So this is it, the last episode of the season, the episode that determined an opponent for Damarques Johnson at the Ultimate Finale.

The show opened with Henderson having a rib dinner with Team US and talking war wounds with Frank Lester. Lester says he doesn’t want cauliflower ears, but Henderson says he likes them.

Bisping also has dinner with his team, though on a different night it seems, and after he leaves Andre Winner tosses some curry at Dean. Dean proceeds to toss Winner in the pool, and then Dave Faulkner hits him with a face full of flower. Everyone had a good English laugh, but that toss into the pool seemed rough on the ribs and could have turned out poorly.

The episode revolves around Frank Lester, who is fighting James Wilks in a rematch of the fight that cost him his front teeth.

I’ll admit that I couldn’t stand Lester in the lead up to his first fight, but he has grown on me. He proved that he has a ton of heart, and in this episode he explained that he doesn’t have the anger he had in his first fight. Lester said that he usually hates his opponent and can’t relax but he got to know Wilks and thinks he is a good guy. The two are shown talking about Lester’s daughter and signing each other’s jerseys.

The fight itself starts off strong for Lester who I think won a very close first round. After that though, it became obvious that he had taken a beating in his last few fights (this was his 4^th in 34 days). Lester slowed down and while still stuffing every takedown attempt; he couldn’t gain the advantage striking. By the third round James was beating him to the punch (literally and repeatedly) and eventually put him away with multiple knees to the head.

Throughout the fight James seemed to be mocking Lester a bit, which angered Team US, especially Damarques Johnson. Personally I think that when you know your opponent gets sloppy when emotional it’s just good sense to try and push his buttons.

Lester was upset about the loss and the loss of financial security for his daughter. But based on how Dana White was gushing over Lester’s fighting spirit, I doubt this is the last time we see him in the octagon.

The show closed with the coaches having a few choice words to the camera about one another. Bisping felt Henderson underestimated his team, and that he was going to smash him since his time has passed. Henderson said that the show has motivated him to beat Mike, who is a nice guy sometimes but can only be categorized as a douche bag.

Overall, I must say, this has been one of the best seasons yet. The show wasn’t full of house nonsense; it simply showcased a bunch of guys focused on fighting (and Jason Pierce) set within a healthy international rivalry. While I am excited for the all heavyweight season coming up, I hope they revisit this format and we see Team Brazil, Team Canada and Team Japan.

So that is all for this season, but follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/RaysMMAThoughts where I will be posting my thoughts about the Finale as it happens.

The courts confirmed late Monday evening that Jim Balsille’s US $212.5 million dollar offer to purchase the struggling Phoenix Coyotes franchise had been rejected.

After a long and strenuous series of legal rallying, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman once again came out victorious in what can only be speculated as his personal grievance with the co-CEO of Research in Motion, billionaire Jim Balsille.

Judge Baum, the official overseeing the case, conferred that there would not be an appropriate amount of time to sort out the large web of issues involved in relocating the team to Hamilton. At least not by Balsillie’s self-imposed end-of-June deadline.
More after the jump!

It was week two of the semi-final fights, and I must say it was a fun but simple episode all about the fights.

This week saw two of the last three fights to determine who would compete on the season finale.

First up was Cameron Dollar from Team US vs Andre Winner from Team UK. The fight saw Andre Winner win due to the fact that he was simply better than Dollar in all aspects, his striking was crisp and he was able to repeatedly stuff Dollar’s shot. The end came when Winner was taken down but landed in the mount and rolled it into a triangle choke to finish in the first round.

The second fight was Ross Pearson of Team UK vs Jason Dent from Team US. I must say the editors fooled me this week. When we saw Ross dislocate his shoulder in practice and have it fixed Martin Riggs style, I assumed it would factor into the fight.

It did not.

More after the jump!

This week was the beginning of the semi-finals and started with the coaches meeting with Dana about the fights. Both guys didn’t see a need to meet with the fighters since they could agree on all the fights, but Dana wanted to anyway. All the discussions went fine and then Cameron Dollar said he wanted to fight his teammate, Jason Dent.

