BOXING - ONE OF THE BIGGEST FIGHTS IN BOXING HISTORY - READ STORY !!!!

LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya knows the media won’t be satisfied if he jabs his way to a clear-cut, but ho-hum, decision over Manny Pacquiao when they meet in the year’s biggest fight on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.
The public, De La Hoya understands, won’t be enthralled by a workmanlike victory over the reigning pound-for-pound kingpin.
But most importantly, De La Hoya himself won’t be satisfied by anything other than a clear, decisive victory. He’s fighting a guy who has spent exactly three-quarters of his career boxing at super bantamweight or lighter.
Logic would dictate thaT a good big man – in this case De La Hoya – should be able to defeat the good smaller man.
But to the Golden Boy, who is fighting the universally recognized pound-for-pound champion for the second time in his last three fights (the last one being his loss to Floyd Mayweather in May, 2007), anything other than a knockout is not good enough.
“I will be extremely, extremely disappointed if this fight doesn’t end in a knockout,” De La Hoya said. “It will be a total disaster for me.”
De La Hoya is just 3-3 in his last six fights and hasn’t won by a knockout in more than eight years, since Feb. 26, 2000, when referee Wayne Kelly counted Derrell Coley out in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Worse, perhaps, is that he’s struggled down the stretch in two of those three losses, against Shane Mosley in 2003 and against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year, unable to win fights that were clearly within his grasp.
De La Hoya wouldn’t say he’s gotten satisfied with coming close, but he said the move down a class, from 154 to 147, as well as a return to Big Bear Lake, Calif., for training camp reminded him of his young and hungry days.
Then, he ralied in the 12th round of a 1999 fight with Ike Quartey, scoring a final-round knockdown to cinch a victory.
“That’s been the motivation, (to get that late-round spark back),” De La Hoya said. “I think the weight triggered that. Going back to Big Bear reignited the fire in my belly. It reminded me that, ‘Hey, this is what you have to do to maintain, and to become that great fighter that you want to be.’ I can picture this fight, and if it’s going to be a tough fight and we’re going to duke it out until the last round, I can see me fighting as hard as I can and not feeling (any) pain.
“That’s why I’m looking forward to this fight so much. I know my abilities, I know the hard work I’ve put into it and I have those memories that Big Bear gave me of my fight with Quartey and different big fights I’ve had in my career. It’s going to be good.”
De La Hoya concedes that he’s squandered opportunities over the last few years and hasn’t taken advantage of his prodigious natural gifts. He’s quick and powerful, but he’s often taken a measured approach to his preparation.
A fight with De La Hoys is the Super Bowl for each of his opponents, and to a man they’ve prepared that way. But De La Hoya hasn’t always been as prepared or as motivated as he’s needed to be and the result has been that he’s performed at a far lower level than he’s capable.
“Not the most,” he said when asked if he’d gotten the most out of his ability in the last five years. “The reason why I keep changing trainers is because I’m looking for that trainer to bring out the best in me. I thought Mayweather (Sr.) could do that, and he was very close. But now having Nacho Beristain, it’s a whole different ballgame. It’s incredible how much of a technician he is and how hard he works you out. I didn’t think I could push myself to those types of limits.”
His business partner, long-time middleweight ruler Bernard Hopkins, expects De La Hoya to knock out Pacquiao in the eighth round because he knows De La Hoya desperately wants to prove a point.
A loss to Pacquiao would be horrific for the Golden Boy, and Hopkins insists De La Hoya knows it. And Hopkins said De La Hoya has heard all the whispers about his decline and that he’s near the end.
That, he said, has gotten De La Hoya more eager to prove a point. It’s not about a possible $40 million payday. It’s not about basking in the glory of a win. It’s about something inside of an athlete, Hopkins said.
