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In the first of a three part series the Associated Press takes a look at the massive budget cuts that are affecting our public schools.
The cuts are affecting public schools all over the U.S., forcing the layoff of thousands of teachers and cutting into school programs.
Larger class sizes, canceled summer schools and reductions or eliminations of anything that is not a core subject are about to become the norm
In California alone, 23,000 teachers are being laid off.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is seeking 23 billion dollars in emergency funds from Congress in an effort to limit the damage.
"We can't afford 150-300,000 teachers on unemployment rolls," he says. We want Congress to take action now. This is not something they can debate for 4-5 months then do something in September or October, it's too late."
This is the future of our country we're talking about. If we can afford to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should be able to afford bigger budgets to take care of our public schools.
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The son of legendary TV newsman Ted Koppel was found dead in a Washington Heights apartment under mysterious circumstances yesterday morning after a daylong drinking binge with a man he had just met in a Midtown bar, law-enforcement sources said.
Andrew Koppel, 40, of Rockaway Park, Queens, was declared dead at around 1:30 a.m. after paramedics were called to the rundown apartment in what a law-enforcement source called a "s- - - building" on 180th Street at Audubon Avenue, where he had been found unconscious and not breathing in a bedroom, the sources said
Andrew Koppel Died In This Room
Koppel -- who was an attorney for the city Housing Authority -- was a slobbering mess when he was brought to the apartment at around 11 p.m. by Russell Wimberly, a 32-year-old waiter he had met at a Hell's Kitchen bar nearly 12 hours earlier.
Koppel "was just really messed up when he came in. He was very drunk," said Belinda Caban, 53, who lives at the apartment.
Caban, who called Wimberly a drinking buddy, told The Post: "I didn't understand anything [Koppel] said. We took him to the bedroom and laid him down to rest."
After a couple of hours, she and Wimberly discovered he had urinated and defecated in the bed and appeared not to be breathing. They called 911.
"His complexion wasn't right. It was pale. I said to call the police," Caban said. "When the ambulance came, they said he was dead."
No one has been charged, and the medical examiner has yet to determine a cause of death.
Koppel -- who lived with his girlfriend and their baby daughter -- began his bender at around noon at Smith's Bar & Restaurant at 44th Street and Ninth Avenue when he befriended Wimberly.
"He had a straw hat on, and I had one on, and he said, 'Nice hat, man,' " Wimberly recalled. "We got to talking, and he started buying me drinks."
Koppel drank straight whiskey and suggested they move from bar to bar, Wimberly said.
As they walked, Koppel sipped from a pint bottle of Jameson, Wimberly said.
"There was a lot of alcohol. He didn't take anything else [drugs] around me, and neither of us ate all day," he said. "We talked about our kids . . . He said he had a kid and loved [her] a lot."
Eventually, they took a taxi up to Caban's apartment, stopping at a liquor store to pick up a bottle of whiskey and beer.
Koppel "wasn't feeling good. I told him to lay down and turn the light off. He was snoring really loud. I thought he was out," Wimberly said.
Koppel was the third youngest of Ted Koppel's four children with his wife, Grace Anne. He was their only son.
His father, former anchor of ABC's "Nightline," could not be reached for comment.
Andrew Koppel's oldest sister, Andrea, a former CNN correspondent, declined to comment. His younger sister, Tara, was spotted weeping at her Manhattan apartment. She also didn't want to talk.
Andrew Koppel was convicted in 1993 of punching out a senatorial aide in a drunken dust-up in DC and was ordered into alcohol treatment. Three years earlier, he got into a drunken fender bender while driving his father's Mercedes in their home state of Maryland.
Source: New York Post
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Actress Kristen Stewart has become a household name and sex symbol thanks to her role as Bella in the 'Twilight' movie series.
This month she covers the UK edition of Elle magazine.
She plays the role of reluctant star in her interview with the mag. Complaining about her lack of privacy and constant questions about her possible romantic relationship with 'Twilight' co-star Robert Pattinson.
"It really bothers me when people write nasty s*** about me and the perception is that I don’t give a f***. It could not be further from the truth," she rants.
People always ask me if I'm dating Robert [Pattinson]. Why would I want anything that's private to become entertainment for other people?"
Kristen admits she wasn't prepared for the success of the vampire flick.
