2011 May at BetLM

Strikeforce’s Silva Apologizes for Lesnar Comments, Eyes Barnett for Grudge Match

Strike­force con­tender Anto­nio Silva (16–2 MMA, 3–1 SF) recently made waves with a string of harsh com­ments toward some of his fel­low heavyweights. Now he wants to apol­o­gize for those remarks — well, some of them, anyway. Silva admits he recently crossed a line when ques­tion­ing the sever­ity of for­mer UFC cham­pion Brock Lesnar’s health. And his crit­i­cism of Josh Bar­nett (29–5 MMA, 0–0 SF)? Well, Silva insists some of his words were poorly trans­lated, but he’s not ready to make nice with “The Baby­faced Assas­sin” just yet. Silva’s strong opin­ions... 

Schumi Rejects Claims He Blocked Hamilton

Schumi rejects claims he blocked Hamilton Michael Schu­macher has rejected accu­sa­tions that he aided Sebas­t­ian Vet­tel and delib­er­ately impeded Lewis Hamil­ton in Spain on Sunday. Vet­tel and Hamil­ton were embroiled in an intrigu­ing bat­tle for the vic­tory at Barcelona’s Cir­cuit de Catalunya, a duel the reign­ing World Cham­pion won by just 0.6secs. McLaren star Hamil­ton, how­ever, has since claimed he was blocked by seven-time World Cham­pion Schu­macher in his Mer­cedes shortly after he had allowed Vet­tel through in his Red Bull. “I won’t speak to... 

Can Boxing’s Promotional Ceasefire Last?

It would be great to believe that the feud between Top Rank and Golden Boy Pro­mo­tions, which has pre­vented so many great fights from occur­ring, is truly over. It would be won­der­ful to believe that nice words between com­pany exec­u­tives fol­low­ing an arbi­tra­tion hear­ing ear­lier this month in a retired judge’s office will lead to the fights that box­ing fans have dreamed of watching. It would be also be ridicu­lously naive, as his­tory sug­gests that there is a bet­ter chance of CBS tak­ing back Char­lie Sheen than there is of boxing’s two largest pro­mot­ers... 

Finally Official, Georges St-Pierre’s Rounds Won Streak Ends at 33

After UFC 129, we knew Georges St-Pierre’s record streak of win­ning con­sec­u­tive rounds was over, but we didn’t know exactly when it was over. That was due to a quirk in Ontario pol­i­tics, which required per­mis­sion from the gov­ern­ment agency that over­sees the province’s ath­let­ics com­mis­sion before releas­ing the offi­cial judges’ scorecards. Nearly four weeks after the fight’s final horn blew, Richard Hus­twick, senior advi­sor, media and stake­holder lia­sion at the Office of the Ath­let­ics Com­mis­sioner, finally received that per­mis­sion and... 

Now Playing at Your Local Cineplex: UFC

Mixed Mar­tial Arts has grown beyond the small screen. As the UFC reaches new heights of pop­u­lar­ity, more and more doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ers have been turn­ing their cam­eras toward MMA to record the sto­ries of your favorite fight­ers, and this weekend’s head­liner Matt Hamill had his life adapted into a narrative film. Here are a few non-fiction MMA movies — cur­rent and clas­sic — for your view­ing pleasure. Hamill — Matt HamillMatt Hamill’s story of tri­umph­ing in col­le­giate wrestling and then MMA despite being deaf has inspired fans world­wide and,... 

Costa Relinquishes Role in Ferrari Reshuffle

Costa has relin­quished his role as Fer­rari tech­ni­cal director Fer­rari have restruc­tured their tech­ni­cal team after a dis­ap­point­ing start to the For­mula 1 season. Aldo Costa has stepped down as tech­ni­cal direc­tor “to take on new respon­si­bil­i­ties within the company”. Pat Fry becomes the direc­tor for the chas­sis depart­ment with Cor­rado Lan­zone in charge of production. Red Bull’s Sebas­t­ian Vet­tel empha­sised just how far behind Fer­rari are by lap­ping Fer­nando Alonso on his way to vic­tory in Sunday’s Span­ish Grand Prix. Vet­tel... 

Dawson Dominates Diaconu in Decision

MONTREAL —Chad Daw­son showed mas­ter­ful defense and crisp punch­ing as he scored a 12-round unan­i­mous deci­sion over Adrian Dia­conu in a light heavy­weight elim­i­na­tion bout Sat­ur­day at the Bell Centre. The bout was the co-feature to Jean Pascal’s defense of his WBC light heavy­weight title against Bernard Hop­kins, a rematch of their Dec. 18 draw in Quebec City. Daw­son (30–1) earned a shot at the Pascal-Hopkins winner. In his first fight under new trainer Emanuel Stew­ard, it was a much sharper Daw­son than the one who fought pas­sively for most of an 11-round... 

Jorge Santiago — Enter Sandman

“I have a com­pe­ti­tion with myself. If the last fight ended in the third round, this fight I want to fin­ish in the sec­ond round, and so on. I want to be bet­ter than I was before.” — Jorge Santiago When Brazil native Jorge San­ti­ago returns to the UFC for the first time in over four years this Sat­ur­day to face Brian Stann, he does so not just with a new nick­name, “Sand­man.” In fact, the man step­ping back in the Octa­gon in Las Vegas bears lit­tle resem­blance to the one last seen on the wrong end of an Alan Belcher head kick in 2006. That’s the scary part... 

Muhammad Ali Seeks Release of Iran-held US Hikers

WASHINGTON —Two Amer­i­can hik­ers held cap­tive in Iran for nearly two years have a big hit­ter in their cor­ner: box­ing cham­pion Muham­mad Ali, the self-proclaimed “great­est of all time.” Ali on Tues­day led a promi­nent group of U.S. Mus­lims in appeal­ing for the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fat­tal. The 28-year-old Amer­i­cans were taken into cus­tody along the Iran-Iraq bor­der in July 2009 and have been held by Iran­ian author­i­ties ever since. Bauer’s fiancee, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail last year and returned to the United States. Like the for­mer... 

Fading Title Hopes Worry Ferrari

Span­ish Grand Prix in 90 seconds Fer­rari fear their chances of fight­ing for the 2011 title will be over if Sebas­t­ian Vettel’s charge for Red Bull is not stopped soon. Vet­tel won four out of the first five races and leads Fer­nando Alonso, Ferrari’s clos­est chal­lenger, by 67 points. Team boss Ste­fano Domeni­cali said: “If Red Bull keep pro­gress­ing, then no doubt it (the title) will not be easy. “They are very far ahead. We know it is dif­fi­cult, but we don’t give up.” Vet­tel claimed his fourth vic­tory of the sea­son at the Span­ish Grand Prix despite...