My Surprised Sadness when Jose Aldo Lost – June 8, 2017

First off, I’d like to thank those of you who read this blog, whether it’s frequently or irregularly, as I set a new record for most monthly views and visitors in May.

Not surprisingly, I went to the bar to watch UFC 212 a few nights ago.  The bar was pretty empty by the usual UFC fight night standards, since the main card wasn’t the most attractive to the casual observer and was actually rather thin outside of the top 2-3 bouts on the main card.  What did surprise me, however, was how disappointed and sad to an extent I felt on the drive home after watching Jose Aldo get stopped in the third round by Max Holloway.

I’ve never been a Jose Aldo fan.  That sounds harsh, but if you were to ask me to list my favorite fighters, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned him.  That said, however, I never disliked him or went out of my way to cheer against him, I was just indifferent on him.  I appreciated his talent and considered him to be among the world’s best pound-for-pound, and I do feel that he’s the greatest featherweight to ever compete in mixed martial arts.  Maybe that’s why I felt a sense of disappointment as I traveled home in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

As I’ve stated before on here, I began regularly watching the UFC and MMA as a whole in late 2008.  The first featherweight title fight I ever watched live on television was WEC 41 in June 2009, when Mike Brown defended the title against Urijah Faber.  I’ve always had a thing about cheering against a promotion’s poster boy, so I cheered for Brown to win that night and from that point on I always considered myself a Mike Brown fan.  Fast forward to November 2009, when Mike Brown squared off against Jose Aldo at WEC 44 for the featherweight title.  Aldo defeated Brown in dominant fashion, finishing Brown 1:20 into the second round, and I was blown away by how decisively he won the title that night.  That started the Jose Aldo era in MMA’s featherweight division, and without knowing it at the time, I had just watched a legend’s career really begin to take flight.

Jose Aldo, in hindsight, was really the first dominant champion in MMA whose entire tenure as champion I really got to watch unfold right in front of me.  Sure, I got to see a good portion of Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre’s time at the top of the sport, but by the time I began watching the sport regularly those two were already established as dominant champs.  They were in the middle of their long title reigns.  In the case of Aldo, I got to watch his entire tenure at the top as it was happening.  I even had the privilege of watching him fight in person at UFC 169, when he defeated Ricardo Lamas via unanimous decision.

So for me, Jose Aldo represents the first dominant champion who I was able to watch execute his top talent as it was unfolding for the whole world to see.  I wasn’t just watching highlights years after the fact like I have with fighters such as Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, and Matt Hughes.  This was an elite fighter I was watching and appreciating at the same time of the rest of the MMA community.

Perhaps I’m overthinking things.  But I was just surprised at how I felt a little disappointed to know that I had watched a historical era in the featherweight division come to an end on Saturday night.

Buckley Blog Bits – May 26, 2017

• I’m not a huge fan of the UFC making a lot of interim title fights over the past year (personally, I don’t even consider the interim title to be a real title; I look at it as a number one contender label), but I do like the UFC scheduling Yoel Romero versus Robert Whittaker. However, I really would’ve preferred to see Romero fight Gegard Mousasi, but that wasn’t going to happen with Mousasi currently exploring free agency and reportedly being unhappy with the UFC’s latest contract offer.  Hopefully the UFC keeps Mousasi, and fellow free agent Souza around, otherwise both of them would be major coups for Bellator and would leave the UFC’s middleweight division looking pretty thin.
• I love the idea of UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defending the title against ex-bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw. With the exception of Ray Borg, Johnson has practically cleaned out the flyweight division and I think someone like Dillashaw would be a great challenge for Johnson and this really would be a superfight in my opinion, even if it’s not a champion versus champion affair.
• I’ve been reading the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and I’m really enjoying it.  So much so that I received the book 4 days ago and should be able to finish it tonight.  While I don’t want to give away too much in order to be fair to the author, I’ll say that this book has really shifted the way I think about people who are successful.  Furthermore, it also supports the idea that I’ve had that successful people really aren’t that much better than the rest of the population – they just had a certain skill or trait that separated them from the rest of the pack, which gave them an opportunity of which they capitalized on.  When you really think about it, anyone can be successful, it’s just a matter of finding that unique opportunity.

