Sports

The Billabong Pro Tahiti at Teahupoo saw the swell declining through the early morning as contest officials struggled to get the 3rd round completed. Small waves of only 1 meter and shrinking greeted the contestants as they called only a 3rd round for the day early in the AM.

Andy Irons was the only Hawaii surfer left to go as Freddy P made it through the day before posting the biggest score of the round and the other 3 surfers were dropped from the competition in day 2. Irons faced Matt Wilkinson of Australia and both were fighting to stay in and gunning for every wave they could. In the end it was Irons with a 9.34 edging out Wilkinson’s 9.16.

Notable out of the competition in the 3rd round is ASP Would Tour number 1 Jordy Smith who fell to Manoa Drollet of French Polynesia. Still in the competition and currently the third overall in the world title rankings is Kelly Slater who will be itching to get back in the water and back on top of the rankings as there are only 5 events left.

The #1 fight promotion for Hawaiian fighters and events (X-1) has announced their fight card for the September 11th event titled “Heroes.” Let me just say this, the fight card is packed with some great match-ups!

Headlining “Heroes” will be the fight between Niko Vitale and Kala “Kolohe” Hose. Vitale – who is the middleweight champion, will be putting his belt on the line when he faces Hose in the main event.

Falaniko Vitale – who carries a record of 27-9 with 15 submissions, is
arguably one of the most respected Hawaiian fighters fighting in the islands to date. He recently celebrated his 10th year fighting, and will be looking to retain his belt against a very tough Hose.

Kala “Kolohe” Hose – who is 7-3, with 7 KO/TKO, has not been around quite as long, but has already garnered respect because he is considered one of the toughest fighters around. He has devastating knockout power. He has faced several big time opponents already and is looking to snatch the belt away from the veteran Vitale.

“HEROES” will also showcase two anticipated world title fights, as both the featherweight and bantamweight belts will be up for grabs. The overall night should be flat out awesome! There are going to be a ton of great fights, several of which are highly anticipated and will be for belts.

It is going to be a fantastic night!

Ticket Information

You can get tickets to this anticipated event several ways. Tickets are on sale now at the Blaisdell Box Office, as well as all Wal-Mart, Kailua Sports Gear outlets, and on Tickemaster.com You can also call (800) 745-3000. Prices are $200.00 for 1st row/cage side seats, $150.00 for 2nd row seats, $100.00 for floor seats, $50.00 for the risers/lodges, and $35.00 for the upper bowl. Tickets for all military, law enforcement, fire department, and EMT’s are available with ID at the Blaisdell Box Office for $10 off of the $50 and $35 seats, and $25 off the $200 floor seats, $150 2nd row seats, and $100 floor seats.

Full Fight Card

Main Event: 185 lb. World MMA Championship:

Falaniko Vitale vs. Kala “Kolohe” Hose

Light Heavyweight MMA Championship tournament (second round):

Poai Suganuma ( Hawaii ) vs. Vitaly Shemetov ( Russia )
Sang Soo Lee (S.

Korea) vs. Roy Boughton ( California )

145 lb. World MMA Championship:

Ricky Wallace vs. Alvin Cacdac

135 lb. World MMA Championship:

Bryson Hanson vs. Russell Doane

155 lbs. – Max “Lil’ Evil” Halloway vs. Duke Saragosa

135 lbs. – Raquel Paaluhi vs. Colleen Schnider

135 lbs. – Eddie Perrell vs. Mark Tajon (State Title Match)

170 lbs. – Anthony Torres vs. Thomas Sedeno

145 lbs. – Dustin Kimura vs. Chris Williams

185 lbs. – Collin Mansanas vs. Caleb Price

135 lbs. – Van Shiroma vs. Timothy Meeks

Today, Tuesday August 31, 2010 was the second day of competition for the Billabong Pro in Teahupoo, Tahiti after a great 1st day.  At 6:30 am surfers hit the water for rounds 2 and 3 of the contest.  The waves are still on the small side at 3 foot (faces), but there are still mini-barrels and clean wave conditions.  This is day 9 of 12 for the holding period.

Some highlights from the second round were Kauai surfer and powerhouse Andy Irons who won heat 10 against Tanner Gudauskas (USA) with 15.06 points.  Dusty Payne also won heat 16 in the second round against Brett Simpson (USA) with a 12.77.

In the third round Oahu boy Fredrick Patacchia  beat out Travis Logie (ZAF) with a 18.50.  The third round didn’t finish up, so stay tuned for Andy Irons’ third round against Matt Wilkinson (AUS) that will hopefully go tomorrow.  Officials will call it first thing at 6 am Wednesday September 1st.

