2011 Tourney: Elite 8 Sunday Live Chat

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UFC 132 shaping up: Faber plans to beat ‘not that cool’ Cruz

Urijah Faber is a great fighter, but let's face it his trash talk stinks.� "The California Kid" is trying really hard when it comes to Dominick Cruz but he's too nice to tear into the UFC bantamweight champ.

"People are always asking 'why don't you like him?' there's a bunch of little things, but the bottomline is, I just don't he's that cool," Faber said (1:20 mark).

Faber said Cruz shouldn't be upset by that.

"I'm just being honest dude. That's the way it is," Faber said. "Get the chip off your shoulder. Who cares what I think? You're a UFC world champion, You're a young guy, you're good looking. You got the title for another four months before I swipe it from you, and life is good."

Wait a second. What happened to the trash talk? You're good looking? Come on Urijah.

That's Faber in a nutshell. He's too nice to really smash Cruz, but make no mistake, Faber really dislikes the dude. The banter leading up to the fight should intensify during the early summer.

Faber versus Cruz is the headliner at UFC 132 on July 2nd in Las Vegas. It's lining up as a pretty deep card.

From MMAWeekly's rumor page:

Dominick Cruz vs. Urjiah Faber
B.J. Penn vs. Jon Fitch
George Sotiropoulos vs. Evan Dunham
Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller
Dennis Siver vs. Matt Wiman
Ryan Bader vs. Tito Ortiz

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Yeah, we need to talk about the Bristol attendance thing

There was an elephant in the room Sunday at Bristol. Or maybe there wasn't, because if there was an elephant anywhere near Thunder Valley, we would've been able to see it from a blimp. Because, you know, there damn sure weren't many people in the stands.

After three weeks of "NASCAR is back!" rah-rah cheerleading, after Bayne and Gordon and Junior Reborn, the stunning attendance woes at Bristol ? media estimates put it at 125,000 out of 160,000, but that might be counting some people twice ? wasn't just a splash of cold water. This was a splash of cold water, followed by getting the empty bucket thrown right in your face.

This is Bristol, man! Once revered as the toughest ticket in sports, now we're looking at grandstands where you can stretch out for a nap? Come on, what the hell is happening here? Let's consider a few possibilities.

First off, simple economics. If you live far enough from a track that you can't hear it on race day, it costs a ton of money to go to a NASCAR race. Gas costs, hotel costs, tickets: they all go up, and they all add up. And while a NASCAR race is more of an experience than a sporting "event," many people are willing to trade a day or two (or more) on the road for an afternoon spent comfortably on the couch watching the race in HD.

The scheduling probably isn't a tremendous issue from an attendance standpoint. While the NCAA tournament almost certainly affected ratings -- Sports Business Daily reported a 3.9 rating overnight, a 7 percent decline from last year -- it's unlikely it had much of an impact on ticket sales.

Also, it's possible that everyone was just in bathroom/souvenir/beer lines. What? I didn't say it was likely, I just said it was possible.

So what does that leave us with? The racing itself. Longtime readers of this space know I don't have a ton of patience with the cultists of NASCAR's yesteryear. The good ol' days weren't all gumdrops and happiness and five-wide racing with Dale Earnhardt standing on the hood of his moving car, a mighty golden angel roaring for vengeance from the depths of Turn 4 at Talladega, even though that seems to be how some people remember it.

Thus, when people give the knee-jerk "it's the repave" excuse, I cringe a bit. Is it possible that a surface that allows for more passing, more late-race drama, could make for a less-interesting race?

Sure seems that way, doesn't it? The drivers like the track because it allows for passing without the possibility of getting Terry Labonte'd out of the way. The fans hate it for the exact same reason. Who's right?

Both. And neither. Look, the repave at Bristol is here. It's not going away, just like the way that certain avenging angels of NASCAR yore aren't coming back. So we deal with it, we move on. NASCAR and Bristol have to work together to give greater incentive to come to the track. Whether it's a combination of promotion, financial incentives, rules tweaks, whatever ? something has to change. Clearly, what got us here won't get us any farther.

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Fashion Ump: Trading Toronto’s throwbacks for Seattle’s

In a perfect world, we'd be able to enjoy the epic powder blue majesty that are the Toronto Blue Jays throwbacks jerseys and the mid-'90s teal goodness of the Seattle Mariners uniforms with one simple click of our remotes this year.