“With Twilight, we never thought it was going to be so huge; we never even thought we’d do a second, let alone a third.”
Judging from her comments you would think that being famous is the worst possible thing that could have happened to her.
"What you don’t see are the cameras shoved in my face and the bizarre intrusive questions being asked, or the people falling over themselves, screaming and taunting to get a reaction. All you see is an actor or a celebrity lit up by a flash.
"A lot of the time I can’t handle it. It’s f***ed. I never expected that this would be my life."
It's too late now Kristen, you're a movie star, might as well get used to it.
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Brooklyn's Joell Ortiz now has one of the most recognizable call-outs in hip-hop. If you're not familiar, after his mixtape drops this month, you'll be saying: "Yaowa!"
"I got so many meanings of yaowa, it's crazy," Ortiz laughed. "First, it's used as a term of endearment for dudes around my way. How you say, 'What up?' We say, 'Yaowa!' It came from my man Smash. Shout to Smash. He used to be really drunk around the way. It's a distance between the buildings. He used to be saying, 'Yo, what up?' But he'd be so drunk, it sounded like he was saying, 'Yawhuhup?' He'd be twisted. I just turned it into yaowa. Every time I get on a beat, I say, 'Yaowa,' before I rap on it. Then I started playing around with it and turned it into [meaning]: 'you're actually one world away.' I be feeling like my flow is not of Earth. I zone out, become an alien with it. On another freestyle, I said, 'I'll put you in a hospital because my flow is so sick.' That's 'your ass on wild anesthetics.' I just be spazzin' out with the yaowa. But it's a term of endearment around my way."
Joell's new mixtape is named after his favorite word and hosted by DJ Green Lantern and Don Cannon. "Its called Yaowa. Green Lantern is hosting it along with Don Cannon. We been tossing around ideas," Ortiz said. "We didn't really get to the meat of it. But we have a few ideas to see how we gonna make it classic. Don Cannon's got some ideas, Green Lantern's got some ideas. I think we gonna make it a good one.
"Green kinda hooked that up," Joell added about how the Evil Genius and Cannon got involved. "Me and Green was hollering, he said it would be a good idea to hook up with Cannon. Cannon was like, 'That's nothing. I been fiending to do something like that.' So we running a triangle offense with this tape."
Lantern and Green will have the primary production on the mixtape, but Joell said he's open to submissions from everyone — as long as the tracks are hot. As for big-name guest appearances, which have become customary with tapes from Fabolous, Jadakiss, T.I. and Young Jeezy this year, the Slaughterhouse member said he hasn't thought about it yet.
"I'm just thinking about zoning out," he said. "I'm not thinking about who I'm reaching out to. I'm not thinking about who to bring to the tape. I'm just thinking about making a really, really good tape. Letting people know who Joell Ortiz is one more time. This time with Green Lantern and Don Cannon. Just rapping, that's what I do the best. I rap. I'm concerning myself with rippin' this tape and getting some good feedback on it."
Source: MTV
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Let's face it watching the local weather is usually about as interesting as watching an L.A. Clippers game. That is until Nick Kosir of Beaumont, Texas' Fox 4 started spitting rhymes as The Rapping Weatherman.
Now you can laugh your ass off while deciding whether or not you will need an umbrella for the day.
Dude even has a Facebook page set up for his fans.
Check him out rhyming over Young Money's "Roger That" below, lmao.
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It's probably not all that happy of a Memorial Day in rapper Luther Campbell aka Uncle Luke's crib today. As one of his daughter's has thrown him under the bus.
Lecresha Campbell, who appeared on her dad's show "Luke's Parental Advisory" says among other things that he doesn't acknowledge his own kids and that he physically abused and shot her mom in the leg.
"He even like shot her [mother] in the leg I think."
I would hope Lecresha isn't making all of this up, but she does plug her own show in the video and is obviously reading from pre-scripted notes
I would also think it would be pretty much impossible to shoot a woman in the leg and not have the police kicking down your door soon after.
I guess we'll have to wait for her tv show or next video to get the rest of the story.
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Don't expect a Lady Gaga and M.I.A collaboration anytime soon.
For the second time in the last several months, the British singer criticizes Gaga for her lack of originality.
In an interview with the New York Times, M.I.A she actually sounds like she despises the "Telephone" singer.
