June 23rd, 2007, Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City was on fire. On a night filled with great fights, the whole place was waiting for one man, one fight: Kevin Ferguson, also known as Kimbo Slice. Kimbo was set to make his somewhat official Mixed-Martial Arts debut. (the fight wasn’t sanctioned) His opponent, former Olympic Gold Medal winner and former WBO Heavyweight Champion, Ray Mercer. Boardwalk Hall was sold out for MMA fights in which the main event featured a former boxer against a street fighter that wasn’t sanctioned.

Leading up to the fight, Logan “Mr. Intercontinental” Novatnak asked Kimbo how he felt about critics calling the fight a circus. Kimbo took it as Logan calling it a circus and put the Fight Card on notice. Kimbo informed us, if we were to show up at the fight, he would put a hurting on us.

Flash forward to after the fight, outside Kimbo’s dressing room. The four members of the Fight Card are hastily waiting to get a chance to interview the street legend, hoping, praying he had forgotten Logan’s name. Logan goes in, and comes out with all limbs attached. Before leaving the arena, the Fight Card spoke to Felix Hernandez, promoter of the fight, and guaranteed Kimbo VS Tank Abbott in the fall. The fight was set, but a short week beforehand, a major sponsor backed out, cancelling the fight and crippling the company.

But now, the two meet this Saturday on Showtime. Since then, Kimbo defeated Bo Cantrell purely on intimidation as Cantrell virtually gave up after being struck with a forearm.

Kimbo will most likely win in his fight against Tank. Saying Tank is on the downside of his career would be like saying “Enron’s not as good as it used to be, but it’s still ok.” If Tank does win, and it is possible, it will be after catching Kimbo with perfect shot.

Kimbo and Brock Lesnar are two of the same. Brock showed how hard MMA truly is when he lost to Frank Mir. Brock was stronger, in better shape, a better wrestler, and probably has better striking. But due to his inexperience, he didn’t take advantage of his strengths and lost. But Brock put butts in seats. He is not an elite fighter, neither is Kimbo.There are fighters more talented than both Kimbo and Brock, but nowhere near the big time. But Kimbo and Brock will sell tickets, they will sell PPV’s and they will bring in people who aren’t MMA fans into the sport. More fans in the sport means more money.

Money rules the world, and Kimbo Slice = money.

Well whenever agents and public relations types start constructing statistical analyses to defend their position, it's only a matter of time until the actual statisticians chime in.  After Roger Clemens' host of agents and handlers put together the Clemens Report to try and present his side of the story, a group of Penn business school professors broke down the report and identified some significant flaws in the methods used to construct it.  Both are interesting reads on their own, but unfortunately Clemens' agent, Randy Hendricks, just had to take shots at the professors yesterday, and he didn't come off sounding too knowledgeable.  Let's breakdown a few quotes from Mr. Hendricks:

"The purpose of the [Clemens] report is to provide the statistical background of Roger Clemens' career and to correct misconceptions about his career in the public forum."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.  This doesn't have anything to do with making the case that Clemens didn't use steroids or HGH, they just happened to have the URL rogerclemensreport.com on their hands and thought they'd get this info out there for the heck of it.  That's kind of like saying that Kermit Washington didn't really mean to hit Rudy Tomjanovich, his face just happened to be in the way of his swinging fist.

Then let's get to this gem.  The Clemens Report makes its case that his late-career success is very comparable to that of Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, and Curt Schilling.  The Penn group counters that in order to have a significant analysis, you need to include a representative sample of pitchers, not just the most successful ones - in their analysis, they looked at all pitchers since 1968 with more than 3,000 IP and at least 10 starts in 15 seasons.  Hendricks' response:

"Roger Clemens is not like every other pitcher in this group," the Hendricks statement read. "He is considered perhaps the best pitcher of his generation. The professors make the mistake of thinking that his career arc should look like the arc of every other pitcher in their selected group."

A sophomore high school geometry student could see through this one.  Hendricks is basically claiming that, since Clemens was great, he should only be compared to great pitchers.  Essentially, it should be automatically assumed that Clemens' greatness was legitimate.  Well, that's kind of what this whole thing is all about.  There is very valid questioning over whether his accomplishments are authentic or not.  In order to honestly analyze this whole situation, sorry Randy, but you have to compare him to a representative sample of pitchers.

