Larry Brown Sports

If you live in the Los Angeles, Memphis, or Miami areas, I highly recommend you check out your local World Series of Boxing team. Sunday night was the first time I saw a World Series event, and it was a blast. The LA Matadors hosted the Miami Gallos in their new home — Avalon Hollywood — a former nightclub turned boxing ring, for five fights between the teams.

Several big names in the boxing world were on hand to take in the evening, including Evander Holyfield, Paulie Malignaggi, Rashad Holloway, and Vanes Martirosyan. The packed house witness four fights as one was scratched, and the Matadors swept Miami 4-0 to earn three points in the standings.

The World Series of Boxing is an international league featuring four franchises in three different global conferences — one in America, Europe, and Asia. The American teams include LA, Miami, Memphis, and Mexico City, and the fighters are paid a salary. Though the boxers are paid, they are still eligible to compete in the Olympics, which is the goal for most of the fighters. The league combines elements of amateurism (ability compete in Olympics) and professionalism (no head gear, 10-point must system for scoring) in its rules, and it can be seen televised on Versus. The league is owned by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and IMG, which has a 25% stake in the company.

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Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian has filed a lawsuit alleging he is the victim of an extortion attempt. His suit names a man and woman as the defendants, saying the couple found his BlackBerry and were demanding $30,000 to return it. The couple allegedly was threatening to sell the phone to a media outlet.

According to the suit filed by Berrian, his phone contains access codes to his residences, pictures of his daughter and “other personal photographs and video of Berrian and third parties not intended for public distribution.”

Most people who encounter a lost item would try to return it to the owner. Unfortunately the couple involved had money on their mind.

LBS has learned through the court documents filed in the case that Berrian hired a private investigator to track down the couple attempting the extortion. Investigators identified one of the defendants in the case as Ron Jones, a former Southern Miss defensive lineman who was signed by the 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2004. Jones has been playing in the Arena Football League since 2007 and is currently a member of the Arizona Rattlers.

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Exactly how big is the Super Bowl?  For the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, it’s life-altering.  For advertisers, it’s arguably the most important day of the year.  For Jerry Jones and the city of Dallas, it’s a gold rush.  For the casual fan, it’s the best sporting event going.  For the die-hard fan, it’s three hours of unrivaled anxiety.  For single women, it’s better than sex.

The popular dating website Zoosk.com conducted an interesting survey recently regarding the Super Bowl.  They surveyed over 1,000 singles to get some of their thoughts about the big game, and what they found was intriguing to say the least.  Probably the most shocking discovery was that 73 percent of single women responded that they would rather watch the Super Bowl than have sex, compared to only 50 percent of men.

To me, that’s particularly surprising considering these people are actively looking for love and not married women who could be sick of their husbands.  Then again, we already know football fans have better sex after their favorite team seals a victory, so maybe it’s all relative.  That just goes to show you how strongly the NFL has built its brand and how important their championship has become.

The other fun discovery made by Zoosk was that men chose Brett Favre most often (32 percent of the time) as a player they’d “want to grab a beer with,” while women chose Tom Brady (32 percent of the time).  Brady makes sense, but if I were a single guy I wouldn’t want to be having lunch with and taking pointers from a guy who allegedly sexually harasses women.  Not to mention, there’s no telling what might come out once the beer starts flowing.

Here’s hoping there will be no lockout in 2011.

Keep up with LBS on twitter for more fun stories like this one

The Wilpon family, owners of 100% of the New York Mets, have recently stated that they will entertain offers to sell up to 25% of the team. The family had previously said they never wanted to give up any portion of the team, but a recent lawsuit related to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme has forced them to rethink that stance. The lawsuit reportedly seeks to recover between $300 million and $1 billion from the Wilpons, money that would be used to compensate the other Madoff victims.

The Wilpons, largely-known for their real estate success, have consistently said that the Madoff scandal would not affect the Mets financially. This lawsuit essentially aims to prove that the family actually profited from the scheme. If that is the case, then the sale of 25% of the team — recently valued by Forbes at upwards of $800 million — likely wouldn’t even be enough to cover the low end of the lawsuit estimates.

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It’s the week of the Super Bowl and a time when the only focus for the NFL should be the big game. Unfortunately, the possibility of a work stoppage looms over the game and leaves us wondering whether next season will go on as scheduled. I’ll say one thing: the connection between the TV networks and the league is not helping matters.

The web site AdAge says CBS College Sports Network rejected a “Let Us Play” ad from the Players Association that was to run during the NFLPA All-Star Game on Saturday. One can say that CBS just wants to avoid the issue, but the union feels like the network’s connection with the league is keeping them from airing the issue.

For the time being, the union has relied on social media efforts to spread their message. Here’s what one of their ads on YouTube looks like:

Brent Calloway is a highly-rated recruit from Birmingham, Alabama. He had been committed to play football at Alabama for a year and a half, but he surprised folks by announcing a change of plans at the U.S. Army All American Game earlier in the month. His father, “Peaches” Winston, was not happy about the announcement, as we found out this weekend via College Football Talk.

