BTB Fest Entertainment

The Minnesota Vikings’ decision to facilitate Brett Favre’s latest ‘unretirement’ is looking better and better with each passing week. This past Sunday, Favre’s charges moved to 6-0 on the season with a wild 33-31 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens posted 21 fourth quarter points to charge back and claim the lead late, but Favre led a rally to set up place kicker Ryan Longwell’s 31 yard game winning field goal.

Minnesota has been one of the surprise teams of the season, and that fact has also enriched those who bet on NFL football. They didn’t get the money on this occasion, however, as the Ravens took the cheese as a +3 road underdog. Still, it was only the Vikings’ second loss of the year against the NFL pointspread (4-2) while Baltimore has also been solid against the number with a 4-2 mark. The cover broke a two game ATS losing streak for the Ravens.

Baltimore QB Joe Flacco got the Ravens in range for a last second game winning field goal, but Steven Hauschka’s 44 yard try went wide left. After the game, he took his miss hard:

Veteran quarterback Jeff Garcia was released earlier this week by the Philadelphia Eagles, a victim of too many quarterbacks on the roster. Now that hes no longer under contract to a NFL team, hes letting his feelings be known about another one of his recent employers–the Oakland Raiders. There may be no team in the NFL more desperate for a quarterback than the Raiders, but Garcia quickly let it be known that he has no interest in returning to Oakland in an interview with Fox Sports Radio in which he slammed the teams management and suggested that current quarterback Jamarcus Russell was in over his head.

Garcia started his comments with an observation that the team is putting too much pressure on their young quarterback. He suggested that the team is putting their hopes on Russell’s shoulders, and that hes simply not ready for that pressure mentally or emotionally:

“I have no problem going into a situation and helping a young guy out and really trying to help the team out overall more so than anything. I just feel like it’s an unfortunate situation when the entire work ethic and the entire goal of the team is really put upon one guy’s shoulder.”

In his second fight in just over a month, Frank Trigg dominated tough veteran Falaniko Vitale wire to wire en route to a unanimous decision victory at Strikeforce: Payback. Trigg looked very sharp in easily handling Makoto Takimoto in Tokyo at Sengoku 4 on August 28th, and his victory here was every bit as impressive. Trigg essentially dictated where and when the fight occurred, and Vitale had no response whatsoever. Aside from a 2nd round takedown, Vitale mustered precious little offense and spent most of the fight trying to counter Triggs sharp striking and takedown attempts. The CompuStrike stats clearly underscored Triggs superiority in the fight, giving him a lopsided 41 to 7 edge in strikes landed.

In the co-main event, Duane Bang Ludwig earned an explosive TKO win over Sam Morgan. After an evenly contested first minute, Ludwig quickly took control with a series of Muay Thai knee strikes which set up a perfectly placed bodyshot to the liver that floored his opponent. Ludwig quickly pressed his advantage and never gave Morgan a chance to recover. Still feeling the effects of the liver shot, Morgan ate another hard punch to the solar plexus and gasping for breath was forced to tap out under the barrage of strikes.

The Houston Texans have won consecutive games for the first time this season by virtue of a hard fought 24-21 victory over the visiting San Francisco 49ers. The Texans led 21-0 at halftime but fought themselves in a ball game after the Niners scored the first 14 points of the second half. The rally fell short, however, and Houston improved to 4-3 on the NFL season.

Players that bet on NFL football found the game completely irrelevant, however, as it landed right on the pointspread for a disappointing push. After covering their first four of the season against the NFL pointspread, the Niners have a loss and a push in their last two games to leave their record at 4-1-1 versus the number. Houston is now 3-3-1 ATS on the season. The 45 points scored managed to go OVER the total of 44′ by a half point.

Despite losing a big lead, Houston coach Gary Kubiak was pleased with the outcome:

“We get down, they get up and they all of a sudden grabbed the momentum of the game. But we made some big plays late and defensively Eugene made a big play so it was a big, big win.”

In what has to be one of the least difficult front office personnel decisions in sports history, Indianapolis Colts’ owner Jim Irsay has confirmed that the team will sign quarterback Peyton Manning to a contract extension that could make him the highest paid player in NFL history. Manning’s current deal will expire after the end of the 2010 season, with the final two years having been voided due to his meeting a number of performance based criteria.

You can tell that an owner is adamant about resigning a player when he tells the media that he wants to make him the highest paid player in league history, and Irsay did just that:

“You know it’s going to get done. I think it’s clear, and we’ll start on it this summer. That’s been the way we do things [to hammer out an extension when a player is entering the final year of his contract]. And it’ll be the biggest [contract] in history; there’s not much doubt about that.”

