• WEC Featherweight Championship: Urijah Faber Vs. Mike Brown
• WEC Middleweight Championship: Paulo Filho Vs. Chael Sonnen
• Lightweights: Donald Cerrone Vs. Rob McCullough
• Light Heavyweights: Mark Munoz Vs. Steve Steinbeiss
• Middleweights: Jake Rosholt Vs. Danillo Villefort
• Welterweights: Alex Serdyukov Vs. Johny Hendricks
• Featherweights: Jens Pulver Vs. Leonard Garcia
• Light Heavyweights: Tim McKenzie Vs. Doug Marshall

Credit: MMAWeekly.com

Get more WEC 36 content at Combat-Hooligans.com

With respect to safety Mike Brown, Bears running back Kevin Jones has to be the most physically ripped of all the players on the Bears squad. Even as rehabilitation from knee surgery limited his movement, Jones entered training camp looking as stalwart and impressive as ever. Still, the Bears would like to see him lose 10 pounds.

It's a request maybe more fitting for Refrigerator Perry or Cedric Benson, but per Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times, "The thinking is Jones will better be able to handle the the wear and tear of the job on his surgically repaired right knee if he's a little bit lighter."

Makes sense, I suppose. Jones is currently 228 pounds and on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. If my math skills serve me right, that means the Bears want him 218 pounds. You've got to love the California public school system.

The Bears added the former Lion back on July 15. As of now, it's uncertain whether or not Jones will be able to participate in any offseason activities. When ready, he'll likely either split time with, or back up, rookie Matt Forte. Duh.

The Canucks streamed the State of the Franchise on the website, which I watched.  Apparently because I have no life. Heh.  I'm still frightened for the Canucks next season, because really I'm a cynic at heart.  But there were three things I liked hearing quite a bit.

1. Gillis wants to pour crazy amounts of money into player development.  For a team that can't do the tank for several years and stockpile high draft picks method because of the market they're in, this makes a lot of sense.
2. They're working on extensions with Danny and Hank Sedin that they are hopeful will be finalized soon.  With all of the silly trade talk that's been flying around about them, I'm very relieved.  Yeah, the twins haven't lit it up in the playoffs yet, but I'm sure that will still happen.  I like the twins, and the fact that they drive sensible volvos, and own a racehorse, and I should really save this stuff for myReasons I Love Hockey: Danny and Hank Sedin post.  These guys are a great bargain.  They just need more offensive help.
3. Gillis seems to really want the young guys on the team to contribute and play a bigger role, and he seems content on giving some of the babies playing time.  I also loved how he mentioned one of the young guys possibly stepping up to become captain, instead of automatically giving it to a vet. (And I adore my cagey vets).  Maybe Bieksa or Kesler are drooling over that "C".

Even though Gillis is sort of an asshole, I kind of dig him.

WEC 36 is shaping up to be a good fight as well.  It will air on VERSUS on September 10th.  The card will feature a middleweight title fight with Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen, which is a re-match of a previous fight that Sonnen feel was stopped too early.  Also, Urijah Faber willr eturn and defend his belt against Mike Brown.  Also, Jake Rosholt is expected to make his WEC debut on this card.  The WEC is putting on some great cards lately and is doing it with relativley few big name fighters.

You are God over all I see You’re all I need
You alone are worthy of my praise
More than words of the songs I sing, my offering
A life of praise I bring to You today

The first line of the chorus made me think, think about God being over all we see and all we need. I never really saw God being God over what I needed before.  I know that He can take care of all my needs but I didn't realize that He is God over everything that I need.  He knows what I need and when I need it. He takes every little need I have and becomes Lord over it.  Which brings me to my next thought.  If God is Lord over all my needs then why should I worry about them.  He has everything under control. I know that is easy for me to say.  So as the song says we should give God all the praise because He does have everything under control and make our lives an offering to Him today.

You can read Mike's post about his song Ocean's Roar by clicking here.

