Since ESPN broadcast LeBron James’ infamous “The Decision” made-for-television spectacle earlier this summer, many journalism analysts have wondered about the expansive coverage of the superstar player and his team by the network.
Those charges became louder after the network’s website started “The Heat Index,” a special page that includes coverage by two beat writers and other columnists that far transcends anything given to any other NBA team.
During ABC college football broadcasts last week, the bottom-screen scroll at one point included only the Heat — and the point totals of its top players — among its NBA scores. ESPN did that regularly during the preseason, leading a good explanation for the backlash against the team among fans throughout the league.
But ESPN president George Bodenheimerdefended his network’s blanket Heat coverage to the Miami Herald.
“It’s a story that transcends the NBA,” Bodenheimer told the Herald. “There’s tremendous interest in the team. Fans want news and information on the Heat.”
Whatever.
It’s comments like those that are making many fans across North America feel like they are having the Heat rammed down their throats — much like the network’s overkill coverage of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in baseball.
Am I wrong on this? Or does Spurs Nation really feel like we’re getting too much Heat too soon in this season?
The basketball legend of Chris Paul really began in 2002, when as a high school senior, Paul scored 61 points in one game to honor his grandfather, who had been killed just days beforehand. After he’d scored his 61st point, Paul missed a free throw on purpose to stay at that number for the 61 years Nathanial Jones lived.
Sheldon McClellan, a senior at Bellaire (Texas) High School who is ranked the 35th-best player in his class by Scout.com, made headlines similar to CP3 earlier this week when he honored a fallen former teammate with an emotional scoring explosion of his own.
McClellan scored 56 points in Bellaire’s season opener on Tuesday, dedicating the performance to Tobi Oyedeji, a former Bellaire star who died in an auto accident last May before he got a chance to attend Texas A&M University.
A 6-5 guard who is committed to Texas, McClellan talked about his performance on High School Hoop. Click the link to read the article.
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ESPN - Antonio Margarito has fracture to face Antonio Margarito, the Mexican super welterweight beaten badly by Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night, suffered a fractured orbital bone to his face and was expected to stay in the hospital for observation through at least Sunday night, an executive with Margarito's promotions company said.
Margarito, who lost in a lopsided, 12-round decision, was taken directly to the hospital via ambulance after the fight to have cuts to his face examined. That is when the injury to his eye socket was discovered, Top Rank executive Carl Moretti told ESPN.com's Dan Rafael in an e-mail Sunday.
Margarito skipped the postfight news conference at the request of the fight doctor and people in his camp, unusual for a fight of this magnitude.
Legendary Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach was critical of the late-round decision-making of Margarito's corner, saying they should have forced a stoppage.
"There was no way I was gong to quit. I'm a Mexican, we fight until the end," Margarito said.
Pacquiao, giving away both pounds and inches, won the WBC super welterweight belt to extend his record with a title in an eighth weight class -- two more than Oscar De La Hoya's six.
"He's a very tough guy," Roach said of Margarito. "I was surprised how tough he was. He has the worst corner. They probably ruined his career by not stopping the fight."
Pacquiao turned Margarito into a bloody and nearly blind fighter with a dizzying array of punches, dominating from the opening rounds on at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The beating was so thorough that the congressman from the Philippines turned to referee Laurence Cole several times in the 11th round, imploring him to stop the fight. It went on, though, even though Margarito had no chance to win.
"I can't believe that I beat someone this big and this strong," Pacquiao said. "It's hard. I really do my best to win the fight."
Pacquiao moved up in weight yet again to take on Margarito, a natural welterweight with a reputation for ruggedness in the ring. And rugged he was, though he took a beating all night long at the hands of a faster and seemingly more powerful opponent.
Pacquiao won every round on one scorecard, 120-108, and was ahead 119-109 and 118-110 on the other two. The Associated Press had it a 120-108 shutout. Watch The Fight: Video 1
Seven weight classes. Seven titles. Manny Pacquiao proved he's an all-time great in stopping Miquel Cotto, writes Bryan Graham (CNN).
1. Manny Pacquiao cemented his legacy as one of history's greatest fighters.
With the 50th and perhaps most difficult victory of his career, Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao has chiseled his name alongside all-time pound-for-pound greats like Willie Pep, Henry Armstrong and Sugar Ray Robinson. With Saturday's 12th-round TKO of Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao captured the WBO welterweight title and became the first fighter to collect world championships in seven different weight classes between 112 to 147 pounds -- an incredible and unprecedented feat for a one-time flyweight who turned pro at a wraith-like 106 pounds.
2. The record books will read TKO 12, but Pacquiao ended this one back in the fourth.
Cotto was game early, controlling distance with the left jab and keeping Pacquiao from getting inside. It was clear the Filipino respected Cotto's punching power. Pacquiao looked more comfortable in the second round, circling the ring and penetrating Cotto's defense with straight lefts and rights. Midway through the second, Cotto lost the plot and starting trading. Pacquiao dropped Cotto in the third with a left to the body and a right hook upstairs -- and again in the fourth with a right hook and a vicious left to the jaw. Cotto was never the same again. He spent the next seven-and-a-half rounds just trying to get to the finish line -- ostensibly trying to counter-punch and box but, in reality, hovering like a fly waiting for the windshield on the freeway.
