Jose Canseco brought a baseball bit to the ring for his Mixed Martial Arts debut with Hong Man Choi.
The only problem?
He wasn’t able to use it.
Choi knocked the former Bash Boy out in 1 minute, 17 seconds.
“That’s a big man,” Canseco said of the 7-foot-2, 330-pound Choi. “I ran into one of his left jabs and that almost knocked me out. You have no idea how scary it was facing a man that big.”
Great story out of Manhattan College where coach Barry Rohrssen has signed Kevin Laue, a 6-foot-10 center born without a left hand.
“For all the right reasons, Kevin deserves this chance,” Rohrssen told The New York Times. “He’s someone who won’t take this for granted.”
Laue is part of a three-man recruiting class that also includes 6-4 guards Rico Pickett and George Beamon.
Latavious Williams, a 6-7 wing from Humble (Texas) Christian Life Center ranked the No. 6 power forward in the nation, pushed his college announcement until Tuesday in Houston.
“About 2 o’clock [Central Time]. I didn’t do anything today,” he wrote in a text.
Williams will decide between Georgetown, Memphis, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Florida International. He previously told me Memphis was his leader.
Dan Wolken of The Memphis Edge is also reporting that 6-7 forward Noel Johnson will ask out of his Letter of Intent to USC because of the
NCAA investigation in the wake of the O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush cases. Memphis could be one possible landing spot for Johnson if he gets his release.
TEAM FINAL WINS BOB GIBBONS
Team Final, a Pennsylvania-based AAU team coached by Rob Brown, beat the CP3 All-Stars to win the Bob Gibbons U17 Tournament of Champions bracket on Sunday.
“The kids played hard, the kids played real well,” Brown said.
Syracuse commit Dion Waiters of Burlington (N.J.) Life Center Academy scored a game-high 27 points to win MVP honors. The 6-3 Waiters is ranked the No. 6 shooting guard in the Class of 2010.
Jio Fontan will not return to Fordham next year and is considering a number of other options, including spending the year in Puerto Rico training with its National Team or attending a junior college.
If Fordham continues to deny the 6-foot-1 Fontan a release, he and his family are prepared to go a non-traditional route.
Jorge Fontan, Jio’s father, is in favor of his son spending a year in Puerto Rico training and taking classes. Jio, whose mother is Puerto Rican, will play this summer with the Puerto Rican U19 team.
“Right now if I had to choose and we could work something out, he could take whatever classes he could get credit for [in Puerto Rico] to transfer to a regular college and have a trainer and be working out as much as possible,” Jorge said.
The Florida Gators are in the news on two fronts today.
First off, sophomore point guard Nick Calathes will bypass his final two years of college eligibility to play professionally…in Greece.
Calathes, who holds a Greek passport and has dual citizenship, has agreed to terms with Euroleague champion Panathinaikos , the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Calathes will reportedly earn $1.1 million in addition to home, car and tax credits. As part of the deal, he will have to pull out of the NBA Draft by June 15.
Former Kansas forward Quintrell Thomas has decided to transfer to UNLV.
The 6-8, 250-pound Thomas also considered Siena, St. Joe’s and St. Bonaventure, but went with the Rebels because of his comfort factor with their staff and the appeal of the school and environment.
UNLV was near the top of his list the first time around and this time head coach Lon Kruger and assistant Lew Hill showed immediate interest.