“Oscar knows it’s a disaster – a disaster – to lose this fight,” Hopkins said. “It ain’t about the Hall of Fame. It ain’t about, ‘I’ve made millions of dollars.’ It ain’t’ about, ‘I’ve got a pretty wife and kids.’ It ain’t about the great house. Do you understand? This thing comes down to some ego, a little ego, a lot of ego. Pride. Principle. It comes down to something that the average person, even the most studious reporter, can’t grasp why.
“At this stage, we know why (Evander) Holyfield is doing it. We know why most fighters fight: They need the damn money. But this is a situation where it is even more mind-boggling, because he doesn’t need the money. He has big businesses going on. He has a perfect situation. He’s a Hall of Famer without even taking a vote. But you have to understand, it takes a hell of a guy to want to even go through all this again when he has all that.”
Eric Gomez, De La Hoya’s childhood friend and the matchmaker for his Golden Boy Promotions, has seen the impact the wear-and-tear has had on De La Hoya’s body. De La Hoya has spoken of a few injuries over the years publicly, but Gomez said De La Hoya’s body isn’t the same as it was when he was 25 instead of 35.
Hopkins, who at 43 is coming off one of his most impressive wins, said an aging fighter has to train harder and put up with aches that hurt much worse.
De La Hoya, he’s convinced, is not fighting for the money but rather for his legacy. He’s an exceptionally prideful fighter and understands that he hasn’t performed as well as he or a demanding media have expected.
And, as Hopkins pointed out, De La Hoya understands all too well that while the much smaller Pacquiao has little to lose and everything to gain, it’s the opposite for De La Hoya. De La Hoya, he said, is long past the stage where chasing a title or a belt is important. It goes much deeper.
“There are stages you pass in life,” Hopkins said. “You go from learning how to ride a bike to riding a bike to a point where you’re falling off the bike. At that point, it’s not that you become bored with it, but it’s an accomplishment that’s been conquered. Oscar De La Hoya, I believe, is motivated by a lot of things that Pacquiao has never experienced yet.
“He calls me and asks me things and, frankly, I’m shocked I got the damn call,” Hopkins said. “He asked me how I’m able to stay focused through the times when I woke up in the morning and didn’t feel like running. He asked me, ‘How did it feel when you beat (middleweight champion Kelly) Pavlik and you looked out to ringside and saw all the reporters who picked you to lose looking at you?’ Oscar’s eyes gleamed when he saw that.”
Gomez expects De La Hoya to have the same kind of motivation to win on Saturday that Hopkins had when he met Pavlik in October and nearly everyone in the media picked against him.
De La Hoya is 35 and his body isn’t the same, Gomez said.
“I’ve seen Oscar age,” Gomez said. “I know things other people don’t. He’s not that young kid any more. He’s had some injuries. Some he’s made public. They’ve crept up during camp. He’s not that young kid any more and he’s not at the top of his game at this point. He’s not as fast as he once was. He still works very hard. He takes it seriously.
“But the thing that’s most important is that he understands that Manny poses some threats. This isn’t an easy fight. And Oscar knows it would be a disaster if he were to lose. And so I think Oscar wants to win this so badly and he’s gotten himself to such a point in his career that I think you’ll see him as good as you ever have. He wants this and he wants it badly.”
De La Hoya said he never assumed he’d win because he’s bigger and perceived to be stronger. He’s quit working out with weights, which he believes has been a boon, and prepared to face what he calls an ultimate challenge.
He dismissed the notIon out-of-hand that he has ever thought Pacquiao wouldn’t be able to Handle his pressure.
“That’s been out the window since the first day,” De La Hoya said. “What happens is, if you think that in your mind, you tend not to train, you tend to be overconfident. This comes with experience. I’ve been through this many times. If you think, ‘Oh, he has no power,’ or ‘Oh, he has no speed,’ or ‘Oh, he’s smaller,’ that’s when everything can go wrong for you.
“I trained for King Kong. On Saturday night, we’ll see what happens.”