The comparisons to Madonna and the constant chatter that Lady Gaga has become a cultural icon don't sit well with M.I.A.
“You can’t really say that Gaga is culturally a change,” she said. “Madonna was truly unique.”
Romain Gavras, the director of M.I.A.'s controversial new video "Born Free" added. “And Madonna was pretty,” he said. “Pop stars should be pretty.”
On the subject of "Born Free", M.I.A compared it to Gaga's video for "Telephone".
“With our video, we were really copying ‘Telephone,’ she says “Both our videos are road movies. We kill people, and they kill people. They start out in a prison, and we start out in a squat, hunting people down.”
“I can’t talk about Gaga anymore,” she said “All I’ll say is, it’s upsetting when babies say ga-ga now. It used to be innocent. Now, they’re calling her name.”
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We throw the world "celebrity" around too liberally these days. Take some person off the street, put them on a reality show and watch them fight and get drunk and that makes them a celeb?
I don't think so, but I guess the general public doesn't agree with me.
One of those new celebs, Natalie Nunn has gotten lots of face time recently because of her outrageous antics on the show 'The Bad Girls Club'. Also because she regularly bashes Rihanna while sticking up for her abuser Chris Brown.
VladTV asked her what she's been up to since 'Bad Girls' wrapped.
"I was on a party tour all over the United States. I was hosting parties, it's just been great. Ive been to every state. States I really didn't even know existed that had like a population, been there."
The rest of the interview sounded a lot like "blah blah blah blah". So I used that time to try to figure out exactly what the hell is that thing on her lip?
Help me out people.
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LAS VEGAS – Rashad Evans finished what he started.
Igniting the spark that led to a wild rivalry with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson 14 months ago, Evans had some thinking he bit off more than he could chew. But in a battle of former light heavyweight champions, Evans outworked Jackson with a perfect brew of power striking, clinchwork and takedowns to outpoint him on the way to a unanimous decision win at UFC 114.
Jackson came into the fight as a favorite both on betting lines and with the fans, who roared at every image of Jackson and went to a full howl upon his introduction. But Jackson couldn't really got his offense started until the third round, and by then Evans was in firm control. After withstanding a furious Jackson charge in the third, Evans reasserted his will and closed out the contest in command.
The final scores were 30-27, 29-28, 30-27.
"It's a huge relief," Evans said afterward. "Me and Quinton put on a good show."
"This fight is going to haunt me," added a disappointed Jackson
vans surprised onlookers from just after the opening bell, landing his first strike, a powerful overhand right that sent Jackson reeling sideways and against the cage. Time and again, Evans capitalized when Jackson was against the fence, clinching him and gambling that the work would pay off later due to his conditioning.
Despite going from 251 pounds to 205 pounds in eight weeks, Jackson never faded, but his timing was off on his strikes, and he later admitted it was likely due to being rusty after the 14-month layoff.
He did make one late charge in the third though, dropping Evans with an uppercut against the fence. Jackson tried desperately to finish his disoriented opponent, but Evans recovered and closed out the round strong with two takedowns and strong groundwork of his own.
"I'm very surprised he recovered from that," Jackson said afterward. "I put all my eggs in that basket and it didn't work. I guess ring rust is a factor."
Jackson also asked for a rematch, though the winner was promised a title shot, meaning Evans will go on to face Mauricio "Shogun" Rua later this year. In the post-fight press conference, Evans said he came out of the fight injury-free, meaning the UFC will likely go to work to put the match together in short order and he can move past this all-encompassing feud.
"I'm happy I don't have to answer questions about Rampage anymore," a beaming Evans said
In the co-main event, British middleweight Michael Bisping rebounded from his UFC 110 loss by outlasting the tough New Jersey fighter Dan Miller in a unanimous decision.
Though Miller came in with a wrestling pedigree, he only attempted two takedowns over the course of the 15-minute fight, landing one. The result was a kickboxing-heavy fight that favored Bisping's speed and accuracy.
Miller fought a very close first round until Bisping asserted himself from the early moments of the second. After landing a hard right, his varied attack had Miller off-balance and bloodied from the nose and near the eye.
"Dan Miller is a great guy with some great skills," Bisping said. "He'll go on to a fantastic MMA career. He's tough. I hit him with some big right hands and he was still right there."
Undefeated British welterweight prospect John Hathaway earned the biggest win of his young career, upsetting Diego Sanchez in a lopsided decision.
