anyone watch ultimate fighter??

[molta02]

No way in hell are NFL games fixed. Personally, I don't believe it'd be possible, and I don't think there is enough money.

You really think someone would have enough money to "buy" McNabb (for example) to lose a game, especially w/ season on the line?

NFL games are not fixed. Many teams and coaches are beyond incompetent and both play calling and execution are as bad as I have seen in the NFL since I have been watching. These lead to bad losses, but doesn't mean a game is fixed.

However, I do think that college basketball games are fixed quite frequently. Maybe not Big 12, ACC, Big east etc games, but those tiny conferences in D-I could be easily fixed.

Think about it: small schools, virtually no TV coverage, average person/bettor cant name one guy on team, most players have no chance at going pro and are regular college kids w/ no money. Basketball is also easiest sport to have a game fixed by favorite (fav wins, doesnt cover).

[MNCapper]

my 2 cents

No way in hell any pro games are fixed. they are making millions and can you imagine how money it would take to buy someone? The only spot I could maybe see this is in smaller conferences in NCAA basketball. They could buy a player if his team is a 10 pt favorite, he doesn't care if his team wins by 4,6, or 9 as long as they win. This might happen, but I have my doubts as the penalty would be harsh if player was caught. If you believe games are fixed, why would you even bet then?

[heleanth]

No way in hell any pro games are fixed. they are making millions and can you imagine how money it would take to buy someone? The only spot I could maybe see this is in smaller conferences in NCAA basketball. They could buy a player if his team is a 10 pt favorite, he doesn't care if his team wins by 4,6, or 9 as long as they win. This might happen, but I have my doubts as the penalty would be harsh if player was caught. If you believe games are fixed, why would you even bet then?

Even if a game if fixed, you can still bet on right side!! That's why we would bet even if we knew the fix was in. I had Dallas on Monday, and therefore, as I told my bookie, I was on the right side of the fix!

No way the NFL is fixed. Those that could make a difference make way too much money to be able to be bought. The only way referees could be on the take is if the whole refereeing team was on the take because the other officials would see what was going on. If the entire refereeing team was on the take, the word would have to get out because there is no way that many people could keep it secret.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!!!!!!

[crazystarky]

some games are fixed lots of proven facts

[STUGATS]

Yes, I Believe Any Game In The Nfl Can Be Fixed With The Refs, Not The Players. It Has Even Got Into The College Level Too. Did Not See The Phil/dal Game But That Was A Player Error Not A Zebra Helping. If Anyone Does Not Believe That Certain Games Are Fixed, Then I Feel Sorry For You. We Live In The Land Of Freedom Of Speech Right, Then Why In The Hell Can't A Coach Speak Out To The Media About The Officating In A Game. They Get Fined 25-100k Every Time. No Matter What Sport, These Refs Are Treated Like Gods, That They Are Infallable, When Time And Time Again, Instant Replay Shows They Fuged Up. Anything That Can Be Bet On Can Be Fixed, Not Every Game Though. If Anyone Saw The Wash/t.bay Game Now That Was Definetly A Fix. Alscott Never Made It In The End Zone For Two Points, But The Refs Clearly Said He Did. Refs Can Find Holding On Just About Every Down, B-ball Over The Back On 80 Percent Of Rebounds, Now You Get A Home Dog With A Couple Of Crucial Contaversial Calls Going Thier Way And The Momentuem Has Swung, And With 70,000 Nitwits Cheering Them Om On, Most Times Thats All It Takes. When The Money Is Lopsided Like 80-20 Or 90-10 Thats When Most Of The Shit Happens, But When A Fame Is 50-50 You Won't See It. The Average Player Is In The Nfl 5 Years, Years Ago They Got To Players. The Refs Are There 25-30 Years Less That Know The Better. If You Think The Integrity Of The Game Is Too Much For Any Of This To Happen, Then You Still Must Believe In The Tooth Fairy Also

[Blade]

How can you say that none of the nfl games are fixed. I think someone mentioned the seattle game earlier in the thread, where they were down by 5, with seconds left, pretty close to the end zone and decided to go for a field goal to lose by less. The spread was three. Now why the fock would u go for a field goal in that situation and still lose instead of taking a shot at the end zone and win? Some one please explain that to me. I know some of yall are gonna say bad call etc etc, idiot coach, that shit does not make any sense. and no coach would ever make a call like that unless there was something driving that decision. At the end of the game, the commentators said that they didn;t agree with that call and someone out there lost alot of money tonight......

[utbays]

The Dallas/Philly game was not fixed because more people had their money on Dallas. Vegas would not let a game be fixed to hurt their own pocketbook.

If Toledo loses tonight, the MAC is fixed.

