CONTEST MECHANICS:
1. The contestant should be a registered Twitter and @tweetitow user.
2. The contestant should be following me (@joshtadena) on Twitter.
3. The trivia questions will be released every 5 PM from November 11 (Thursday) up to November 13 (Saturday) on my Twitter account (@joshtadena).
4. The first 5 contestants who gets the correct answer will get 200 @tweetitow credits each.
5. On Sunday, I will be giving away a bonus of 500 @tweetitow credits to the first one who will predict the the last round of Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito match.
4. The format of tweet should be:

TRIVIA ANSWER[space]PREDICTED END OF ROUND[space]#joshtadena

SAMPLE ENTRY:

SARANGGANI ROUND 1 #joshtadena

5. I will contact the winners via DM’s before sending the @tweetitow credits.

I will be covering Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito fight on Sunday (Manila Time) live on my Twitter via @tweetitow! Follow me and win! Good luck to everyone!

WHO R U PICKING?

Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. will lace his gloves for the 41st time facing his toughest opponent yet, the reigning WBA welterweight champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley on May 1 (May 2, Manila time) at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.

The former pound-for-pound champion will stake his unblemished record in 40 fights and step in the ring to face one of the legendary welterweights the world has ever seen. Both guys are tested champions and their clash on weekend will inch their way on fighting the hall of famer pound-for-pound boxer, Manny Pacquiao.

This fight will be very entertaining and the PPV card you wouldn’t want to miss. Both fighters can win if they capitalize their strengths and expose their opponents weaknesses.

If you’re having thoughts on whom to side on this coming weekend, let me do my job and help you, okay?

POWER

Both fighters are very good boxers but the power department is easily awarded to Sugar Shane Mosley. Mosley has fought stronger fighters in his career compared to Mayweather. Sugar Shane’s career highlight was winning both fights against Oscar De La Hoya, earning him the distinction of being the only man to beat the 6-time champ twice. Former champion Fernando Vargas also became a victim of Mosley last 2006, derailing him with two TKO stoppages. Shane will be a big threat on giving the first loss to Floyd via knockout and he knows his power is far superior. Mosley is on a roll winning knockouts on his four of his last victories including the hard hitting Ricardo Mayorga and Antonio Margarito. Shane’s card boasts of 39 knockouts in 46 wins or an 85% KO rate, capitalizing his edge in power.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not known to be brawler and will stick in his boxing skills earning points to win a fight. Floyd avoids the thinner Cleto Reyes gloves but prefers using the brands Winning or Grant to have an additional cushion in his fragile hands. Mayweather is known to handpick his opponents throughout his career. Little known fighters like Sharmba Mitchell and obviously weaker Zab Judah, Arturo Gatti and Carlos Baldomir was his victims despite the brilliant talent he possesses. Before his short two year retirement, he defeated a washed out Oscar Dela Hoya and a smaller Ricky Hatton. He came back fighting a very undersized Juan Manuel Marquez which just resulted on a lopsided unanimous decision victory. Mayweather only had one knockout victory (vs. Hatton) in his last five victories, and a small knockout percentage of 62.5% (40 wins, 25 KO’s).

EDGE: MOSLEY

SPEED

Both fighters are known to be quick inside the ring. However, I see Floyd Mayweather Jr. getting the slight upper hand in the speed department. Mayweather is not just quick, he’s agile as well. He likes to maximize the area of the ring to his advantage. He sticks to his jab really well and surprises the opponent with a crushing right cross or hook. Floyd is known to capitalize this area in all his opponents, using his speed to unleash flurries and move around the ring which makes him a hard target.

Sugar Shane Mosley is quick but Mayweather is the fastest boxer he’ll be ever fighting in his career. Shane displayed his speed versus De La Hoya in two classic fights, firing back crisper combination on a very good puncher. Mosley likes to fight inside and Mayweather will surely avoid it to happen. Floyd fights in a distance providing him a path to fire long bombs from afar and the inside fighting Shane will chase him all night long. Shane will never capitalize his speed in this fight and I’m sure, Floyd is too intelligent not to fight close with him.

EDGE: MAYWEATHER

DEFENSE

Defense will be an integral part of the fight knowing that both boxers are very good punchers. Even though Floyd Mayweather’s gloves aren’t always up all the time, I still give him an edge in the defense department. From the very start of his career, Floyd doesn’t want to get hit and successfully defending his face from damage. Floyd uses a shoulder roll defense, a style which originated from the crab stance. He uses his left shoulder as his primary tool of defense, using a short left jab to counterpunch the opponent. He’s been successful using that style for ages and still, it will be very helpful in this fight. Floyd’s defense also attributed in his distance to his opponent. He maintains a gap which is enough for him to connect his punches from a distance. Lateral movement, bob-and-weave’s and feints are also in the bag of defensive arsenals of Mayweather.

