Kimbo and Tiger

My favorite Ultimate Fighter, is likely finished.

Kimbo Slice, some of us, still love you.

My more seasoned UFC friends like Solly and Galdi often chided me for being such a sucker. Slice is crap, they kept telling me. Great on YouTube, garbage against actual skilled fighters.

I didn't care. "Kimbo Slice is the baddest fighter on the planet" I would repeat like a 10 year old child. When challenged, I would say: "Dude, look at those eyes! Check out that gold fist hanging from his neck!"

Slice flopped badly in a loss on UFC's Saturday PPV, good ol' "Fleece The Public 113" or whatever they call it.

Dana White, the big bad bossman of UFC said afterward that, that, was essentially that.

I'll never forget a scintillating Saturday Night promotion of EliteXC, where Kimbo went mainstream on CBS. Good times, good fun.

Good luck Kimbo. We'll always have YouTube.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Tiger Comeback just got more complicated.

Having withdrawn from the Players on Sunday with a neck injury (reported), his playing schedule going forward is even more uncertain. He's going to speak on Monday at a presser for the AT&T National, which has decamped to Aronomink in Philly for the next two years while Congressional here in DC recovers from major greens surgery and gets ready for the 2011 US Open.

So we'll see what he says then.

But believing what he says about this injury, is sorta like believing the stories all his mistresses are selling to the tabloids right now.

In other words, there's some truth in there, somewhere. You just got to rummage around for it.

Tiger dropped a shocker on the golf press at his Masters interview session when he claimed he played part of last year on a "partially torn" achilles.

Yet, he never once mentioned that.

Hmmm. Really. Partially torn? Achilles? Really?

On the one hand, an injury to Tiger makes sense. His driving distance is way down (a shocking 70th in the field at TPC) and he's all over the map.

On the other hand, Tiger said this injury first appeared BEFORE the Masters. And we all know after 3 rounds at Augusta, nobody was saying, "yeah, Tiger's right there, but I wonder if he's hurt?"

If you want the conspiracy theory angle on it, it's simple. Tiger is sick of being just another tour player, not dominant, and being watched for every f-bomb he utters (he let loose with 3 of them on the 18th hole on Thursday). He's going through a divorce, and the best way to deal with it, is to claim injury and basically flush the season. That way, he also gets to avoid the Ryder Cup for a second straight time, and thus also avoid potential Euro-Tabloid hounding and drunken hecklers.

Or, his neck really is hurt. And he'll be back playing more golf - probably average - later this summer.

We shall see.