UFC 94, Australian Open Final and Super Bowl XLIII One Wild Sports Weekend

It isn’t often that sports fans can sit down on the weekend and watch some of the biggest moments in sports history unfold in three different sports.

To kick the weekend off fight fans will be treated to the highly anticipated welterweight title fight between the current UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and the current light weight UFC champion B.J. Penn.

This will be the second fight between St. Pierre and Penn. Georges St. Pierre won the first bout via a controversial split decision.

The first round was dominated by B.J. Penn who picked Georges apart with his boxing. In the second and third rounds, George St.Pierre won them by utilizing his explosive take downs and superior wrestling abilities to score points and control B.J. on the ground.

Both fighters have improved leaps and bounds since their last meeting, particularly Georges St. Pierre.

Georges hasn’t reached the peak of his career just yet, but he is definitely riding the wave. He has compiled a 17-2 professional record and he has taken the welterweight belt from two former greats in Matt Hughes and Matt Serra.

St. Pierre has also defended the title in dominating fashion against one of the division’s top contenders in Jon Fitch.

Georges St.Pierre is a hard worker he worked as a bouncer and garbage man while studying in Kinesiology. If anyone has seen his training sessions you will see that he is a man that has a lot of focus and dedication and he brings that to the table in every facet of his life.

Despite St. Pierre’s success, he remains one of the most humble athletes on the planet, which is one of the reason’s he was voted as Canadian athlete of the year.

Georges has respect for each and every opponent he faces, never will you see him insult another opponent in pre- or post fight interviews.

He also has respect for what professional fighting really is. Georges wants to be the best at what he does, but he isn’t the kind of the guy that looks for fights outside of the octagon. He has even stated that as a bouncer he would use words more then anything else to rectify situations.

B.J. Penn, the prodigy, one of the most decorated American martial artists to fight in the UFC. Penn was the first American to win an international Brazilian Jiu Jitsui tournament and he has compiled a 13-4 mixed martial arts record.

B.J. Penn is one of the most fearless competitors in mixed martial arts today, which is illustrated by the fact that he seems to have no problems fighting up in weight classes.

He will be fighting for the fifth time at welter weight, he has also twice fought at middle weight and one of his biggest fights was in an open weight class against a 215 pound Lyoto Machida, B.J. weighed in at 187 pounds.

Although B.J. Penn hasn’t won everything outside of his natural weight class which is lightweight, he has always held his own.

Penn beat former UFC welter weight champion Matt Hughes and he beat both Gracie brothers at 185 lbs.

Penn did lose to Hughes as well as George St. Pierre at welter weight, but the matches were competitive. Against Machida who had a 30 pound weight advantage, Penn lost, that being said B.J. managed to hang around for all 3 rounds.

In the Lightweight division B.J. has been virtually untouchable where he is 9-1-1 and currently holds the lightweight title.

In the past people often questioned B.J. Penn’s dedication and focus, pretty much the opposite of Georges St. Pierre. People often felt that he showed up to fights out of shape and didn’t take his training nor his opponents very seriously.

Since Penn has been back in the UFC, he is showing a new found dedication to the sport and this new found dedication and focus is one of the reasons many fans feel B.J. might be able to upset Georges this Saturday.

Unlike St. Pierre, Penn often likes to hype his fights by talking trash to his opponents. Penn did not fail, he has called Georges a quitter and said that the UFC 94 bout is to the death.

Why is this event so big? It could be the first time a UFC fighter holds two division titles at the same time, B.J. Penn has the chance to hold both the lightweight and welterweight titles if he were to beat St. Pierre.

St. Pierre on the other hand has everything to lose this Saturday. Penn will still have a title belt win or lose, St. Pierre has to win to keep his belt.

If St. Pierre wins, he will have two wins over Penn and another title defence. That being said, there is much more to lose for Georges. If Penn wins, Georges loses the welterweight belt to a guy who fights his best in a weight class lower.

The winner of this fight will defend the title against top welterweight contender Thiago Alves.

Next up for this big sports weekend is the Australian Open men’s singles final, featuring none other then the former world number one and current number two Roger Federer and the current number one Rafael Nadal.

This match up is history in the making. Federer will be playing for his 14th slam title to tie himself up with the legend “Pistol” Pete Sampras. Nadal will be playing to become the second player to win a slam title on all three surfaces.

The only player to have won a slam on all three surfaces is Andre Agassi.

This will also be the seventh slam final between Federer and Nadal a record rivalry in itself. Not to mention the fact that 14 of the last 15 slam finals have featured either Federer or Nadal.