Get more WEC 36 content at Combat-hooligans.com

WEC.TV has the details:

Las Vegas –World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC™) announced today that two world titles will be on the line on Wednesday, September 10th when the organization makes its initial foray into the great state of Florida. In the main event, WEC Featherweight Champion “The California Kid” Urijah Faber defends his title against Florida’s own Mike Brown, and in the co-featured bout, WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo “Eli” Filho returns to action to battle Chael Sonnen in their highly anticipated rematch. This championship doubleheader will take place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

WEC: FABER vs. BROWN will be televised live nationally on VERSUS beginning at 9:00 pm ET/6:00 pm PT. All live WEC events will be presented in Hi-Definition (HD) and SAP where available. For more information and how to find VERSUS in your local viewing area, visit http://www.versus.com/findversus.

The WEC events are QUALITY events and feature the lightweight fighters more than any other organization. If you are a fan of action packed fights...then you need to start watching these WEC events. Also, they are FREE if you get the Versus channel...plus it's offered in HD.

Despite the Phil's loss, Saturday still proved to be a good day in Philly. The 1st-seeded Soul defeated the Cleveland Gladiators 70-35 to advance to ArenaBowl 22. One memorable play came in the 3rd quarter, when Mike brown of the Soul was returning a kickoff. Cleveland's kicker Jason Ball dove to stop Mike Brown, but he hurdled over him and scored a touchdown. This is the first time the Soul won the division, the conference, and hopefully, the ArenaBowl.

Urijah Faber vs Mike Brown WEC 36 fight possible on September 10

whoohoo! I can't wait! I'll be home, on the couch with some wine, cheese and crackers

:)

• Featherweight Championship: Urijah Faber Vs. Mike Brown
• Middleweight Championship: Paulo Filho Vs. Chael Sonnen
• Lightweights: Rob McCullough Vs. Donald Cerrone
• Featherweights: Jens Pulver Vs. TBA
• Welterweights: Alex Serdyukov Vs. TBA
• Light Heavyweights: Mark Munoz Vs. TBA
• Middleweights: Tim McKenzie Vs. TBA

Credit: MMAWeekly.com

*As we mentioned in a prior post, Leonard Garcia would like to fight on this event.
**Jens Pulver siad in an interview with Steve Sievert of MMAJunkie.com that he thinks that Alexandre "Pequeno" Nogueira would be a good next fight for him.

Get more WEC 36 content at Combat-Hooligans.com

Faber is coming off of a five round impressive performance in his victory over Jens Pulver at WEC 34 back on June 1. Brown is a highly-regarded Featherweight, whom made his debut on that same WEC 34 show stopping former Featherweight championship challenger Jeff Curran.

WEC 36 is set for September 10 and is likely to feature a Middleweight title rematch between champion Paulo Filho and challenger Chael Sonnen.

Get more WEC 36 content at Combat-Hooligans.com

Gillis finally tendered offers to almost all of our RFAs.  I'm especially pleased about Mike Brown, Ryan Shannon, and Nathan McIver.  Mike Brown is a great energy guy to have on the fourth line, and I adore watching him fight. He's also probably too low profile for Kevin Lowe to snatch away.  Ryan Shannon is itty bitty, and might not fit into the line up, but he's speedy and skilled, and the Canucks aren't exactly bursting at the seams with those two things.  Nathan McIver is a pretty solid 7th defencemen and adds some toughness.  Since the Canucks defence seem totally against this staying healthy all at the same time thing, having guys able to step into the line up can never be a bad thing.

The more I hear about Cody Hodgson and Yann Sauve, the more I adore them.  It sounds like they're both impressing people at the prospects camp already, and they both seem comfortable in front of the media.  Cody is cute as a button, and Yann is pretty damn foxy.  Big, strong, smooth skating defencemen make me weak in the knees. 

 Check out his absolutely dreamy French Canadian accent and the interviewer joking about Yann ripping his hand off.

The newest Canucks were both invited to the World Junior Camp this summer which is totally rad.