[larryonion]

How can you say that none of the nfl games are fixed. I think someone mentioned the seattle game earlier in the thread, where they were down by 5, with seconds left, pretty close to the end zone and decided to go for a field goal to lose by less. The spread was three. Now why the fock would u go for a field goal in that situation and still lose instead of taking a shot at the end zone and win? Some one please explain that to me. I know some of yall are gonna say bad call etc etc, idiot coach, that shit does not make any sense. and no coach would ever make a call like that unless there was something driving that decision. At the end of the game, the commentators said that they didn;t agree with that call and someone out there lost alot of money tonight......

Everyone knows there is money on both sides and the over/under of every NFL game including the coaches.
Everyone knows college coaches put up un-needed points late to cover a spread to make alumni bettors happy and keep almuni and boosters giving to the school because they are happy (why do you think they give out $1 million coaching contracts?)
Everyone knows that NFL coaches in small markets are under pressure to keep asses in the seats to avoid blackouts and build brand loyalty.
So of course they make decisions when they can to cover spreads from time to time to make local bettors happy, but that does not mean that a game is fixed. Fixed means someone knows the outcome. Not someone takes a late action to change an outcome. Do you really believe a service when they say they have a guy at Lambau who is going to receive an envelope 20 minutes before gametime with the winner written on a piece of paper inside?

[jhedrick]

Yes, I Believe Any Game In The Nfl Can Be Fixed With The Refs, Not The Players. It Has Even Got Into The College Level Too. Did Not See The Phil/dal Game But That Was A Player Error Not A Zebra Helping. If Anyone Does Not Believe That Certain Games Are Fixed, Then I Feel Sorry For You. We Live In The Land Of Freedom Of Speech Right, Then Why In The Hell Can't A Coach Speak Out To The Media About The Officating In A Game. They Get Fined 25-100k Every Time. No Matter What Sport, These Refs Are Treated Like Gods, That They Are Infallable, When Time And Time Again, Instant Replay Shows They Fuged Up. Anything That Can Be Bet On Can Be Fixed, Not Every Game Though. If Anyone Saw The Wash/t.bay Game Now That Was Definetly A Fix. Alscott Never Made It In The End Zone For Two Points, But The Refs Clearly Said He Did. Refs Can Find Holding On Just About Every Down, B-ball Over The Back On 80 Percent Of Rebounds, Now You Get A Home Dog With A Couple Of Crucial Contaversial Calls Going Thier Way And The Momentuem Has Swung, And With 70,000 Nitwits Cheering Them Om On, Most Times Thats All It Takes. When The Money Is Lopsided Like 80-20 Or 90-10 Thats When Most Of The Shit Happens, But When A Fame Is 50-50 You Won't See It. The Average Player Is In The Nfl 5 Years, Years Ago They Got To Players. The Refs Are There 25-30 Years Less That Know The Better. If You Think The Integrity Of The Game Is Too Much For Any Of This To Happen, Then You Still Must Believe In The Tooth Fairy Also

So you are implying that Vegas waits until they see who all the $$$ is going toward and then they make a quick call to a ref or a handful of players and the "fix" is then on???

I cant believe so many people think that the first thing that comes to peoples minds when they lose a game on a "tough beat" is the game was "fixed"

It blows my mind that people think Donovan McNabb threw the ball to Roy Williams cos he had a bet on Dallas? What the FU** is wrong with you!!!

[Blade]

Out of the thousands of nfl games played to date, to say that none of them have ever been fixed is idiotic. Some one out there is pulling the strings, too many weird things happen in games that cant be explained any other way. On the dallas game. maybe mcnabb threw that interception intentionally to cover the spread, and maybe philly was suppose to come back and score a field goal and win the game by 2, maybe things didn;t go according to plan, but the important thing was to make sure that philly did not cover the 3 point line. who knows how they did it. but someone did something. There are games like this all the time and to say that some of those play arent a little fishy, then you need to go get your head checked.

[Spearit]

Jermaine Taylor/Anthony hopkins Fight- Sat

TAYLOR-HOPKINS PREFIGHT PRESS & PREDICTIONS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taylor, Hopkins have something to prove in rematch
By Chuck Johnson, USA TODAY
There's not much Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins see eye to eye on these days, starting with the fact that Taylor gained a split-decision victory July 16 in a fight Hopkins remains convinced he won.
Hopkins calls it a bad decision by the judges. Taylor considers the former champ's complaints sour grapes.

The new champ calls Hopkins a dirty fighter. Hopkins responds that he's in the hurt business and makes no apologies for the clash of heads that opened a gash in Taylor's scalp.

Hopkins said his younger opponent has been misled into a false sense of security and vows to knock out Taylor in their rematch for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world. Taylor draws on their first fight as an invaluable lesson and predicts he'll win the rematch convincingly because he's now prepared for anything Hopkins might try to do.

