Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2011)
«rts Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 The Clackamas Print 7 regon Ducks fly by ashington Huskies Mixed martial arts grows as popular sport By Robert Morrison Sports Editor All photos contributed by Cody Wilson Jregon Ducks men’s basketball team tries to score in their game against the No. 20 Washington es on Feb. 5 in the new Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene. ly Robert Morrison I Sports Editor ¡Feb. 4 the Oregon Ducks ¡basketball team played host I No. 20 ranked Washing- jiiskies in the new Matthew I Arena, defeating the Is 81-76. The new arena has [headlines with its unique which has a tree pattern on art, making it a real chal- iwith the color changes. The purt lines are also very light, ■ problems for referees to I.the back and front court. j Huskies came in 7-3 in pc-10 and 15-6 overall on Ison. The Ducks were quite p behind, coming in with nd of 4-6 in the Pac-10 11-11 overall this year. The ■ fans traveled well as they ly do for sports, but in this lie Washington fans weren’t Bind. fshington is a better team ■. They can’t lose to an Bed team,” said die-hard Is fan Sarah Everson before the game. Washington pulled ahead to a 4- 0 lead five minutes into the game. Oregon would then go on to have a 14-7 scoring run to take the lead 14-11 with 13:45 left in the first half. The score at halftime was a close 37-34, Oregon’s lead. “The team did great in the first half but missed a lot of chances to gain a bigger lead,” said fan Peter Seller. “I think they could have done even better during the game. They won though, so that’s all that matters.” Fans shouted and waved as the team was beating a good Washington team. The attendance at the game was nearly 12,000, which included Chip Kelly, the head football coach for U of O. It was all fun and games for the Oregon Duck mascot during intermission. Many fans cheered him on as he got' physical with a Husky fan and threw his hat and later when he crowd surfed. Both teams came out strong after halftime, trading scores and switching leads as the second half went on. Oregon pulled ahead to a slim lead and would fight to keep it the rest of the game. After p Williams gets blocked from behind by Terrence Ross hay to the basket. making multiple shots, each team came out to a decent score for the final, Oregon winning 81-76. The Ducks pulled off a surprising upset on the ranked Huskies for just their fifth win in the Pac-10. The arena erupted as the clock expired. “I’m very happy we won. The team has been trying to improve that last couple of seasons. It’s a good start,” said John Carl. He has been a fan of Oregon Duck athletics for the last 10 years. The Ducks beat a team that many fans didn’t expect them to beat. A ranked team came in and got beat in a close game to the much-improving Ducks team. Joevan Catron would lead the team with a game high of 20 points, nine rebounds and three steals. He fell short of a double double by a single rebound. E.J. Singler ended up with 16 points, four rebounds and five assists. The Ducks made a splash but it will not be enough to gain much ground in the Pac-10 or in the national rankings. The Ducks play again on Feb. 10 as they travel to Los Angeles to face UCLA. The Oregon Duck hangs out on a railing after he got in the face of a Husky fan. ne of the most commonly used expres sions in the up-and-coming sport of mixed martial arts is “Tap out or Blackout.” MMA is a sport and fitness activity that mixes techniques such as Brazilian jiu- jitsu, boxing, muay tai, kickboxing and karate into one brutal form. MMA fighters try to either beat their opponent to a pulp or to make their opponent tap out The goal in MMA is similar enough to that of wrestling that many MMA fighters are former wrestlers, such as Bobby Lashley for Strikeforce and Brock Lesner for Ultimate Fighting Championship. Much like boxing, MMA has a number of rounds at a set time for the fighters to win. If no winner is determined in the fight, judges will decide the winner. MMA is divided by weight classes just like wrestling, and a fighter must meet his weight at each weigh-in. Many fighters fight out of their weight class but usually fighters stay in their comfort zone. Fighters use padded gloves which come in many different styles, depending on what a fighter’s preferences are. These gloves come in about every shape, color and purpose possible. Common types of gloves are striking,grabbling and sparring. Each type of glove is used for a different type of action. Grappling gloves for example are used mainly for practicing submissions. The top halves of die fingers aren’t covered and the padding isn’t as thick as in a boxing glove. Some gloves are used for grappling practice while others are meant for practicing your fights. I personally have a pair of multipurpose gloves. MMA is just as dangerous as boxing, if not more so. The fighters do not wear headgear to protect themselves from hits. Boxing matches are held in a square ring while MMA fights are usually held in an octagon shaped cage. The sport is often referred to as cage fighting. Depending on where a fighter is, there may be many different MMA companies available to join. The two main ones that many people hear about are Strikeforce and the UFC. In both of these companies each weight class has its own championship, which fighters from around the world aim to win. Each company runs pay-per-view events for their fans and put together fights as often as they can. MMA doesn’t discriminate against women as there are many female MMA fighters around the world. Like the male fighters, women have their own weight classes and championships in those classes. MMA has become more and more popular throughout the years and continues to grow as a sport and as a workout If you are interested in learn ing any of these techniques or just getting into the sport in general, contact your local gym to see if they offer these types of programs. Are you a basketball fan? Log on to theclackamasprint.com to catch up with the latest women’s basketball game against Chemeketa.