Hathaway took Sanchez's favorite weapon – the takedown – out of his arsenal, and the former No. 1 lightweight contender had a rough time in the standup against the reach advantage of Hathaway.
Hathaway set the tone of the fight early by knocking Sanchez down with a knee as Sanchez shot in for a takedown. He nearly finished it there but the durable Sanchez weathered the storm. Still, Hathaway's long jab and right hand found their targets repeatedly, bloodying his opponent's face.
Todd Duffee came into the event as one of the must-watch young heavyweights in MMA, and after two-and-a-half rounds of dominance, it seemed the praise was well-deserved. But on his way to seemingly certain victory, he was derailed by a stunning reversal of fortune.
Mike Russow authored one of the most stunning comeback knockouts in recent memory, rebounding from a two-round deficit with a pair of back-to-back right hands that knocked out the surging Duffee.
Duffee seemed to be in cruise control, gliding to a unanimous decision while avoiding Russow's wrestling and takedown game. Scoring with jabs and right hands from distance, Duffee easily captured both of the first two rounds, and was on his way to taking the third in the same fashion before fates quickly changed.
While one young prospect prospered, another floundered.
Russow stepped into an overhand right that landed on the chin. Duffee was already falling backwards as Russow caught him with a follow-up right. Duffee crashed to the mat unconscious for the sudden KO. Amazingly, Russow fought much of the bout with a broken arm after blocking a Nogueira kick, it was reported by the UFC in explaining Russow's absence from the post-fight press conference.
In the most controversial fight of the evening, top 10 light-heavyweight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira avoided a major upset, with the judges handing him a disputed split decision win.
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Brilz seemed to control both of the first two rounds with his takedowns and groundwork while Nogueira captured the third in desperation mode. The vast majority of what appeared to be a pro-Nogueira crowd felt Brilz won the fight, but when the decision was read, Nogueira got the nod.
The fight was essentially decided by the pivotal first, which judges Tony Weeks and Marcos Rosales both scored for Nogueira.
The crowd drowned out Nogueira's post-fight comments booing the seeming injustice, though Brilz took it in stride.
"First off, don't boo this guy, he's one heckuva fighter," Brilz said. "Don't boo him. I left it to the decision of the judges. It is what it is, but I had a good performance, and that's what the whole plan was."
On the first fight of the Spike portion of the broadcast, Efrain Escudero defeated Dan Lauzon by unanimous decision, getting the judges' nod by identical scores of 29-27.
Escudero controlled the entire fight with clinchwork that featured a steady diet of knees to the body. He also outstruck Lauzon en route to the win. The odd score came as the result of a point that was deducted for a third-round low blow.
Dong Hyun-Kim followed that with an equally dominant performance, staying unbeaten with a systematic unanimous decision over Amir Sadollah.
Kim (13-0-1) took Sadollah down seemingly at will, and while he wasn't able to finish the fight, he rarely gave up position and scored with well-timed elbows and strikes from the top. Sadollah was never really able to get any offense going until the final moments of the 15-minute fight, when he landed his first power combo of the night.
Sadollah fell to 3-2 with the loss.
In the prelims, Ryan Jensen needed just 1:06 to finish Jesse Forbes via guillotine submission, Aaron Riley outworked Joe Brammer to earn a unanimous decision, Cyrille Diabate KO'd Luiz Cane to win his promotional debut, and Melvin Guillard made it four of his last five, scoring a first-round knockout of Waylon Lowe.
Source: MMAFighting
Post Fight Interview With UFC President Dana White
Training Day director Antoine Fuqua has confirmed that his next movie will be a biopic about rapper Tupac.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Fuqua revealed that the project has just been greenlit by Morgan Creek chairman James G. Robinson and will go in front of cameras later this year.
"It looks like we're doing Tupac Shakur's movie next in September, that's what I've been starting up and working on now," he said. "I've been working on that for a while with Morgan Creek and Jim Robinson. I just got the greenlight from him and we're going in September. I've just started to prep that."
Fuqua added that he is hoping to find an unknown actor to portray the iconic hip-hop star, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996.in Las Vegas.
"That's the goal, I want to discover someone new," he explained. "I want to discover a lot of new people if I can. Obviously I'm going to have to put some people in it that you know, just because actors have different skills. I want to go to the streets and find him anywhere he might be in the world."
