MAYWEATHER CONTROVERSIAL KO OVER ORTIZ

LAS VEGAS -- Protect yourself at all times. It is the oldest adage in boxing. Victor Ortiz did not do that, and he paid the ultimate price.

Floyd Mayweather Jr., who had dominated the first three rounds, looked brilliant in his first fight in 16 months, but that brilliance may be overshadowed by the way he scored a stunning knockout with one second left in the fourth round Saturday night to win a welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Some at ringside called it a sucker punch from Mayweather. Others blamed referee Joe Cortez, who did not have his eye on the action. Whatever you want to call it, Mayweather drilled Ortiz in a triumphant return to the ring.

Ortiz was getting tagged repeatedly by Mayweather right hands for most of the fight. Mayweather was making it look oh-so easy, as he usually has during a career that obviously will send him to the Hall of Fame.

But in the fourth round, Ortiz found some success. He landed a couple of hard shots that had Mayweather shaking his head, as if say he did not feel them. But then Ortiz drove Mayweather into the corner post. Instead of following up with punches, Ortiz drove his head toward Mayweather's face as if to intentionally head-butt him. Cortez immediately called time and deducted a point from Ortiz.

Then the fight turned somewhat surreal.

As Cortez was calling time, Ortiz -- seemingly acknowledging his wrongdoing -- hugged Mayweather in the corner and even appeared to kiss him.

Then Cortez waived them back together and they touched gloves. But with Cortez looking away from the fighters, Mayweather unloaded a left hook and a flush right hand to Ortiz's face.

Ortiz dropped and was unable to beat Cortez's count as the crowd of 14,687 -- clearly an Ortiz house -- went absolutely wild.

"In the ring, you have to protect yourself at all times," Mayweather said. "After it happened, we touched gloves and we were back to fighting and then I threw the left hook and right hand after the break. You just gotta protect yourself at all times."


During the lead-up to the fight, Ortiz's trainer, Danny Garcia, had accused Mayweather of using his elbows and being a dirty fighter.

But it was Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs) who turned dirty with the head-butt, not Mayweather, who was well within his rights to throw the punches that ended the fight.

"Time was in," Cortez said. "The fighter needed to keep his guard up. Mayweather did nothing illegal."

Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs) did not have a lot of time to celebrate and was soon questioned about what had happened by HBO's Larry Merchant during an in-ring interview.

"He did something dirty," Mayweather said. "His corner said I was dirty, and he did something dirty. All along, his corner was saying I was dirty, but I won the fight."

At that point Mayweather's interview with Merchant degenerated. Mayweather began to get into Merchant's face, saying, "I'm going to do you a favor and let you talk to Victor Ortiz, because you've never given me a fair shake. You ain't s---."

"If I was 50 years younger, I would kick your ass," Merchant, 80, said back to him before turning to Ortiz.

HBO will replay the fight next Saturday night at 9:45 ET/PT.

Mayweather, who made a minimum $25 million, walked away from Merchant, clearly in no mood to dissect what had happened or to address his overwhelming performance, one which he deserves credit for as he took apart a man 10 years younger than him (Ortiz is 24) while coming off the long, self-imposed layoff.

He also faced a significant weight disadvantage.

Ortiz, who was making the first defense of the belt he won via decision in a fight of the year candidate with Andre Berto in April, stepped onto the unofficial HBO fight-night scale at 164 pounds. Mayweather was 150 pounds.

It made no difference, as Mayweather claimed his seventh world title covering five weight classes.

Ortiz was, of course, not happy with what had happened, even if he has only himself to blame for the head-butt that led to the knockout.

"I took a break by the referee and I obeyed exactly what I was told," said Ortiz, who made $2 million. "And then, boom, he blindsided me. I'm not a dirty fighter and I apologize for the head-butt. I came to entertain the fans and I think they were entertained. There was a miscommunication with the referee, and neither he nor I are perfect."

This is true. But, in the ring anyway, Mayweather sure is.

Sarah Palin had sex with ex-NBA star Glen Rice,

Sarah Palin hunted more than moose in Alaska: A new book claims she and hoops star Glen Rice had a bizarre NRA-meets-NBA one-night stand.