For all the bashing of Nonis that Gillis did after taking over as GM, I sure am getting a very Nonis like vibe from him so far.  Now, maybe it's not fair to judge him until free agency is over, but he sure hasn't acted with any of the boldness he kept referencing in his press conference.  Perhaps he's starting to realize this GM thing isn't as easy as he thought.  I have liked all of his decisions in the front office (except for the extension of AV).  And I am very glad he decided to draft Cody Hodgson instead of trading for the rumoured Mike Cammellari.  I guess we'll say I'm 50/50 on Gillis

The Chad Johnson off-season soap opera has finally come to a close...at least for now. Chad just had arthroscopic surgery on his right ankle, a procedure that only figures to keep him out of action for 2-3 weeks and back in time for the start of training camp. However, the biggest news has been the comments he has made in the past few days, backing off his earlier trade demands and seemingly trying to make amends with Cincinnati.

He began by saying that his trades were not about money, although he "could use a little extra for gas." He explained that his tirades were more about him venting after a 7-9 season and about the lack of improvement the Bengals have made on defense, "Yeah it was the losing it got on my nerves." Johnson said the Bengals "have done things for me that have never really been done before. Like tearing me up (his contract) with four years left and re-doing me the first time. I've also done well by them, also." "We have a bigger issue here. Money will take care of itself," said Johnson, who has a contract here through 2011. "If I go out and continue to be way above here, then it's going to have to happen."

So Chad's complaints really weren't about the money? Really? I've been saying since day 1 that money wasn't the problem, but the recent losing and amount of blame put on Chad for it was. Turns out I was right after all.

For the first time Chad also attempted to shoulder some of the blame, saying "I wasn't right. I wasn't technical enough. Nowhere near as sound as I have been. For what a (multi) Pro Bowl veteran should be," he said. "I was very inconsistent." He goes on to say "I played very poorly," and "Even if I do mess up, I should be able to make a play. But I couldn't with the screwups I was making." A very different attitude than what we've been used to seeing out of Chad.

Finally, Chad did his best to win back the fans of Cincinnati, reiterating, "I love you Cincinnati." "I love them. I hope they understand it's just business," Johnson said. "I felt in that three-month period the best thing for me was to get out of Cincinnati. I was just going through some things and I thought it was the best move for me. Obviously not. I'm still here." CJ even had a few kind things to say about Bengals owner Mike Brown (which is a huge feet even for the most devout Bengals fans), "I did everything under the sun to get out of here," he said. "I acted psycho. I posed my case. I talked with my owner, who loves me dearly. He must. Those offers were unheard of. And he still said no. Really, I'm not that good."

The Chad Johnson from these comments is certainly a much different, much more humble guy than we've seen over the past few months, or even over the past few years. Has Chad finally seen the light and now trying to become a team player or is he just conceding defeat in his efforts to get out of Cincinnati? Honestly, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is the fact that Chad will be playing for the Bengals this season and he will continue to be the player who had led the NFL in receiving yards over the past 5-year span. Now, if the defense can finally put it together under new coordinator Mike Zimmer, Chad's final prediction may just come to fruition: "We're going to be in Tampa."

I now have to think of ways to occupy my time until hockey starts again.  Maybe I'll start watching baseball.  The Olympics are on, which should be pretty rad.  It's a good time to catch up on all the reading I never got around to while hockey was in full gear.  I'm going to the draft in two weeks, which will be totally fun.  I get to watch the rookie GM's very first draft in person.  This could be a completely delightful experience, or a completely horrifying one, so stay tuned for that.  I'll be posting here quite a bit.  I want to finish my Reasons I Love Hockey series, and I'm sure I'll have plenty to whine about on free agency day. Now that the season has ended, here are the lessons I learned this year.

1.  Matty Ohlund is definitely my favourite player.  I know it's hard to believe that this was ever in question, considering the love fest for Mr. Ohlund around here, but at the start of the season I wasn't sure who my favourite player was.  Nazzy, Trev Linden, and Kevin Bieksa were all in close consideration before it became obvious that Matty was my guy.

2.  Ryan Kesler was worth his offer sheet.  He just needed some time.  I have a hard time imagining this team without him now, and hopefully he is in Vancouver for a long time.