Commenting about the rumors of a reunion with his Tears Of The Sun star Bruce Willis on prison break drama The Tomb, the filmmaker said: "That's a conversation I've been having with Bruce."
Fuqua's latest film, cop thriller Brooklyn's Finest, can be seen in UK cinemas from June 9.
Source: Digital Spy
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Dennis Hopper, the Easy Rider director best remembered for playing whacked-out characters during an acting career that spanned six decades, died after a long bout with prostate cancer. He was 74.
Hopper died Saturday morning, the office of his agent, Liz Dalling, told TVGuide.com. No immediate details were released.
Critics and fans often said no one did crazy roles better than Hopper. For a long time, those roles reflected how he was living.
The Dodge City, Kan., native was a bit of prodigy, appearing in feature films such as Rebel Without a Cause, Giant and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral by the time he was 21.
After making Rebel and Giant together, James Dean and Hopper became fast friends. When Dean was killed in his Porsche in September 1955, Hopper was devastated.
Much of the work he did in the '60s was generally undistinguished — until he directed 1969's low-budget Easy Rider, in which he co-starred with Peter Fonda and a still upcoming Jack Nicholson. It was a huge success — both at the box office and as a talisman for the turbulent times, leading to other anti-war, anti-establishment films. The movie was nominated for the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival, (where it won "best first work") and Hopper received an Academy Award nomination for original screenplay.
Hopper's next directing effort, however, 1971's The Last Movie, bombed.
See photos of Dennis Hopper through the years
Hopper then went on a colossal bender that he subsequently wasn't shy about discussing.
In 2001, the actor/filmmaker/artist talked about being sober for 18 years — and not only from booze. He did various hallucinogens and narcotics. "I only used to do cocaine so I could sober up and drink more. My last five years of drinking was a nightmare. I was drinking a half-gallon of rum with a fifth of rum on the side, in case I ran out, 28 beers a day, and three grams of cocaine just to keep me moving around. And I thought I was doing fine because I wasn't crawling around drunk on the floor."
In the wake of that, he was quoted as saying: "I should have been dead 10 times over. I've thought about that a lot. I believe in miracles. It's an absolute miracle that I'm still around."
Before he kicked his habits, Hopper offered a memorable performance as a nutty photographer in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
The 1980s saw a comeback by a clean and sober Hopper — culminating with David Lynch's Blue Velvet, in which he played an off-the-deep-end criminal. In 1986, he played a sad alcoholic in Hoosiers, offering a performance that brought him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor.
Dennis Hopper starts experimental treatment for prostate cancer
In his limited TV work, Hopper received an Emmy nomination for the 1991 HBO film Paris Trout, an adaptation of a Pete Dexter novel. More recently, he played a drug-addled music producer in the Starz premium channel's spinoff of the Oscar-winning movie Crash.
Hopper also made a name for himself as a photographer and artist, and his works were exhibited around the world.
Dennis Hopper's wife wants full custody of daughter
Married five times, he recently filed for divorce from his wife of nearly 14 years, Victoria, with whom he had a 7-year-old daughter, Galen. He had three grown children from his previous marriages. One of those marriages, to Michelle Phillips, lasted eight days.
Source: Fox News
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Rap has grown to the point where age is not starting to matter as much as it used to. Rappers like Jay-Z and Raekwon have shown that as long as the product is good, fans will buy.
VladTV spoke with Havoc of Mobb Deep about the subject of rappers over 30 and he had an interesting take on it.
"Here's my problem, Jay-Z killed the game [and] he could do that. And if somebody was in that same position I feel they could do it," he said. "But if you already haven't gotten on and you past 30, try something else. Especially if you don't have any money because now you're wasting time."
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Ms Drama recently caught up with The-Dream. The interview gave the R&B star a platform to get a few things off his chest.
He explains his frustration with his records leaking to the internet early. Something that has become a huge problem for the music industry.
"I would hate to see any writer or journalist that is 1/3 away from completing their story and having that story leaked. I would hate to see Picasso start to paint and somebody release something that they have. I don't mind if my records end up on the internet, but I do mind if it's not finished and it's being judged before it's finished."
The-Dream's third and unfortunately last cd titled 'Love King' is coming out June 13. He's fed up with fans that don't appreciate his "great music".
