About

November 11, 1974 to ...

Favorite compliment on my writing, from my favorite MMA sportswriter Jeff Wagenheim of Sports Illustrated:

"I enjoyed your writing...I hope you continue to write about MMA...and whatever else you're passionate about. You have a nice writer's voice."

Favorite sports quote, on athletes, from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Garry Wills:

"The people in this section make art with their bodies. Their flesh is not only their instrument and their artifact, but a metaphor, finally, for spirit. They break down the ancient opposition of body and soul…they had chastened their bodies back in time through the barrier of the Fall, and we glimpsed Eden. This was how things should be."

Favorite poem, by Pablo Neruda:

Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines)

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, "The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance."

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

E-mail: karlosilverio.sevilla96@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarloSevilla

Short List

  • Favorite Athletes

    Manny Pacquiao, Muhammad Ali, John Smith, Alexander Karelin, Sergei Beloglazov

  • Favorite Sports Teams

    Boston Celtics, UP Maroons,SMART-Gilas

  • Favorite Coaches

    Phil Jackson

  • All Time Sports Moment

    "Thrilla in Manila"

  • Most Memorable Game Attended

    hmmmm

  • Most Unbreakable Sports Record

    Tommy Kearns' NBA field goal percentage

  • Ruth or Mays?

    Mays

  • Unitas or Montana?

    Unitas

  • Jordan or Russell?

    Jordan

  • Gretzky or Orr?

    Gretzky

  • Pele or Maradona?

    Pele

  • Federer or Sampras?

    Federer

  • Tiger or Nicklaus?

    Tiger

  • Petty or Earnhardt?

    Earnhardt

  • Schumacher or Senna?

    Schumacher

  • ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12 or SEC?

    hmmmm

Bulletin Board

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or to post this comment
  • John Maloul posted 3 hours ago

    John Maloul

    martin kampmann has the best shot at beating gsp other tis than ellenberger. Condits takedown deffense is too poor to challenge gsp

  • Tiffany Brennan posted 2 days ago

    Tiffany Brennan

    You're welcome, Karlo!

  • Corey Cohn posted 5 days ago

    Corey Cohn

    Nice article, Karlo. Just a couple of minor grammatical fixes.

  • Corey Cohn posted 7 days ago

    Corey Cohn

    Great work, Karlo! Very clean article. The comparisons you make between the two matchups become quite clear as the piece progresses, but I thought the fourth paragraph could use some clarification--it took me a few reads before I got it. (The fifth paragraph, in contrast, is helpfully explicit; perhaps you could find a way to merge the two? Just a suggestion.)

  • Delores Smith-Johnson posted 14 days ago

    Delores Smith-Johnson

    You're welcome, Karlo!

  • Corey Cohn posted 14 days ago

    Corey Cohn

    Ah, lucky for you Karlo, I'm only now preparing to rest up for tomorrow, so I saw this relatively quickly. Thanks for the well wishes! Here were my comments:

    Great article, Karlo. A unique look into a popular debate that applies to all sports, including and beyond MMA.

    I made several grammatical edits, but here's a sentence I wasn't sure how to fix:

    "No one can be blamed for ascribing to Jones a role-model status, for just about everyone who follows him and his exploits."

    That's not a complete sentence; what does everyone who follows him and his exploits do?

    Other than that, awesome work!

  • Corey Cohn posted 16 days ago

    Corey Cohn

    Great job, Karlo! Just a couple of questions: First, should the definition you cite in the first sentence include "of his facial muscles"? (Or maybe "of one's facial muscles"?) I assume a smile is not considered just any "lateral and upward movement," which is what your current use of quotation marks implies. (Might need to hit “The New Lexicon Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language (1993 edition)” again...)

    Second, is "psywar" a word you made up, or is it an established term? If the former, or if it's slang, perhaps it should be in quotes.

    Keep up the awesome work!

  • Corey Cohn posted 18 days ago

    Corey Cohn

    Glad to help, Karlo! And yes, I'll be sure to celebrate this weekend. :-)

  • Corey Cohn posted 18 days ago

    Corey Cohn

    Excellent work, Karlo. It's always valuable to look at sports in relation to matters much more important than matches and statistics.

    Outside of a few grammatical edits, my only suggestion pertains to the paragraph in which you directly link the children of St. Jude to MMA fighters:

    "Our sport and the people at the front, sides and hind of it are still battling for mainstream acceptance. Our disease-stricken children may not only be struggling for acceptance, but most significantly, for survival."

    Although the connection is a meaningful one, I think the sense in which you use "acceptance" varies greatly from MMA to sick children. For instance, you characterize the acceptance MMA seeks as "mainstream." It might be worth asking yourself, and clarifying in the article, what kind of acceptance are the children seeking? My guess is that you mean some kind of social acceptance.

    Oh, and this is incredibly minor, but I think you can take out the supposition that the little girl Gracie is unrelated to the Gracies; I think saying that the name is a coincidence implies by itself that there is no relation. But that's your call.

    Anyway, great job, and thanks for sharing another wonderful article!

  • Corey Cohn posted 19 days ago

    Corey Cohn

    Wow, thanks Karlo! Yup, graduation is this weekend. I don't have anything concrete set up right now for what to do after, so I'd be more than happy to resume editing your articles! :-)

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