By Logan Staska

The NBA’s 2021 season started on October 19th. Many new changes occurred with players being traded to other teams and teams playing better than they did the last season.

Before the season started, many players were transferred to different teams in hopes of being the diamond that will get them out of the rough. LeBron James, shooting guard/small forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, gained two new star athletes as teammates.

With already having his center Anthony Davis to rely on, he also gained Russell Westbrook as a point guard and Carmelo Anthony as a power forward.

However, with all the star power on the team they haven’t been playing the best and have been getting in each other’s way.

The Chicago Bulls, however, are having a much better season than last year after picking up point guard Lonzo Ball, and power forward DeMar DeRozan to join small forward Zach LaVine. Along with those two Nikola Vucevic took place at center.

Not many believed that this team would thrive with these players but now they have been stationed in the top of the Eastern Conference.
Many are surprised the Golden State Warriors are doing so well. With the point guard Stephen Curry missing his shooting guard and “splash-brother” Klay Thompson due to injury.

He has been able to keep the warriors in the top of the Western Conference. With how well Stephen Curry has been playing many are now starting to believe that he is the best shooter in history.

Along with Klay Thompson being one of the players we haven’t seen touch the court this season, we also haven’t seen star point guard for the Brooklyn Nets Kyrie Irving.

Kyrie Irving hasn’t played a game this season due to the city of New York’s vaccine mandate for Covid-19. With Kyrie Irving refusing to get vaccinated due to his personal decisions; he hasn’t been there for his teammates Kevin Durant and James Harden.

Another player not playing is point guard for the 76ers Ben Simmons who hasn’t been there for his team due to mental health reasons. It’s been noticed that his mental health started going down after the playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks. He folded the game with an illogical pass in which he had a perfect lay-up and could have gotten the chance for a free throw with the foul.

If he went for the lay-up, he would have most likely been able to get the 76ers to the next round. After the game many 76ers fans were disappointed and put the blame on Ben Simmons making it hard to go back and play.

The 76ers are getting very annoyed about Ben Simmons refusing to play; on November 15th, 2021, they fined Ben Simmons for not traveling with the team on their 6-game road trip.

The 76ers have been floating around in the Eastern Conference from being in the lower bottom to upper top. The 76ers have been able to show that they’re a good team with or without Ben Simmons. With power forward Joel Embiid, small forward Tobias Harris, and shooting guard Seth Curry, Stephen Curry’s brother, the 76ers can stay in the playoff pictures. But who knows how good they will be once Ben Simmons comes back, if he comes back?

The Milwaukee Bucks, who won the 2020 national championship, is shockingly staying in the bottom portion of there confrence.

However, the season is still a long way from ending and power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks have time to get everything figured out and figure how to be a playoff contender and hopefully win another championship.

The current status of the NBA right now is sure to keep basketball fans interested but there is still a long season ahead where anything can happen. Will your team make it to the playoffs and finals? We’ll have to wait and see.

By Logan Staska

Martial Arts are combat techniques that come from many different countries and cultures and are used for self defense and sport. Before MMA, matches where held within the singular sport, but on November of 1992 the UFC, Ultimate Fighting Championship, officially started mixing the forms of combat.

Since the beginning of the violent sport, Dana White, president of the UFC, has been traveling throughout the world looking for talented athletes trying to find the next super star.

He located star fighters from everywhere including Africa; where he found Kamaru Usman, Francis Nganou, and Israel Adesanya, Brazil; where he found Anderson Silva, Royce Gracie, and Jose Aldo and many other fighters from different countries in Europe, Australia, Asia, and North America.

Dana White’s brilliant business moves grow the popularity of the UFC with the sport combining all forms of martial arts from all the different countries making the sport more interesting.

Also, UFC is gaining major popularity because fighters will walk into the octagon with the flag of their home country. This action makes fans cheer for their home fighter such as the Olympics.

Conor McGregor is the most famous fighter in the UFC and whenever he has a fight the crowd is bombarded with Irish flags, showing the Irish natives are cheering for their home-town-boy. This action is also showed with other fans such as Michael Chandler fans waiving United States flags when he fights.

The UFC has support from companies that enhance the sports popularity such as Monster Energy Drinks, Body Armor and Reebok providing footwear for fighters. These sponsors help the sport increase in popularity along with major celebrity influence such as stand-up comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan draws attention to the UFC with his podcast the Joe Rogan Experience.

Just like in boxing, the UFC has a PPV (pay-per-view) system. The PPV helps increase the hype for the fight by making viewers more interested in the headlining fight. The first pay-per-view sold 86,000 dollars.

One fighter who sells a high amount of PPV is Conor McGregor. He gets the entire world to view into the fight with his intense trash talking at press conferences. Hate him or love him, you’re watching the fight.

Khabib Nurmagomedov and Connor McGregor are the reason for the largest pay-per-view in UFC history selling 2.4 million dollars.

While the UFC is the most popular organization in combat sports, they have been having a battle with boxing for the most popular combat sport. Boxing and the UFC intertwine with each other putting the best strikers against boxers to see who would win.

Connor McGregor was the light at the end of the tunnel for the UFC when he went to box Floyd Mayweather, but unfortunately the Irish striker couldn’t take down the undefeated champion.

Mayweather has the highest PPV sold in any combat sport selling 4.3 million views generating 600 million dollars.

With all the steps taken to get the UFC where it’s at today, the UFC will be able to keep increasing in popularity with new headlining fights like Dustin Poirier vs Charles Oliveira on December 11th. With these headlining fights the UFC will grow in viewers and participants.