Sugar Shane Mosley is a very good boxer but his defense isn’t superb. Shane loves to exploit his speed when punching regardless his opponent but he often leaves himself open. Unlike Floyd, Shane fights toe-to-toe boxing and will resort to slugfest rather than a tactical match. He’s defense is straight up and you can’t see him doing lateral movements, bob-and-weave’s and feints. Shane’s defense is pretty decent, but it will be easy for Floyd to hit him if he’ll not improve his defense in this fight.

EDGE: MAYWEATHER

HEART

Skills can win fights but without a strong heart, you can’t be a top level division fighter. Sugar Shane Mosley picked this fight after Mayweather scrapped the fight versus Pacquiao. Shane was brave enough to call either men, but fate brought Floyd in his table. Mosley fought the best and roughest boxers in this generation and proved everyone, win or lose, that he’s heart was definitely bigger than theirs. Shane got nothing to lose and more to gain. A win with Mayweather catapults his name to the biggest draw in boxing today, which is Pacquiao. Mosley will survive 12 hard fought rounds and there’s no way Mayweather can deck him. He’ll go all out this weekend and I’m giving the heart factor to Mosley.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is fighting for pride and money. If Shane steps in the ring and successfully connects well, Mayweather is in big trouble. Floyd is known to be composed and relax when fighting but the pressure is on him right now and I believe he’ll be very nervous come fight night. Mosley is more serious now he’s been treated as an underdog in this fight. Mayweather should watch out and avoid Mosley’s fireworks especially in the late stages of the fight.

EDGE: MOSLEY

INTEREST

Boxing is a multi-billion dollar business and fights will not happen without the interest of the boxing aficionados. Manny Pacquiao only needs one name to stamp his eternal greatness, and that name is Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd bad mouthed Manny about being “too small” to fight him years back, now the full blown Filipino is favored to give the former pound-for-pound champion a beating. Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is just around the corner, and obviously, Mosley is just a hurdle to stage the most expensive fight ever in boxing history.

Sugar Shane Mosley fights only the best and he’s also joining the Pacquiao sweepstakes. Since everybody is more interested watching Pacquiao fight Mayweather, Mosley’s win is quite immaterial right now in the sense of sports and business. I’d like Mosley to see how he fares against Pacquiao but everyone who knows boxing will like to see Mayweather sharing the stage with the current pound-for-pound champ.

EDGE: MAYWEATHER

Floyd Mayweather Jr. must control the fight the way he handled his past fights. He should outsmart his opponents and maintain a certain gap which he can freely operate. Fighting toe-to-toe with Mosley isn’t a good idea; He should move well and stick to his jab and hooks to confuse Mosley. Mosley isn’t a hard target and I expect Floyd backpedal as Shane goes forward all the time. Mayweather will score easy rounds on points which will be decided after 12 rounds. The only problem Floyd will be facing is Shane’s power if he connects well. Shane can knock him out and that’s the only outcome he should keep in mind throughout the fight.

Sugar Shane Mosley can win this fight any round via knockout, the only problem is on how to land his punches on a very sneaky opponent. Shane must use effective jabs throughout the fight. De La Hoya’s jabs on Mayweather was doing great until the older man’s gas tank was emptied. He must work on his defense well and move better than his previous fights if he wants to score rounds against a tactician. Honestly, I want Shane to win in this fight to stop Mayweather’s arrogance but logically, it’s more harder for him be victorious this weekend.

FINAL VERDICT: FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR. VIA UNANIMOUS DECISION

After getting tagged by a couple of strikes on the start, Mark “The Filipino Wrecking” Machine Muñoz reversed the outcome firing back solid bombs on Kendall “Da Spyder” Grove which resulted to a TKO victory last weekend at the UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Muñoz, giving away a 6 inch height advantage to Grove, forced the fight into a ground game early on. The long limbed Grove had a series of very good sprawls, making Muñoz harder to capitalize his edge in wrestling. Grove had a very good counter uppercuts which is timed correctly on a shooting Muñoz, which dazed him in the first round. Muñoz took control of Grove’s leg for a long period of time, bringing the fight on the ground eventually. Grove had Muñoz under his guillotines and submissions, but the Fil-American NCAA Division I wrestler always popped out off trouble.

Muñoz started the second round with a renewed energy by connecting vicious hooks on stand up. Grove immediately felt the effects on Munoz’ punches, leaving him on the floor. Munoz unleashed a brutal ground and pound until referee have seen enough of punishment to call a halt.

This fight was awarded the “Fight of the Night” by UFC president Dana White and the fighters were given an additional $75,000 incentives.

Muñoz’ ground and pound is the most relentless we have seen for years. He likes the position on top of his opponent and from there, he unloads heavy punches and hammer fists to the head and body. His perfectly timed overhead right on a lying down opponent is merciless and will surely knock out anyone unconscious.

Grove is a very tall welterweight and must expose a variable height and reach advantage every fight. He is doing it correctly but his glass chin was exposed by Muñoz.

Muñoz will be a perfect fighter if he improves his kickboxing. He has no problem on the ground with his very solid wrestling background. Muñoz displayed lethal hooks but his boxing should be sharpened by learning to throw jabs, using angles and precision punching. Kicks will be a very good arsenal to work on also.