Buckley Blog Bits – May 22, 2017

• You really couldn’t have scripted a better Bellator debut for Rory MacDonald. I was hardly surprised at the fact MacDonald won decisively over Paul Daley on Friday, but I’ll admit that had he lost I wouldn’t have been that surprised.  We’ve seen a few high profile free agents join Bellator and then be underwhelming in their debut, but that certainly wasn’t the case for MacDonald.  As I stated last week, I’d really prefer to see him face Douglas Lima instead of Lorenz Larkin for the title in the next few months because that matchup intrigues me more than a showdown between two former UFC welterweights.
• It’s time for Bellator to crown a new heavyweight champion. Cheick Kongo became the winniest heavyweight in Bellator history on Friday (he’s gone 9-2 in Bellator), and I think it’s time that Bellator finally finds someone to face him for the vacant heavyweight title.  As I said last week, I’m in favor of seeing the winner of Fedor Emelianenko/Matt Mitrione face him for the vacant title.  But if Bellator ever decided to go another route, because they are signing a lot of aging legends lately, I’d be somewhat okay with seeing Bellator bring in Mirko Cro Cop to fight Kongo for the heavyweight title.  As bizarre as this might sound at first, Cro Cop could make sense because he is on a 7 fight winning streak and he recently defeated one of Bellator’s poster boys King Mo Lawal back in December en route to winning the Rizin Open-Weight Grand Prix.  But otherwise, I’d prefer to see Kongo face the winner of Emelianenko/Mitrione, or maybe even face King Mo Lawal for the vacant title since Lawal did defeat Kongo in a superfight back in February 2015 and has defeated the likes of Rampage Jackson and Satoshi Ishii in heavyweight fights over the past few months, which in my opinion makes Lawal a qualified candidate to fight for the vacant Bellator heavyweight title.  Regardless, however, Bellator really needs to aim to crown a new heavyweight champion in my opinion because for a major MMA promotion to lack a heavyweight champion for as long as they have is a bit ridiculous in my opinion.
• I commend the WWE for trying something different with Jinder Mahal as champion. I honestly have not watched the WWE regularly for a little over a year now (I still watch the pay-per-views when I have the time, since I do have a WWE Network subscription because I like the old episodes of WCW Monday Nitro and their documentaries), but I’m unsure how much I like putting the title on Mahal right now.  It’s nothing personal against Mahal, but it’s just hard to comprehend him as champion when it was literally 6 weeks ago that he was jobbing to the likes of the Big Show, Big Cass, Cesaro, and Mojo Rawley on television and at house shows.  Had the WWE spent a few months building him up with a winning streak then I’d probably like this more than I do at the moment, but I’m curious to see where they go with this.
• I finally started my book project.  For at least for a couple of years, I’ve wanted to write a psychology book based on my life experiences and my interpretations of what I’ve learned over the course of my studies.  I’d like to publish it before 2019, so I’m under a bit of a time crunch, but I look forward to writing it and really getting my message out there.

Buckley Blog Bits – May 18, 2017

I’m going to cover a little bit of psychology and a little bit of MMA in today’s edition.  I’ll start with the psychology part first.

Work/Life Balance

I prefer to keep my work life separate from my home life, so I enjoy having a quality work/life balance.  So much so that whenever I’ve received a promotion at work, I’ve always made it clear to my employer that having time away from the office is a must for me.  This isn’t because of a lack of love for my job, but rather it’s because I recognize that I need adequate time to recharge my mental batteries to ensure that I’m able to perform my best on a daily basis.  Plus…I tend to be a bit of a workaholic if given the opportunity, so I like to make it clear that once I leave the office every night that I’m turning work “off” until I come back the next morning.

Whether you’re a segmenter (someone who sets clear boundaries between work and home) or an integrator (someone who combines the two), it’s important to find the style that works best for you.  While there’s no “right” way to be, I prefer segmentation for the reasons stated above.  But I do happily integrate the two when the situation calls for it, but I try to keep that to a minimum.

