Allgemeines » etering towards a draw.

After an ill-fated attempt at making a rematch with Josh Koscheck, Bellator MMA welterweight Paul Daley is ready to move on.?Ive been on his Facebook page and his Dethrone [Facebook] page and called him all profanities that youd expect, Daley, who lost to Koscheck in 2010, told ESPN.com. To fight me was like a golden opportunity for him and he missed the opportunity a few times now. Im not looking to present him with another opportunity.After Koscheck withdrew from their rematch in June due to injury, Daley (38-13-2) now has his focus set on Douglas Lima (26-6). The two will meet in the main event of Saturdays Bellator 158 card at Londons O2 Arena (Spike TV, ESPN Deportes, 9 p.m. ET) with a welterweight title shot in the balance.The event has faced a multitude of changes, most notably due to the June 6 death of Kimbo Slice, who had agreed to a rematch against James Thompson in the headliner. Regarding Slice, Daley said,?Im privileged to take his place as the main event here in London.Daley, 33, enters the bout on a five-fight win streak, including a first-round knockout of Andy Uhrich in January. He said?a title shot, should he defeat Lima, was something he asked for and was agreed to with someone who has a position of power in Bellator.Lima is an opponent that I picked, said Daley. Hes the toughest guy, hes a former champion, so I am excited to get such a motivated fight against a dangerous opponent.A native of Brazil, Lima was bumped from a matchup with Chidi Njokuani at last months Bellator 156 for this bout, his first since dropping the welterweight title to Andrey Koreshkov last July via unanimous decision.The opponent switch creates what could be a high-octane bout with the potential for an explosive finish. Daley, a British kickboxer, has recorded knockouts in 28 of his 38 career wins, while Lima, 28, has finished 23 of his 26 victories. Despite the credentials, Daley says that Lima isnt on my level,?and he is very confident heading into the fight.The only thing that raises his level is that he was the former champion, said Daley. We really believe that this is going to be a fight where we do a bit of a Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz and were at the end saying, Im not surprised m-----f------.Having won nine of his last 10, including eight by stoppage, Daley is predicting hell win by knockout on Saturday. For his training camp, he has sparred with several British pro boxers and worked on his wrestling with the Polish Olympic team, taking part in what he calls mini camps to get prepared for each test. The results, he believes, will be a well-rounded fighter who is more mature inside the cage.I think hes still a little bit too sure of himself, Daley said. You may say that about me, but the way Im humbly putting it is Im just a little bit faster than he thinks. Im a little bit stronger than he thinks and my fight IQ is a little bit higher than he thinks.Daley and Koscheck met at UFC 113 in May 2010, with Koscheck winning by unanimous decision. After the final bell, Daley hit Koscheck in the face, which resulted in Daleys release from the company later that night in Montreal. But the fortunes of each fighter changed from that point, with Koscheck finishing his UFC run with a 2-6 mark and Daley amassing a 14-4 record outside of the Octagon.Koscheck, a veteran of 25 fights in the Octagon, lost his last five UFC bout and signed with Bellator last June. His debut was scheduled for January at Bellator 148 in his hometown of Fresno, California, against Matt Secor?but he pulled out with an undisclosed injury. This elevated Daley to the main event, with Semtex quickly dispatching Uhrich just two minutes in with an explosive uppercut, launching a chorus of boos from the partisan crowd.After Daley called his rival out (referring to him as Crotch Check), the rematch was set for London until Koscheck was forced to pull out once again with an undisclosed injury. Daley isnt buying it and claims he was expecting it to happen.He didnt realize I was so invested in whooping his ass, said Daley. This was a fight where I intended to put severe beats on him and I think he got that sense, and he didnt have the same motivation or the same energy and sometimes you need that.For a combatant who has 53 pro bouts, Saturday will hold a special significance for Daley. It will be his first fight in his native land in nearly two years. For someone who is normally booed loudly in America, especially where Koscheck is supported, Daley is expected to get a rousing ovation from the home crowd. He compared it to his UFC New Years card appearance in Las Vegas, a first-round knockout of Dustin Hazelett in the co-main event on UFC 108.This one could top that being that its in the UK and Im going to actually have the supporters with me, said Daley. Itll be up there [and] maybe even surpass the MGM Grand. Im really looking forward to having the home crowd on such a large scale being behind me. Clearance Kevin Durant Shoes . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said. Cheap Kevin Durant Shoes . Soukalova missed only one target and completed the 15-kilometre course in 40 minutes, 32.6 seconds for both victories in this seasons individual discipline. 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As smooth off the field as he was competitive on it, he made his Test debut as an 18-year-old medium-pacer, transforming himself into a genuinely quick opening bowler and formidable batsman. He led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 World Cup, after which he entered Pakistani politics.Was it inevitable that you would become a cricketer? My two cousins were Test captains. One, Majid Khan, became Test captain while I was playing. One was an Oxford Blue [Javed Burki] and one a Cambridge Blue [Majid]. If youre living up to people who have made it big, you face more pressure than ordinary cricketers. Doors open easier but youre always judged against them. I was always told that I had less talent than them.You made your Test debut in England aged 18. What happened? I had always had ambitions as a batsman but I was selected as a fast bowler because Pakistan hardly had any. Id played very few first-class matches, and while in home conditions my slingy action was effective, in England I was totally at sea. I was dropped after that first Test and my team-mates openly told me Id never get back into the team. But Id been determined to be a Test cricketer since I was nine and there was never any chance, no matter how many setbacks I faced, that I would give up.What turned you into a quick bowler? In 1972, Australia came to England. I watched Dennis Lillee bowl and thats when I decided I wanted to be fast. It was the first time Id seen a genuine fast bowler. Pakistan didnt have any, and I just loved it. It appealed to my instincts, my aggressive way of playing. I was a medium-pacer then and Worcester would encourage me to bowl that because I had a natural inswinger. But I was never satisfied, so if I ever got hit, I would try and bowl faster. Thats how I got this aggressive streak, to seek revenge when a batsman tried to dominate, that made me into a fast bowler. I understood the limitations of how I used to bowl, so I completely restructured my bowling action between the ages of 18 and 25. I spent the winter after I finished at Oxford University [1975-76] in Pakistan, and that was really the turning point, because on those wickets you needed to have air speed. My first-class team [Pakistan International Airlines] encouraged me to bowl fast. In a year Id gained pace and was genuinely fast.You came third behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding at the famous speed test in Perth in 1978... We were bowling bouncers and Jeff Thomson was bowling full-tosses, so there was a slight distortion, although he was probably still quicker. Out of eight balls I bowled, seven were quicker than Holding. I wasnt even at my peak - I was quicker in the next two years. In my peak I got nearly 100 wickets in about a year, 40 in a series against India, but I did my shin bone and missed three of my best years as a bowler.What are your memories of Kerry Packers World Series Cricket? It was the highest standard Ive played. It was the greatest number of fast bowlers ever concentrated in one place - very high-calibre fast bowling. There were people like Tony Greig, Lawrence Rowe, Roy Fredericks, who were outstanding batsmen, but all three of them sank under the barrage of quick bowlers.Did captaincy improve you as a player? The more pressure I took, the stronger I got.Teams follow captains they believe in. I used to tell them: Do not be scared of losing, youll never know how to win. I discovered why I was successful and others who were more talented than me werent. My whole policy was aggressive: how am I going to win? Most who captained me used to enter a match thinking we should not lose. The result was that team selection became defensive. Its a big difference in strategy and attitude. I took this fear of losing away from them and thats why we used to pull off incredible victories from losing positions. We played superior opposition and did very well. You become fearless and that is a very important component in successful people, organisations, even countries.Did you find it difficult being a bowling captain? Batting captains never had a clue about bowlers. Most captaincy is done on the field. As a bowler I was far better equipped to deal with that than batting captains. The only batting captain I rated was Ian Chappell. He had a very good cricket mind and could deal with bowlers well. Apart from him, very few were good because they didnt understand bowlers. Because I was a bowling captain, I taught Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis from scratch. They had hardly played any first-class cricket and I would tell them what to do every ball because I had been through the process myself. I would