Mets Emerge From Black Hole

I’ve now travelled for Thanksgiving several times and aside from worrying about the lines at the airports on the busiest travel days of the year and missing all the Black Friday hysteria, there’s one thing that always stands out about a trip at that time. When you leave, it’s still late fall. When you return, it’s Christmas. It’s jarring to come back and see stores, buildings and offices that look normal just days earlier now fully decorated for the holidays. It’s like a “Twilight Zone” episode where you arrive home to an alternate reality — a garish, retail-driven reality with catchy jingles, but an alternate reality nonetheless.

In this alternate reality, apparently the Mets do exist, which is good news since they really didn’t exist much in the last two months of the previous reality. But the Mets are starting to make some moves and announcements, so let’s take a look at what’s been going on.

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The Mets announced today that they landed reliever Brian Stokes from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Hopefully he leaves his 7.07 ERA at Tropicana Field. Seriously, this guy allowed 49 runs and 90 hits in 62-plus innings for the Devil Rays last year. Forgive me if I’m not overly excited about him providing the bridge from the Mets aging staff to the more-reliable relievers.

On the plus side, the Mets merely gave up cash for him, so much the Johnny Estrada deal, you can’t argue with the price.

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Speaking of Estrada, we may have been a little quick to annoint him as Paul Lo Duca’s replacement. In his always informative column at SI.com, Jon Heyman writes that the Estrada deal was more about losing Mota than obtaining Estrada and that the Mets are still in talks for Brian Schneider, Ramon Hernandez and Gerald Laird.

On an apparently completely unrelated note, Lo Duca remains unsigned.

Once again, Lo Duca — the catcher that has done a good-to-great job in his two years at Shea Stadium — remains unsigned.

Not that it appears to matter to the Mets.

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On Tuesday, the Mets released their schedule for the 2008 season. The Amazin’s bookend their season with the Marlins, starting the season in Florida and closing down Shea (at least for the regular season) with the Marlins in town. The home opener will come a week into the season with the Phils in town for the second straight home opener. I would have scheduled a different opponent for that game since the final Shea home opener will have plenty of hoopla already without the added drama of the team that historically overtook the Mets in September making its first appearance in Flushing since the collapse.

But speaking of media circuses, brace yourself for May 29 through June 1 when the Dodgers come to town. Why would this be such a big deal, you ask? It’s Joe Torre’s return to New York. Of course, it would make a heck of a lot more sense if he was returning to Yankee Stadium, but that won’t stop the media from making a huge show out of this series. It’s just annoying that the Mets will be drawn into what is clearly a Yankees story.

Speaking of the Yanks, it will be Subway Series in the Bronx on May 16-18 and Subway Series Flushing-style June 27-29. Prepare your anti-Yankee barbs now.

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Speaking of the home opener foes, the Phillies didn’t just steal the Mets’ division title last season, they also stole one of their announcers. The Phillies announced Tuesday that they had signed Tom McCarthy to a five-year deal. McCarthy worked the Mets’ radio broadcasts the last two seasons with Howie Rose and was a good fit for WFAN.

Despite sounding a little too much like his predecessor Gary Cohen in the beginning and then sounding a little too much like his partner Rose, McCarthy settled in to create a very comfortable listening experience for Mets fans. Cohen was great on the radio and has yet to reach those heights on the SNY television broadcasts, though he is helped tremendously by two great analysts in Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. McCarthy filled in admirably and on pure play-by-play, he and Rose were the better booth. The whole package was better on SNY, but if you just wanted to follow the game (and baseball is a great radio sport), McCarthy and Rose were better.

It will be interesting to see who the WFAN finds to replace McCarthy.

MLB & WWE: Together in Congress

Here’s a wrestling-related non-sequitur for a wrestling-related shameless plug. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that Hulk Hogan’s wife Linda filed for divorce from her wrestler/reality show star/American Gladiators-remake host/Rocky III scene-stealer husband. All I’m saying is this is a man who talks about slamming Andre at WrestleMania III and with each interview, the only thing that increases more than the Giant’s alleged weight is the length of Hogan’s nose. It wouldn’t surprise me — or any longtime Hogan observer for that matter — if this was all an elaborate stunt for a very special “Hogan Knows Best” where the Hulkster gets down on bended knee. And with Hogan’s deteriorated knees, that would be no small feat.

Anyway, Hogan’s not the only person in the wrestling business getting bad press these days. Five months after the Chris Benoit tragedy, Congress seems to be moving closer to hauling pro wrestling’s leadership into hearings about the industry’s seedy reputation for steroids. One Congressman even went as far as to mention wrestling in the same sentence as Major League Baseball last week and that provides the opening for me to take another stab at pro wrestling’s myriad of problems in a feature-length column that appeared on today’s Sunday Review page of the Home News Tribune and Courier News.

