Actually a Sports Blog

Asia Third round action will conclude in March. Currently, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are in the auto-qualifier spots  Europe Playoff semifinals: March 24th Playoff finals: March 29th The playoff winners will join Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland in the World Cup  North/Central America/Caribbean With six matchdays remaining, there's no room for error as just six points separate second (auto qualifying) from fifth (staying home). Canada, United States and Mexico are the current top three, with Mexico's goal differential v. Panama the reason El Tri's in third and Panama is currently in the playoff spot  South America With four matchdays remaining, only Brazil and Argentina have sealed World Cup spots. It will more than likely come down to the wire for the final two remaining spots, with just two points separating fourth-placed Colombia (final auto spot) from eighth-placed Bolivia  Africa The ...

Lightweight: Islam Makhachev v. Beneil Dariush If you look at the lightweight title picture, it's fairly straightforward right now.  Dustin Poirier is fighting for the title next month.  Justin Gaethje is facing Michael Chandler this weekend.  Makhachev won his ninth straight this past weekend but there's another person who's put together a seven-fight win streak, most recently decisioning Tony Ferguson: Beneil Dariush. Rather than have Makhachev wait and face the loser of Gaethje-Chandler, match him up with Dariush. This effectively means that the winner would need one more fight before fighting for the title.   Welterweight: Khamzat Chimaev v. Edwards-Masvidal loser I can understand wanting to rush Chimaev into a title shot at welterweight especially given Usman's dominance at the top of the 170 pack and the overall trend of striking while the iron is hot. However, although Chimaev's resume is impressive up to this point with a 10-0 record and all ten wins com...

Best: Buffalo Bills One of two teams with less than 100 points yielded (along with New Orleans) One of two teams with more than 200 points scored (along with Dallas) In the Middle: Kansas City Chiefs Only four teams have scored more points so far this season, but they're only ahead of three teams in terms of fewest points yielded   Worst: Miami Dolphins The only team in the bottom five of both most points scored and fewest points yielded   Best Offense: Dallas Cowboys They lead the NFL with 205 points  Worst Offense: New York Jets The have just 67 points in five games for just under two touchdowns per game Best Defense: New Orleans They've allowed 91 points in five games, or around 18 points per   Worst Defense: Washington With 186 points given up in six games, that's a little over four TDs a game   

1. New Orleans (91) 2. Buffalo (98) 3. Arizona (109) 4. Cincinnati (111) 5. San Francisco (119) 6. NY Jets/Carolina (121) 7. Baltimore (123) 8. Chicago (124) 9. New England/Denver/LA Rams (127) 10. Indianapolis (131) 11. Pittsburgh (132) 12. Green Bay (136) 13. Minnesota (137) 14. Las Vegas/Tampa Bay (144) 15. Dallas (146) 16. Atlanta (148) 17. Seattle (149) 18. LA Chargers (150) 19. Philadelphia (152) 20. Tennessee (161) 21. Cleveland (165) 22. Houston/Jacksonville/Detroit (172) 23. Kansas City (176) 24. Miami/NY Giants (177) 25. Washington (186)

1. Dallas (205) 2. Buffalo (203) 3. Tampa Bay (195)  4. Arizona (194) 5. Kansas City (185) 6. LA Rams (179) 7. Cleveland (173) 8. Baltimore (170) 9. Tennessee (166) 10. Cincinnati/LA Chargers (148) 11. Minnesota/Green Bay/Las Vegas (147)   12. Green Bay (144) 13. Carolina (143) 14. Denver/Seattle (140) 15. Indianapolis (139) 16. Philadelphia (137)  17. Washington (136) 18. New Orleans (127) 19. New England (125) 20. Pittsburgh/San Francisco (117) 21. Jacksonville (116) 22. NY Giants (114)  23. Detroit (109) 24. Atlanta (105) 25. Miami (99) 26. Chicago (98) 27. Houston (92) 28. NY Jets (67)

Prediction #1: Colby Covington to WWE Colby has a lot of things going for him if he wants to make the transition. He has the wrestling background, courtesy of two Pac-10 titles at Oregon State. And his public persona could make him a natural heel right off the bat. So maybe he gets a matchup with Roman Reigns? Or he takes on Rob Gronkowski for the 24/7 title? The possibilities are certainly out there.  Prediction #2: Holloway to Bellator The one obstacle here is that Holloway's facing Yair Rodriguez next month.  However, Max Holloway, often known as the "pride of Hawaii", could be a fairly major acquisition for Bellator, given that they've certainly been closer to putting on fight cards in Honolulu than the UFC over the years. Think about how many tickets Bellator could sell for a fight card in Honolulu if they have a fighter born in Honolulu in the main event.  But who could Bellator send to the UFC? I was thinking Julia Budd, as she'd give Amanda Nunes a sellabl...

If we just look at the MMA fights we could've gotten this year, there are a lot of fights that've been scheduled but didn't make it to the cage. 1. Donald Cerrone v. Diego Sanchez 2. Luke Rockhold v. Sean Strickland 3. Holly Holm v. Norma Dumont 4. Aspen Ladd v. Macy Chiasson 5. Aljamain Sterling v. Petr Yan 2 6. Rafael dos Anjos v. Islam Makhachev  7. Maycee Barber v. Montana De La Rosa *And dozens of others. And that's just in the UFC. Bellator has also seen two high-profile matchups fall through in the span of the last couple of months. First it was Yoel Romero v. Anthony Johnson in the opening round of the light heavyweight Grand Prix, then it was Anthony Johnson v. Vadim Nemkov in the semifinal round. So that's nine huge bouts that've fallen through since January, which begs the question of whether or not the MMA gods are pulling the strings somehow to put together a huge fight card in the coming years. My guess is that this has something to do with UFC 300...