Roy Powers and Kekoa Bacalso of Hawaii lost in the second round and sadly, Kekoa Bacalso will be one of the 12 surfers who were eliminated from continuing on in the remaining 5 events of the ASP World Tour.  Bummer for Kekoa, he’ll go back to competing in the ASP PRIME and ASP Star events.

You can watch the Billabong Pro online live and recap all the results on their website.

If this past weekends fight against Frankie Edgar is not reason enough for concern regarding BJ Penn’s fighting career, then there are several other aspects of it that leave us to ponder this question. Should BJ Penn retire?

I – like most people who grew up in Hawaii, am a huge BJ Penn fan. Even if you are unfamiliar with the sport of MMA, there is a good chance that you know who BJ Penn is. Penn has brought a ton of notoriety to the sport of MMA, and at the same time has brought a lot of notoriety to other up-and-coming Hawaii MMA fighters.

Here is the problem. It has become more and more apparent – especially through his last three or four fights, that Penn has either lost some of what he had, or just doesn’t care to be doing it anymore. What makes it worse is that instead of admitting that he was flat out beaten, his people are always coming up with excuses.

From “Vaseline Gate” regarding the GSP fight, to the flu, it seems as though there has been some reason that Penn has been getting beat. Edgar beat him last time because Penn had the ‘flu.” Now there are reports coming out of the Boston area that claim Penn’s people are saying he “broke his hand” during the first round of the fight.

While the GSP fight regarding the Vaseline may have some truth to it, there is no denying that Frankie Edgar is just a bad match-up for Penn. He was a bad match-up in Abu Dhabi, and he was a bad match-up in Boston. Nothing changed during the time they didn’t fight; Edgar was still faster and stronger, Penn was still under-conditioned.

The point of the article is this. BJ Penn is widely considered to be the best lightweight fighter in MMA history, even after this loss (his 7^th loss). Maybe it is time for him to kick back and enjoy the benefits of everything he has accomplished. If he keeps going down this losing path, then the title “best MMA lightweight ever” is going to be lost.

If he does continue to fight – and part of me hopes he does, then he needs to dedicate himself to a stricter training regimen. Anyone who knows Penn knows that he deals with a lack of conditioning. If a fight goes the distance he always struggles. He even stated in a recent interview before the Edgar fight that he has done some “serious resting” to prepare for the fight. None of his fans want to hear that!

The good news is that if he retires he will have a lot more time to jump out of swimming pools and post even more youtube clips of all his antics. Which apparently is something he really enjoys. My hope? I hope he fights again, but this time I hope he is ready. There isn’t much time left.

Once again Hawaii football will open its season against nationally ranked powerhouse USC. The Trojans come to town with a National ranking of 14, the Warriors better come ready to play. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.

This year may be the best chance they have ever had to knock the Trojans off their high-horse (pun intended), as this offseason has dealt several blows to the USC football program.

Pete Carroll is gone, and behind him he left a mound of rubble in the form of NCAA violations. I guess he knew what was coming and bolted. The Trojans are still loaded as usual, but this year’s Hawaii Warrior football team may be better than a lot of people think. The reason the Warriors season went so badly last year was because of the injury bug, and that bug hit the Warriors worse than any other team in the nation last year.

This year brings with it new prospects and hope. The Warriors look and act like they are ready for this challenge. USC head coach Lane Kiffin has already said he compares loss to Hawaii to the Appalachian State upset of Michigan a few years back. If that is not a slap in the face to the Hawaii football team then I don’t know what is. We are a Division I program playing at home! Michigan was beat at the Big House by a Division IAA team. The comparison isn’t even close. Kiffin was right on par though with the rest of his ridiculous statement throughout his career.

Whatever happens Thursday it should be fun. Aloha Stadium is sold-out and the game stands to be the most lucrative game in history for Hawaii. There are a ton of USC fans here that will be mixed in with the UH fans so the stadium atmosphere should be loaded with buzz and excitement for everyone. Lets hope our Warriors can mount a stand and pull off a big-time upset.

With everything that developed during this offseason regarding the WAC falling apart, an opening day win would be a breath of fresh air to WAC fans, and definitely a step in the right direction for Hawaii football. Good Luck Warriors!

Game Details

Who: Hawaii Warriors vs. USC Trojans

When: Thursday September 2^nd, 2010

Time: 5PM Hawaii Time

Where: Aloha Stadium

Nationally Televised: ESPN

Local Radio: ESPN 1420

Karl Benson and the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) are demanding a $5 million exit fee from both Fresno State and Nevada by October 25^th. Both of these schools intend to leave the WAC for the Mountain West, but they are not going without a fight from the WAC it appears.

WAC commissioner Karl Benson said that they are going to sue the two schools if they do not pay the money. He also stated that the WAC wouldn’t let the schools leave the conference until after the 2011-2012 season.