Here’s the text of that column:

Getting unwanted attention
By STEVE FEITL
Published Nov. 25, 2007

The difficult-to-define genre of professional wrestling has spent the last several decades as the media’s version of the last kid picked for kickball. Too scripted for the sports pages. Not scripted enough for the entertainment pages. Not respected enough for the news pages.

That purgatorial existence ended five months ago today when the world encountered the horrific details of Chris Benoit’s murder of his wife and 7-year-old child, and his own subsequent suicide. The mainstream media suddenly became keenly aware of pro wrestling, and its unsavory reputation for drug use and physical wear and tear, not to mention an unprecedented death rate for performers under 45.

Where before obscure jazz musicians would get full-blown obituaries while dead pro wrestlers would only draw attention if they were the biggest of stars, now every wrestling death makes a headline — especially with jarringly young ages like John Kronus at 38 and Brian Adams at 44.

Pro wrestling has gone mainstream. And not just in the media.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., chairman of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, told the Baltimore Sun last week that he plans to call a hearing on performance-enhancing drugs next spring. And look who’s on the invite list.

“Given recent developments — the impending Mitchell report and reports of widespread abuse in professional wrestling — I believe it’s time we get a formal update on what progress is being made to eradicate steroids from all sports and sports entertainment,” he told the Sun.

That’s right, pro wrestling is sharing time at the table with the national pastime itself, Major League Baseball. Congrats wrestling, you’ve made it.

Of course, this probably isn’t how World Wrestling Entertainment boss Vince McMahon envisioned mainstream acceptance.

The week of the Benoit tragedy, I used this space as a call to arms in the media to look past the headline-friendly ” ‘roid rage” aspect of the story and shine a light on some of the lesser-known problems that plague pro wrestling. Now I offer them to Congress as some tough questions to ask.

Why is there no offseason in WWE that might allow families to reconnect and bodies to heal?

What is being done to prevent the long-term brain damage from concussions that Benoit suffered, according to an independent medical group?

And isn’t it time to close the loopholes in the WWE drug-testing policy that allow for steroids and other controlled drugs if they are prescribed by a doctor — a doctor like Benoit’s who federal prosecutors believe prescribed a 10-month supply of testosterone to Benoit seven times in 12 months?

Stepping in and regulating professional wrestling from the sold-out arenas of WWE to the mom-and-pop fairground shows may be too untenable a task for Congress to embark on. But a little governmental pressure is a good start.

Of course, WWE will balk at this upgrade to MLB’s equal. “We’re not a sport. We don’t compete,” it will say. Ignoring the decades-worth of evidence that top bodies usually get top spots and thus top pay, there’s another good reason to haul WWE into Congress.

Wrestlers aren’t cheating the sport. Baseball players aren’t regularly dying before their 45th birthday. Let’s call it even and fix the problem.

Dump Mota… Find A Catcher

Mike & the Mad Dog just reported that the Mets have traded Guillermo Mota for catcher Johnny Estrada.

How do you approach this story? On one hand the Mets found a catcher and it’s someone better than Yorvit Torrealba. But on the other hand, they got rid of the much-maligned Guillermo Mota. I don’t know which is more exciting for the Mets.

The former Phillies and Braves catcher had a down season for the Brewers, but still drove in 54 RBI, hit .278 with 10 home runs, which may not seem all that much better than Torrealba’s numbers, but Estrada did it without the drastic difference in his home/away splits. In fact, Estrada hit better on the road last season, hitting .299 away from home compared to .255 at Miller Park. So Estrada is a much better fit.

And he comes at the cost of Mota. That’s addition by subtraction even if Estrada is a bum.

But no one thinks Estrada is a bum. I still think the Mets would have been best served to bring back Paul Lo Duca, but if Omar Minaya was going to go his own way, this wasn’t a bad way to go.

No Love For Glavine

Received a few e-mails today regarding the news of Tom Glavine’s departure to Atlanta. They all had the same theme. I’ll quote this one from reader John simply and effectively titled, “Goodbye.” It read: “Goodbye Tommy and don’t let the door hit ya where the sun don’t shine, Tom Terrific (NOT!) How bout Couldn’t Get It Done Tom!”

Yes, Mets fans do not seem to broken up over the loss of the veteran lefty.

A lot of this is because Tommy never shook the “Brave in disguise” tag that followed him from the moment he arrived in Flushing. And he is partially to blame because Glavine himself always seem to romanticize his time with the enemy. I remember watching a Braves game this summer on a Saturday afternoon and seeing Glavine dressed in non-descript dress clothes talking about his top 3 memories of pitching at Turner Field. There was nothing that would distinguish him as a current Met. How could Mets fans not see that as a slap in the face?