Although the head to head is 12-6 for Nadal, fans must not forget that 3 of those 10 wins for Nadal are on clay. On the hard courts and grass courts the Federer-Nadal rivalry is much closer.

To get an idea on how strong the rivalry between these two tennis greats really is fans just need to take and afternoon and watch the 2008 Wimbledon final.

Federer started the match off looking flat and going down two sets. Federer won the next two sets and brought the match to a fifth set. Nadal ultimately won the match in just under five hours and this final went down as one of the greatest matches in the history of the game.

Last season was a difficult season for Federer, he lost the number one spot to Nadal and he struggled with mono early in the season. Federer finished the year off strong winning the US open.

This year has started off well for Federer at the Australian open. Federer breezed through his matches with the exception of his match against Thomas Berdych where he had to battle back from two sets down.

Federer beat Del Potro and Roddick handily in straight sets to get to his 18th slam final. Federer had the luxury of winning his last two matches quickly and has been able to rest up for the upcoming final.

Nadal is coming off one of his best years on the tour so far, he won the French Open as usual and went on a 32 match win streak where he also won Queens, Wimbledon and the Rogers Cup in Canada. He also won the Olympics and took over the number one spot. 

Like Federer, Nadal breezed through his Australian Open matches. However, unlike Federer who faced a tough Berdych early on in the tournament, Nadal met his toughest opponent in the semi-finals less then 48 hours from the final.

Nadal faced his fellow countryman Fernando Verdasco in an epic battle and tournament record match that lasted over 5 hours. Both players were serving lights out and service breaks were far and few between.

Many fans and analysts are speculating that because of the marathon match Nadal had against Verdasco, the time to recover will not be enough for him to compete with or beat Federer in the final.

People must not forget who Nadal is, he is a physical specimen, he is the most athletically gifted player on the tour right now and he has a motor that is second to none. If anyone can recover from a 5 hour semi-final it is Nadal.

With Nadal’s fitness level, his warrior spirit and mental toughness there is no doubt in my mind that he will be ready to push Roger this Sunday. Whatever the outcome this semi-final match up is history in the making.

Last, but not least in this action packed weekend is Super Bowl XLIII. A match up between the NFL’s top defence in the Pittsburgh Steelers and one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses in the Arizona Cardinals.

What’s special about this Super Bowl? The Steelers have a chance to increase their already impressive Super Bowl record to 6-1. It could also be their second Super Bowl win since 2005 for the Steelers.

On the other side of the coin we have the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals until this year have not won a championship in 60 years and they are won of the biggest losers in sports history. This is their first Super Bowl appearance ever, even though the team has been around since 1898.

Each team brings a certain something to the table for Super Bowl XLIII.

The Steelers boast the best defence in the NFL and are nasty against the run.

In his last game Ben Roethlisberger showed the form he had when he won his first Super Bowl in 2005.

The Steelers bring to the table a team that relies on low scoring games with key drives that not only result in points, but also burn the clock.

The Arizona Cardinals are lead by tough veteran Pro-Bowl quarterback Kurt Warner and Pro-bowl wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin. Fitzgerald and Warner have been lights out this playoff run.

Boldin was injured early on in the playoffs and has struggled since then. However, with the two-week layoff, expect him to be in full form on Sunday.

The secret to the Cardinals success this season has been their defence. Throughout the regular season one could argue that the Cardinals had one of the leagues worst defences especially against the run.

In this playoffs not only have the Cardinals’ offence been lighting things up, their defence leads the playoffs in the turnover margin.

The Cardinals have also shown that they can shut down some of the leagues leading rushers in Michael Turner, DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Brian Westbrook.

Both Warner and Roethlisberger have won a ring before, but Warner has lost a super bowl as well. Kurt Warner knows how it feels to win and lose in the Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see which quarterback is able to handle the pressure better.

Many sceptics felt the Cardinals did not deserve to make the playoffs with a 9-7 record, because their division was so weak and they struggled so much out of their division.

The Cardinals playoff run has certainly silenced the critics. Regardless the Cardinals are the underdogs in this match just like they have been in every game they have won this post season.

Yes defence wins championships and the Steelers do have the number one defence and the Cardinals’ defence was at the bottom.

In the playoffs however, the Cardinals defence has stepped things up and are definitely more then capable of keeping the Steelers’ offence in check.

On that note, I wish everyone a great UFC 94, Australian Open, Super Bowl XLIII and most of all a great weekend.

As for my predictions, St. Pierre will win by knockout or technical knockout in the 3rd round, Federer will beat Nadal in five sets and the Cardinals will upset the Steelers by 14 points.