"To me, he's not a true champion," Taylor (24-0, 17 KOs) said Tuesday in New York, where he and Hopkins (46-3-1, 32 KOs) held a news conference to officially announce their Dec. 3 rematch at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET, $49.95).

"If I had lost that fight, I wouldn't be saying I got robbed. It was a close fight, and in those later rounds, he did get off. I give him that. But in those early rounds, I did just enough to win and get my respect."

Not so, said Hopkins, 40, still as adamant as ever that he lost his crown — after a middleweight-record 20 successful title defenses — only because the boxing establishment was ready for a new champion it can better control.

"It had to do with Bernard Hopkins, period," he said. "I'm not saying people got in a room and sorted out a strategy or plan. But in boxing, there's a small world that's controlled by a very few people. This was a situation of out goes the old, in comes the new. You're being promoted as the old aging grasshopper going up against the young heir apparent HBO house fighter. In that situation, the only way I can win is to stop Jermain Taylor.

"There was no controversy before July 16 about who was the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. But now we have a dispute, and we have to settle it. That's why I must, and I will, knock out Jermain Taylor."

Hopkins, from Philadelphia, said the rematch against his Little Rock opponent will be his last meaningful fight before he retires, fulfilling a promise he made to his mother, who's now deceased, to hang up his gloves before his 41st birthday Jan. 15.

"What better way to end my career than to beat the house-industry-corporate champ and for me to go out with the old Frank Sinatra song ... My Way."

Still unbeaten, Taylor, 27, relishes his new status as one of boxing's biggest young stars. His confidence has grown from the victory against Hopkins, who he now said he respects a lot less.

"I'm still going to respect him and the fact he held those belts that long," Taylor said. "He got out of jail and made himself a big name in boxing. I've got to give that respect. But as far as a person and how he fights dirty in that ring, I don't respect him anymore.

"If he was any kind of man, he wouldn't be crying the way he is right now."

Taylor doesn't predict a knockout but said he'll win convincingly after Hopkins finished stronger in their first fight.

"I don't have to have a knockout. I just need to win this fight and leave no doubts in the minds of my fans or his fans," Taylor said.

"I learned that I can overcome anything. In that 12th round, it took everything I had to just go out there and put it all into it. I am not a quitter, and I never will quit. And now I'm even more hungry.

"It's going to be totally different this time."

[wayne1218]

I'll take Taylor!

[Spearit]

Nice- Wayne- I also am on Taylor. I believe that Hopkins is looking for a big promotional fight to end his career. He is hyping Ali style. Taylor won't go down but Hopkins may burn out trying. I just view Hopkins antics as a business.

LAS VEGAS -- Before Jermain Taylor faced Bernard Hopkins for the undisputed middleweight championship in July, Taylor was quietly confident and extremely respectful of his opponent.

He recognized Hopkins' historic title reign, during which he had made 20 consecutive defenses, easily the division record. Taylor spoke about how, some day, he hoped to carve out a legacy just as impressive as Hopkins'.

Taylor (24-0, 17 KOs) defeated Hopkins (46-3-1, 32 KOs) on a split decision to win the title, but it was a decision many fans and media members disputed.

Hopkins disagreed, too, and has spent the past four months railing against it -- particularly judge Duane Ford's scoring of the 12th round. Although Hopkins gave away many of the early rounds, he rallied in the second half of the fight and was clearly in control.

Ford, however, gave the last round to Taylor even though it was an obvious Hopkins round to most. Had he given it to Hopkins, the fight would have been a draw and Hopkins would have retained the title.

"At best, a robbery would have been a draw," Hopkins said. "A rape was to give it to Jermain Taylor."

HOPKINS-TAYLOR 2 FIGHT CARD
HBO PPV Saturday 9 p.m. ET
Mandalay Bay Events Center
Las Vegas, Nev.

• Middleweights: Jermain Taylor (24-0, 17 KOs) vs. Bernard Hopkins (46-3-1, 32 KOs), 12 rounds, rematch, for Taylor's unified title.
• HBO PPV: Tale O' The Tape
• Junior featherweights: Oscar Larios (56-3-1, 36 KOs) vs. Israel Vazquez (38-3, 27 KOs), 12 rounds, rubber match, to unify titles and for vacant Ring magazine title.
• Junior middleweights: Ike Quartey (36-2-1, 30 KOs) vs. Carlos Bojorquez (25-7-6, 21 KOs), 10 rounds.


Hopkins, 40, has also aimed his considerable wrath at Taylor, 27, derisively calling him a "fake champion" and the "disputed champion."

Now, Hopkins and Taylor are set for the Saturday night rematch (HBO PPV, 9 ET) at Mandalay Bay in the last major fight of 2005. The fight is dubbed "No Respect," and both fighters are living up to the title because they are not showing each other any respect.