Another reason Mets fans might not balk at his departure is most are savvy enough to know the Mets rotation is lacking in young arms and bringing back an aging starter is not what the doctor ordered for anything other than a No. 5. And Glavine certainly wasn’t going to get paid like a No. 5.

But the bottom line is this discussion would be entirely different if he had come through with a big-time performance in Game 162 — when the Mets needed it most. Hell, it might be different if he had simply given the Mets a passable start. Instead, he had one of, if not the worst start of career and never gave the Mets a chance to earn a playoff spot. It’s not his fault they collapsed for most of the month of September, but he is the lasting image of it. Mets fans weren’t going to forget that. They couldn’t forget that.

And so he moves on. And it’s probably for the best for all parties involved. After all, the Shea faithful needed a new villain in Atlanta.

Glavine’s Gone

The final result is not unexpected. And to many Mets fans, it’s not even unwelcome. But Tom Glavine will never pitch for the New York Mets again.

The Associated Press is reporting that Tom Glavine has agreed to a one-year, $8 million deal with the Braves, ending a largely unsatisfying stay with the Mets that did feature some playoff starts and his 300th career win.

This probably had far more to do with being close to his family than any other factor, but you can’t discount the fact that even Glavine realizes his return would be an unwelcome one to many of the Shea faithful and a distraction to his teammates. The Mets also obviously need to get younger in the rotation as the old starters either didn’t get the job done (Glavine), didn’t get deep enough into games (Pedro Martinez) or didn’t even get on the field (Orlando Hernandez). So the wiley veteran lefty doesn’t exactly fit the plan.

His career in Flushing was a roller-coaster ride, but a roller-coaster ride that starts off really slow, has a bunch of twists and turns in a somewhat exciting middle and then ends by just going slowly down a hill. A most unsatisying ending.

UFC 78: The Aftermath

Houston Alexander. (Photo courtesy of UFC.)

Well UFC 78 has come and gone meaning we are one step closer to this returning to being a Mets blog (which is probably a good thing since we have a little Mets news… No Torrealba… that’s good news for Mets fans.) But first we need to tie a bow on UFC 78: Validation.The two things of note that came out of the post-fight press conference was Dana White begrudgingly (because he wasn’t ready to) announcing Dan Henderson would drop to middleweight to take on champion Anderson Silva on March 1 in what will surely be an anticipated fight. And White won’t be meeting Randy Couture this Tuesday after all, as White apparently got the weeks wrong and was supposed to meet Couture this past Tuesday. You’d think he’d get that appointment right. Regardless, Couture was in attendance and had a cordial meeting with the UFC president so now things are on track for a post-Thanksgiving meeting.

The Prudential Center is a really nice arena and the area surrounding the place is not bad at all. The wireless internet could use some help however.

All in all, it was a night with a lot of good fights underneath and some disappointments later on, saved by a solid main event. Not UFC’s best night by any stretch of the imagination, but good time nonetheless. And the hometown boy won.

Speaking of which, Frank Edgar told me the Rutgers wrestling team couldn’t be in attendance because they were at a tournament, but he had a friend texting the round-by-round results to the team. He definitely took care of business.

UFC 78 — The Aftermath

Well UFC 78 has come and gone meaning we are one step closer to this returning to being a Mets blog (which is probably a good thing since we have a little Mets news… No Torrealba… that’s good news for Mets fans.) But first we need to tie a bow on UFC 78: Validation.

The two things of note that came out of the post-fight press conference was Dana White begrudgingly (because he wasn’t ready to) announcing Dan Henderson would drop to middleweight to take on champion Anderson Silva on March 1 in what will surely be an anticipated fight. And White won’t be meeting Randy Couture this Tuesday after all, as White apparently got the weeks wrong and was supposed to meet Couture this past Tuesday. You’d think he’d get that appointment right. Regardless, Couture was in attendance and had a cordial meeting with the UFC president so now things are on track for a post-Thanksgiving meeting.

The Prudential Center is a really nice arena and the area surrounding the place is not bad at all. The wireless internet could use some help however.

All in all, it was a night with a lot of good fights underneath and some disappointments later on, saved by a solid main event. Not UFC’s best night by any stretch of the imagination, but good time nonetheless. And the hometown boy won.

Speaking of which, Frank Edgar told me the Rutgers wrestling team couldn’t be in attendance because they were at a tournament, but he had a friend texting the round-by-round results to the team. He definitely took care of business.

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Here’s my final write-thru on the card.