Bellator 179

The winner of tomorrow night’s Rory MacDonald/Paul Daley fight is slated to take on the winner of Douglas Lima/Lorenz Larkin later this year.  Personally, I’d really rather see Rory MacDonald versus Douglas Lima at some point rather than some combination of a rematch of Douglas Lima/Paul Daley, Lorenz Larkin/Rory MacDonald, or Lorenz Larkin/Paul Daley.  Sometimes it’s hard to decipher how good a non-UFC fighter really is, but I think that a matchup between Lima and MacDonald would give great insight to how good Lima really is.  Even with his UFC departure, MacDonald is viewed as a top five welterweight, and Larkin is viewed at least as a top 15.  A win over Larkin for Lima, and then a showdown with MacDonald would really allow the MMA community to get a better idea of how talented Bellator’s welterweight division is in relation to the UFC’s welterweight division.

So ultimately, I’m cheering for Rory MacDonald to beat Paul Daley.  Not only for the reasons I stated above, but also because I’m a fan of MacDonald’s and I’m eager to see how he does for Bellator.

In the co-main event of Liam McGeary/Linton Vassell, I’m hoping to see Vassell win.  I’ve never been completely sold on McGeary, even if he did have a title reign as Bellator’s light heavyweight champion, so I think Vassell pulls off the win here.  I’m unsure of what’s next for the winner of this fight, whether it’s facing the winner of Phil Davis/Ryan Bader for the light heavyweight title at a later date or facing King Mo Lawal in a number one contender matchup, but I’d like to see Vassell win here.

I think Cheick Kongo defeats Augusto Sakai to continue his “reign” as the unofficial Bellator heavyweight champion (or at least in my mind he is, since Bellator took the title away from Vitaly Minakov last year due to a lack of title defenses).  I’d really like to see Kongo fight for the vacant title at some point, possibly against the winner of Fedor Emelianenko/Matt Mitrione, because I think it’s a tad ridiculous that Bellator hasn’t crowned a new heavyweight champion after stripping Minakov of the title after not defending the title since April 2014.

Finally, I hate how Bellator puts some of these international cards on tape delay.  I would much rather have the option of seeing this card live as it happens, even if that means I’d have to possibly duck out of work early to catch it live.  I know that I can avoid the internet and social media to avoid spoilers before I watch, but I’d just rather know that I’m watching the fight unfold live and spontaneously in front of me.

What’s Next for Stipe Miocic?

With his first round knockout victory over Junior dos Santos on Saturday night, I feel that Stipe Miocic has become the greatest heavyweight champion in the history of the UFC.  While he still needs to defend the title for a third time to set the new record for most title defenses during a single reign, the way he has quickly dispatched Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem, and dos Santos in a combined 9 minutes and 36 seconds makes up for the fact that he’s tied with 4 others for the longest heavyweight title reign in the promotion’s history.  But on that note, who’s next for Miocic to face? Let’s take a look at the options:

Cain Velasquez

Former champion Cain Velasquez is my first choice to face Miocic, but the big question here is whether or not Velasquez is able to remain healthy enough to face Miocic because Velasquez has a history of being injury prone.  But if Velasquez does indeed fight Miocic, I think he’d be Miocic’s biggest test and the winner of this fight would be the undisputed best heavyweight in the promotion’s history.

Winner of Alistair Overeem/Fabricio Werdum

I’m not wild about Overeem or Werdum getting a rematch so soon, but the heavyweight division lacks depth at the moment and the winner of this fight would be the next best option to face Miocic.  Overeem did give Miocic a quick scare in their fight at UFC 203, so I’d rather see Overeem face Miocic again instead of Werdum if it was up to me.