3.  It's possible for me to love Red Wings.  Lidstrom is amazing to watch, and I now have a full on crush on Zetterberg.  He was completely deserving of the Conn Smythe, and I kind of love how he was so excited when he won it that he couldn't put a coherent sentence together.  It also didn't hurt that he looked smoking at the victory parade, and was wearing the Conn Smythe as a hat.

4.  The Canucks d-men should perhaps go about their daily activities in a protective bubble.

5.  I still hate his team with a never ending passion, but Iginla is a classy guy.  When he lined his team up at the end of Trev's probable last game in the NHL to wish him well, it was hard to hate the guy. 

6.  The Canucks can make me drink vast amounts of alcohol, and I can still function.  Although I don't know if this is a good lesson.  Perhaps I should forget I learned this one.

7.  I love pests and I love fights that aren't the awful, staged, enforcer fights.  I could watch Alex Burrows do his thing all night, and when Mike Brown was called up, I adored watching him fight.  I also learned that I apparently have a bloodthirsty side that I was previously unaware of.

8.  I can end up having a hockey crush on a guy for a very silly reason.  Maxime Talbot's playoff beard, Nathan Paetsch from the Sabres because of his nickname "Patches", Douglas Murray because he finances a keg company and his nickname is "Crankshaft", Patrick Marleau because he's from Saskatchewan, Pavel Datsyuk because of his accent.

9.  The hockey blog scene is awesome.  I've "met" so many cool people.  I've learned so much more about hockey.  I know things about other teams that I never would have if I didn't read blogs by their fans.  I'm fond of the Sabres, Devils, Sharks, and Stars now mostly because of their fans.  I even read about the Wild, who I generally hate, because I enjoy reading Land of Lakes and Hockey by a Wild fan.  When I started The Humming Giraffe, I figured I would write about five posts, and then get bored.  But I haven't.  I'm still having fun.

10.  Even though the Canucks were pretty much horribly awful this season, I love them, and I'm with them for the long hual.

Anyway, here is a great post on TrueHoop why Mike Brown should keep his job: Click HERE. Enjoy.

2) Talk about huge for PJ Brown. His jumper in the late stages of the game was absolutely clutch. He scored 10 points in game 7 of the 2nd round of the playoffs, higher than his entire season total. Definitely an interesting decision by Doc, throwing out Brown at the end of the biggest game of the Celtics' season, but guess it worked out.

3) Cavs' coach Mike Brown hasn't exactly been the most popular coach because of his ...erm...well.."predictable" offensive strategies. It's hard to argue with the results given the lack of help for Lebron though. The Cavaliers roster isn't exactly bursting with talent, although it definitely has quality players. Brown's emphasis on defense has helped the Cavaliers thrive in shutting down opponents, and with Lebron, they always have a chance at the end of games.

4) This isn't related to Game 7 but...talk about a major reversal of public statement. Although the Lakers definitely backed off from their early optimism regarding Bynum's return following his injury, he will now have surgery on his injured left knee

BAA, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, said in a statement Bullock had chosen to leave due to a change in management roles. He will be replaced by Mike Brown, chief operating officer of London Underground.

Last month British Airways said it was parting company with two senior managers following the T5 debacle, although Chief Executive Willie Walsh has said he will not resign.

Terminal 5's opening at the end of March descended into chaos as hundreds of flights were cancelled, passengers stranded and baggage lost.

(Reuters)

Safety Chris Harris and any defensive tackle that bothered to line up next to Tommie Harris (Boonie, Ian Scott, Tank) are the most notable defensive absentees from our Super Bowl run. Sure, you could throw Todd Johnson and Cameron Worrell in for giggles, but the last three drafts and free agent signings have produced enough quality special teams players to keep that unit among the league’s best for years to come.

Barring injury, the Bears will have the best defense in the National Football League in 2008. Notice, I didn’t say, “among the best” or “top 10”. I’m talking about the absolute, hands-down, top defense in the entire mother-effin’ NFL. (On a side note, I apologize if the point was, in any way, diluted by use of the word “effin’”).