Evans, Edgar winners at UFC 78
Published Nov. 18, 2007

By STEVE FEITL
STAFF WRITER

NEWARK — Frank “The Answer” Edgar stepped to the ring Saturday with the support of the 14,071 at the Prudential Center. Of course, hometown advantage can’t do much for an Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter once he steps into the Octgaon.

Thankfully for the Toms River native, all he needed was his ability to seemingly take down his opponent at will.

Edgar (8-0) won a unanimous decision over veteran Spencer “The King” Fisher in one of the main card bouts at UFC 78: Validation — the first mixed martial arts card at “The Rock,” which drew a gate of $2,100,360.

“Great night, great crowd,” UFC president Dana White said after the event. “We love New Jersey and we’ll be back here in ‘08.”

The event was headlined by a battle of “The Ultimate Fighter” champions that saw Season 2’s winner “Sugar” Rashad Evans knock off the Season 3 champ Michael “The Count” Bisping in a close split decision.

After Evans fairly easily won the first round, Bisping got stronger and started connecting with strikes and knees in the second round, evening the fight on all three scorecards. The third round saw some back-and-forth in stand-up and on the ground. Two judges scored it for Evans, leading to the split decision.

“It was a statement for me because I beat a fighter who was tough as hell,” Evans (16-0-1) said in the post-fight press conference. “That was the best Bisping we’ve ever seen, so I do think I made a statement by beating him.”

Even after suffering his first professional loss, Bisping (15-1) thought his performance should silence a lot of his critics after his controversial victory over Matt Hammill in his last fight.

“I thought it was a very close fight,” Bisping said. “I proved I belonged in there tonight.”

In the semi-main, a rabid pro-Houston Alexander crowd was silenced as the knockout artist couldn’t match Thiago Silva’s ground game and suffered a technical knockout at 3:25 of the first round.

After winning his first two UFC fights with stunning one-minute KOs, Alexander (8-2) got taken down early and was unable to escape Silva’s mount. After several consecutive blows to the head by Silva (12-0), the referee stepped in.

But as disappointed as the crowd was in Alexander’s loss, it was just as happy to witness Edgar’s dominance.

“Not bad for a Jersey Shore kid, eh?” Edgar asked the crowd during the postfight interview.

The crowd roared its approval as it had done since his picture was first shown on the big screen introducing a prefight video package. Throughout the fight, the New Jersey audience chanted “Frankie” and “Let’s Go Frankie” and one fan in the mezzanine brought a banner that said, “It’s All Good When U Got THE ANSWER.”

It didn’t take long for Edgar to establish his superior grappling skills. The former state high school wrestling standout at Toms River High School East and All-American at Clarion University scored his first double-leg takedown 30 seconds into the fight. It was a sign of things to come as he dropped Fisher 60 seconds later. Fisher tried to keep the fight vertical, looking for a roundhouse kick 3:30 in, but Edgar dodged it and Fisher fell to his back, where Edgar kept him until time expired.

The second round was much of the same, although this time Edgar’s pounding on the ground drew blood. The first takedown came 15 seconds into the round and “The King” only regained his feet for 15 seconds before Edgar used a leg sweep to down him again.

“I would have stood more as I felt I connected on a couple of right hands, but the takedowns were there,” Edgar said. “And I’m not going to give them up if they’re there.”

Edgar was dominant again in the third and final round as Fisher stayed vertical for only five seconds before tasting another Edgar takedown. The Rutgers University assistant wrestling coach almost ended it with a rear naked choke, but never secured it all the way. There were two more Edgar takedowns and the crowd rose to its feet as time expired with Edgar landing hammer fists on Fisher.

“It was something you dream about,” Edgar said.

Judges scored it 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 all for Edgar.

“It’s a huge win,” Edgar said after the fight. “Spencer is a hell of a tough guy.”

On Saturday, Edgar was tougher.

In other action, Karo “The Heat” Parisyan (26-4) won a disappointing unanimous decision over Ryo Chonan (14-8) in a fight that drew the crowd’s ire for its pacing and lack of solid action. Parisyan even apologized to his fans in the post-fight interview, noting personal problems had prevented him from properly training for the bout.

Ed Herman (16-4) knocked out Joe Doerksen (39-11) 39 seconds into the third round as both fighters were tired and started throwing haymakers. Herman connected with a hook, dropping Doerksen hard and the ref immediately called the fight.

The “Fight of the Night” was stopped early as Thiago Alves (19-4) earned a technical knockout after the ringside doctor advised the official to stop the fight because a deep cut over Chris Lytle’s brow. It happened early in the first round when an overhand right caught Lytle (32-15-4) hard. Still there was not an excessive amount of blood and the fighter put forward an entertaining two rounds before the stoppage after the second.