Brock Lesnar

I know this seems farfetched, and I know Lesnar is retired from active MMA competition. But when you really think about this, I think it’s not quite as farfetched as it seems.  It’s no secret that the new ownership group needs to make their money back, and if they were to bring Lesnar back to fight for the title immediately it would be sure to generate a lot of interest, pay-per-view buys, and most importantly, a lot of revenue.  I’m not necessarily a fan of the idea of bringing Lesnar in to get a title shot he hasn’t actually earned, but I’m just saying it wouldn’t shock me to see the UFC go this route.

The Rest of the Heavyweight Division

Of the heavyweights I didn’t highlight, the one I’d want to see fight Miocic most is Francis Ngannou.  But he needs another big win before he’d really have earned a title shot.  Ben Rothwell hasn’t fought in over a year, and is coming off of a loss to dos Santos, so he should be out of the discussion for now.  Josh Barnett is coming off of a win over Andrei Arlovski back in September…but he’s only fought once over the last 16 months and is 2-2 in his last 4 fights.  Derrick Lewis is on a 6-fight winning streak, but he hasn’t beaten a big name that would catapult him into the title shot picture, although that would change if he defeats Mark Hunt when they meet.  Mark Hunt is coming off of a loss to Overeem, and needs to string together some wins to get a shot at the title.

So in summary, my preferences for Stipe Miocic’s next opponents are as follows: Cain Velasquez, or the winner of Alistair Overeem versus Fabricio Werdum.  The rest of the division just hasn’t quite earned the next shot at Miocic in my opinion.

Is Stipe Miocic on the verge of becoming the best UFC Heavyweight Champion in History?

Stipe Miocic might be on the verge of becoming the greatest heavyweight champion in the history of the UFC.  Now, while it should go without saying that the greatest heavyweight in the history of mixed martial arts is Fedor Emelianenko.  After all, the former PRIDE heavyweight champion has wins over the likes of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Mirko Filipovic, Mark Hunt, Tim Sylvia, and Andrei Arlovski.  But unfortunately, Emelianenko has never fought in the UFC, so the debate of who the greatest UFC heavyweight champion in history is still up for debate.

If he was able to stay healthy for a prolonged period of time, I’d actually say that Cain Velasquez is the best heavyweight champion in the history of the UFC.  At his peak and when he’s healthy, Velasquez is an absolute beast.  But he’s won and lost the UFC heavyweight title twice.  He won it by beating Brock Lesnar, lost it to Junior dos Santos in his first title defense, won the belt back from dos Santos a year later, defended it against Antonio Silva, defended it against dos Santos, and then lost it to Fabricio Werdum.  All in all, he’s 4-2 in title fights with 2 successful defenses.  But unfortunately, he’s pretty injury prone.

But let’s take a look at the current champion, Stipe Miocic.  Miocic has a record of 16-2.  He won the title last year on May 14, 2016 with a first round knockout of Fabricio Werdum.  He proceeded to successfully defend the title back in September against Alistair Overeem.  With a successful title defense over Junior dos Santos on Saturday night, he suddenly ties the record (held by Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, and Velasquez) for most title consecutive title defenses in the UFC’s heavyweight division at….2.

There’s never been a dominant long-term champion in the UFC’s heavyweight division.  With a win, and a decisive win at that, over Junior dos Santos, I think that Miocic makes a great argument for being the best UFC heavyweight champion in the promotion’s history.  In my opinion, he’ll have beaten arguably better competition than Randy Couture did (when he beat Pedro Rizzo twice), or Tim Sylvia did (wins over Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson) during their “long” title reigns.  But I think you can make the argument that Lesnar and Velasquez’s competitors were of equal or greater talent than Overeem and dos Santos (Lesnar beat Frank Mir and Shane Carwin; Velasquez beat Antonio Silva and dos Santos)

In heavyweight title fights, Randy Couture has the most wins with 6.  But he’s 6-3 in heavyweight title fights.  A win over dos Santos makes Miocic 3-0.  The only other fighters to go undefeated in UFC heavyweight title fights are Bas Rutten and Josh Barnett, who lost the title due to retirement (Rutten) and a positive drug test (Barnett).  After those two, Brock Lesnar has the best winning percentage in UFC heavyweight title fights at 3-1 (.750).

