Koshcheck did well to keep it a stand-up battle as he thwarted most of St-Pierre’s takedown attempts, but he didn’t have an answer for St-Pierre’s strikes. Koshcheck tried a few shots of his own, but he throws his right hand wide in a circular motion and St-Pierre just had to stay on the outside while Koscheck’s fist went whizzing past his head. Meanwhile, the challenger’s right eye was swelling more and more with each shot landed by St-Pierre and it was closed by the time the fight was over.

St-Pierre took him down after about 20 seconds of the fight, but couldn’t keep Koscheck there. The challenger managed to get St-Pierre on his back just before the first round ended. St-Pierre managed a takedown in the fourth and fifth rounds, but Koscheck also got out of them almost instantly. Koscheck attempted some head kicks, but like his punches they were wide of the mark. There was no doubt who the winner was, but the scores of 50-45 across the board made it official. With the win, St-Pierre raised his record to 21-2, while Koscheck fell to 15-5.

On the undercard, Stefan (Skyscraper) Struve (21-4) beat Sean (Big Sexy) McCorkle (10-1). McCorkle slammed Struve to the mat early and was looking for a kimura shoulder lock. Struve escaped by kicking off the wall of the cage. He then utilized a kimura sweep which got him off his back and mounted McCorkle. He unloaded with a barrage of elbows and punches and won by a first-round TKO.

Charles (do Bronx) Oliveira (14-1) suffered the first loss of his promising career to Jim Miller (19-2) as Miller took the fight to the mat as soon as possible. Miller defended an arm bar and got hold of Oliveira with a knee bar. He then won it on submission with an arm bar less than two minutes into the fight.
Mac Danzig (20-8-1) scored a stunning KO over Joe (Daddy) Stevenson (31-12). Stevenson was caught by a perfect left hook from Danzig as he charged towards him and was dropped to the canvas.

Thiago (Pitbull) Alves (18-7) earned a unanimous decision over John (Doomsday) Howard (14-6) as he showed superior technique and landed the harder shots to win all three rounds and the fight by scores of 30-27 across the board.

Joe (El Dirte) Doerksen (46-14) was beaten by close split decision by Dan Miller (13-4).
Mark Bocek (9-3) beat Dustin (McLovin’) Hazelett by submission in the first round with a triangle choke.
Jesse (Water) Bongfeldt (21-7-1) earned a draw with Rafael (Sapo) Natal (12-3-1). Two judges scored it 28-28 and one of them scored it 29-28 for Natal.

Sean Pierson (11-4) beat Matthew Riddle (5-2) by a unanimous decision in a slug-fest.
Ricardo (Big Dog) Almeida (13-4) beat T.J. Grant (16-5) by unanimous decision.

John (The Bull) Makdessi (8-0) got things started when he beat Pat (Awesomely Awesome) Audinwood (9-2-1) by unanimous decision.

It was the 57th year that the magazine has given out the award and the winner was announced on national television on Nov. 30th on the ‘Today’ show. Brees was a hero in New Orleans as he led the club to its first-ever Super Bowl championship back in February to raise the spirits of the hurricane-stricken American city.

However, the magazine article points to the fact that there’s a lot more to Brees than just playing professional football for the New Orleans Saints. He joined the club back in 2006, just a few months after the city of New Orleans was devastated by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. Brees launched a foundation to help the citizens of the city and it has worked hand in hand with about 50 local organizations and schools to help in the area recover from the storm.

Brees said that he’s learned the Sports Illustrated award goes much deeper than just honouring on-field accomplishments and that it’s also important for pro athletes to help out and give back to the community in which they live and/or play in. He added that community work is essential and that’s why the being named the recipient of the award is so special to him.

Brees becomes the fifth NFL quarterback to win the award and is also the third to win it in the past six years. Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers won it back in 1979, Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers was honoured in 1990, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots was named the winner in 2005 and Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers was the last to win it back in 2007.

Terry McDonell, who is the Sports Illustrated Group editor, said that it didn’t matter that Brees’ on-field achievements seem so long ago now because the Super Bowl took place near the start of the year. He added that it was a pretty easy choice for the magazine to name Brees the winner because of his excellent contributions to society. He said that Brees works hard all year round, not just during the NFL football season.

Brees is set to be honoured at a special ceremony on Nov. 30th in New York City with some of the past winners of the prestigious award.

But even though they’ve got two of the league’s worst records, they’re still in the playoff hunt. Arizona’s record comes as a surprise to many as they win the division the past two seasons.

San Francisco hasn’t made the playoffs since back in 2002 though and they started the season with five straight losses and were beaten by Tampa Bay 21-0 last weekend. It was the first time they’ve been shutout in a home game since 1977.

Arizona also lost last weekend as they were beaten 31-13 by Kansas City, with the Cardinals scoring their lone touchdown on the last play of the contest. Coach Ken Whisenhunt stated the team’s confidence is pretty low at the moment, especially with five losses in a row. He also knows there isn’t much time left in the season to turn things around.

Quarterback Troy Smith will start his fourth consecutive game for the 49ers as he’s taking over for a healthy Alex Smith. San Francisco beat the Cardinals both times in 2009 and is hoping to make it three wins in a row over them for the first time since back in 2003-04.

Arizona’s in the middle of its worst losing streak since they lost eight in a row back in 2006. That streak saw coach Dennis Green lose his job. If they finish the season below .500, it’ll be the first time since Whisenhunt took over.

The Cardinals’ Derek Anderson, who has eight interceptions and seven touchdown passes, said the team has to dig deep and just work its way out of their slump.