The crowd was into Joe Lauzon from the moment he stepped into “The Rock” and the fiery 5-10 fighter out of Bridgewater, Mass., didn’t make them wait long for some excitement. After a few seconds of striking, Lauzon (14-3) took down Jason Reinhardt (17-1) and made him tap to a rear naked choke at 1:14 of the first round.

Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio (15-4) also brought the crowd to its feet with a strong technical knockout of Luke Caudillo at 4:29 of the first round. After a takedown, he pounded Caudillo (15-8) with hammer fists until the referee stepped in to stop the fight.

The evening began with a spirited fight from former PRIDE fighter Akihiro Gono (28-12-7) who secured a second-round armbar tapout from Tamdan “The Barn Cat” McCrory (9-1).

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Also, since the event ran so late, the Courier News only had time for a feature, so I wrote this piece on Houston Alexander. I think it’s a good read, even though he lost Saturday. He’s a fascinating man with a great story to tell. I hope I did it justice. In the meantime, keep this in mind: I spoke with him after the fight and he was sure to note that he’s getting right back to work. I don’t think this spells the end of “The Assassin.”

So learn a little more about him.

Alexander nothing like Octagon persona
Published Nov. 18, 2007

By STEVE FEITL
STAFF WRITER

After explosive one-minute victories in his first two outings with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Houston Alexander gets recognized a lot whenever he travels.

But in his hometown of Omaha, Neb., that was already the case.

The man known in the Octagon as “The Assassin” is also known in Nebraska as a DJ, community activist and single father.

So no matter the outcome of his bout against Thiago Silva Saturday night at UFC 78: Validation in Newark, Alexander has plenty waiting for him when he returns home.

Among them is his weekly radio show, “Sunday Night Raw,” on Power 106.9, where Alexander provides a platform for independent hip-hop and R&B music from all over the world. He’s been involved with hip hop since he heard the early-’80s classic, “The Breaks,” by Kurtis Blow.

It was an introduction to a new sound that has remained with him for nearly a quarter-century.

“I’ll be 90 years old and still remember that,” the 35-year-old Alexander laughed. “It was delivering the message of our life.”

Finding that message in today’s music scene has become increasingly difficult. Aside from the occasional Kanye West or Jay Z song, Alexander doesn’t hear much on the radio that truly speaks to anyone.

“A lot of radio stations are playing stuff that doesn’t make sense,” he elaborated. “They focus on the dance music, which is cool because there’s all different types of rap music, but every once in a while I’d like to hear someone on the radio saying something that means something.

“A lot of the radio stations have gotten away from playing music that means something to the people.”

To help combat that and counteract the often-negative portrayal of the hip-hop community, Alexander formed an organization called “The Culture Shock School Tour.” It travels to the local schools to present the history and positive contributions of hip hop.

Alexander takes it upon himself to help educate the younger generation on the path blazed by people such as revolutionary DJ Kool Herc.

“Kool Herc was one of the founding fathers of the whole culture,” he said. “Without Kool Herc, there would be no rap videos, there would be no record contracts, there would be none of that. We teach the kids about that and we let them participate. We have the kids break dance.

“And then we have the teachers break dance, too — whether they like it or not.”

The 6-foot-3, 203-pound Alexander has plenty of experience being forceful, and not just from his fights in Octagon. “The Assassin” is a single father of six, with ages ranging from 5 to 16.

He practices a three-strike policy with his children where the first strike is something nice, the second is something harsh and the third . . . well, no kid has dared test the third strike yet.

The father, who describes his techniques as “strictly loose,” has faced a harrowing scenario no parent would welcome. His oldest daughter, Elan, was born with a kidney deficiency and seven years ago, Alexander was selected as a potential donor match.

“I was damn near her twin,” Alexander recalled. “Go figure that.”

A week later, the father was without his left kidney — the result of a successful donation — and Elan is healthy today, along with his other children: Bonita, Houston, Ira, Armon and Aniellia.

With so much on his plate, finding time to train for his fights is a challenge, but Alexander employs what he calls “military” time management.

He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and is at the gym a half-hour later for a few hours of training. Then it’s time to take the kids to school, after which he’s back at the gym. After a short lunch break, Alexander is back training again until it’s time to pick up the kids from school.

He’s sure to point out that his fighting skills are a result of strong training and good coaching, but does admit to bringing a little of that “kid fury” into the Octagon.

” “Sit down.’ “Pick your clothes up.’ “Do your homework.’ I take all that fury out in the ring,” Alexander smiled. “If you’ve got kids, you know what I’m talking about.”

Still, the juxtaposition of this caring father and community activist against this aggressive knockout artist is impossible to ignore.

“You have to be that way in the ring,” Alexander said. “If you want to be Opie Cunningham in the ring, you’re going to get beat.

