Shaq was in full effect last night on AEW Dynamite as the Hall of Fame center teamed with newcomer Jade Cargill and defeated Red Velvet and Cody Rhodes in a mixed tag team match. It was wild. It was crazy. It was much better than expected.
Continue reading “Shaq Delivers Big On Dynamite”Tag: Sports
Shaq is Wrestling Tonight on TNT
Did you know that Shaq is wrestling tonight? Yes, that’s right. NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal is wrestling in a mixed tag team match on AEW Dynamite. Shaq will team with former college basketball standout Jade Cargill, making her in-ring debut against Cody Rhodes and the relatively unknown Red Velvet.
Continue reading “Shaq is Wrestling Tonight on TNT”Share this:
Tito Ortiz Topples Alberto El Patron at Combate Americas 51
Combate Americas 51 emanated from the Payne Arena in McAllen, Texas, with an interesting night of fights where MMA and Pro Wrestling collided. Former UFC Champion Tito Ortiz finished former WWE Champion Alberto (Del Rio) El Patron with a rear-naked choke at 3:10 of the 1st round. The bout was contested at a catchweight of 210 lbs.
The pro wrestling flair fired on all cylinders as El Patron came out with host of luchadores, including WWE’s Sin Cara. Ortiz made his way to the cage to the blaring sounds of Rick Derringer’s iconic song Real American while wearing a “Living the Dream” shirt in the font of WWE’s popular 80’s tv special Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Alberto got the first move of the fight with a lateral drop throw but lost position, and Tito gained top control. Tito passed Alberto’s half guard, but Alberto got to his feet. Alberto was already tired as Tito landed a few punches. Tito took him down and worked top position. Tito got Alberto’s back, flattened him out, hooked in a rear-naked choke, and Alberto’s face turned red as he was forced to tap out.
Tito wore a U.S. Border Patrol hat and a Trump 2020 shirt during his post-fight interview. Tito asked for Alberto’s WWE Title (spinner) belt, which Alberto said he would surrender to Tito if he lost. Tito gave the belt to his two sons and said it was his dream to be the WWE Champion as a kid and can share that with his children.
Other action on the evening saw another pro wrestler take to the cage as former Lucha Underground Champion Sexy Starr made quick work of Anali Lopez Hernandez via guillotine choke at 2:47 of round one. Starr’s boxing was too much for the MMA newcomer Hernandez. Starr walked her down at will with strikes until she found the opening for the choke in what was a total mismatch.
Combate Americas crowned their first women’s strawweight champion in the co-main event as Melissa Martinez defeated Desiree Yanez via split decision. Martinez is a homegrown star of Combate Americas and proved her toughness by coming back from adversity as Yanez dominated her in the second round. Martinez has star potential, but Yanez will be back in the hunt.
There was a lot of competition for the Mexican based promotion on Saturday. DAZN aired the boxing heavyweight title rematch between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz while ESPN aired a big UFC heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Jair Rozenstruik. Combate Americas aired on Fite.tv and had an entertaining presentation of fights with a headline-grabbing battle and some good prospects on the undercard.
Alberto El Patron’s record falls to 9-6 while Tito Ortiz improves to 22-12 with four wins in his last five fights.
-Quick Event Results
Preliminary Bouts
Jose Flores over Clarence Brown via submission (rear-naked choke) – Rd 1
Victor Martinez stopped Luis Luna via TKO (strikes) – Rd 1
Edmilson Freitas and Raymond Banda was declared a majority draw
Elias Urbina knocked out Mike Tovar via head kick at 3:14 of Rd 1
-Main Card PPV
Gaston Reyno defeated Rey Trujillo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27). This was fought at a catchweight of 150 lbs.
Dulce Garcia (Lucha Underground’s Sexy Star) defeated
Dani Barez defeated Joao Camilo via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
Levy Marroquin defeated Enrique Gonzalez via guillotine choke at 4;53 of Rd 1
Melissa Martinez defeated Desiree Yanez via split decision to become the inaugural Combate Americas Women’s Strawweight Championship
Tito Ortiz defeated Albero El Patron via rear-naked choke at 3:10 of the 1st Round
Share this:
Tito Ortiz vs. Alberto El Patron set for Combate Americas on 12/7
Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz will fight former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Alberto El Patron in an MMA bout on Saturday, December 7.
I’ll be covering the event live at http://www.gerweck.net.
Below is the press release for the big fight.
COMBATE AMERICAS, the world’s premier Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts sports and media franchise and FITE, the global digital platform specializing in premium combat sports, announced today a joint distribution agreement for the Pay Per View event.
