year, Nike will make a return on their investments.

Clark means increase ticket sales, increase television ratings and merchandise sales and as we free market types would say, Clark rising tide will lift all boats.  The average WNBA team has 12 players, and the average NBA has 15 players plus two players are considered two-way contracts between their G-League affiliates and the main club.  Increase revenues means that WNBA can not only raise salaries but also increase the number of players.  With only 12 teams in the league, WNBA can end up expanding so the overall number of players getting paid in the United State increases as well. 

Because of Clark, Iowa women team sold out Carver arena in Iowa City and many of Iowa opponents found ticket sales increased as well.  Iowa -South Carolina had 5 million more viewers than the men NCAA finals between Purdue versus Connecticut.   Women college basketball saw tremendous increase in overall ratings and Iowa ratings were often the highest.   Clark could lead to a similar increase in the WNBA.  (The ratings for the 2023 NBA finals averaged 11 million viewers and not one of the final games out drew what Iowa -South Carolina.) Clark already has made more money for the WNBA than they are paying her, and we will see if Clark can lift WNBA in the future. So far the Clark presence is showing its impact.

Holly Holm is the only fighter who has won championships as a boxer and a championship as a Mixed Martial Artist. Her most recent defeat at the hands of Kayla Harrison at the age of 42 showed maybe a fighter who no longer is the great fighter of the past.  Mother time always wins as she lost her recent bout but yet Holm has managed to put together a hall of fame career as a combat fighter.

Holly Holm is the daughter of a pastor and had the nickname, the Preacher Daughter, and her first fight was a knockout win in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2002, the beginning of a combat sport career that extended 22 years to her recent MMA fight, but also includes boxing and kick boxing.

Holm career began in aerobics class at the age of 16 including cardio-kickboxing and her instructor saw talent and began instructing her.  She did amateur kicking boxing before going into a professional boxing career.

As a boxer she was regarded as one of the best female boxers in the welterweight division and won the female boxer of the year in 2005 and 2006 and was a three-time title holder between 140 to 154 pounds.  She won the undisputed super welterweight champion by defeating Mary Jo Sanders in June of 2008. 

Her first title was defeating Terri Blair for the inaugural WIBA junior welterweight in 2004, and from there, she was a regular mixture on the championship fighting.   Her biggest challenge was Anne Sophie Mathis who stopped her in the seventh round for the junior Middleweight division, but she won the rematch by a decision. She had two more championship victories before moving to the MMA.  

She won her first nine MMA fights before facing Ronda Rousey, who was then the queen of the MMA. Rousey had dominated the opponents as no one managed to get out of the first round, but Holm shocked the MMA world and defeated Rousey with knockout. This proved to be her high-water mark as she would lose her title to Misha Tate in her next fight and from there, she would be a contender for titles but never quite get over the top for another title.

However, she proved to be competitive in the UFC, but she won her only title at the age of 34, but her competitive spirit kept her going.  Holm style involved lateral movement, adopted from her boxing days while working jabs.  She waited to counterattack with strikes and combination punches.  Her footwork was her advantage and employed a variety of kicking techniques, hitting the body before striking with high kicks. As a boxer, she was a slick boxer with the majority of her decisions by decision and only nine knockouts.

Now the future is clouded as UFC head Dana White observed that maybe the 42-year-old Holm should consider retirement and certainly she has reached that point of her career where age is eroding those skills. 

Holms has had a great career and is in International boxing hall of fame and her boxing record was 33 wins 2 losses and three draws.  Her MMA record was 15 wins, 7 losses and one no-contest.   And she also did kickboxing as well.   

Holly Holm will go down as one of great female boxers and in her second career as MMA fighter, she was a champion and afterward a consistent contender for another title.  Her victory over Rousey had over 1 million viewers PPV.   No fighter has done what she has done, winning titles in both professional boxing and UFC MMA.  She is the ultimate combat warrior, a champion in a multiples of combat sport. 

Baseball is the one major sport which begins and ends in the same year.  Football, Hockey and Basketball start one year before the championship concludes the following year. NFL starts in September and finishes in February, NBA and Hockey are still going on with a season that began fall of 2023.

Baseball begins spring training at the end of February and ends in the fall of 2024.  This past week, we began the real season (except for Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres who took a two-day trip to Korea to start their season the week before.) 

My team is the Kansas City Royals and like every other team, opening day is the beginning of hope but since the championship days of 2015,  those hopes were dashed by Independence day.  The past year, Royals added pitching and so far starting pitching over the first three games has paid off.  Nineteen innings, 23 K’s including nine strikeouts in the first game by Ragan and 10 Sunday by Brady Singer but the first two games saw lack of hitting and the relief pitching, which was supposed to be better, gave up six runs in the first two games.

Sunday saw a power explosion, as the Royals hit five home runs, fourteen hits and Bobby Witt, Jr. went three for five and missed hitting the cycle when he couldn’t get his double after hitting a single, home run and a triple.   The Royals signed Witt,jr. to a long-term contract and so far, he has given glimpse of the future as a future of a superstar that could surpass that of George Brett, who was one of the great hitters of the 1970’s and 1980’s. 

Witt has improved his fielding from his rookie year and his speed has allowed him to steal forty-nine stolen bases to go with thirty home runs.  This is a rare package, speed and power and will be the linchpin of a future Royals possible championship teams.   After winning only fifty-six games, the Royals revamped pitching staff and in a weak division, who knows what will happen. Hope springs eternal as we have played three games and there 159 more to go.

Baseball, more than any other sports, is played on a daily basis. From now until the playoffs you can watch a baseball game every day and it is a game that shows the ups and down of not just sports but life itself. Salvador Perez came into today game with no hits and walked out with three hits including a home run.  Have a bad game,  well tomorrow is the first day of the rest of the season and you can shake off a bad game and have a good game.

Baseball often is determined by the match up of pitchers and hitters.  Face a tough right hander one day and a cute left hander who depends upon guile as opposed to overwhelming stuff.    It is the sport that begins in the winter as many of us in the Midwest are suffering from hazards of winter and snow, but spring training is that sign that spring is shortly upon us and as the Fall Classic ends, the first breath of winter is upon us, and Fall begins its final curtain.  It is a game of all the seasons.

It is a game of the ages, beginning in the 19^th century, when travel was by train, stage coats and horses and corresponded with America coming of age as a world power, beginning of the automobile, the first flight of the airplanes, to the rocket age and now the computer age.  NBA didn’t truly begin its emergence until after World War II, NFL began in the roaring twenties but didn’t take hold of fans imagination until the 1950’s or more correctly the famous overtime game in which the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in 1958. 

Football today is king of our sporting world, but baseball still remains as millions of fans every year trot to baseball cathedral just like Fenway Park, Wrigley field and Dodger stadium on the West Coast.   New heroes are being produced and memories still made.  I remember watching my first professional baseball game, Washington Senators in old Griffin Stadium.  I was awestruck as I left noticing how the lights lit up the fields and while it was nighttime, on the baseball field itself, it was still daylight.  Washington as they were wrought to do, lost.   Last year, the Texas Rangers won the world series and for the rest of the story, I saw the Rangers play when I was growing  up only they were then the second edition of the Washington Senators.