While I know it might be an unpopular opinion, I think that Lesnar, Velasquez, Couture and Miocic might be the four best heavyweight champions in the UFC’s history.  If Miocic wins against dos Santos, and then proceeds to knock off another top contender (maybe Velasquez if/when he’s healthy?) then I think that ends the discussion and Stipe Miocic should then be considered the greatest heavyweight champion in the UFC’s history.

Buckley Blog Bits – May 9, 2017

I was reading some articles on Psychology Today this morning, as well as making some more progress on the psychology book I’m hoping to publish in late 2018, and wanted to share some of my thoughts.

• I’ve always felt that helping others with their problems, or even simply just talking about similar problems with one another, helps you because it helps you realize that you’re not alone with your problems and anxiety. Plus it facilitates discussion between you and another person, and gives you an opportunity to brainstorm and strategize while coming up with new coping strategies.
• When you’re faced with adversity, remember that it actually comes with several benefits:
  • Adversity builds resiliency in you
  • Adversity prepares you to achieve your goals
  • Adversity helps you keep things in perspective
  • Adversity gives you an opportunity to learn.
• Remember that in every negative experience, there’s a positive lesson to be learned. Sometimes it’s not always obvious, and sometimes it’s up to you to dig deep to find it, but it is in there somewhere.

It sounds cliché, but you’re really not alone with your anxiety and adversity.  Everyone experiences both at some point.  The difference is in how you react and perceive it.

I Was Overthinking about Overthinking…

I feel like I overthink things sometimes.  Some friends would tell you I overthink things a lot, maybe even most of the time.  Personally, I think it’s more a case where I like to see things from various perspectives because I’m an open-minded person.  But it got me thinking (maybe even, overthinking?) about the topic of overthinking.  So I decided to take a look at what causes us to overthink.

From what I’ve gathered, there’s three main reasons why we overthink things.  The first is a lack of confidence, which causes us to second guess ourselves.  When you’re confident in your ability to do something, your thinking becomes rather automatic and you don’t overthink something before doing it.  Quite frankly, you probably barely think at all in these cases.  But when you lack confidence, it causes you to really second guess yourself, which leads to overthinking something which might actually be pretty basic.

The second reason we overthink is due to a lack of experience.   Experience makes you more mature, and consequently makes you more confident.  As you gain more experience and confidence, your “need” to overthink things becomes greatly reduced.

The third reason that we overthink is due to the desire to be perfect.  Perfectionism is just a waste of time, because it’s impossible to be perfect.  It’s inevitable that things will not always go our way.   You could try to argue with me that a pro boxer, such as former super middleweight and light heavyweight champion Joe Calzaghe who retired with a record of 46-0 was perfect.  However, upon further examination he wasn’t (for the record, I was a Calzaghe fan, so I’m not picking on him).  It’s not as if we won every single round he fought.  It’s also not as if he didn’t taste defeat at some point in his career, because he did reportedly lose 10 amateur fights before he turned professional.  No matter what it looks like on the surface, no one is perfect.  So stop trying to be.

So in the end, remember this.  The first key to breaking your overthinking habit (which is, just a habit, which like all habits can be broken through practicing new habits) is to gain experience.  It’s normal to feel anxiety and a lack of confidence when trying something new, but take the risk of trying something new without torturing yourself with overthinking.  It’s a waste of time and mental energy.  With that newfound experience comes newfound confidence, which will lead you to reduce the amount of time spent overthinking.

Blue Jays Prospects to Keep Tabs On – Revisited

Toward the end of the 2016 season, I posted a three-part series on Toronto Blue Jays prospects who were ranked outside of the organization’s top 30 that I felt were worth keeping an eye on.  Of the 20 unranked prospects that I made a note of, 3 have worked their way into the organization’s top 30 on MLB.com (RHP Jordan Romano – 23^rd, 1B Juan Kelly – 24^th, and OF Jonathan Davis – 29^th).  While it’s too early for me to produce a good, quality list of those outside of the 2017 Top 30 Prospects rankings who I think you should be keeping an eye on, I thought I’d revisit and provide an update on the ones from my list from last season.