Together, they will offer the much-anticipated, ‘Winner Take All’ showdown between two iconic combat sports legends – Tito Ortiz and Alberto “El Patrón” Rodriguez (formerly “Alberto Del Rio” of the WWE) – live from Payne Arena in McAllen, Texas, next to the U.S.-Mexico border, on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 8pm EST to audiences worldwide with English and Spanish commentary feeds.
The Combate Americas live pay per view television event ‘Tito vs. Alberto – What Side Are You On?‘ pits two iconic superstars from some of the industry’s biggest fight franchises – UFC Hall of Famer and former world light heavyweight champion, Tito Ortiz , who will face multiple-time WWE Heavyweight Champion and former PRIDE and DEEP MMA star Rodriguez of San Antonio, Texas by way of San Luis Potosi, SLP, Mexico.
The content partnership between FITE and COMBATE AMERICAS was a natural fit to deliver a world-class event. FITE CEO Kosta Jordanov said, “we’ve long admired the content that Combate Americas delivers to massive audiences and wanted to be their distribution partner when they announced this stellar attraction.”
Campbell McClaren, CEO of Combate Americas said, “Combate Americas has been consistently delivering millions of global viewers to its live streams with every one of our events, so we immediately thought of FITE when we decided to offer this premium event via global pay per view.”
COMBATE AMERICAS: ‘TITO VS. ALBERTO – WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON?’
PPV FIGHT CARD – DEC. 7TH – LIVE AT 9PM EST
CATCHWEIGHT (210 LBS.) MAIN EVENT:
Tito Ortiz (20-12-1) vs. Alberto “El Patrón” Rodriguez (9-5)
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STRAWWEIGHT CO-MAIN EVENT:
Melissa “Super Mely” Martinez (6-0) vs. Desiree “Dirty Dez” Yanez (5-1)
FEATURED FLYWEIGHT BOUT:
Dani Barez (11-4) vs. Joby Sanchez (13-5)
FEATURED FEATHERWEIGHT BOUT:
Levy “El Negro” Marroquin (12-3) vs. Enrique “Baby Bull” Gonzalez (8-3)
FEATURED CATCHWEIGHT (150 LBS.) BOUT:
Gaston “Tonga” Reyno (8-2, 2 NC) vs. Angel “Tito” Cruz (6-4)
FEATURED CATCHWEIGHT (118 LBS.) BOUT:
“Sexy” Dulce Garcia (1-0) vs. Marisol Ruelas (1-2)
FREE PRELIM FIGHT CARD
DEC. 7TH – LIVE AT 8PM EST (ADDITIONAL BOUTS TO BE ANNOUNCED)
LIGHTWEIGHT:
Jose “Luke” Flores (8-1) vs. Ismael “Marreta” Bonfim (13-3)
FEATHERWEIGHT:
Ricky “El Gallero” Palacios (11-2) vs. Jose “The Ghost” Ceja (4-5)
The WEIGH-IN for the ‘Tito vs. Alberto’ event will be streamed live on Friday, Dec. 6th AT 8pm EST from the venue via FITE, immediately following the free and global FITE in FOCUS show, starting at 6pm EST with exclusive interviews with the fighters, promoters, and surprise guests.
To ORDER the Dec. 7th PPV Event Worldwide via FITE – Click HERE – Also available via cable and satellite PPV. Check your local listings.
About FITE
FITE is the premium digital streaming platform for combat sports featuring over 1,000 premium live events per year. FITE is available globally through its iOS and Android mobile apps, Apple TV, Android TV, ROKU and Amazon Fire TV. In addition, FITE supports Chromecast, PS4, Xbox, and 7,000 models of TV sets, streaming MMA, Pro Wrestling, Boxing, Bare Knuckle and Traditional Martial Arts live events to its 2.2M registered viewers. Available online at www.FITE.tv. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and on Facebook at https://facebook.com/fitetv.
About Combate Americas
Combate Americas is the premier Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise, rapidly becoming the number two sport after soccer, for Spanish speaking fans worldwide. The Combate Americas franchise includes live event and original shoulder programming on some of the biggest television, OTT and digital platforms in Spanish and English, including Univision and Univision Deportes Network (UDN), DAZN, ESPN, GOL, Pluto TV and Facebook Watch worldwide. The company also owns and operates a multi-platform media studio, La Jaula Studios. This event is not sponsored or affiliated with WWE or UFC.
Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren, also the co-founder/co-creator of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has been described by New York Magazine as “the marketing genius behind the UFC,” while Yahoo Sports has said he “knows more about the sport than just about anyone in it today.” With an unprecedented and cutting-edge product and a blue-chip ownership and management team, Combate Americas is poised to break new ground and bring about a new era in world championship level MMA competition.
Share this:
The New UFC Legacy Championship Belt
The UFC unveiled their new Legacy Championship belt, which will be awarded to those who win title bouts and used for the duration of their career inside the octagon. The belt is customized for each individual champion by the athlete’s country and weight class. The red stones on the side plates represent each title defense.
The women’s championship belt will be slightly smaller. However, identical to the men’s belt in every other detail. Each belt comes with a plate on the backside with a unique serial number assigned to the specific champion. UFC President Dana White’s engraved signature is also included for authenticity.
The first eight countries that were home to UFC champions will represent flag iconography on the belt. USA, Canada, Brazil, Netherlands, Poland, Belarus, UK, and Ireland. Mark Coleman (USA) was the inaugural heavyweight champion.
The first belt will be presented at the UFC’s debut on ESPN+ streaming service when Henry Cejudo defends the flyweight title (125 lbs.) against bantamweight king (135 lbs.) T.J. Dillashaw. Both fighters will enter the octagon with the proceeding title belt, which the new legacy design and awarded to the winner.
The global motif of the belt is representative of a true world championship. The belt actually says “world champion,” unlike the previous incarnation. The center plate looks clunky and lacks a certain sleekness.
Overall, the new title looks very 2019 and carries an ambitious exhibit of accomplishment and celebration.
Share this:
UFC 225: Whittaker vs. Romero II Review
Over the last couple of years, I have found MMA, and more specifically, the UFC to be a complete bore. The lack of stars and divisional relevance along with the oversaturation of events has made the majority of the fights a standard affair as opposed to something special. That all changes, at least for one night, as UFC 225 from the United Center in Chicago, produced meaningful fights from top to bottom. Continue reading “UFC 225: Whittaker vs. Romero II Review”
Share this:
Backdrops and Body Slams at Fenway Park
Sometimes, I think I know how special things are until I’m immersed in the splendor of the moment. Then I realize that I didn’t have a clue. This past Sunday I was the play by play commentator for the Wrestling All-Stars of New England show at Fenway Park. I was also given an extra duty at the last minute that I had always been eager to experience. Continue reading “Backdrops and Body Slams at Fenway Park”
Share this:
Should We Buy Mayweather vs. McGregor?
It’s official, folks. The highly anticipated boxing showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is officially set for August 26 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will air live on pay-per-view, courtesy of Showtime, with a $100.00 price tag to finally see what happens when a top-level MMA fighter steps out of the cage and into the ring.
Let’s get this out of the way: McGregor only has a 1% chance of winning this fight, and, depending on who you talk to, that’s being generous. Mayweather is arguably the greatest fighter of all-time and certainly the greatest defensive fighter that has ever lived. The sweet science is imprinted in the Mayweather family’s DNA, and professionals who have trained most of their lives never came close to beating Floyd.
Continue reading “Should We Buy Mayweather vs. McGregor?”
Share this:
UFC 211 Preview: Miocic vs. Dos Santos 2
MMA content on my website has been few and far between as of late. I still follow the sport on a regular basis. Still, it’s become difficult to get excited about the fights due to an oversaturation of events that carry a decreasing amount of divisional relevance.
This Saturday will serve as a different story as UFC 211 presents a stellar main card. Two title fights, a welterweight bout that will solidify a #1 contender along with two great pairings will round out what could be the best show in years.
Continue reading “UFC 211 Preview: Miocic vs. Dos Santos 2”
Share this:
This Was The XFL: Review
Oh boy, it’s a great time to be a New England Patriots fan. They just won their 5th Super Bowl, Tom Brady is now the undisputed G.O.A.T. and the victory parade in Boston was glorious. As happy as things are right now for this pigskin fan…. Well, let me explain.
On Feb 3, 2001, I was that guy proudly wearing a NY/NJ Hitmen hat as the XFL was just hours away from their inaugural football game on NBC. I even bought an entire box of XFL trading cards thinking that I had made a smart investment that would pay off down the line.
Sadly, I’m not joking.
Do you want to know what’s really sad? Taking a story about the unmitigated disaster of Vince McMahon’s “smash mouth” football league and turning it into the ultimate puff piece where the positives are accentuated to fit a narrative that puts minimal lights on the overwhelming negatives. Continue reading “This Was The XFL: Review”
Ringside Logic 