02/17 Morning Minute: The Winner, and STILL Undefeated…

Ohio’s most underrated athlete? While I admit that I am not the biggest boxing fan in the world, or probably even on my street, I did find myself at a local establishment last night to watch Youngstown, Ohio’s own Kelly Pavlik attempt to repeat what was considered a major upset a few months back: Beat Jermain Taylor. A bit of a bandwagoner, I would not even have known the entire story about Pavlik had it not been for the trusty Internet as well as my friend Dave; both of which made last night’s fight very entertaining.Of course, it also helps when thousands of people at an event in Las Vegas are chanting the name of the guy you want to win.

Many said that Pavlik (known for his knockout punch) would have to repeat his “luck” again this time around, but that was not the case. While this was the first non-knockout in 10 fights, Kelly won by unanimous decision to take his record to a lofty 33-0 – with an amazing 29 knockouts.

I have to confess that after the bell rang to finish off the 12th round, which was then tied up per the Lederman card, I was not very confident in the fact that Pavlick had made a case for himself to take the decision. Even ESPN had it all knotted up. But after the final metrics were shown, the Ohioan threw an amazing 845 punches (compared to Taylor’s 456) and the result was his hand raised in victory. My lack of expertise will lead to a lack of analysis aisde from the fact that I enjoyed watching the fight, and the fact that my “team” actually won a big event made things that much better.

On to hoops…
If you missed any of the All-Star festivities, know three things: Dwight Howard is a beast, Jason Kapono was once one of those unused guys on the Cavs roster and Damon Jones just happens to be EVERYWHERE – in velvet.

Some YouTubeage for the masses:

– Dwight Howard’s contest-winning “Superman” dunk

– Gerald Green’s blowing out of the candle – one of the more creative dunks I’ve seen in a while

– Jason Kapono’s record-tying three-point shootout round. Who’s record? Well that of Craig Hodges and…Mark Price!

Regardless of your thoughts on if Howard’s final dunk was an actual “dunk” or not, you can’t ignore how high that kid can get. And I know his play has slowed down a bit from when he started off the season on an absolute terror, but I have a feeling that the Eastern Conference will see a few more 20-20 games during the second half of the season, and the Magic are not to be overlooked.

For those bonding with the television today, you’re in luck.

– NCAA Basketball: Ohio State at Michigan, 1p EST (CBS)
– NASCAR: Daytona 500, 2p EST (Fox)
– Maybe hang out with your family for a bit, 5-8p EST (TBD)
– NBA: 2008 All-Star Game, 8:30p EST (TNT)
– NCAA Basketball: UCLA at USC, 10p EST (FSN)

Have a great Sunday, all.

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