Left End

Dan Bazuin has fully-recovered from the knee injury that kept him out of play in 2007. He is the type of high-motor, try-hard player that the Bears like. Draft pick Ervin Baldwin has drawn comparisons to Mark Anderson for his pass-rushing ability. Wale Ogunleye starts. Back-ups: Dan Bazuin, Ervin Baldwin.

Right End

Last year, Mark Anderson was given the starting job but a sprained knee put him on injured reserve as the regular season came to an end. Alex Brown was impressive in all the opportunities he received in the Bears’ regular-rotation scheme. The Bears rewarded him with a new contract through 2011. Regardless of who starts, both men will see plenty of playing time. Brown starts. Back-up: Anderson.

Tackle

Tommie Harris is about to be uber-rich, son. The perennial Pro Bowler will be a mainstay in Chicago and if he can walk, he will start. Dusty Dvoracek has played in one of the 32 games since he’s been a Chicago Bear. Now, my math ain’t too good but dat must be somethin’ like 3 %. The good news is he’s healthy now. Izzy Idonije has made the permanent switch to tackle and third-rounder Marcus Harrison could make an immediate impact. Anthony Adams and Matt “Catch a tiger by its” Toeaina played relatively well last season. Harris and Harrison start. Back-ups: Dusty, Toeaina, Izzy and Adams.

Weak-side Linebacker

The biggest surprise of the offseason had to be the re-signing of Lance Briggs. I had emotionally detached myself from him in preparation for his departure. Had he gone, I might have crashed my 1997 Geo Prizm into a pole and left the scene. Luckily, no other team was biting and now Briggs is all ours once again. Jamar Williams played admirably in Briggs’ absence last year. Briggs starts. Back-up: Williams and Okwo.

Middle Linebacker

Is he or isn’t he hurt? This will be the big question about Urlacher’s health going into the season. He underwent “minor” neck surgery and battled an arthritic back but says he’s fine. I believe him, I think. Either way, he’s the man. Urlacher starts. Back-up: I don’t even know.

Strong-side Linebacker

Hunter Hillenmeyer has been solid, if not somewhat spectacular, over the course of the last few years. He’s often lost in the shuffle with Briggs and Urlacher receiving the glory, but Hillenmeyer does a great job in doing what he’s asked; taking on blocks, shedding blocks and redirecting the play to his more celebrated counterparts. Hillenmeyer starts. Back-ups: Williams and Okwo.

Cornerback

Ricky Manning, Jr. has less of a chance than the poor chap he pummeled in the Denny's parking lot of making it to the regular season. If his sub-par performance last year wasn’t enough, the emergence of Trumaine McBride and drafting of Zack Bowman should be reason enough to say “don’t let the door hit you in your ass on the way out.” Corey Graham impressed enough as a special-teamer last year to stick. Peanut Tillman and Nate Vasher start. Back-up: McBride, Bowman and Graham.

Free Safety

If Mike Brown stays healthy he will (fill in the blank). Reasonable options that cross my mind include: have a Pro Bowl season, be all over the field, decimate receivers coming through the middle and my personal favorite; carry the Bears to the Super Bowl. Mike Brown starts. Back-up: Danieal Manning.

Strong Safety

I love Craig Steltz and we will be a much better team because of him. Will he start right away? He could. But he’ll have to beat out Kevin Payne first. Payne played well in limited time and can contribute as a special-teamer, too. It’s a coin toss but I gotta go with my gut. Steltz starts. Back-ups: Payne and Brandon McGowan.

Gosh, did you really just sit through all of this bull? You deserve some kind of prize. Really, you do. Tell you what: I’m going to promise that “Blog Down, Chicago Bears” will continue to offer you the mother-effin’ (second reference) best in Chicago Bears rumors, news, analysis and opinion as long as you leave a comment or two (and I guess, even if you don't).

Special Teams up next week. Nah, eff it: Gould, Maynard and Hester start.