10 of the 20 who made my list are currently on a roster in the Blue Jays farm system, with 9 others apparently penciled in to play in a short season league later this summer.  I’m unsure on the whereabouts of RHP Jeremy Gabryszwski as he doesn’t show up on any roster, nor have I seen any news about him being released or injured, so I can’t confirm his status with the organization.

 

Let’s start with Buffalo:

Jason Leblebijian: Last year at a game in Binghamton, Conner Greene told me “this guy,” meaning Leblebijian, “is gonna be a big leaguer!”  While that does remain to be seen, the 25-year old third baseman who was drafted in the 25^th round in 2012 has adjusted well to AAA.  He’s cooled off a bit from the hot start he had, but he’s finished April hitting .333/.480/.587 with 4 doubles, 4 homers, 15 RBIs, and 2 stolen bases.

Christian Lopes:    Drafted in the 7^th round in 2011, I feel like the 24-year old Lopes is sort of a forgotten infield prospect in the farm system.  He finished April hitting .275/.310/.363 with 4 doubles, 1 homer, 8 RBIs, and 3 stolen bases.

 

Moving on to New Hampshire:

Jonathan Davis: The 24-year old outfielder, selected in the 15^th round of the 2013 draft, posted a slash line of .254/.390/.381 in the month of April to go along with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 5 RBIs, and 1 stolen base.

Shane Dawson: Like most of New Hampshire’s starting rotation, he’s had a less than ideal start to the season as the 23-year old Canadian lefthander, taken in the 17^th round of the 2012 draft, finished April with a record of 1-2 in 4 starts to go with a 5.48 ERA, a WHIP of 1.30, and an opposing batting average of .273.

 

Moving on to Dunedin:

Connor Eller: The 23-year old righthander taken in the 22^nd round of last year’s draft has done well in the bullpen for Dunedin thus far, posting a 2.45 ERA in 7.1 innings of work to go along with a 1.36 WHIP and a .185 opposing batting average.

Juan Kelly: Last year, I felt this 22-year old switch hitting first baseman was one of, if not the best, hitters in the system that no one was talking about.  He finished April hitting .267/.327/.378 with 7 doubles, 1 homer, and 8 RBIs for Dunedin.

Conor Panas:  The 24-year old outfielder from Toronto, taken in the 9^th round of the 2015 draft, spent a good portion of April on the disabled list. In his 8 games of duty, he’s posted a slash line of .207/.324/.310 with 1 homer, 2 RBIs, and 1 stolen base.

Jordan Romano: The 24-year old righthander from Markham, taken in the 10^th round of the 2014 draft, posted a record of 2-0 in 4 starts (plus 1 bullpen appearance) to go along with a team leading 3.47 ERA, WHIP of 1.59, but an alarming opposing batting average of .293, which is a stark contrast to the .191 opposing average he had last year with Lansing.

 

And Finally, looking at Lansing:

Bradley Jones: If I had to choose only one prospect on this list so far this year to really keep an eye on, this would be the guy.  The 21-year old slugging first baseman taken in the 18^th round of last year’s draft has done nothing but hit, and hit homers since he was drafted.  He finished April hitting .372/.415/.674 for Lansing to go with 4 doubles, 2 triples, 6 homers and 23 RBIs.  He’s leading the team in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging, triples, home runs, RBIs, and total bases.  Furthermore, he finished April leading the entire Jays’ farm system in homers (although tied with Dunedin’s Max Pentecost), RBIs, and slugging percentage.  The Jays might already have Rowdy Tellez, Ryan McBroom, and Juan Kelly (and even the C/1B/DH Max Pentecost) ahead of him, but be sure to keep an eye on this prospect’s progress.  In his first 83 professional baseball games (split between Bluefield and Lansing) he’s hit .313/.357/.604 with 22 doubles, 3 homers, 22 homers, and 78 RBIs to go along with 16 stolen bases.  Prorated for a full 144 game season, that’d come out to 38 doubles, 5 triples, 38 homers, and 135 RBIs.  Don’t sleep on this prospect at all.