Fresno State and Nevada were both informed of the WAC’s stance by letter this past Friday. Neither of the schools has released a statement regarding the issue as of press time. Both schools announced Aug. 18 they would join the Mountain West Conference. Because they didn’t announce their decisions prior to a June 30 deadline required by WAC bylaws, neither school can leave for two years unless the league agrees to an early exit. In this case the league looks like it will not agree to any such early exit.

I say good for the WAC and Commissioner Benson. It is about time he stepped up and did something about this whole mess. I say sue the schools either way. A $5 million exit fee will only go so far anyway. Sue them and stop them from leaving. Whatever happens, at least we know Benson is trying to step-up and do something about it.

After days of waiting and pondering, contest officials finally decided to hold the first day of the Billabong Pro in Teahupoo, Tahiti today, Monday August 30, 2010.  Today was the 8th day of the holding period and the weather was gorgeous, waves clean, and 3-4 foot (faces) surf was rolling in.

Today’s waves are on the smaller side for Teahupoo standards.  For those who don’t know Teahupoo is infamous for huge closeout barrels making this one of the heaviest breaks in the world.  Teahupoo in Tahitian means “skull scrape” and this break in large swell can be deadly.  Waves at Teahupoo can get upwards of 25 foot faces and surfers need to be towed into the lineup.  Even Teahupoo at 10 foot faces is only for the professionals.

Today’s first day of competition was inconsistent, but small fun barrels were had.  Blake Thornton (AUS) in heat 4, scored the highest wave of the day with a 9.0.  Dane Reynolds (USA) also from heat 4, got the highest wave average score of 16.27.   Hawaii surfer Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) from heat 16 scored 11.93 points and won his heat and moved on to the 3rd round while the 4 other ASP World Tour Surfers from Hawaii had to surf again in the second round.

Andy Irons, Roy Powers, Kekoa Bacalso, and Dusty Payne will all hopefully surf tomorrow as the surf forecast is looking for some of the same surf with a chance for bigger sets on the way. Notables who are already out of the competition are Taj Burrow and Jadson Andre. You can check out all of today’s results of the Billabong Pro Tahiti on their website.

Michelle Wie is finally hitting her groove. This year has been light years ahead of her previous, which may be due to her lack of competing in mens events. Whatever it is, she showed this weekend she can compete with some of the worlds best by winning the LPGA Canadian Open.

After leading the field after both round 1 and round 2 her even par round 3 sent her into the final round of the tournament even with one other competitor, the worlds number 4, Jiyai Shin. Previously, Wie might have collapsed going into a final round like this but today was different, just like this year. She has been coming to play in this years tournaments.

Michelle Wie dominated the 4th and final round of the tournament, making every putt you could think of. She sank putts all day and ended the round with 5 birdies that included some of the tougher holes of the course. The win netted Wie a pay day of $337,500.

Michelle Wie, who attends Stanford University, will continue her studies after the next stop on the LPGA tour.

The magic had to come to an end one way or another; Hawaii fans were just hoping it would end with a win after beating Texas to take the US Championship yesterday. Waipio, Hawaii fell today in the Little League World Series Championship game to a very tough, team from Japan.

The Japanese pitchers were just a little too much for the Hawaii hitters, as they kept the boys from Waipio off balance for a majority of the game. Another aspect that may have affected the kids from Waipio is that they were playing their seventh game in the LLWS – which is a record, and their fifth-game in the last five days. Japan only played five-games, and only three since Tuesday.

While fatigue and emotion played a part, take nothing away from the Japanese team, as they were solid all around. They knocked off Chinese Taipei yesterday to get to the championship game. The Chinese Taipei team was considered to be the best team in the tournament.

Waipio cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth-inning, but could not push the tying run across. The game was 2-1 going into the sixth and then Japan’s Konan Tomori hit a low-outside 0-2 pitch off Keolu Ramos for a two-run homer in the top of the sixth for a 4-1 lead. This effectively closed the door on any type of comeback Hawaii may have had in them.

It was a great run, and congratulations to both teams for overcoming the odds against them to make it to the Championship game. We will all be watching next year to see if a team from Hawaii can make another run.

A Hawaii team had won the World Series twice in the past six years with West Oahu winning in 2005 and Waipio in 2008.

Michelle Wie lost her three stroke lead after shooting an even round of 72 today at the Canadian Open at St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is now in a dead heat with world #4 Jiyai Shin heading into the final round.

Shin and Wie will be paired as the final twosome for the second straight day. After a blistering start that saw her shoot two rounds under 70 – including a tournament record 65 on Thursday, Wie has since struggled a bit in the rainy conditions.

Wie has been in a slump the last few months and has watched her world ranking drop from 7^th to 12^th. If she can hold on and win tomorrow it would be the second tour win of her career. Wie needs to come ready tomorrow, as Shin was the formerly ranked #1 payer in the world, but has also had some recent struggles.