This gives Dana the idea that they should have teammate vs. teammate to ensure the finale is guaranteed US vs UK. The coaches disagree completely, Bisping says “they” are worried about not having a guy in finale, which causes Hendo to laugh and say he must mean Dana when he says “they”. Dana tells them not to say anything to their guys.

Dana announces the fight and decided to leave it with US vs UK, to Dan Henderson’s obvious surprise. The semi-finals are Damarques vs Nick, Cameron vs Andre, Ross vs Dent and Wilks vs Lester.

More after the jump!

I know I have missed a few weeks, but let’s get caught up before the semi-finals.

So if you haven’t been watching, you have missed: the steady rise of Damarques Johnson as Team USA captain, Michael Bisping getting under his skin, Team UK getting along great and Team US’s feelings towards one another changing after every loss or win.

In Episode 5 Andre Winner from Team UK beat Santion Defranco in convincing fashion. Once the fight moved to the ground Santion turtled the same way he did in the qualifier, but this time Winner didn’t let up and the red stopped the fight in the 1^st round.

Following this fight Team US’s morale was at an all time low, and when a fight almost broke out in the van after training, Henderson had to be called in to lay down the law as if they were children. In contrast to this, Team UK had a fun day playing on the trampoline back at the house.

The second fight of the episode was Damarques Johnson vs Dean Amasinger and in a weird twist, Bisping didn’t show up to corner Amasinger. Johnson won the fight with a triangle choke in the first round. If you recall from the elimination bouts, Dean was almost caught in a triangle repeatedly in his fight.

More after the jump!

I know I have missed a few weeks, but let’s get caught up before the final qualifier to the semi-finals.

So if you haven’t been watching, you have missed: the steady rise of Damarques Johnson as Team USA captain, Michael Bisping getting under his skin, Team UK getting along great and Team US’s feelings towards one another changing after every loss or win.

In Episode 5 Andre Winner from Team UK beat Santion Defranco in convincing fashion. Once the fight moved to the ground Santion turtled the same way he did in the qualifier, but this time Winner didn’t let up and the ref stopped the fight in the first round.

More after the jump!

The Playoffs have destroyed my sleeping patterns, my love life, and my ability to functionally put more than a few sentences together. In that spirit, let’s roll out a Conference Semi-Finals Edition of the Amble Tangents, also known as Imaginary Player’s Ramblings.

• If Kanye’s beast of a song, “Amazing,” is the official theme to the playoffs, why have I heard more from U2 and Rob Thomas than Mr. West on every single ABC broadcast? Is Mike Breen one of the many 808 haters?

• Best thing I can say about the Hornets performance this spring: at least it wasn’t as atrocious as the reimagining/defacement of Deadpool in Wolverine. In fact, I am pretty sure that by the end of Game 5 Chris Paul was searching for a magic adamantium bullet to wipe his memory of the disgrace that was their playoff “run”.
More after the jump!

Game 2 Review here.

As usual, Trev does a phenomenal job with it. Derek Fisher…who knew? (Umm, everyone who has watched the playoffs the last decade. Oh, ok. Well, them. But who else?)

What does everyone think of renaming the site “Blake Posts Trevor’s Stuff” ?? Because I certainly haven’t done anything else for a while…

Here is T’s Game 1 review – Yao is so hood.

As the NBA Playoffs push forward, the participants become ever fewer. One team’s ascension to the next round must logically correspond with another’s fall. As the vanquished head home for the summer and begin organizing their respective golf vacations, The On Deck Circle will pay our respects and give each team its last rites via the running segment “Now on the Tee…” Up next, the Utah Jazz.

Someone get Ty Pennington on the phone. We have an extreme makeover to get to out in Salt Lake City. “MOVE THAT BUS!”

This offseason will not bring simple décor upgrades or furniture reshuffling for the Jazz. Major remodeling and restoration will be necessary to see them reach any kind of meaningful success next year.

Sticking with this (painful?) home reno analogy, at least the Jazz have an excellent foundation (Deron Williams) upon which to build their house for the future. Just how the rest of the current structure is brought into whatever model rises next November is still to be seen.
More after the jump!