Damn, the big upset almost happened on the very first day. Duke haters would have loved it but it would have crippled many brackets. And this is why, we love watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Crazy shit always happening at any moment. Coach K. better get his team better prepared soon or it’ll be an early trip to Vegas to play some $5 video poker.

Seeing pitches like this gets me exciting about the upcoming MLB season.

Bloody nose. Check. Knee to the groin. Check. Trash talking on both sides. Check. Body check to the boards. Check. Suspensions. Check. Series tied 2-2. Check.

Best series right now. Check.

Who wants their money back? Who would not buy another boxing match after the match not living up to the hype?

After a well tuned marketing campaign to get everyone talking about this fight, we all might be scratching our head and wondering what we actually paid for.

Both fighters looked more like they played boxing on the Nintendo Wii. Faces were fairly intact. A small stream of blood was coming out of De La Hoya’s nose after the fight. They looked like they could have gone another 12 rounds. That’s not what fans wanted to see. All that for $54.99.

Suffice to say the day after chatter about the much anticpated match between the Golden Boy and the Pretty Boy was at a minimum. I don’t think fans are screaming for a re-match.

Back in the good old days of boxing when Tyson, Holyfield, and Lewis dominated the scene, we saw big mean and bigger punches. Now in the era of UFC, fans want to see hard punches, bloody, and knockout hits. It doesn’t happen in boxing anymore. Add that to the fact the heavyweight division is full of people we couldn’t name. We wanted to see as much blood as Steve Nash had on Sunday.

Maybe for boxing purist who appreciate the style of fighting and the strategy really enjoyed this fight. For the public, it did not win the fans back.

I thought Roger Clemens wanted to go to a contender. When you have more money than you know what to do with, what’s the difference between a million or two per month? He could have gone to Boston to end his career where it started. He’d make that starting five the best in baseball. They have a legitimate shot to win the World Series.

Yet Clemens finally took a staggering pro-rated $28 million contract to pitch in pin stripes. That’s $4.5 million per month and he gets days off when he’s not pitching. Just think he’ll still get meal money when he’s on the road.

This is the team that signed Carl Pavano to a four-year, $39.95-million deal, and what did they get out of it? He’s out for the season again, might have Tommy John surgery, and could be done for the remainder of his contract. It worked out to him getting $16,000 per pitch. Thinking about that kind of money for so little work makes it hard to breath for a second. Talk about stupidity and desperation for some starting pitching.

Clemens must not have wanted to pitch in the post season because at this rate the Yankees will be at home the same time as the Royals and Nationals.

Boxing’s biggest fight in a long time is tomorrow night and I’m almost considering paying an arm and a leg so I can see what unfolds live. Seeing the replay the next week just might not be satisfying enough. Charles Barkley said tonight on TNT he is pissed that Houston and Utah are going to a Game 7 cause he wants to be able to sit in the front row of this fight. He was seriously bummed out. That’s just classic.

The best idea to promote this fight was to air the four part behind the scene on HBO that looked into both fighter’s lives. I found myself riveted by how these guys live and train for the biggest fight in their career. In one corner you have the flashy and definitely not shy Floyd Mayweather. That guy is a training machine and seems to never get tired. I loved how he brings in this scared looking sparring partner and because we could not see the actual sparring session, the next thing we see is a bloody Mayweather shirt from the ass whooping he put on the poor soul. But my favorite Mayweather moment has to be when he pulls out all those $100 bills he just randomly carries in his pocket. The guy is a walking bank vault with all that cash he carries. He is young, rich, and handsome and he’s not afraid to tell you all those things more than once. People in this corner are very in your face.

De La Hoya is all business. This is the best business move ever for him. He stands to make $40 million from this fight after the pay-per-view gross is divided! He might get his ass beat but this fight will show that his company, Golden Boy Promotions, can promote a huge fight. He’s looking to the future. That payday will set him even more than he is now.

I find myself rooting for Oscar. He’s the underdog. I like his trainer Freddy Roach, who looks nothing like a boxing trainer but is a soft spoken man who really knows his boxing. People are all likeable in this corner.

If De La Hoya wins, I see a rematch that could be even bigger. If Mayweather wins, a rematch would not have the same luster because an aging De La Hoya would seem unlikely to come back and even up the series.

I’m rooting for the underdog Oscar. I sense a Mayweather victory though.