Nash Knight: The 24-year old infielder who’s seen time at first base, second base, and designated hitter in 2017, was signed as an undrafted free agent.  He finished April hitting .257/.422/.257 to go along with 2 RBIs and 1 stolen base.

Buckley Blog Bits – April 30, 2017

Yesterday’s boxing heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko had to be one of the most exciting heavyweight title fights in ages.  Heading into it, I was prepared for anything because of the fact there were so many variables, and I really had no clue what to expect.  Is Klitschko finally old? Or would Klitschko be able to return to his vintage form? Is Joshua as good as advertised? Or is Joshua overhyped? Would it be exciting? Would it be dull? Would there be some sort of judging or refereeing controversy? Could it even end in a draw? I just had to sit there and watch things play out, and that was a great feeling.

While I did get to watch the fight live, I was unfortunately relegated to watching the fight on my phone in a crowded bar with friends (who had next to no interest in watching the fight), so I wasn’t able to give the fight my complete undivided attention until the fourth round or so.  At the time of the knockout, I had Klitschko up 95-93 on points after the 10^th round, but I would’ve had Joshua up 103-102 after 11 had Klitschko been able to survive the 11^th round without getting knocked down again (after rewatching the fight this morning, without the distractions that come from being at a bar with friends, I had it scored 94-94 after 10 because for some reason while watching the fight live I gave Klitschko the 3^rd round, but after re-watching it that was clearly a round for Joshua, so I really would’ve had Joshua up 104-101 after 11).

When Joshua came out with guns blazing in the 5^th round and knocked Klitschko down, I really thought that maybe this was the end for Klitschko.  But much like Hulk Hogan in the 1980s, when it looked like he was down and out it was just the time for Klitschko to make his comeback.  I couldn’t believe the way Klitschko rallied and seemed to turn back the clock from that point on.  From that point on, I was glued to my phone, and I really started to wonder if perhaps Joshua couldn’t handle going into the deeper rounds and if Klitschko would in fact wear the younger fighter down.  I gave Klitschko every round between the 6^th and the 9^th, and even the 10^th round was a pretty close round which I narrowly gave to Joshua.

I’m really not sure who I was cheering for to be honest with you.  Even though I wasn’t Klitschko’s biggest fan in his prime, mainly because of his questionable level of opposition in some of his fights, there were moments I did find myself rooting for him to pull off the upset yesterday.  But there were moments too where I was rooting for Joshua to complete the changing of the guard atop the heavyweight division.  Overall, it was an entertaining fight to watch and I wish heavyweight boxing, and combat sports in general, could be like that more often.

There’s several options out there for Anthony Joshua to fight next.  There’s a possible rematch with Klitschko, which I am interested in seeing at some point, but I’m not 100% sure I want to see it immediately and I don’t need to see it.  It’s not due to a lack of competitiveness in the fight yesterday, because yesterday was a great fight and worthy of a rematch at some point, it’s just that I’d rather see some other matchups first.

The big fights to make are Joshua against the lineal and The Ring magazine heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, and against the WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.  But there’s also a potential bout with WBO champion Joseph Parker, or the WBA mandated challenger Luis Ortiz, and the IBF mandated challenger Kubrat Pulev.

Really, what I’d love to see next for Joshua is a showdown with Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder.  That’s taking nothing away from the other fighters I mentioned, but I would just rather see Joshua face the lineal champion Tyson Fury in an all-Britain matchup which would be sure to be a major event.  If not Fury, then I’d rather see him face Wilder, who I think would be a better quality of opposition than Parker, Ortiz or Pulev.

As for Klitschko? I don’t think he needs to retire, because quite frankly he looked better yesterday than he did versus Tyson Fury.  But he really has nothing left to prove in my opinion because he ruled the heavyweight division for 10 years.  I’d be interested in seeing his career continue if he wants to continue fighting because he’s still one of the best heavyweights in the world in my opinion, but he doesn’t need to.  His legacy as one of the all-time greats has already been cemented.