3. Pacquiao can absorb the punch of a true welterweight.
The stage for Saturday's history-making showdown was set over the past year-and-a-half with Pacquiao's three-pack of victories over David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. Each fight taught us something about the Filipino southpaw. The ninth-round knockout of Diaz revealed that Pacquiao could pick apart a larger fighter of limited ability. The ninth-round stoppage of De La Hoya taught us Pacquiao could dismantle a fighter at 147 pounds, albeit one way past his prime. The second-round starching of Hatton demonstrated what Pacquiao could do against opponents of anything but the highest caliber. Saturday's stoppage of Cotto provided an emphatic answer to the biggest question looming over Pacquiao's camp in the months leading up to it: could the Filipino stand in and exchange against a true welterweight. He could. Pacquiao took more punches than we'd seen him take against Diaz, De La Hoya or Hatton -- but was never hurt. Once self-doubt crept in and Cotto got tentative, moving backwards and releasing the pressure from Pacquiao, it was over. The Filipino's ring generalship never wavered. He was too fast, too sharp, too busy for Cotto and the result was deserved.
4. No one can doubt Cotto's courage.
You've got to give Cotto credit. A modern-day Boricua folk hero in the mold of Carlos Ortiz, Wilfred Benitez and Felix Trinidad, Cotto would sooner leave the ring on his shield than quit. His face resembled tomato pie for the second half of the fight, with blood flowing from his nose and wounds, yet he persevered. Cotto's corner man Joe Santiago, a 30-year-old greenhorn, never considered stopping it; you wonder if a more experienced trainer might have thrown in the towel several rounds earlier, once it became obvious Cotto had no chance to win. When referee Kenny Bayless stopped the action 55 seconds into the final round, it was clear this was a career-defining fight for both men. Many wondered if Antonio Margarito took something from Cotto in that dubious July 2008 stoppage that Cotto would never be able to get back. That question may have been answered Saturday in Las Vegas.
5. The countdown for Pacquiao-Mayweather is under way.
Now Pacquiao can turn his attention to his personal Everest: Floyd Mayweather Jr. The specter of a megafight between Pacquiao and Mayweather hung over the Cotto fight from the day it was announced. The millions who followed live blogs and watched on pirated Internet streams, unwilling to drop $54.95 on Saturday's fight in a recession, would happily pay that sum to see the sport's finest two pound-for-pound fighters meet in a superfight that would set the bar high for the decade soon to be known as the 2010s. Yes, they'll squabble over the money split and Pacquiao was non-committal in the post-fight interview -- but trainer Freddie Roach considers it an inevitability. "I honestly think it has to happen because boxing needs that fight," Roach told SI.com. "The best need to fight the best."
source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
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Free Complete Video Pacquiao vs Cotto – Firepower HBO and Sky Version
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Pacquiao takes out 'Hitman' Hatton in the second round 05/03/2009 | 11:47 AM
MANILA, Philippines – Manny Pacquiao knocked out Ricky Hatton with a left hook in the second round of their bout to grab the IBO light welterweight title at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday (Sunday in Manila). In the very first round Pacquiao sent the Brit down twice with stinging hooks, first with a right and then with a left.
The victory makes Pacquiao a six-time world champ in five weight divisions and keeps him as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Before the fight, sports analysts Ed Picson and Ed Tolentino were one in saying that the Battle of the East and West would be a brutal fight, but Pacquiao’s speed might once again lead him to victory and cement his reputation as the world’s pound-for-pound king of boxing.
'So easy'
Referee Kenny Bayless took one look at Hatton and declared the fight over at 2:59 of the round.
"I didn't have to count," Bayless told the Associated Press.
Pacquiao needed less than half a round to figure out the onrushing Hatton, hitting him with a flurry of punches midway through the first round before putting him down for the first time with a right hook to the head. Hatton got up at the count of eight but Pacquiao landed another flurry and dropped him again just before the end of the round.
Hatton attempted to carry the fight to Pacquiao in the second round but was mostly ineffective as Pacquiao sized him up for a big punch. It finally came at the end of the round when he landed a left cross.
"I'm surprised the fight was so easy," Pacquiao said. "He was wide open for the right hook. I knew he would be looking for my left."
'Sucker for the right hook'
Pacquiao was a favorite to win, but few thought Hatton would go easily. His only previous loss came when he was stopped in the 10th round by Floyd Mayweather Jr., and he built a career and a reputation as a tough and aggressive fighter who wore his opponents down.
But he stood no chance against Pacquiao, whose punches came straight down the middle and landed with increasing frequency as the fight went on.
"I was just doing my job," said Pacquiao, who is a national hero in the Philippines. "I always try to do my best in the ring."
Pacquiao's best on this night quickly quieted a boisterous crowd of 16,262 at the MGM Grand arena, many of them who came over from England to sing and chant Hatton's praises. They didn't even get a chance to warm up, though, before Hatton was on the canvas for the first time of the night.
"The fight was no surprise to me," Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, said. "We know he always pumps his hands before he throws a punch. He's a sucker for the right hook."
Star-studded
Martin Nievera, wearing a T-shirt designed by the late rapper Francis Magalona, broke tradition by being the first male to sing the Philippine National Anthem in a Pacquiao bout.
He was followed by pop icon Sir Tom Jones, who sang "God Save the Queen," the British National Anthem, and Fil-Am Jasmine Villegas, who sang the "Star-Spangled Banner," the US National Anthem.
The bout was witnessed by a star-studded audience that included Oscar de la Hoya, Jack Nicholson, Sugar Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, rapper Jay-Z, and Mariah Carey.
On the undercard, Mexico's Humberto Soto knocked Benoit Gaudet of Canada down early in the ninth round and then stopped him with a flurry of punches to retain his WBC super featherweight title.
It was the second defense of the title for Soto, who improved to 48-7-2 with 31 knockouts, while Gaudet fell to 20-2 after his first attempt at a major belt. - GMANews.TV
LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya came into the ring wearing old-school brown colored gloves. By the time he left the ring, he just looked old.
In one of the most stunning and completely dominating upsets in boxing history, Manny Pacquiao won "The Dream Match" by TKO victory Saturday night when De La Hoya's corner threw in the towel after the eighth round. >>> Read more & see more photos