“But you can be Opie Cunningham outside the ring.”

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I hope you enjoyed all the UFC coverage this week. It was a tremendous experience for me and I hope I wrote some entertaining articles for everyone to read. Back to the Mets on Monday.

UFC 78: Validation Coverage

Greetings from Row 1 cage-side for UFC 78: Validation at the beautiful Prudential Center in not-so-beautiful Newark.

The crowd is still filing in but the dark matches are underway. Any of these may wind up on the pay-per-view broadcast if fights go short later.

Akihiro Gono vs. Tamdan McCrory — Gono came out in a wig and a “stylish” white leisure suit. He’s got personality, there’s no questioning that. New Yorker McCrory has the crowd behind him and pressed the fight early. In the second round, Gono connected with a left to the jaw that knocked McCrory down. After some ground work, Gono manuevered him into an armbar at 3:19 of the second and got the tapout. McCrory was locked in deep and wasn’t getting out.

Luke Caudillo vs. Marcus Aurelio — This one didn’t last long as after a minute or so of some clinching and some moderately successful striking, the heavily favored Aurelio took him down, scored side control and just pounded him with hammer fists. The ref stepped in and made the stop at 4:29 of the first.

After the fight, Aurelio told announcer Joe Rogan that he was much more comfortable in the process of scoring his first UFC win.

“Now UFC is my house,” Aurelio said. “Maximus is back.”

Joe Lauzon vs. Jason Reinhardt — The crowd was into Lauzon from the moment he stepped into “The Rock” and the fiery 5-10 fighter out of Bridgewater, Mass., didn’t make them wait long. After a few seconds of striking, Lauzon took Reinhardt down and secured side control. He lost him briefly, but as Reinhardt tried to regain his feet, “The Ultimate Fighter” alum slid behind him and locked in the rear naked choke. Reinhardt tapped within seconds and the fight was stopped at 1:14 of the first round.

Thiago Alves vs. Chris Lytle A good first round of action between these two, as Alves connected on a right hook that looked like it caused a cut over Lytle’s left brow. He also floored Lytle with another hook and got caught with a kick of his own. Lytle dumped him on the mat, but Alves literally kicked him off. During the break, the video screens showed the cut which is far deeper than you would think given the minimal amount of blood.

After another round of solid action, the ringside doctor advised the referee to stop the fight due to Lytle’s cut. An unpopular decision as both fighters were turning in an exciting couple rounds and the crowd was clearly jazzed for a third. Alves was hitting well with kicks and may have won an eventual decision, but the stoppage seemed premature. Lytle’s cut was bleeding no worse after the second than after the first.

The live pay-per-view is about to start and there are still scattered empty seats in the corners of the arena. Guess they didn’t get the sellout they were hoping for, but there are still a lot of people in this joint.

There’s a guy to my right with a Houston Alexander cut-out on a pole. Simply tremendous.

Frank Edgar vs. Spencer Fisher — The crowd is super-hot for the hometown boy as there was a noticeable cheer when they showed his picture for the prefight video package. There’s a “It’s All Good When U Got THE ANSWER” sign in the lower bowl. A “Frankie” chant broke out as the fight began. Edgar wasted no time, scoring a wrestling style takedown 30 seconds in. He dropped Spencer again 60 seconds later with a throw. About 3:30 into the fight, Spencer regained his feet, but immediately missed a roundhouse kick and was on his back again. Edgar pounced and went back to looking for openings to pound him. The round ended to huge applause with Edgar in side control. Easily Edgar’s round.

Another strong round for Edgar. This time he drew blood. Edgar took him down 15 seconds into the round, held him about a minute before Spencer regained his feet. It only took Edgar another 15 seconds to hit with a leg sweep and put him down again. He rode him out for most of the round.

They were chanting “Frankie” in between rounds. Hot crowd.

Now warmed up, Edgar took Fisher down five seconds into the third. Nearly ended it with a rear naked choke, but couldn’t get it all the way. A little over a minute in, he took Fisher down again and then scored a double leg three minutes in. He seemingly can take Fisher down at will. The crowd roared its approval as the time expired with Edgar landing hammer fists. A dominant statement win for Edgar, who never seemed fazed by the atmosphere and the step up in competition.

Judges scored it 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 all for Edgar.

“It’s a huge win. Spencer is a hell of a tough guy,” Edgar told Rogan after the fight. “Not bad for a Jersey shore kid, eh?”

Ed Herman vs. Joe Doerksen — Didn’t see much of this fight because I had to file our Edgar story for the HNT, but I saw all I needed to see: the first 39 seconds of the third round. They both were tired and just started throwing haymakers and Herman connected with a hook that dropped Doerksen hard. It was a scary knockout and a good win for Herman.