O.J. FOUND GUILTY !!!!!

O.J. Simpson appears in court during his sentencing hearing at the Clark County Regional Justice Center … So it wasn’t a high-speed freeway chase in a white Bronco, but O.J. Simpson's day in court certainly delivered on the drama.
The big news is that Simpson is going to prison for kidnapping and armed robbery and could serve as much as 33 years in prison. But equally interesting is what happened before the hefty sentence came down.
Today was the first time many of us actually heard O.J. Simpson say "I’m sorry" in a courtroom. His voice seemed to break and it looked like he was fighting back tears as he read a surprise statement to the judge. He explained: "I didn’t want to hurt anybody. I didn't know I was doing anything wrong ... I stand before you somewhat confused." Simpson continued for about five minutes, sometimes rambling, as he talked about how he was merely trying to recover property that had been stolen from his family.
And while this case had nothing to do with the circus-like "trial of the century" that consumed the country back in 1995, some familiar faces in today’s courtroom wouldn't let us forget the drama of those days.
Sydney Simpson, O.J.'s twenty-three year-old daughter who is old enough to remember the last trial, was there to see her father receive a sentence that will put him into prison for at least nine years. Emotions also ran high for the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, who made the trip to Las Vegas to watch the sentencing.
Ron's father, Fred Goldman, continues to believe O.J. Simpson murdered his son and wasn't moved by the apology. Goldman told reporters: "He committed a crime. He's gonna be where he belongs, with others of his kind, and he can complain there." Denise Brown, Nicole’s sister, said she is saddened about how the prison time will affect Sydney and her brother Justin.
And the drama may not be over. As AP pointed out, many attorneys who have watched this case from the beginning are still sorting out the complex series of consecutive and concurrent sentences to determine how much time Simpson got and how much he will actually serve. USA Today’s newsblog shows top newspapers from around the country are just as confused. None of them agree on how much time Simpson actually got. Is it 9 years like the New York Times reports? 15 according to the Washington Post? 16 as reported by the Los Angeles Times? Or is the Wall Street Journal the one to trust with a report of 33 years?
In the end, it might not matter. O.J. Simpson’s lawyer plans to appeal by arguing that a fair trial was nearly impossible after Simpson’s 1995 acquittal.

POKERSTARS LAUNCHES RUSSIAN POKER TOUR !!

Not content with laying claim to poker tours in most of Europe, Asia and South America, PokerStars announced today it will be starting the Russian Poker Tour.
Poker has exploded in popularity in Russia, as evidenced by the stellar finishes of Team PokerStars Pro's Alex Kravchenko and, most recently, Ivan Demidov at the WSOP Main Event final table. Other skilled Russian players include Kerill Gerasimov, Alexander Kostritsin and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.
Demidov is by far and away the overall Russian all-time money leader, with more than $6 million in tournament cashes to his name, thanks mostly to finishing second at the 2008 WSOP Main Event.
The inaugural season of the RPT is scheduled to begin Jan. 25-Feb. 1 in historic St. Petersburg. A few weeks after that, the tour will make its way to Moscow for a tournament in the nation's capital Feb. 22-28.
PokerStars did not mention if more stops would be added, but one would think if St. Petersburg and Moscow are a success, many more Russian cities will get an event to call their own.
These are not small tournaments either. The St. Petersburg stop will carry a $5,000 buy-in, while the Moscow event will carry an epic $10,000 buy-in.
To date the largest official tournament ever held in Russia was the 2007 Moscow Millions, in which Tony G won $205,000 for outlasting 52 other players. The aforementioned Kravchenko took third place in the event for $77,000.
Both of the PokerStars tournaments will likely have a good shot at becoming the biggest tournaments in Russia.
As usual, PokerStars will be providing some outstanding ways to qualify. Players can satellite in to the inaugural season of the RPT for as little as $2.22 or 111 Frequent Player Points from now until Dec. 30.
The RPT joins PokerStars' elite set of tours, which include the European Poker Tour (EPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) and the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT).

MMA - CARLSON GRACIE SR. FINDS ANOTHER HEAVY HAND FIGHTER !!!

