Rossi, Ducati, the MP12 and the iPad

Manufacturers in MotoGP are there for one reason only: brand awareness. Being able to show the skills of your organisation and have these associated with winning and success are huge benefits to brands. No team is more conscious of this than Ducati. Racing is just one part of the Ducati brand marketing plan, a plan [...]

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Faber nearing the end of the road? The nine-year rule

Competitive mixed martial arts hasn't been around long enough to come up with any definitive theories on length of career, but David Williams at Fight Opinion did a nice job recently of chronicling the career of the some of the biggest stars in the history of the sport. He points out that with few exceptions, no matter when you start your career, the nine-year mark is about when you see a downturn.

Check out these fighters:

CHUCK LIDDELL: MMA debut ? 5/18/98, 9-year mark ? 5/18/07

Liddell's first fight after reaching the 9-year mark was his sudden first-round KO loss to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. After that, Liddell's only win was against an "older" (by MMA years) fighter in Wanderlei Silva, and he was knocked out in brutal fashion by Rashad Evans, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, and Rich Franklin.

FEDOR EMELIANENKO: MMA debut ? 5/21/00, 9-year mark ? 5/21/09

Emelianenko's first fight after nine years was the Strikeforce match against Brett Rogers, in which Emelianenko was put in more danger than usual. After that, Emelianenko, whose only previous loss was a doctor stoppage due to a cut against Tsuyoshi Kosaka, shockingly lost two fights in a row, to Fabricio Werdum and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.

TAKANORI GOMI: MMA debut ? 11/27/98, 9-year mark ? 11/27/07

For Gomi, the fight previous to reaching the 9-year mark was the now infamous war against Nick Diaz that the Nevada State Athletic Commission ruled a No Contest. Since then, Gomi is 5-4 ...

JENS PULVER: MMA debut ? 4/24/99, 9-year mark ? 4/24/08

This is arguably the hardest collapse to watch. Pulver reached the 9-year point of his career prior to his first WEC fight against Urijah Faber. Beginning with that fight, Pulver is 2-7 ...

WANDERLEI SILVA: MMA debut ? 11/1/96, 9-year mark ? 11/1/05

Silva's first two fights after the nine-year mark were wins: a split decision win against Ricardo Arona and a stoppage of Kazuyuki Fujita. After that, Silva is 2-5 ...

Williams also points out Tito Ortiz (debuted May of 1997, 2-4-1 since), Andrei Arlovski (Apr. of 1999, 2-4), Ken Shamrock (Sept. of 1993, 2-8), Mike Brown (Apr. of 2001, 1-3) and Rich Franklin (June of 1999, 3-3) all wilted once their ninth year of fighting started.

He also argues that it's also costly to begin a career before you're 21. Joe Stevenson and Karo Parisyan are two fighters having a tough time surviving and they're both not even 30 yet. Stevenson and Parisyan took their first pro fights at 16. Stevenson, 3-4 since his ninth year began, faces Javier Vasquez this weekend down at featherweight at UFC on Versus 4.

Randy Couture began his career at 34 and was competitive until 47. Can Urijah Faber buck this trend as he gets ready to challenge Dominick Cruz at UFC 132?

Faber, 32, is seven years and 10 months into his career. With advances in nutrition and training, it looks like he can do it. We'll see if the nine-year rule comes up and bites him some time in 2012.

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Bader interview: TUF 9 champ not about to fall for Tito?s pity party

Tito Ortiz was in passive-aggressive mode today during the official UFC 132 prefight press conference. Tito claims that he begged for his job earlier this year and said repeatedly during the press conference that no one is picking him to win and because of that he has nothing to lose. This talk started last week when Ortiz started to accuse Ryan Bader of disrespecting him by calling him a stepping stone.

"But Bader made a mistake saying I am a stepping stone back to Jon Jones. I understand why he said it. When I was 28 I felt indestructible too and I was saying a lot of things about what I was going to do too. But I'm not a stepping stone to anyone," Ortiz wrote in a blog for ESPN.com. "No one has ever had an easy fight against me and he made a mistake in saying that I am a stepping stone. Maybe it was a figure of speech, but even if it was it was a little disrespectful to a former world champion."

When we spoke to Bader yesterday, the champ from Season 9 of "The Ultimate Fighter" reacted strongly, saying he would never look past someone like Ortiz.

"I never said that one time. All I said was I wanted to get back to the top and that startsd with Tito here, and that's all I said," Bader said on ESPNRadio1100 (4:45 mark). "He got that from, who knows where? I'm treating not this fight like that at all. This is a a fight I'm taking very seriously and I want to get back to my winning ways."

Ortiz is 0-4-1 in his last five fights. He's without a win since 2006. Dana White made it clear today that a good performance alone would NOT allow Ortiz to keep his gig with the UFC. Tito needs to win this or he's gone. Bader is a massive minus-500 favorite on the Las Vegas odds boards.

The 28-year-old former wrestler at Arizona State had his hand on his chin and smirked for much of the press conference as Tito talked about "hoping" to go out and put on a good performance.

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Curran finishes Peruvian with Peruvian necktie; Sandro survives tough one at Bellator 46

Marlon Sandro was expected to be the guy producing a flashy finish, instead it was the usually workmanlike Pat Curran who did so during the back end of the Bellator featherweight tournament quarterfinals in Hollywood, Fla.