Karo Parisyan vs. Ryo Chonan — “The Heat” started off early connecting with a strong strike to drop Chonan and later dropping him with a huge slam. Second fight was more striking with Chonan mixing in some kicks until Parisyan caught a leg and dropped Chonan again. They lost the crowd during a slow third round. Unanimous decision for Parisyan, who admitted it wasn’t his best performance after the fight to boos from the crowd. The crowd wasn’t thrilled with the fight to begin with, but then Parisyan said there were some personal issues going on in his life and they hated it.

At least the Jersey boy won.

Fighters Matt Serra, Kenny Florian, Keith Jardine and B.J. Penn are in attendance.

Houston Alexander vs. Thiago Silva — Alexander looked like he was going to rip the arms off of the fans slapping hands with him on his way to the ring. The man is intense. I just wrote a feature about how much of a great family man and community activist he is in Omaha… and then you see this ferocious animal when he’s in the Octagon. It’s jarring. Huge reaction for Alexander who has developed quite the following off two UFC bouts.

The bout went to the mat early as Silva got the mount and worked over Alexander. After they were on the mat for 20 seconds or so, Alex Marvez of FOX Sports turned to me and said Alexander was in trouble. He was right. All week long, Alexander was telling people that he had a ground game. If he has one, he never got the chance to show it tonight. Silva moved past guard and eventually started dropping heavy punches. Alexander couldn’t shake him and eventually the ref stepped in for the TKO at 3:25 of the first. Alexander walked past the press area shaking his head like he was upset at the decision, but this wasn’t his night. It didn’t look like he was escaping that.

At least the Jersey boy won.

MAIN EVENT: Rashad Evans vs. Michael Bisping — Evans struts to the ring first. All week long in prefight media sessions, it struck me that Evans was incredibly confident for this fight. We’ll see if it pays off. A better reaction than I expected for Bisping who was booed mercilessly at the weigh-ins Friday. Crowd seems ready for a big main event after the Parisyan bout was disappointing and Alexander was upset.

Evans controlled the first round, scoring a takedown halfway through. Bisping appears to be having a little trouble solving Evans who peppered him with jabs early and the worked him over once he took it to the mat. Second round will be interesting to see if “The Count” can gain any momementum. Nope, huge slam by Evans 30 seconds into the second. The crowd starts its third “USA” chant of the night. It is 2007 right? Just checking. Put a couple thousand people in a room and they’ll disappoint you every time.

Actually, Bisping gained some traction as the second wore on. The ref stood them up off the early slam and Bisping found more success with some strikes and a few nasty knees. Much tougher round than the first.

Interesting third round where Evans scored the takedown but they traded control a couple times. Also they traded strikes midring a good deal. It looked like Bisping had a little more at the end but couldn’t score.

Waiting for the judges. It’s Evans in a split decision. All three judges went 29-28 with Evans getting two. Probably the way I would have gone as well. Fight got better as it went along. Bisping would probably like to get that first round back.

“I thought it was a very close fight,” Bisping said after the fight. “I think I proved I belonged in there tonight.”

That’s it. Check for my follow-up in the Home News Tribune later Sunday morning.

Last-Minute Odds

We’re about eight hours away from the start of UFC 78: Validation and I just thought I’d offer the current odds as a guide of what you might expect if you head out to Newark tonight or order the pay-per-view. Of course, this has been a year of upsets in this constantly evolving sport, so I wouldn’t put too much trust in these. But here they are for your perusal.

Joe Lauzon -400
Jason Reinhardt 280

Marcus Aurelio -500
Luke Caudillo 350

Thiago Alves -200
Chris Lytle 160

Akihiro Gono -190
Tamdan McCrory 150

Frankie Edgar -160
Spencer Fisher 130

Karo Parisyan -350
Ryo Chonan 250

Ed Herman -150
Joe Doerksen 120

Houston Alexander -170
Thiago Silva 140

Rashad Evans -320
Michael Bisping 240

Of particular interest, oddsmakers have installed Edgar as a slight favorite against his far-more experienced opponent and Alexander isn’t flying under the radar anymore, as he too is a favorite against a tough opponent. Evans should be a prohibitive favorite given he has fought in this kind of position before, but I still suspect Bisping learned an awful lot in September and will be ready for this main event. That line might be a little too high. We’ll find out soon enough.

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We’re obviously suffering from technical problems associated with a server change for the blogs. There may not be any more photos with tonight’s coverage. I apologize, but it’s a problem with all our blogs.

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Here’s the text of my preview of the event that ran in today’s Home News Tribune and Courier News.

Two ‘Ultimate Fighter’ champs meet tonight
Published Nov. 17, 2007

By STEVE FEITL
STAFF WRITER

NEWARK — Never have two champions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship reality show met in the Octagon.

