Queens Finest

Stephen Marino has a montage for Queens Finest.

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Diving Icons: Casio G-Shock

The Blue Collar Dive Watch! Today I?d like to honour a legend in diving, and nearly every other sport and outdoor activity, a true worker?s friend – the Casio G – Shock. From The Days When Digital Was King In the Eighties and Nineties, digital displays adorned every available surface on any product that could [...]

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Scrambling Mt. Temple

This past week in the Canadian Rockies, enough snow has fallen at high elevations and the daytime temperatures have remained cool enough that scrambling season has clearly ended. Sure, any summit is accessible any time of year, if you’re a black-belt mountaineer. But a patina of snow and/or ice makes a long, steep, rough scramble [...]

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Night Jumps

Note: the post below includes facts about night jumps along with a significant amount of personal opinion from someone who didn’t enjoy the experience so much. Though I do still recommend people do them, especially if you want to get your D license, but more for the experience of it. You never know, you might [...]

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Shane Carwin out of UFC 125 bout with injury

UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin announced via his own website today that he has pulled out of his UFC 125 bout with Roy Nelson.

I am going to pull out of the fight with Roy Nelson. As many of you know I have been having some back pain. I had an MRI yesterday and I have some damage that may really require surgery. If the doctors do not have to perform surgery then I will be out 8-12 weeks. If they do have to perform surgery I do not know how long I will be out of action.

Carwin said that he will be able continue training cardio while healing from surgery, which was clearly his Achilles heel in his UFC 116 loss to Brock Lesnar. If Cain Velasquez's win over Lesnar this past weekend said anything about the UFC's heavyweight division, it was that all fighters need a more complete game to be the champ, and that includes cardio. If Carwin wants to return to the title fight, it's smart for him to both get healthy and not ignore his endurance.

Losing this fight is a blow to UFC 125, a New Year's Day card in Las Vegas. The event is headlined by the lightweight championship bout between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. Carwin is disappointed about having to pull off the card, tweeting, "Roy and my boss are the only ones happy about this."

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Kobi Graham - Incident at Cape Solander

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UFC 121 weigh-in: Shields is finally in the big show

The resume is impressive and so is the 14-fight win streak but for Jake Shields there's always been something missing. He's respected by the hardcore fans and much of the MMA media and Shields is even on some top 10 pound-for-pound lists but he was never going to get a crack at the most highly regarded guys at 170 pounds like Georges St. Pierre, Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch fighting outside of the UFC. Tonight, he gets to take the first step in a tough fight against Martin Kampmann at UFC 121. He's fired up but also knows what's at stake.

"I feel a lot of pressure to go out there and give a great performance," Shields said. "When I first started, I figured I'd be here in a year, so it took a little longer than I thought. ... It's been a long, hard road for me. I'm new to the UFC, but I've been at it for 11 years. I need to show a lot of people who I am."

The 31-year-old is no rookie but you get the sense he feels like he just got called up to the bigs. 

"It feels great. It feels like where I belong," said Shields. "The differences are just way more media attention, way more hype, way more professionalism."

Strikeforce is a solid promotion but its matchmaking can be limited because of a smaller roster. Shields couldn't fight for the Strikeforce title at welterweight because his training partner Nick Diaz holds the belt and there's was nothing juicy waiting for him at middleweight after upsetting Dan Henderson. Plus Shields grew tired of sitting on the sidelines for long periods of time and then getting very little notice before a fight.  

"(The UFC) tell(s) you what you're doing and when you're doing it. They have staff. I don't mean that as a knock on Strikeforce. They're just not as organized. It's just nice to be in organization that's so together," said Shields.

Most of the Strikeforce current roster and management won't take those comments the wrong way. Put aside announcer Frank Shamrock, who openly expressed his dislike of Shields, the rest of the guys sounded like they want to see the Cesar Gracie do well. 

"I think most of the guys there are rooting for me, there's mostly good people. I'd say the majority of them are. There could be a few guys there rooting against me but I think overall they're mostly good people," Shields told Fanhouse's Ariel Helwani. "We had a few differences in the end and I bet most of them would like to see me succeed. It also makes Strikeforce look good."

UFC 121 weigh-in (Courtesy MMAjunkie):
Pay-Per-View
Brock Lesnar (264) v. Cain Velasquez (244)
Martin Kampmann (170) v. Jake Shields (170.5)
Diego Sanchez (170.5) v. Paulo Thiago (170.5)
Matt Hamill (203.5) v. Tito Ortiz (206)
Gabriel Gonzaga (254) v. Brendan Schaub (239)

Spike TV
Ryan Jensen (185) v. Court McGee (184.5)
Patrick Cote (185) v. Tom Lawlor (185)

Un-televised
Sam Stout (155.5) v. Paul Taylor (155)
Mike Guymon (170) v. Daniel Roberts (170)
Chris Camozzi (185) v. Dongi Yang (186)
Jon Madsen (254.5) v. Gilbert Yvel (249)

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