Sandro, a huge free agent signing for Bellator, had to go the distance with Genair da Silva Jr. to pull out a split decision win. Curran, back down at 145 after a lot of success at lightweight. finished Luis Palomino with a very uncommon submission, the Peruvian necktie at 3:49 of the first round.

Both fighters move into the tournament semifinals in July. Bellator announced that Sandro will face Nazareno Malegarie while Curran takes on Ronnie Mann. Also on that card is Bellator's featherweight champ Joe Warren, who'll battle the Season 4 tournament winner, Patricio "Pitbull" Freire at Bellator 47 in Rama, Canada.

Warren (7-1) hasn't fought at featherweight since he beat Joe Soto last September. The division has added so much talent and developed so quickly, Warren may not even be amongst the top five 145 pounders on the current Bellator roster.

Pat Curran (14-4) would certainly give the smallish Warren a run for his money. Curran was very competitive during his lightweight fights with Bellator. He upset Roger Huerta last May and began the former UFC star's demise. Then he went the distance with top six lightweight Eddie Alvarez.

Tonight in Florida, he looked awesome at featherweight. Possessing heavy hands, Curran dropped Palomino with a huge right, just over two minutes into the fight. A stunned Palomino tried to secure a takedown, but the scramble resulted in Curran eventually scoring his own along the cage and gaining top control.

With his cousin Jeff, a former WEC champ and jiu-jitsu black belt, in his corner, Curran began to show off his quickly improving submission. The 23-year-old worked a d'arce choke. When that wasn't working, he transitioned to highly unusual Peruvian necktie. The pressure of cranking back with hands, hips and legs made it impossible for Palomino to survive.

"Once I just sunk it in, I went for it. I practice it all the time in the gym," Curran told MTV2's Jimmy Smith. "I was glad I got a chance to show it off. I rocked him with the right hand. He felt a little weak while he was still getting his mind back together."

It wasn't as easy for Sandro, No. 5 in the USA Today/Bloody Elbow 145-pound rankings, against the fellow Brazilian da Silva.

The former Sengoku featherweight champ started strong. Just over two minutes into the fight, Sandro dropped da Silva with a nasty left. He jumped on top and pounded away, but the referee Jorge Alonso wisely let da Silva scramble his way out of trouble. Sandro, 34, tried a guillotine choke, but da Silva eventually got his head free.

In the second, Sandro (18-2) continued to land solid shots with front leg kicks and by getting off first with his hands. Da Silva tried to counterpunch, but was way too wild. The pace slowed in the third and da Silva landed his best punch of the fight, a right hand with 3:55 left. Da Silva tried two takedowns against a tiring Sandro and whiffed on both. Sandro made good on 1-of-2 down the stretch.

Cagewriter scored it 30-27 for Sandro, but the judges were split. The Florida trio scored it 30-27, 29-28 and 28-29 for Sandro.

The pressure's on Sandro, the highest-ranked fighter remaining in the field. Frankly, it looks like he might be a little overrated. His only losses are against new UFC signee Hatsu Hioki, and Michihiro Omigawa.

Omigawa lost a disputed decision at UFC 131, but he's been less than impressive in his second chance with the promotion.

We'll find out what Sandro has in North American fight No. 2. The Bellator semis should be explosive. This is an excellent group.

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PPIHC: Chip Yates Races the Most Powerful Motorcycle Ever on Pikes Peak ? Sets New Record for Electric Motorcycles

Chip Yates and the SWIGZ.com crew were on hand at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this past week, racing the team’s 240+ hp electric motorcycle. An event that highlights the advantages of electrics over internal combustion engines, Pikes Peak saw not only the most powerful motorcycle ever to race its 156 turns, but also saw its electric motorcycle record time fall under Chip’s throttle hand. Blowing the previous record of 16:55.849 set by John Scollon ...

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You tell us: Who will win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix?

The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix is now more than half finished, with just three bouts left to decide a champion. The Final Four of Silva, Kharitonov, Barnett and Overeem isn't exactly what was expected, but every great tournament needs a few wrenches thrown in to make it compelling. Take a look at the first four matches.

Emelianenko gets overpowered by Silva: In his first fight after sustaining his first loss in nearly a decade, Emelianenko had to fight the much larger Antonio "Big Foot" Silva. He couldn't hold off attacks from Silva, and took several hammer fists when Silva was able to gain full mount. The fight was stopped before the third round could start.

Kharitonov makes quick work of Arlovski: A veteran of PRIDE and DREAM, the Russian fighter had no problem with the Belarussian Arlovski. A knee and an uppercut ended the bout in the first round, advancing Kharitonov to the semifinals.

Barnett smothers his way to submission of Rogers: Like Kharitonov, Barnett made his Strikeforce debut in the GP. He had no problem with Rogers, a fighter who has one-punch knockout power, but hasn't shown it in two years. Barnett barely let Rogers move in the first round before submitting him with an arm triangle early in the second round.

Overeem wins weirdly over Werdum: The match-up between Overeem, someone with unbelievable strength and striking, and Werdum, a world-class jiu-jitsu practitioner, should have made an interesting fight. Instead, it featured a frustrated Overeem, who couldn't land the shots he wanted to because Werdum spent much of the bout daring him to fight on the ground.

Now, having watched the four quarterfinal bouts, are your predictions on who will win the GP the same as when it started? Tell us who you think will win.

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