Not exactly the most advantageous negotiating position to make public that you’re committed to breaking the bank to resign a player. Then again, it’s not like Manning is a quarterback that can easily be replaced as Irsay emphasized:

UFC 92 was a high impact affair, with Rashad Evans defeating Forrest Griffin by TKO to win the light heavyweight title and Frank Mir knocking out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to claim the UFC interim heavyweight title. The event had been dubbed The Ultimate 2008 and every one of the main cards six matches ended via TKO.

While nominally taking subordinate status to the Evans/Griffin main event the most shocking result by far was Frank Mir’s second round TKO stoppage of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Nogueira was the overwhelming favorite coming into the fight and had never been stopped inside the distance during a career where hed faced the best of the best: Fedor Emelianenko (three times), Josh Barnett (twice), Semmy Schilt and Mirko Cro Cop among many others.

Mir, meanwhile, had been on the verge of a full time move to the broadcast booth before his victory over WWE superstar turned MMA fighter Brock Lesnar. The conventional wisdom concerning Mir was that hed never fully recovered from a serious motorcycle accident in 2004 and that he was essentially a shot fighter physically, emotionally and psychologically.

Gracie family patriarch and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu pioneer Helio Gracie died in early 2009 in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 95. Its impossible to overestimate his influence on martial arts, and particularly his pathbreaking role in what is now the sport of mixed martial arts. The Gracie family name will forever be synonymous with Brazilian sports, jiu-jitsu, MMA and the UFC–not only due to Helios own accomplishments but the legacy he created both by training others and through his family.

Helio Gracie began his training in mixed martial arts early, and by his teenage years was already teaching judo. While he had no problem mastering the theoretical aspects of judo, he found that many of its techniques were less effective for a practitioner with a smaller build. Along with his brother Carlos, Gracie began to work out his own fighting system by adapting many of judo’s techniques and making them more a product of leverage rather than brute strength. This led to the creation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), frequently called Gracie Jiu Jitsu in his honor.

The Green Bay Packers entered the NFL playoffs as one of the league’s hottest teams, and mounted a 21 point second half comeback to force overtime against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Things looked good when Green Bay won the toss, but only moments later their season was over after an Aaron Rodgers fumble that Karlos Dansby returned 17 yards for the game winning score.

Arizona sent much of the NFL football betting public home unhappy as well with their 6 point outright victory. The Cardinals had opened as -2′ home favorites but public sentiment favoring Green Bay had moved the line so significantly that Arizona was a +2′ home underdog by kickoff. With the victory, the Cardinals improved to 5-4 both SU and against the NFL pointspread at home this season. Obviously, the 96 points the two teams put on the board went well OVER the posted total of 48′.

Cardinals’ quarterback Kurt Warner improved his postseason record to 9-3 SU with one of the most impressive performances in league history. Warner finished with 379 yards passing and 5 touchdowns with no interceptions. Amazingly, Warner had more TD passes (5) than incomplete passes (4). After the game, he reflected on his performance:

One of the reasons that the popularity of sports gambling has skyrocketed in recent years is its accessibility. It’s easy to bet on most major sports because everyone understands the basics, which teams are good and why they win. Horse handicapping, on the other hand, is a completely different and somewhat arcane discipline. Where there are some shared concepts, success at sports betting doesn’t guarantee the same playing the ponies. Legendary sports handicapper Jimmy ‘The Greek’ Snyder was famous for killing the books with his sports plays–and giving it all back with his inept horse bets.

Were not going to suggest that the information here even scratches the surface of what you need to know to become a serious horse handicapper. There are countless books, DVDs and other media that you should check out if this is your goal. If you’re interested in simply knowing the basics so that you can enjoy a day at the track, here are some basic concepts of horse handicapping:

Gegard Mousasi looked to be on his way to a submission loss to DREAM’s self styled gator, Ronaldo Jacare, midway through the first round of their middleweight GP final match. Jacare had been successful keeping the fight on the ground, though Mousasi was able to fend off a submission. Jacare then made a fateful decision, standing up and looking for a big punch. He never knew what hit him and by the time he regained consciousness Mousasi had his hand raised as the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix champion.

Jacare tried a Superman punch over the upkicks of the lanky Mousasi, who after missing with the first nailed his second kick perfectly and left the Brazilian knocked out cold. It was the Dutch fighters 2nd upset victory of the night, as he had submitted powerful Melvin Manhouf earlier in the event.

Jacare looked awesome in quickly dispatching of tough Zelig Galesic quickly with a slick armbar. It appeared that he was well on the way to the championship before a tactical error”and a well placed kick”changed the course of the fight.