Ronda Rousey gets destroyed by Amanda Nunes as comeback lasts 48 seconds

Ronda Rousey's long-awaited comeback at UFC 207 against Amanda Nunes was almost over before it started.

Rousey was stopped 48 seconds into her first fight in 13 months, losing to bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes who turned the former darling of the octagon into a $3 million heavybag before referee Herb Donald stopped the fight.

Nunes, who only got $200,000 — compared to Rousey's guaranteed $3 million — rocked her opponent with punches to the head before the stoppage and put a big question mark on Rousey's once heralded legacy.

Nunes battered the one-time UFC darling with a series of unanswered punches before Dean stopped the fight with Rousey wobbling on her feet.

The moment Amanda Nunes ended Ronda #Rousey's UFC career #UFC207 pic.twitter.com/ukd0axr3WH

— Chisanga Malata (@Chisanga_DStar) December 31, 2016

The much-anticipated showdown was Rousey’s first fight since losing to Holly Holm on Nov. 15, 2015, in Melbourne, Australia. She suffered an embarrassing knockout in that fight, and had many fight fans questioning whether or not her legend was just a fabrication of the UFC publicity machine.

Now we know.

After a series of mostly unblocked punches from Nunes pushed Rousey around the octagon — highlighting Rousey's lack of boxing skills — a hard right hand from the Brazilian sent a stunned Rousey against the cage before one last clean right buckled her legs. Dean wisely rushed in to stop the fight before Rousey even got a chance to attempt one of her famed takedowns.

Rousey left T Mobile Arena in the arms of her mother without saying a word as she had done all week, while Nunes let her know who was the new boss.

“I trained and prepared for this fight,” Nunes said. “There’s a lot of talent in this division. Forget about Ronda Rousey.”

Shamorie Ponds leads St. John’s to 76-73 win over No. 13 Butler in Big East opener

Shamorie Ponds scored 26 points, including four free throws in the final 9.1 seconds, as St. John’s upset No. 13 Butler 76-73 in the Big East opener for both teams at Carnesecca Arena Thursday night.

“I was just confident. I was confident going to the foul line and saying, ‘I’m going to make these two free throws,’” the Brooklyn-bred freshman said after the victory.

The Red Storm (7-7, 1-0), coming off last week’s overpowering 33-point win at Syracuse, came back from a ten point deficit with the Bulldogs (11-2, 0-1) before taking the lead at 72-71 on a free throw by Malik Ellison with 14.1 seconds left.

St. John’s kept the ball on the second miss and Ponds was fouled. He made two free throws before Tyler Lewis of Butler countered with the same at 6.7 seconds left. Ponds added two more with 6.2 seconds to go. Kelan Martin of Butler let a shot go from half-court at the buzzer that hit the rim before giving the young Red Storm team its first Big East victory of the season.

Tie game!!!! Malik Ellison with the steal and score to knot it at 69! pic.twitter.com/DknCw8SWqF

— St. John's BBall (@StJohnsBBall) December 30, 2016

“He’s a really phenomenal player, but he also has that (calm and cool) personality,” Johnnies coach Chris Mullin said of Ponds. “That is his demeanor on and off the court.”

Bashir Ahmed added 19 points for the Red Storm.

Tyler Wideman had 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting for the Bulldogs, and Martin scored 13.

The win ended Butler’s four-game winning streak over the Red Storm and stopped a streak of losses in St. John’s last four conference openers.

St. John's embarrasses Syracuse with 93-60 rout at the Carrier Dome

St. John's handed Syracuse its worst loss in the 36-year history of the Carrier Dome, after the Red Storm overpowered the Orangemen (excuuuse me, the Orange) 93-60 on the famed court.

Wednesday night's 33-point win marked the second largest victory by St. John's over Syracuse and was the first time that a Jim Boeheim-coached team has lost five non-conference games in the regular season.

Syracuse fans even booed their beloved Orange off the court before it was all over after Boeheim waved the white flag and emptied his bench with almost three minutes to go.

Three St. John’s players scored in double figures, the Red Storm scored 32 points on 19 Syracuse turnovers and outscored the Orange 36-12 from beyond the arc in overwhelming their former Big East rivals. But not before the game turned into lob city for the Storm.

It was lob city in the Carrier Dome tonight! Full highlights on the St. John's Red Storm YouTube page! #SJUBB #WeAreNewYorksTeam pic.twitter.com/R4sOJEFMDi

— St. John's BBall (@StJohnsBBall) December 22, 2016

“I didn’t get them ready to do what they needed to do. We just didn’t execute on defense or offense. St. John’s did. That was the game,” Boeheim said. “This is on me, not the players.”

Syracuse’s previous worst loss at the Dome was by 24 points against Seton Hall in 1998.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak and was the third straight for St. John’s (6-7) over Syracuse (7-5) in three years.

St. John’s coach Chris Mullin was at a loss to explain his team’s dominating performance.