The injury list for San Francisco looks like this: Joe Staley won’t play, while William James, Joe Nedney, and Dashon Goldson are all up in the air. However, Nate Clements, Vernon Davis, Anthony Davis, Frank Gore, and Josh Morgan are all listed as probable.

For Arizona, Steve Breaston, Calais Campbell, Clark Haggans, Rod Stephens-Howling, Gregory Toler, Dan Williams, Michael Adams, Darnell Dockett, Early Doucet, Kerry Rhodes, and Reggie Walker are all questionable.

Eric Hinske is one of those guys. Hinske was another in a long list of Cubs prospects that never really got a chance here. He was traded for Miguel Cairo (Nice!) and went on to win Rookie of the Year in 2002. He’s also been to 3 World Series and won twice. He’s built a decent career, as well as an enormous tattoo on his back.

Gives a whole new meaning to going on to bigger things, but still qualifies. It’s a very cool design, but really — Banana Republic underwear?

h/t: AJC

Straight from Mom’s basement…the best of the sports blogosphere…we call it “Bloggination Domination”

• Awesome Blackhawks rally photo essay from Ricky at TUP [Tremendous Upside Potential]
• MEOW! Catfight video from the Blackhawks Stanley Cup rally [Chicago Sports Mob]
• Cubs fan has the worst haircut ever. Even though the artwork done was impressive [Midwest Sports Fans]
• Hawks players go old school — make that grade school – in making fun of Chris Pronger [Not Qualified to Comment]
• 6 World Cup coaches that look like James Bond Villains [Asylum]
• Someone might have pooped his diaper dandy. Dick Vitale got nailed by a foul ball. [Guyism]
• The Iceman may be all done. Killer UFC 115 gifs, including Cro Cop’s submission [The Cage Doctors]
• I love these Today in Sports posts from the Docksquad crew [Docksquad Sports]
• MJ did lay-ups, not lie-ups. New Michael Jordan Hanes Commercial [Pippen Ain't Easy]
• Yeah, YouTube should probably change this [PSaMP]
• So gross. Big Baby drooling all over himself. [Detroit 4 Lyfe]
• BMX dirtbike paradise…in downtown Chicago? [The Sports Bank]

Hey TMZ, we know you’re a bit new to the sports game, but c’mon — Golden Tate is a star? Just drop us a line if you need someone to look over your copy. Our consultant fees are very reasonable. Seriously — we need the work. So write back.

Major League Baseball is like most old, cemented corporations: slow to act, wary of change and quicksand-stuck in its ways. What a shame. MLB had a chance to climb out of the cave when Jim Joyce’s egregious error nullified Armando Galarraga’s perfect game. But they didn’t, and we are bound to see something like this happen again.

Phil Rogers’ latest column discusses how many of baseball’s top officials don’t want to enact change, and Rogers is right there in agreement with the archaic thought that replay would hurt baseball. Many of baseball’s top brass said that Galarraga should not have been awarded the perfect game by commissioner Bud Selig. Theo Epstein is in that camp.

“I don’t see how baseball can let that happen,” Epstein said. “Then every time a team loses a game on a blown call, there’s going to be no good reason why that can’t be overturned as well. It’s a slippery slope. It would fundamentally change the nature of the game. I don’t think you can do that, unfortunately.”

Speaking of fundamentally changing the game, wasn’t it just a few years back that Epstein paid about $50 million dollars just for the right to bid on the services of Daisuke Matsuzaka? That fundamentally changed the game, no? I suppose when it’s not Epstein’s player or the Red Sox’ money at stake then “fundamental changes” are of the utmost importance.

But not every change or action taken by baseball has to be such a drawn out, tedious chore. The failure by MLB to respond to issues in baseball’s past has been tremendously injurious to the game and the fans — racial barriers, labor agreements, steroid scandals, drugs in the 80′s and owner collusion — to name just a few. It’s really not all that difficult. Here’s all MLB had to do to fix the whole mess.

For starters, Bud Selig calls a press conference to announce that MLB is indeed awarding Galarraga his perfect game. Galarraga is there along side and Selig presents him with some sort of plaque. Maybe they could play the awesome music from “This Week in Baseball”. Then Selig announces that effective immediately MLB has instituted a new instant replay challenge system (new to them anyway) that allows managers one chance per game to challenge a fair/foul call or an out/safe call. No balls and strikes calls can be challenged.

Selig then announces that after the season MLB will convene to implement changes to the system if need be. Boom — we’re done here. Was that so hard?

The “slippery slope” that MLB and its officials are so afraid of never makes it out of the shed. There is no chance for further repercussion, nor travesties like ruined perfect games, because they actually stepped up and surgically removed the problem rather than let it fester and grow until the pain is too much to take.

MLB was also long-suffering in its refusal to enact instant replay on home run calls. Now? I haven’t read of any GM or manager that isn’t pleased with the results. They have, however, simply adapted their preferred reason for adding more replay. From Rogers’ column:

Angels manager Mike Scioscia believes baseball is getting it right by using replay only on questionable home run calls.

“There are too many plays that are close that would possibly be up for review,” Scioscia said. “It could become dysfunctional if you put it in any more than this.”

This would actually increase excitement for fans. Have you ever watched a football game after the coach throws the red flag on the field for the challenge? The ref comes out to midfield, turns his mic on and says, “The Bears are challenging the call on the field.” The place erupts! It generates electricity throughout the stadium and some of that fun tension that fans love to feel. Oh, and it can actually right a wrong.

My mother used to tell me that if you have a problem in life that you should just “chew it up and spit it out.” Pretty solid advice. Why can’t baseball do this? Why do they let everything linger until it has become too problematic? Bud Selig needs to actually lead for once and get baseball into the new millennium already.