Two Things Catching My Eye
Two things are catching my eye as I glance at the sports news today:
The Olympics are now only three days away. I will be writing extensively about how to get some action down on them as they go on. For now, though, the biggest story is obviously the basketball - the Redeem Team. My position on them is this - I think that they are going to win the gold medal, but they are ridiculously undervalued to do so, so I won’t be betting on them. Proof of the difficulties came in full force last night. They played an exhibition game against Australia. The Aussies rested Andrew Bogut, so it should have been an absolute and utter cake walk for the Americans. It wasn’t. They ultimately won by 11, but en route they encountered way more troubles than they should have. The Aussies were close well into the third quarter, and they were able to shake Kobe Bryant and knock him off his game. I’m not saying for a second that this shows that the Americans are going to lose. It doesn’t. What it does show, though, is that international basketball is tough, and anything could happen. This will not be the walk in the park for the Americans that the odds and much of the media suggests it will be.
Tito Ortiz is no longer with the UFC. That was a given - he was washed up, and Dana White seems to hate him. What is surprising, though, is that it appears that Ortiz is going to sign with Affliction. The deal is reportedly a record deal for MMA. I’m disappointed. Ortiz will obviously draw eyes - he’s still perhaps the biggest celebrity in the sport. He’s just not that good any more. I was hoping that Affliction would try to continue to attract big audiences (100,000 PPV buys for their first card was a great start) by putting on top class shows, not by pitching gimmicks. Ortiz is supposedly fighting Babalu next. Who cares? He’s also reportedly circling a deal to fight Ken Shamrock again. The only thing better than one has-been is two, I guess. You could do better, Affliction. If you really want to make some noise start poaching the guys who are the stars of the UFC now, not the ones who were five years ago.
Tags: Olympics, Tito Ortiz