"The professors make no adjustments for any of the changes that have taken place in baseball over the last forty years, treating every hit and walk exactly the same, despite the lowering of the pitching mound, the tightening of the strike zone, the changes in equipment, the addition of the designated hitter, the introduction of modern ballparks, and other factors that have affected the game over the years."

Again, another fallacy.  The professors are not looking at the absolute numbers, they're looking at statistical trends.  Clemens' performance improved significantly at a time when the great majority of other pitchers in his situation deteriorated.  It's not about a 2.00 vs. a 3.00 ERA over different eras, it's about career paths.

When the Congressional hearings take place on Wednesday, it's going to get ugly.  One thing is pretty clear from all of this; while you cannot definitively say that statistical analysis proves that Clemens did or did not use steroids or HGH, there is something very fishy going on.  Just my opinion, I'm siding with the professors.  Clemens' people's numbers just don't add up, and if I'm looking for statistical analysis to back up a claim on one side or the other, I'll go with the professors over the agents.

Lost in the shuffle over the weekend was the fact the Reds reached a minor-league deal with veteran first baseman/outfielder Craig Wilson, better known in these parts for his mullet. Jokes aside, this move is interesting for a number of reasons.

With trade talks swirling around the Reds sending Joey Votto and others to Oakland for starting pitcher Joe Blanton, this moves leads us to suggest the Reds are looking for alternatives at first base. The team already has journeyman Scott Hatteberg in the fold and Jeff Keppinger is also expected to fill in at times at the position. However, off-setting Hatteberg with a right-handed option like Wilson has the smell of a platoon all over it. Former Yankee Andy Phillips is in the mix too as a non-roster invitee, but he appears to be long shot at best.

Depth is always a good thing in the outfield, particularly when Wilson has played primarily in a position that is currently occupied by the oft-injured Ken Griffey Jr. Wilson can also man left field from time-to-time to give Adam Dunn a spell and gives the team some much-needed power from the right side of the plate. Jeff Conine filled that role a bit last year and was successful at times before being dealt to the Mets for two minor leaguers in late August.

At this point of the off-season this is a nice move for the Reds and it comes without much investment. General Manager Wayne Krivsky has come under fire for overspending at times, but this time around it appears as if he's getting good bang for the buck!

A career .262 hitter with 99 home runs and 292 RBIs in 698 games, Wilson was nagged by bone spurs in his right shoulder and batted just .172 in 24 games with Atlanta last season before being released on May 17.

Wilson's best season was 2004 while playing for the Pirates, when he hit 29 homers with 82 RBIs. In 87 career plate appearances at Great American Ball Park, he has six homers and 14 RBIs -- and 17 strikeouts.

We will have to keep our eyes on this further to see if the Wilson signing indeed does signify that the young Votto could be on the move.

You can say what you like about the Pro Bowl, but something just doesn't seem right to me watching Bengals' wideouts TJ Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson catching balls from Steelers' QB Ben Roethlisberger. Watching Big Ben throw the ball low to Chad and touchdowns to TJ seemed to leave a dirty taste in my mouth and a sick feeling in my stomach.  Houshmandzadeh finished with 4 catches for 44 yards and two TD's, the second of which came from his division foe, Roethlisberger.  I couldn't get the impression of TJ wiping his feet with the "Terrible Towel"

NFL.COM - WATCH TJ/BIG BEN HIGHLIGHTS

Overall, I didn't get watch too much of the Pro Bowl but the part I did see left its impression.

The NFC end up beating the AFC behind a huge second half from Adrian Peterson. The Vikings' rookie RB busted out 129 yards on the ground and two scores. Peterson was named the game's Most Outstanding Player. It was the first time any running back broke the 100-yard mark in the game since Marshall Faulk set the Pro-Bowl record of 180 yards in 1995 during his rookie campaign.

Bengals wideout Chad Johnson finished with two catches for 30 yards in the loss.