Sports
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November 8, 2010
Velasquez awarded UFC heavyweight title Christian Dougherty Staff Writer
Former UFC heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar, put his belt on the line against current champion, Cain Velasquez, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on October 23. This fight is considered the best heavyweight bout to occur in UFC history. Both Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar were victorious in their last fights. At UFC 110 in Australia, Cain Velasquez knocked out MMA legend, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and at UFC 116, Brock Lesnar submitted a heavyhanded fighter in Shane Carwin. With these great and hard fought victories, both Velasquez and Lesnar were ready to go to war for the heavyweight title. In round one of the fight between the two heavyweights, Brock Lesnar came out very aggressive and surprisingly even charged Velasquez with a flying
Kristian Daugherty
Contributing Writer
Cue the “Imperial March.” Send in the “Man in Black.” Use whatever cliché you feel like. Because it’s time for the start of the NBA season, and with that, time for the Miami Heat debut of “King” LeBron James. Or maybe we should start calling him “Prince.” Ever since his ill-advised television special, “The Decision,” a show where the once-beloved savior of the NBA announced that he “was taking his talents to South Beach,” LeBron has seen his Q-rating drop faster than President Barack Obama’s. It’s gotten so bad, that in Cleveland, the city that LeBron spurned back in July, a local radio talk-show host brought a witch doctor into the studio to put a hex on James. You know what they say, “heavy is the head that wears the crown.” I guess it was too heavy for LeBron. LeBron was once the most beloved figure in all of basketball. He was the ultra-talented heir apparent to Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest basketball player of all-time, and he was nicknamed “King” of the NBA before even playing a game in the league. He was the savior of basketball in Cleveland, a local kid from nearby Akron, who was going to lead the cursed Cavaliers franchise to the Promised Land. But instead, James may have blasted the Cavaliers into basketball oblivion,
knee. Lesnar managed to take Velasquez down to the mat, but Velasquez’s great wrestling skills allowed him to spring back up. After Velasquez got up from the mat, it seemed that Velasquez had Lesnar in a whole lot of trouble. As soon as Velasquez started to pinpoint his strikes, it looked like Lesnar could no longer handle the stand up of Velasquez. Lesnar was then dropped by Velasquez who landed several punches while Lesnar was trying to cover up. Velasquez then started to land even more punches to the face of Lesnar. It was becoming more evident that Lesnar could not handle Velasquez. Soon after, referee Herb Dean stopped the fight and Cain Velasquez was
choosing instead to play his basketball in Miami with close friends, NBA superstar Dwayne Wade, and wannabe superstar Chris Bosh. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have an issue with LeBron’s decision. If I was a twenty-five year old multimillionaire with the opportunity to play basketball with two of my closest friends, I’d probably choose Miami over Cleveland too. The real issue here is the way he handled the entire situation. Going on national television to announce that you were leaving Cleveland for Miami without first telling the Cavaliers was tantamount to taking your dog out back and shooting him in the head without telling your children why you did it. It was an indefensibly stupid act - just another in a long line of poor decisions made by ego-driven, out of touch athletes. Maybe he didn’t understand what he was doing to the Cavaliers or the city of Cleveland when he went on the air and verbally castrated them in front of millions of people. Maybe it was because he was surrounded by yesmen and hangers-on that were either too afraid or too blind to tell LeBron that was doing was wrong. But it was. Or maybe LeBron knew exactly what he was doing. After all, it’s a lot easier to be the villain than it is to be the hero. It’s a lot easier to be the antichrist than it is to be the messiah.
awarded t h e TKO victory over Lesnar. Velasquez completely demolished Lesnar and showed the entire world that he is the true Heavyweight Champion in MMA with his win over such a tough opponent. Now that Cain Velasquez has the UFC belt, a lot of heavyweights in the UFC division will try and dethrone the current champ. Cain Velasquez’s next fight will be against a dangerous fighter named Junior Dos Santos. He poses a legitimate threat to Velasquez because Dos Santos has great boxing skills and knockout power in his hands.
When you’re the villain nobody cares if you fail. In fact, they root for it to happen. Sure, maybe they’ll bust your chops for a couple of days if you have a bad game, or maybe you’ll have to deal with some overzealous hecklers when you play on the road. But when you’re the villain, there is nobody to disappoint. There’s no pressure to be
perfect, or good,
or right, all the time. You can just go out and play basketball with your buddies and not have to worry about saving a city or saving a franchise, or being a role model. You can just be a man, and maybe that’s all LeBron ever wanted. That’s really the tragedy of it, because LeBron could have been so much more than just a man. He could have been an icon with a legacy that would have lasted for all-time. His could have been the name whispered alongside Jordan, Wilt and Russell. Now, he’ll forever be known as Dwayne Wade’s sidekick, the Robin to Wade’s Batman. Make no mistake, no matter what he does down in South Beach, Miami will always be D-Wade’s town, and the Heat will always be D-Wade’s team. Maybe that’s okay with LeBron, and if he wins a ring or two, or three, I’m sure it will be. Most of us would do almost anything to have our names live on forever, to be immortal. LeBron James had that opportunity, and in the end, he chose to be man, and that is something that we cannot accept.