"There's not another album, this is it. Nobody appreciates good music so I'm out, I'm good so take that. Like Jay [Z] said, maybe yall will remember me when I fade to black."
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Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Robbers stole $5.5 million from a southern Iraqi state bank after giving guards tea laced with a sleeping drug, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
No shots were fired during the incident Friday at a bank near Najaf, the Interior Ministry said. The money is the equivalent of 6.5 billion Iraqi dinars.
In recent months, there has been a spike of similar incidents and authorities believe that insurgents were behind them to fund their military operations
Earlier this week, 15 people died in southwestern Baghdad after a brazen series of jewelry store heists on Tuesday in which bandits made off with gold and money.
In this latest incident, robbers had an associate among the bank's guard force give drugged tea to the guards, officials said.
After the guards passed out, the robbers entered the bank and made off with the money.
Two people were arrested, but police were not able to recover any of the money. The Interior Ministry said it appears the two are poor people trying to make money and are not part of a terrorist organization.
Members of the bank's guard force are being investigated, the Interior Ministry said.
Source: CNN
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BET kicked off a new season of Freestyle Friday with two female mcs. One from Brooklyn, New York and the other from Austin, Texas.
There were a few good punchlines and one very strange looking outfit, lol.
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Former light heavyweight champions Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Rashad Evans will have their long awaited grudge match Saturday night at UFC 114 in Las Vegas.
Here's a breakdown of the UFC 114 main card:
Rashad Evans (14-1-1) vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-7)
The stakes are high for both men.
Based at Greg Jackson's academy in New Mexico, Evans benefits from some of the premier training partners in the industry, including Shane Carwin, Keith Jardine, Nate Marquardt, Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre.
In addition to his world-renowned wrestling game, Evans has developed into one of the division's most vicious strikers. Evans was also awarded his black belt in no-gi BJJ from Rolles Gracie prior to his win over Thiago Silva in January.
Evans has proven that he has legitimate one-punch power. His sensational knockout of Chuck Liddell at UFC 88 in September 2008 was the turning point of his career, which later led to a victory over Forrest Griffin to claim the UFC light heavyweight title.
Fresh off a win over Silva, the 30-year-old Evans will need to utilize head movement and leg kicks to wear down Jackson.
Jackson, a world-class wrestler in his own right, has fought and beaten some of the best fighters on the planet, including Keith Jardine, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Chuck Liddell, Murilo Rua and Ricardo Arona.
"Rampage" has won eight of nine fights since losing to the current champ Rua at Pride Total Elimination 2005 with his lone setback being a contentious decision loss to Forrest Griffin in July 2008.
A gifted heavy-handed boxer with the sport's most distinguishable slams, Jackson's Achilles' heel is not dedicating himself to long hours in the gym. When Jackson is motivated, there are few fighters who can hang with the man who unified the UFC and Pride 205-pound titles. Hell-bent on revenge for all the trash talk, Rampage insists the work has been done inside England's Wolfslair Academy where he prepared alongside UFC notables Michael Bisping and Cheick Kongo.
But Jackson has also embraced the movie star lifestyle as he will be playing B.A. Baracus in the upcoming A-Team movie. Ring rust and conditioning will be major factors as Jackson has not seen action since defeating Evans' training partner Jardine in March 2009. If this fight goes past the second round, Evans' cardio could be the difference maker.
Jackson will undoubtedly possess the power advantage and Evans could pay the price if he shoots in with half-hearted takedown attempts. But Evans can also pick Jackson apart with leg kicks, a technique his teammate Jardine and Griffin both employed effectively against Jackson.
If Evans slugs it out or gets sloppy in close quarters, he will be playing right into Jackson's hands.
Michael Bisping (18-3) vs. Dan Miller (11-3)
In the co-feature, Bisping looks to rebound from a loss to Wanderlei Silva in February.
Bisping, "The Ultimate Fighter 3" winner has compiled an impressive list of victories during his UFC campaign, defeating the likes of Eric Schafer, Matt Hamill, Chris Leben and Denis Kang.
Meanwhile, Miller is a BJJ black belt under Jamie Cruz with a base in wrestling.
The AMA Fight Club product could receive his walking papers if he fails to impress the UFC brass as he is coming off back-to-back losses against Chael Sonnen and Demian Maia, respectively.