The first time the late Carlson Gracie Sr. laid eyes on Miguel Torres at his Chicago academy, he asked, “Who’s the little Mexican kid?” Theirs was a union born out of pure coincidence.
“I didn’t even know who he was,” Torres says. “I got invited to his gym, but I didn’t go at first. When I started, I trained for about two or three weeks. Carlson wasn’t even there.”
Though separated by almost half a century in age, teacher and student formed a quick bond, as Torres developed and honed his Tasmanian Devil skills under Gracie’s nurturing wing. He was next in the long line of accomplished Gracie disciples, joining Murilo Bustamante, Mario Sperry, Andre Pederneiras and Ricardo Liborio.
“He was very important in my life,” Torres says. “Carlson built so many great fighters. I always believed I could do something big, and him believing in me had me believing it had to be true.”
Their time together was brief, however, as life threw a monkey wrench into their plans. Less than two years after they met, Gracie died of heart failure in a Chicago hospital at age 72. Met by the unexpected news that his mentor had passed, Torres mourned along with the rest of the martial arts community.
“It still affects me now,” he says. “He was more like a mentor to me than a coach. I was with him the day before he died. Carlson had asked me to make a CD for him. The next day, I came back, and he was gone.”
Torres bears his teacher’s legacy proudly, and everyone associated with mixed martial arts now knows the answer to Gracie’s question. Ranked number one in the world at 135 pounds, the little Mexican kid’s a superstar.
As reigning World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion, Torres will carry confidence and momentum into his title defense against the unbeaten Manny Tapia in the WEC 37 main event on Wednesday at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. A former King of the Cage titleholder, Tapia presents a number of challenges inside the cage. Torres expects a dogfight.
Miguel Torres bears his
teacher's legacy proudly.“I’ve never really fought a guy like Manny,” Torres says. “He comes out with real heavy hands. I think he’s going to come out fast and look for a flash knockout. A lot of guys say they’re going to come out and bang with me. I think he’s one of the few who will, and that makes this an interesting fight for me.”
Torres’ path to self discovery was paved by years of competitive anonymity and seemingly insurmountable odds, as the 135-pound dynamo earned his stripes fighting for pennies in Indiana barrooms, sometimes against men who outweighed him by 70 pounds.
One night, more than any other, holds special significance for Torres. On Nov. 22, 2003, he made an unfamiliar and uncomfortable walk from the ring to his dressing room, the tears of fans trumpeting his departure from the Hammond Civic Center in Hammond, Ind.
In his first appearance since reconstructive knee surgery, the then 22-year-old Torres dropped a unanimous decision to Ryan Ackerman and knew, for the first time as a professional fighter, how it felt to fail. Torres sold 2,000 tickets to the Ironheart Crown VI show he was set to headline. In all, the crowd swelled to some 4,000, most of them there to see the East Chicago, Ind., native in action.
“I’d just come back from ACL surgery,” Torres says. “I was supposed to fight [Mustafa] Hussaini, but he pulled out, and when they couldn’t find a replacement, I agreed to fight Ackerman at a catchweight.”
He entered the ring as a heavy favorite, a perfect 19-0 record in tow, and threatened to dismiss Ackerman early, first with a guillotine choke and then with a triangle. As they returned to their feet eager to re-engage, Torres realized his 18-month, injury-induced layoff had taken a far greater toll on him than first thought.
“When I stood up, my legs were gone,” Torres says. “He took me down and mounted me. It’s still the only time in my career I’ve been mounted. I finished the fight, but I knew I had lost. Walking out and seeing all my fans crying had the biggest impact on my career. I vowed then that I’d never be outworked again.”
Five years later, Torres (34-1) stands atop the bantamweight world, WEC crown in hand, as he carves out a legacy likely to stand for generations. He has won 15 consecutive bouts -- including a submission victory over Ackerman in their 2005 rematch -- and has finished all but one of his opponents during a streak that spans 262 weeks and four days. Experience taught him to swallow his fears.
“I’m not scared of anybody in my weight class,” Torres says. “I’ve been in there with guys who were stronger than me. Those fights all built my game.”
Since he entered the WEC in 2007, Torres’ popularity has exploded. He claims the number of students who train at his home base -- Torres Martial Arts in Hammond, Ind. -- has nearly doubled. Daily e-mails flood his inbox from all across the globe.
“This past year, my fan base has grown worldwide,” Torres says. “I get e-mails from Japan, Mexico and Europe. Everything changed. I got onto some pound-for-pound lists, but people haven’t seen half of what I can do yet.”
His training sessions are the stuff of legend -- he was doing 1,000 crunches a day as a 7-year-old soccer player -- and does not have to dig deep for motivation. The first of three children born to blue-collar parents, Torres understands the benefit of hard work and remembers what it was like before the bright lights of the WEC shone upon him.
“There’s no way I want to go back,” he says. “I’ve seen guys do well and make it and then have to go back to the smaller shows. I’m going to fight hard to stay where I’m at. It makes me train so much harder.”
Inspiration comes from another source, his young daughter, not yet 2. Fatherhood has only hardened his resolve.
“Every time I train, I think about my daughter,” Torres says. “I want to do all I can to provide for her. When it’s below zero outside at seven in the morning, all I have to do is look over at her.”