That ends tonight in Newark.

The champion of the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter” Rashad Evans takes on the third season champion Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC 78: Validation at the Prudential Center and live on pay-per-view. The card starts at 8:15 p.m. and goes live over the air at 10 p.m.

Evans (15-0-1) weighed in at 206 pounds Friday in the practice rink at “The Rock” for his fight against “The Count,” who came in at 205 and with an unblemished 15-0 record.

The two almost didn’t wait for tonight however. Bisping offered his hand after stepping off the scale, but Evans wanted none of it and instead stepped in for a staredown. The two went head-to-head for a few moments before Evans shoved Bisping off and UFC president Dana White stepped in between.

“It’s Season 2 versus Season 3,” Evans said at the press conference Thursday. “Let’s see who had the better season.”

Underneath the Bisping-Evans clash is a loaded undercard packed with potentially exciting style matchups.

Of particular interest is another light heavyweight fight featuring Houston “The Assassin” Alexander (8-1) and Thiago Silva (11-0). Alexander has stormed onto the scene, scoring one-minute upset knockouts of Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine and Alessio Sakara in his first two appearances for the UFC.

No longer an unknown, Alexander now has to prove he can continue his rampage through top contenders.

“Houston Alexander came out of nowhere,” UFC president Dana White said Thursday. “He knocks out Keith Jardine. ‘Oops, that must have been a fluke.’ Comes back and knocks out Sakara the same way. Now if he come out Saturday night and does the same thing . . . very interesting.

“A win Saturday puts either of these guys in the mix of a very interesting, evolving light heavyweight picture.”

Hometown boy Frank “The Answer’ Edgar (7-0) will get to fight in front of a partisan crowd when he takes on veteran Spencer “The King” Fisher in a bout that White has already hyped as a potential “Fight of the Night.” The Toms River native weighed in at 154 and soaked in the cheers of the weigh-in crowd as he strode to the stage wearing a red Jason Kidd Nets jersey with “New Jersey” written in script across the front. Meanwhile, it was a mixed reaction for “The King” who came in at 154.5.

It is expected to be an exciting bout featuring two aggressive fighters, but it also represents a step up in level of competition for Edgar.

“Frank is in the position he needs to be to be here,” Fisher said. “A lot of people ask if Frank deserves this caliber of a fight. I think he does. He’s shown it time and time again. But Saturday night, I’m looking to knock him out.”

Is Edgar ready for this next level of fighter?

“I better be,” Edgar said.

In another main card bout, Karo “The Heat” Parisyan (25-4) will face former PRIDE fighter Ryo Chonan (14-7), who owns a win over middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Parisyan expects a thriller.

“I’m ready to throw bombs on Ryo,” Parisyan said. “I’m telling all the camera guys to get your cameras ready because win or lose, I’m going to do something crazy and you’re going to want to catch it in the air.”

In other matchups before the live crowd, Joe Doerksen (39-10) takes on Ed Herman (15-4), Chris Lytle (34-14-4) meets Thiago Alves (18-4), Jason Reinhardt (18-0) will face Joe Lauzon (14-3), Luke Caudillo (15-8) fights Marcus Aurelio (14-5) and Akihiro Gono (27-12-7) goes head-to-head with Tamdan McCrory (10-0).

Weigh-In Details

Nothing much to report from the weigh-ins for UFC 78: Validation other than I think I have memorized the “Countdown to UFC 78″ special they’ve shown on a loop before both the press conference and weigh-ins. I DVR’d it the first time it was on SpikeTV. If I had only known I’d see it six or seven more times… But Joe Rogan’s line about Houston Alexander’s knockout of Keith Jardine looking like a Dairy Queen parking lot beatdown does make me laugh every time.

Considering the little bit of prefight sniping that’s gone on between Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping, it’s only fitting that they had the only real contact at the weigh-in with a face-to-face staredown and a shove by Evans. Should be a good main event tomorrow.

Here are the weights for you viewing pleasure.

Akihiro Gono (169) vs. Tamdan McCrory (170).
Luke Caudillo (155.5) vs. Marcus Aurelio (156).
Jason Reinhardt (155) vs. Joe Lauzon (155).
Chris Lytle (170.5) vs. Thiago Alves (171).
Joe Doerkson (185.5) vs. Ed Herman (186).
Frank Edgar (154) vs. Spencer Fisher (154.5).
Ryo Chonan (169.5) vs. Karo Parisyan (170).
Houston Alexander (203) vs. Thiago Silva (204).
Rashad Evans (206) vs. Michael Bisping (205).

Remember to check back tomorrow night for updates from the Prudential Center.