“I really can’t explain it, especially with the game we’re coming off (a 92-76 loss against Penn State). We’ve been up and down. The one thing about our team is that we’re young, we’re inexperienced,” said Mullin. “When you get effort and energy and share the ball, and do the right things, at some point things will work.”

The game was tied at 14 with 12:17 to go in the first half. From that point on, the Red Storm outscored Syracuse 79-46 — 54-31 in the second half. Syracuse climbed to within six early in the second half on six straight points from Dajuan Coleman, but St. John’s answered with six and ran away after that.

Shamorie Ponds led St. John’s with 21 points. Bashir Ahmed added 20 points and Malik Ellison 16.

Ellison scored eight straight points on two 3-pointers and put-back to tie the game at 12. The game was tied at 14 when the Red Storm went on a 19-4 run to take a 33-18 lead. The Red Storm hit four consecutive 3-pointers in a span of 1:36 during the run. St. John’s held a 39-29 halftime lead.

Giants To Be Fined For Walkie-Talkie Use Against Cowboys

The New York Giants will be fined for head coach Ben McAdoo's illegal use of walkie-talkies while in communication with Eli Manning for four or five plays during last week's 10-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys.

An NFL.com report said the league will in fact impose a penalty on the Giants, likely only in the form of a fine, for violating the league's rule governing circumstances when a coach's headset malfunctions. The amount of the fine is still to be determined, though the Giants are not expected to lose any draft compensation over the ordeal.

In only the past two weeks the Giants were involved in almost as much he said/she said espionage as the post-presidential election results — the Giants accused the Steelers of using deflated balls during a loss the week before— and now the G-Men are on the other side of the accusations.

McAdoo was seen on the sidelines last Sunday holding a walkie-talkie as a way to communicate with Manning when the team was having difficulty getting the plays to the quarterback via the traditional helmet headset. It is against NFL rules for coaches to hold any two-way radios during a game.

The Cowboys admitted the infraction had no impact on the game — the drive ended in a Manning interception — and never filed a formal complaint against the Giants.

It could be suggested that the seemingly bothersome investigation is a little more serious than some believe, simply because every NFL team knows it isn't allowed and it could have led to a spygate situation.

The Cowboys just shrugged it off.

"If you're asking me if it affected the outcome of the game, no," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said earlier this week.

Umm...the Russians did it?

So I guess you could say that the new loser’s technological battle cry, “We were hacked” could have applied in this situation.  Only, in this case, the Cowboys took their loss like men.

Giants and Jets Will Have Neutral End Zones This Weekend At MetLife Stadium

The New York Giants and New York Jets both play games in the Meadowlands this weekend and the scheduling congestion has created a problem regarding which team logo should be painted in the end zones.

The Giants kick off early Sunday afternoon while the Jets have a Saturday night game which will force MetLife Stadium to have neutral end zones with no team names for both games for the first time ever.

Although the Meadowlands facility has had quick turnarounds on events before, this one is uniquely challenging.

“We are always prepared to host two consecutive football games, whether college or NFL,” said Ron VanDeVeen, president and CEO of MetLife Stadium.

“However, due to the timing of Saturday’s 8:25 p.m. New York Jets game followed by Sunday’s 1 p.m. New York Giants game, coupled with the current weather forecast, the decision was made to use neutral end zones for this weekend’s contests. This decision will allow for appropriate maintenance of the playing surface throughout the weekend.”

For the Giants and Jets, who are the only NFL franchises sharing a stadium, the problem starts with both of them not even playing in New York. And for those of us who still call it "Giants Stadium," putting "New Jersey" on both end zones might be the permanent solution. 

MLB banning hazing ritual of rookies dressing up as women due to fear of offending people

Another day and another baseball tradition will be going the way of tossing pepper and hard slides into second base — and this time because of the PC police.

Major League Baseball players will no longer be allowed to dress up as women in humorous hazing rituals for fear that it could be perceived as offensive toward women, gays, and minorities.

The new policy was enacted by MLB and agreed to by the players as part of the latest collective bargaining agreement that is due to be ratified by the two sides on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Those baseball hazing rituals of dressing up rookies as Wonder Woman, Hooters waitresses and Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders will now banned in part of MLB's crackdown on behavior that could be construed as bullying or humiliating to others by playing on gender stereotypes.

Teams will be prohibited from "requiring, coercing or encouraging" players to "dress up as women or wear costumes that may be offensive to individuals based on their race, sex, nationality, age, sexual orientation, gender identify or other characteristic."

Hazing is a common practice by organized groups — such as fraternities, the military and sports teams — where veterans subject first-year members to humiliating or humbling actions or tasks that they must complete as an unofficial rite of passage — admittedly, sometimes getting dangerously out of hand.

Exactly when the harmless annual dress-up day in the majors began isn’t quite clear, but it has become a highly publicized and fun social media ritual over the past few years. And besides sometimes dressing as women, players dress as film or TV characters, super heroes or even rock stars.

So the sissyfication of sports continues — ironically by de-sissifying it.