Taylor said his respect for Hopkins is gone because Hopkins has complained so bitterly about the decision in the first fight.

"I'm so sick of this man crying," Taylor said. "If he thinks he can beat, then beat me. But shut up about it already.

"I've got the mind-set of no respect. I feel like that he's disrespected me to the utmost and I am just sick of it. He puts no fear in my heart. I don't respect him, not one bit, and I am looking forward to a knockout."

Decision aside, Hopkins is mad about Taylor's attitude toward him.

"I put millions in Jermain's account but he runs his mouth and he doesn't show appreciation," Hopkins said.



AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Hopkins (at podium) promises to knockout Taylor (right), who is promoted by DiBella (center).
"How can you have no respect for someone who was champion for a decade? I'm not saying he should kiss my ass. But I gave him the opportunity when I didn't have to fight him. He forgot that. I gave him an opportunity, and now that he got a gift, he has no respect. I put millions in his account by giving him an opportunity and then you turn around and act like an ingrate? To me, it's personal because he forgot what I did for him, and now I got to spank him."

Lou DiBella, Taylor's promoter and Hopkins' former adviser before a brutally acrimonious split in 2001, said he is glad to see Taylor less respectful of Hopkins this time around.

"I'm thrilled because I have a fighter who is [ticked] off and has less respect, so he will go out and make this a different fight," DiBella said. "He will put a period on the exclamation point of the last fight and send Bernard off into retirement."

Taylor, whose mild speech impediment is no match for Hopkins' gift of gab, instead used props to illustrate his disrespect at this week's final news conference. Taylor pulled out a tape player, pressed play and unleashed the sound of a wailing baby, explaining that it was what Hopkins has sounded like since July.

Then Taylor reached into a bag and grabbed a baby doll dressed in pink, held it aloft and displayed its shirt, which read "Cry Baby Hopkins."

"It shows you the type of man he is," Taylor said, referring to Hopkins' complaints.

“ He is not a true champion. If I lost I would have gone home, looked at the tape, looked at what I did wrong and came back and did better. I wouldn't say I got robbed. I ain't got time for that. ”
— Jermain Taylor on Bernard Hopkins

"He is not a true champion. If I lost I would have gone home, looked at the tape, looked at what I did wrong and came back and did better. I wouldn't say I got robbed. I ain't got time for that. I'm just sick of him saying that he won the fight and that I didn't beat him. That was the worst night of boxing I've had in my life, but I still won the fight.

"I'm stronger than he is, I'm faster than he is and, of course, I'm younger. I do everything it takes to be champion. Experience is all he has. He had the belts, but he doesn't even have that anymore."

Naturally, Hopkins has a different view.

Hopkins -- who will be participating in his 25th world title fight to Taylor's 25th overall fight -- said the only thing he plans to change in the rematch is that he won't let Taylor finish on his feet.

Hopkins hurt Taylor twice late in the fight, but didn't knock him out or even knock him down. This time, he said, he will knock Taylor out because he doesn't feel like he can win a decision.

“ But when I get him hurt -- and this is a quote -- when he gets hurt, and he's going to get hurt, he's going to get knocked out. That's the only thing that I need to tweak. ”
— Bernard Hopkins on his plans for Jermain Taylor

"I'm going to do the same thing that was so easy for me to do the last time," Hopkins said. "But when I get him hurt -- and this is a quote -- when he gets hurt, and he's going to get hurt, he's going to get knocked out. That's the only thing that I need to tweak.

"I have to knock Jermain Taylor out to win. If I don't, I don't win. And not only am I going to beat him, I will destroy his future, and he won't be able to be recycled. It's not good for Jermain Taylor to get back in the ring with me. I beat the guy the first time and I'm going to do it again. This time, it won't go the distance."

Hopkins does have history on his side when it comes to rematches, going 4-0:

• After a draw with Segundo Mercado in late 1994 for the vacant title, Hopkins ravaged him in the rematch in early 1995.

• After a four-round no contest in which Hopkins looked shaky against Robert Allen in 1998, he crushed Allen in their two subsequent meetings, once by knockout (1999) and once by lopsided decision (2004).

• After a decision victory against Antwun Echols in 1999, a fight that Hopkins calls the toughest of his career, he knocked Echols out in the 2000 rematch.

Taylor laughed off Hopkins' prediction.

"He can't hurt me, and if he could knock me out, he would have knocked me out last time," Taylor said.

"He didn't. And he didn't because he couldn't. He gave me everything he could and I still wouldn't go. Every time he would come on, I'd come back with something. Every time."


Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.

[scottya]

Have to agree with Wayne, I'll take Taylor

[uconnplayer]

Fixed!!! It Is!!!

guys is this fuckin game fixed?? serioulsly thats the 2nd f'n kickoff popped up to give texas good field position???