“I’m from the old school,” Winston said. “When you shake a man’s hand, look him in the eye and make a commitment, you stick to that commitment. I respect him and I’m going to root for him. But I don’t think he handled it the right way.”

A big reason for the disconnect is a debate over what position Calloway should play; he wants to play running back which Auburn is offering, while his father and Bama both think he’s better suited to play defense.

Apparently Winston is not going down without a fight, because Calloway was in Tuscaloosa for a visit with Bama this weekend.

Only Calloway knows what he’ll announce on signing day Wednesday, and then we’ll find out how upset his folks are. Maybe the reason he’s reconsidering Auburn is because the money’s too good. If that’s the case, it’s certainly not being kick backed to his father’s church.

If you’re wondering where all the Jay Cutler criticism came from since he left last Sunday’s NFC Championship Game with a knee injury, SI’s Peter King has an answer. King, who like us felt that there are other quarterbacks in the league who would have played despite being hurt in that game, said one of the reasons the Vanderbilt product became a pinata is because of his standing amongst his peers.

Appearing on Boston sports radio station WEEI, King said “[Cutler’s] just not a guy who’s very highly regarded or very well liked by other players in the league.”

Aside from the jealousy factor amongst players eliminated from the playoffs, that sure helps explain where all the criticism comes from.

Cutler leaving the conference championship game with a knee injury was already a story by itself. The controversy was perpetuated and taken to a new level when all his peers piled on because players ordinarily defend and protect each other. Now we have an idea why they went on, and truthfully, it’s not surprising given what what we know about Jay.

Despite missing the first four games of the 2010 season while serving a suspension, Ben Roethlisberger is on the verge of winning his third Super Bowl before turning 30.  You really can’t argue with what he’s been able to achieve on the field, but there is certainly plenty to be said about his character off of it.  It should come as no surprise that the public has a negative opinion of Big Ben.  The interesting part, however, is that most of his teammates felt the same way.

In Peter King’s most recent edition of Monday Morning Quarterback, he highlights a discussion that he had with commissioner Roger Goodell about Roethlisberger and his suspension.  Goodell said that it really bothers him when players act like they’re getting screwed with their punishment, especially since they bring it on themselves and people have a chance to defend them.  In Roethlisberger’s case, no one stuck their nose out.

“[Most often] they’re not recognizing they have a role in it,” Goodell explained when asked about Roethlisberger. “I bet two dozen [Steeler] players … Not one, not a single player, went to his defense. It wasn’t personal in a sense, but all kinds of stories like, ‘He won’t sign my jersey.’ ”

In other words, Goodell talked to some of Big Ben’s teammates to see if they thought the punishment was appropriate and no one made an effort to get their quarterback back on the field faster.  Regardless of how great a player Roethlisberger may be, that should tell you a lot about the type of person he is — or was.  Then again, it’s nothing a third ring in five years can’t solve.

Timothy Bradley beat Devon Alexander to unify the light welterweight belt on Saturday evening. The fight was stopped because of accidental headbutts delivered by Bradley that cut Alexander, but Tim was easily the winner to that point. After unifying the titles, who will be next for Bradley? He answered the question in the ring, saying “[Amir] Khan right now would probably be the number one on my list right now, but I want the fight fans to pick who I fight next and I’ll fight him.”

Though Bradley thinks a fight with Amir Khan could come next, he also mentioned that he wants “a chance with Floyd Mayweather,” but that “the key name on the list down the road is Manny Pacquiao.”

Bradley’s promoter, Gary Shaw, says he wants Mayweather next, but Mayweather has been inactive and is likely working on taking care of his legal issues. Pacquiao is fighting Shane Mosley in May but is running out of viable opponents until Mayweather expresses interest in a fight between them. Perhaps a clash with Pac-Man could be in store, but Bradley has a lot of work in front of him before he can ascend to that level. For now, arranging a fight with Khan and winning it should be keep him plenty occupied.

If you’re unfamiliar with Oracene Price, she’s the mother of Venus and Serena Williams. Oracene travels to many tennis events to support her daughters, though Serena did not play in the Australian Open and Venus lost in the third round.

Apparently she stopped following the tournament after Venus was defeated because she had to ask her twitter followers who had reached the finals of the tournament. Informed it was Li Na and Kim Clijsters, Price said she wanted Na to win. “I agree is would be cool for a Chinese to win. I like first timers. Also I don’t want My vision blurred!”

Then she explained her issues with Clijsters.

“Lets say I’m not pulling for the other one. I dislike dubious people,” Price wrote. She then elaborated on the vision blurred remark, “Did you peep that eye of hers It gives you the Madusah scare and turns you into solid stone. Don’t look at that eye.”

Look, Oracene’s allowed to have her likes and dislikes just like anyone else. But if you’re wondering where the outright disrespect comes from, it likely dates back to this incident at the 2009 U.S. Open. I tell you, there’s no wonder where Serena gets her attitude from. Too bad for Oracene that Clijsters won, but I’m guessing many more people were happy about that result than not.

via Chris Chase at Yahoo! Sports