Alas, Uni Watch's Paul Lukas brings us the sad news that the Jays are retiring their Friday night powder blues just as the Mariners are resurrecting the alternate look that put Ken Griffey Jr.'s name on the back of many schoolkids outside of the Pacific Northwest. Though I didn't like the M's teal look as much as some did, it'll be a nice and colorful diversion between Felix Hernandez's starts.

As for the Jays: I don't even want to be around when Lloyd Moseby hears the news. Did a particularly cold winter freeze their brains up there and cause them to ditch the best throwbacks that baseball had going?

Lukas has a full rundown of every uniform and logo change ? no matter how small or ill-advised ? so go check it out. Or look at some of Fashion Ump's offseason coverage from Cleveland's Bob Feller patch to the Dodgers' Brooklyn throwbacks to Oakland's golden blast to the past to why the Padres new camo could be too realistic to the Nationals' uber-patriotic getups.

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Almeida graciously walks away from MMA

Ricardo Almeida announced through his Facebook account that after his loss at UFC 128, he was ready to hang up the gloves.

During these almost four years it has been a personal struggle to find balance between my fighting career, caring for my son who was diagnosed with autism soon after I signed a six-fight deal with the UFC, teaching at my growing Jiu Jitsu Academy and the family duties we all have. MMA is a great sport but also physically and mentally unforgiving. It is a dangerous task to step in the octagon, specially if your focus is not at 100%.

After much deliberation since my fight at UFC 128 I have decided to step away from the sport as a fighter.

Known as a BJJ ace, Almeida put together a 13-5 record in MMA. He started fighting in 2000, but took a break from MMA in the middle of the decade and returned in 2008.

What's impressive about Almeida's retirement is that he did it. This isn't an easy thing for fighters to do, especially those going out on a loss. Almeida is setting an example for other fighters, saying, "Look. This isn't easy. We need to realize that." For that measure of grace, Almeida deserves a ton of respect.

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Listen To Puck Daddy Radio for Maloney, Garrett, Perry MVP

It's a Monday edition of Puck Daddy Radio, and we're chatting about the following and much more:

? Special Guest Star 1: Dave Maloney of MSG Network and VERSUS talks to us about the New York Rangers' Cup chances and the East race.

? Special Guest Star 2: John Garrett, color commentator for the Vancouver Canucks, talks Dan Hamhuis injury, Daniel Sedin's MVP creds and the Canucks' race for the Cup.�

? Can Corey Perry win the Hart?

? Playoff Push Update.

? Question of the day: Can the Kings win without Anze Kopitar and why?

? Puck Previews.

Email your thoughts to puckdaddyradio@thescore.com.

Puck Daddy Radio is on Monday through Friday, from 1-2 p.m. ET/10-11 a.m. PT on The Score Radio Sirius Channel 98. Featuring Wyshynski and Rob Pizzo, it's your show: Calls, tweets, special guests and a ton of hockey goodness every day.

The call in number is 1-888-942-7326 (1-888-9-HARDCORE). We'll also be reading emails to puckdaddyradio@thescore.com and tweets that you send to @wyshynski and @robpizzo.

We're all about interaction here; call in, email, tweet ... we'll discuss whatever you'd like. Listen here:

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Tough talking radio host Cowherd nearly soils himself when confronted by Lesnar

There's tough guys everywhere. Internet Tough Guys otherwise known as Keyboard Warriors. Now there's Twitter Tough Guys. In Las Vegas, my radio station ESPN1100 has Telephone Tough Guys on our text line.

Make no mistake about it, it's the media that sets the example for readers, listeners and viewers. The San Diego Union-Tribune's Don Norcoss put it nicely about many sports talk-radio ( and internet) hosts:

Talk-radio host. You're paid to gab about football, baseball and basketball. You can spew vitriol toward any athlete or general manager but never show your face in a clubhouse.

Throw in mixed martial arts, that's where ESPNRadio's Colin Cowherd comes in. Cowherd does an excellent show and understands that the phony contrarian take works wonders with most listeners. Cowherd's show is based in Bristol, Conn. and he rarely has to face the athletes he critiques. Aaron Rodgers, who was blasted all season long by Cowherd, took hold of the opportunity during a post-Super Bowl interview to bust Cowherd's chops.

Brock Lesnar went one step further when he was paraded around the ESPN campus and appeared on Michelle Beadle's SportsNation show. The 6-foot-4, 275 pound former UFC champ turned back the clock to his wrestling days and scared the daylights out of Cowherd.

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