set their fields and I would tell them what to think.What were the raw ingredients that you saw in Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis? Wasim was the most talented bowler I have seen apart from Holdingg.dddddddddddd A natural. But he needed the art of taking wickets, fitness and advice, which I gave him. Waqar was a very strong bowler, not as gifted as Wasim, but much stronger physically. Mentally, Waqar was very tough. Wasim would give up a little bit when things got down; Waqar would keep coming back. But Wasim was much more talented.How do you compare with the three other great allrounders from the 1970s and 80s: Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev? We were all great competitors. I had my duels with all three. Botham was a better batsman than all of them, Hadlee was a better bowler than the others, and Kapil Dev, at one point, had great batting potential but never developed it. Its not easy at that level to keep developing both skills.Ian Botham peaked very early. I think he was already on the downer at 26 or 27 because he had become very big. He started off as an allrounder of more promise than all of us because he had a great side-on bowling action and outswing. But by his late 20s his bowling was no longer effective. And batting-wise, the reason I dont think he fulfilled his potential is his performance against West Indies. I judge batsmen on their performance against the big boys and in critical situations. In that sense, Bothams performance against West Indies was just appalling - averaging about 14 with the bat and around 40 with the ball [in fact, 21 and 35].Your bowling average was 21 against West Indies, the dominant team of the era. Did you raise your game against them? The tougher the competition, the better it got out of me. Sometimes I used to lose motivation against the smaller teams. The lure of beating West Indies in the West Indies was the main reason I came out of retirement [in 1988]. We drew 1-1 but with neutral umpires we would have won 2-0 and I would have retired then because it was my ambition to beat the ultimate team in world cricket. Im the only captain that never lost to West Indies in three series, all drawn.They tested you completely. It demanded the greatest concentration, guts and a proper technique to face them. The batting was great too. Viv Richards was head and shoulders above everyone else. A genius. It was his reflexes, his timing, lightning footwork and his attitude. He was very courageous - a batsman who would take on challenges. His statistical record does not reflect his ability or the number of match-winning innings he played. He used to get bored, whereas other batsmen would bat for their averages.What are your memories of the 1992 World Cup? Great euphoria. I handpicked that young team and for them to win the World Cup from that impossible situation was a source of such happiness to the Pakistanis. I was so proud of that team. When I retired, I left the best Pakistan team in its history. I was very disappointed that it never achieved its potential. Match-fixing allegations dogged them. Do you regret admitting to using a bottle top during the 1981 county season? I regret that it distorted the whole discussion on ball-tampering; it took it to another level. I was trying to explain that ball-tampering had always been part of cricket. It was only when you crossed a certain limit that it became cheating. He [journalist Ivo Tennant] asked me point blank and I said, Yes. Id played a match at Sussex against Hampshire. It was a dead wicket, petering towards a draw. We had drinks and there was a bottle top. I scratched the ball trying to get resistance on the other side. I said: That is cheating, youve crossed the line. I was illustrating the point. Then other people jumped in, people trying to settle scores, people taking money from tabloids to say: I saw Imran ball-tampering. They were such liars and they made money. In that sense, I regretted it.There must have been times when the pressure got to you, leading Pakistan for 10 years? Cricket is the only captaincy in sport where you face pressure. In Pakistan the pressure is more than in other places because when the team loses, the captains head comes on the chopping block, otherwise the board is removed. There were about 17 changes in the 10-12 years after I left. When I came in, there was a players revolt against the captain and I was the compromise. In my 10 years I never had a problem. I had the complete respect of the team.How did cricket prepare you for politics? Politics is cut-throat. I find myself far better equipped than my colleagues because I learnt to compete and take knocks from sport. There is no better preparation for politics. It is the ultimate in character-building. Being a political leader is like being a cricket captain. You walk out to a stadium full of people, all responsibility on you, and if you can learn to take that responsibility, it equips you to do anything in life. ' ' '