Prior to the successive setbacks, Miller was on a three-fight winning streak in the UFC. The submission stylist tapped out both Rob Kimmons and Jake Rosholt in the first round.
Armed with a sharper stand-up game, Bisping should be able to pick Miller apart with his boxing, much like Maia did in their February meeting. However, if this fight goes to the ground, it will play more to Miller's strengths.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3) vs. Jason Brilz (18-2-1)
Initially slated to face former UFC champion Forrest Griffin, Nogueira will take a step down in competition against Brilz.
The 33-year-old BJJ black belt Nogueira trains at Team Black House with his brother Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Anderson Silva.
The former Pride standout has defeated Guy Mezger, Kazushi Sakuraba, Alistair Overeem and Dan Henderson in Japan.
With another win, he will inch closer to a potential title shot against Shogun Rua in a rematch of their classic 2005 Pride encounter, which Shogun won by unanimous decision.
Brilz, a three-time Academic All-American wrestler at Nebraska, trains at Elite Performance MMA under Jeremy Horn.
Nicknamed "The Hitman," Brilz has beaten a handful of UFC veterans, including Jason MacDonald, Alex Schoenauer, Tim Boetsch and Eric Schafer.
Nogueira is a superior striker with lethal hands, in addition to possessing one of the best ground games in the division. Even if Brilz manages to take him down, he could wind up in a dangerous predicament against the slick submission player.
Todd Duffee (6-0) vs. Mike Russow (12-1)
The 24-year-old Xtreme Couture product Duffee is among the most hyped heavyweight prospects in MMA.
Unbeaten with six knockouts, Duffee made an emphatic statement in his UFC debut. Last August, Duffee knocked out Canadian Tim Hague in seven seconds to record the fastest knockout in UFC history.
It remains to be seen how the physically imposing heavyweight responds to pressure against a more experienced adversary.
Russow, a 33-year-old veteran, has only one blemish on his record -- a submission loss to Sergei Kharitonov at Pride 33 in 2007. His notable wins include Jason Guida, Roman Zentsov and Justin McCully.
Riding an eight-fight winning streak, Russow has been training with Andrei Arlovski and Brock Lesnar to prepare for Duffee's size and raw power. A well-rounded heavyweight, Russow may aim to secure a takedown to cope with Duffee's explosiveness.
Despite Russow's experience, Duffee will be favored to score yet another knockout.
Diego Sanchez (21-3) vs. John Hathaway (12-0)
After a complete destruction at the hands of B.J. Penn last December, Sanchez will be returning to 170 pounds against a solid undefeated prospect.
Following a solid run at 155 pounds, which included wins over Joe Stevenson and Clay Guida, Sanchez is returning to the division where he attained his greatest success in the UFC. A BJJ brown belt under Saulo Ribeiro, Sanchez has expressed interest in competing in both divisions.
To some observers, Hathaway may appear to be a mere stepping stone for Sanchez in his welterweight comeback fight, but the unbeaten Brit could also embrace this opportunity to shock the world.
Anchored at ZT Fight Skool and London Shootfighters in the U.K., Hathaway has exhibited solid striking and wrestling in his three UFC victories over Thomas Egan, Rick Story and Paul Taylor.
Sanchez is far more dangerous on his feet and he will wear the 22-year-old down with an abundance of strikes if the Brit is unable to put him on his back. However, Hathaway's aggression and survival skills may be enough to take this fight the distance.
Source: Fox Sports
Indian police are holding a pigeon under armed guard after it was caught on an alleged spy mission for neighboring Pakistan, media reported Friday.
The white-colored bird was found by a local resident in India's Punjab state, which borders Pakistan, and taken to a police station 25 miles from the city of Amritsar.
The pigeon had a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body in red ink.
Police officer Ramdas Jagjit Singh Chahal told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency that they suspected the pigeon landed on Indian soil from Pakistan with a message, although no trace of a note was found.
Officials directed that no one should be allowed to visit the pigeon, which police said was possibly on a "special mission of spying."
The bird was medically examined and kept in an air-conditioned room under police guard.
Senior officers asked to be kept updated on the situation three times a day, PTI reported.
Chahal said local pigeon keepers in the sensitive border area told police that Pakistani pigeons were easily identifiable as they looked different from Indian ones, according to the Indian Express newspaper.
Source: New York Post
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