POKER - NEW STYLE OF POKER !!!!

Time Will Tell If Game Generates Interest
Badugi is one part razz, one part draw poker, and a whole lot of fun — depending on who you talk to.
PokerStars is now offering this unique style of poker, which originated in Asia. The site is running both tournaments and sit-and-gos, although the latter is seldom attracting the higher-limits players.
The more frugal players are giving it a try, though, and they seem to be enjoying it.
At a $5.50 buy-in, nine-handed sit-and-go today, PokerStars player “MDXS” was playing the game for the first time and was chip leader with four players left.
“It’s nice to have something different,” said MDXS.
Both he and “aaa222xx,” another first-timer to the game, said they would very likely play again. Of course, it helps that they both made the money.
Badugi is a draw poker game that is similar to lowball, where players try to get the four lowest cards possible, all of different suits. So, A-2-3-4, all of different suits, would be the best badugi hand a player could have.
There are three different drawing opportunities, where players can draw anywhere from zero to four cards, and a betting round occurs after each one.
Time will tell if the game will become popular online. DoylesRoom had offered badugi a couple of years ago but withdrew the game from its selection due to lack of customer interest. PokerStars is clearly trying to spark and maintain interest, setting up small-stakes tourneys throughout the day. A $2.20 buy-in tournament on Sunday attracted 112 entrants.
In Las Vegas, players can find a fairly regular mixed-games format at Bellagio, which contains badugi, for as cheap as $2-$4 and as expensive as $4,000-$8,000. The Imperial Palace poker room features badugi as part of its mixed games, as well, every Sunday at 7 p.m. Treasure Island also offers a standalone $3-$6 badugi game, although there are rarely enough players to form a game.

GAMBLING FRAUD !!!!!!

An investigation by Washington Post reporter Gilbert M.Gaul and 60 Minutes looked at two of the largest cases of online gambling fraud in the history of Internet poker.
The investigation found that Internet gambling sites operate in a gray area with little regulation and even less enforcement.
In part one, "Hunting the Internet Poker Cheats," Gaul chronicles the work of online poker players who took it upon themselves to investigate cheating on the gambling site Absolute Poker after one player suspiciously lost $15,000 in a short series of games.
After months of pressure, the site was forced to admit that the cheater was a consultant with managerial responsibilities. The cheaters identity was never revealed and was not charged with a crime, but the site refunded $1.6 million to players.
Rumors than surfaced of a new scheme on the sister site UltimateBet.com that more that $20 million had been stolen from players over four years. The alleged suspects included a former world champion poker player and UltimateBet.com employees.
Today, in "Should Internet Gambling be Legal?" Gaul explains how scams like these are raising new questions about the honesty and security of a "freewheeling" industry that operates outside of U.S. law. Revenue from online poker tournaments, casino games and sports books around the world are estimated at $18 billion a year, more than tripling over the past five years. Billions of those bets come from the U.S.

STEVE STEINBEISS HEADED TO UFC !!!

Arizona Combat Sports light heavyweight Steve Steinbeiss is UFC bound, according to his representatives at LG Sports Marketing.
Steinbeiss will serve out the remainder of the four-fight deal he signed with World Extreme Cagefighting in the Octagon.
The kickboxer turned MMA fighter lost his first bid in the soon-to-be-shuttered WEC light heavyweight division, dropping a split decision loss to Carmelo Marrero at WEC 36 on Nov. 5.
Steinbeiss made his MMA debut in the now-defunct Bodog Fight promotion, and went 2-1 with the organization before picking up wins in smaller shows. Currently 4-2 in professional competition, he enters a deepening pool of talent recently migrated to the UFC.
No word has been given on Steinbeiss' first UFC opponent or a date for his Octagon debut.