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October 30, 2008

QUINTIN HARLAN: Davis Vs. Lytle matchup needs to happen

I saw on an Internet mixed martial arts news site that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight contender Marcus Davis said he didn’t know if a fight with Indianapolis’ Chris Lytle would be worth his time.

Following their respective wins last month at UFC 89: Bisping vs. Leben from Manchester, England, both Davis and Lytle made appeals to UFC management to be put on the card for January’s UFC 93 event in Dublin, Ireland.

Davis, nicknamed “The Irish Hand Grenade,” is a wildly popular fighter in the United Kingdom. So much so that the native of Bangor, Maine, has been cheered by fans against combatants from England and France, so an appeal to UFC President Dana White was a natural move for him.

Indianapolis’ Lytle not only asked to be placed on the card in Dublin, he called out Davis to be his opponent at the show. Both fighters come from a boxing background, making a matchup between the two strikers a potentially exciting standup battle.

However, Davis said in an article with Yahoo Sports UK that he wasn’t sure about a fight with Lytle because “Lights Out” was a “gatekeeper” of the welterweight division. One line that might appear on a bulletin board around Lytle’s gym, should the fight be made, was where Davis said that he didn’t “know whether or not he deserves a fight against me.”

This may be step one in selling a fight that would be an early Fight-of-The-Night candidate, again should it be booked. But that shouldn’t be necessary here.

Davis had won 11 fights in a row before a loss in March. Lytle is one of the more respected veterans in mixed martial arts.

n n n

Moving on, there are certain things I believe when it comes to sports.

Things like: Pete Rose is a jerk. Notre Dame football doesn’t deserve half the coverage it gets. The Indiana Pacers are in year five of a 10-year hangover from the Brawl at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The Indianapolis Colts are getting older and that “championship window” people talk about is about the size of a porthole. Bobby Knight is a great basketball coach, but as far as someone with self-discipline he has a long way to go. Gene Keady should’ve just shaved his head and gone with the goatee during the days that Glenn Robinson was in West Lafayette and then stayed with that look for the rest of his tenure with the Boilermakers.

But for things I really can’t stand at sports, I turn to the “World Wide Leader in Sports.”

For some reason, ESPN thinks poker is a sport. Given its time slot (1 a.m.), I consider it a good cure for insomnia.

Other things that air on ESPN that I don’t consider sport or good television: darts, dominos, spelling bees, professional eating contests and their “acclaimed” lineup of original movies.

Also, I came to detest the word “legacy” being used in relationship to Peyton Manning during the Colts’ run to the Superbowl two years ago. I think it’s insulting that the sports media insist on talking about an athlete’s legacy while they’re still competing. Wait until they retire and then feel free to use that word ad nauseum.

Oh, and is there any Boston team they don’t ram down the country’s collective throat?

As for the Dallas Cowboys, they already get too much ink, and just by mentioning them in passing, I feel deeply ashamed of myself for giving the slightest acknowledgment that I gave them just now.

____

As for my favorite team, the Chicago Bears, I’m impressed with the development of Kyle Orton at quarterback. I realize any talk of a Bears QB doing well will soon turn to how bad he is, but for the time being the former Purdue Boilermaker is well on his way to being the most successful Chicago signal caller since Jim McMahon.

Now, as for the defense, I’ll just say I’m hoping for improvement and leave it at that, for now.

Quintin Harlan is a sports reporter for The Herald Bulletin. His column is published each Friday. Harlan can be reached at (765) 640-4835 or quintin.harlan @heraldbulletin.com.

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