Everything he needs to learn more will be sharpened in his training ground in the Black House, so we’ll surely expect more wrecking by The Filipino Wrecking Machine next fight.

Matt Hughes successfully defeated Renzo Gracie on a third round TKO victory earning him a the place in the record books to successfully defeat two members of the Gracie clan last weekend in UFC 112 at Abu Dhabi, UAE.

After three years break from fighting, Gracie decided to finally step into the Octagon and fight former welterweight champion Hughes. Hughes felt comfortable standing up with Gracie all throughout the fight. Gracie had effective counter hooks but Hughes’ low kick proved to be more damaging.

Gracie had a difficult time bringing down Hughes and implement his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game. Hughes, who’s feeling comfortable standing up exchange, successfully ended the fight by damaging badly Gracie’s front leg with low kicks.

Gracie’s five remaining fights in his newly signed UFC contract should be enough to see if he still has game. Hughes, however, should be on his comeback trail after losses to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Thiago Alves but he’ll just spice up the division.

No more than that.

Frankie Edgar defied the seven to one underdog stature and won a close unanimous decision upset over the legendary BJ Penn and snatching the UFC lightweight title on UFC 112 at Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Penn had difficulty hitting Edgar all night long, which was a very big turning point in the fight. The grizzled challenger perfectly executed his game plan to move sideways and throw feints to confuse the heavily favored former champion.

One thing I noticed is Edgar loves to circle to the left more than his right. Penn sticked to his left hooks all night, which is a good punch, but virtually useless on a guy circling to the left. Edgar neutralized Penn’s hooks while he connected short but crisp crosses.

If Penn studied Edgar’s movements and threw more right hooks rather than his left, it could have been victorious. Edgar remained on the same game plan over and over again while Penn is not aware that he’s sticking to a style that will cost him the fight.

An immediate rematch is most likely to happen. I want to see this fighters go at it again.

Anderson Silva claimed another easy title defense via unanimous decision over submission specialist Demian Maia retaining his UFC middleweight belt last weekend on UFC 112 at Abu Dhabi, UAE.

“The Spider” started the fight with his usual slow pace and feeling the range of Maia. Silva controlled the Octagon with his superior ability in strikes on stand up while Maia desperately tries to bring the game on the ground. Upon knowing that Silva is comfortably ahead of points, he began on dancing, taunting, trash talking, making faces and lots of goofy and unsportsmanlike activity on the floor. Referee Dan Miragliotta even warned Silva a one point deduction if he remained to act crazily inside the Octagon.

UFC president Dana White walked out of the arena after getting himself embarrassed on Silva’s antics. He even prompted Silva’s manager Ed Soares to award the belt to his boy without him. At the press conference, White apologized to everyone and blasted Silva of his attitude.

Silva is undoubtedly the best pound-for-pound mixed martial arts fighter right now but the problem is this guy’s attitude. His talent is unmatched in his division and should have been the face of the sport for years now, but is now unanimously awarded the clown of MMA.

I can’t forget how he destroyed Forrest Griffin and Rich Franklin with his striking. He has faced a lot of good opposition throughout his career but recently, he started beginning to showboat and lengthen the fights instead of actually finishing it via KO. The best examples of that was his matches versus Thales Leites, Patrick Cote and this one.

UFC had a milestone last weekend for staging an outdoor arena in Abu Dhabi and Silva’s streak of 11 wins in a row and six title defenses. All went to the drain and UFC put into shame because of Anderson Silva.

White should apprehend Silva and be punished. Silva should never be a PPV header unless he proves his worth. It’s tiring to see a main bout being overshadowed by brilliant show of preliminaries. As a fight fan, I’m also unsatisfied if the fight did not end in KO.

The only reason I’ll be watching an Anderson Silva fight again is if he fights Georges St-Pierre. It’s not only fun to watch but I’m 101% sure that he’ll suffer the consequence of signing on that fight.

“When I left the game, I left something on the floor. When I retired last time, I didn’t say I was ready to quit the game.”
– Michael Jordan

Graduation means a lot to me. At last, I’ll be able to explore new things which the four corners of the classroom couldn’t teach me. I welcome myself to the real world and I’m really excited on the following days to come.

After finishing my education, I only miss one thing in college life. Not the academics, the professors nor the university itself. I miss being a sports writer. My innate love for sports brought me in different dimensions and somehow, helped me survived in my grueling battles as a student. Even though I took up computer engineering, I still want to write and express my thoughts in my favorite topic, which is sports.

I will be starting to blog again. It’s an itch needed to be scratched.

“It’s an itch that still needs to be scratched here, and I don’t want that itch to bother me for the rest of my life.”
– Michael Jordan

After enjoying a cross-post service by Posterous and reducing my blog posts from 1013 down to 95 (erasing my cross-posts from my Plurk and Twitter, retaining the readable materials), I am back to blogging.

I still have lots in mind from sports, entertainment, music, video games, movies, TV shows, tech news and more.

Let’s get it on!

“What I’m trying to do is get that last scratch in.”
– Michael Jordan

PS:
You can still follow my Twitter.