The improbable hookup, based on anonymous sources, is recounted in the highly anticipated "The Rogue: Searching for The Real Sarah Palin," written by best-selling author Joe McGinniss.

The sure-to-be controversial tome says the one-time Alaskan governor was more than a Tea Partier - smoking pot with a college professor and snorting coke on a snowmobiling trip, the National Enquirer reported.

She also cheated on husband Todd, taking up with the First Dude's business partner in the mid-'90s, the Enquirer quoted the book as reporting.

But it was the unlikely jump ball between the 6-foot-8 Rice and the future vice presidential candidate that sparked an endless outpouring of cyberspace wisecracks.

"G Rice had great range but Alaska - that's deep," former Duke basketball star Bobby Hurley posted via Twitter.

NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton took a shot at the notoriously offense-minded Rice.

"Sarah Palin had an intimate relationship with Glen Rice in the 80s," he tweeted. "Rice tried to resist but he was never one to stop anyone from scoring."

There was no response from the Palin camp to any of the tales from the McGinniss book, due on bookshelves next week.

Rice did not return calls for comment, although the Enquirer said Rice confirmed the romance to McGinniss.

A review of the book on the New York Times' website suggests the author egged Rice on with leading questions and never specifically says they had an encounter.

Sharpshooter Rice - who spent one season with the Knicks - was playing for Michigan in the annual "Great Alaska Shootout" while Palin was a sports reporter with Anchorage television station KTUU, the Enquirer said.

A friend described Palin as the aggressor, with the pal reporting "she hauled his ass down," the Enquirer said.

Their tryst reportedly occurred over Thanksgiving weekend 1987 in the dorm room of Palin's kid sister at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.

Less than a year later, Palin was pregnant by now-husband Todd and the couple eloped.

The book also repeated allegations - which Palin has denied - that she had a six-month affair with her husband's business partner in the mid-'90s.

The dalliance put a chill on the Palin marriage, with Todd complaining to friends about the loss of intimacy in their relationship, the Enquirer reported.

McGinniss' agent, David Larabell, declined to comment on the Enquirer excerpts.

"I haven't seen the National Enquirer article," he wrote in an email. "I don't know about this instance, but they often get these reports right."

McGinniss, the author of "Fatal Vision" and "The Selling of the President," rented the house next door to the Palins in Wasilla while researching the bombshell book.

The book also reports that Palin was once seen snorting cocaine off the top of a 55-gallon drum while snowmobiling with friends. She also smoked pot with a professor while at Mat-Su College, the book said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/09/14/2011-09-14_sarah_palin_had_sex_with_basketball_player_snorted_cocaine_and_cheated_on_husban.html#ixzz1Y8NY8Qd3

ALLTHACLUBZ.NET BLOG: ICE T CALLS RICK ROSS FAKE

ALLTHACLUBZ.NET BLOG: ICE T CALLS RICK ROSS FAKE

ICE T CALLS RICK ROSS FAKE

“That’s fake,” Ice-T blurts out. “Rick Ross stole a n****’s name. I call him ‘Identity Crisis.’ He thinks he’s [Freeway] Rick Ross, he thinks he’s Larry Hoover, he thinks he’s Big Meech, he thinks he’s MC Hammer, he thinks he’s Tupac. Like, who the f*ck are you really, dude?”

“When we rapped about dope— me, Snoop and everybody—it was like we doin’ it because we GOT to. Now these n***** is actin’ like it’s somethin’ that’s FUN. It’s so easy to fantasize about it. To actively do it? That’s a whole ‘nother f*ckin’ thing.

You can see that it’s not real,” Azie Faison adds. “You understand, if it was real, you wouldn’t be talkin’ about it. You might be puttin’ money into it, coachin’ someone else to try to get up out of [the drug game], but you wouldn’t be on blast talkin’ like it’s real because these police, they ain’t playin. They’re comin’ for ya.”

“Rap is pop right now. Q-Tip said, ‘Rap is not pop. If you call it that, then stop.’ Rap was a counterculture that went against pop. But when you have Rihanna singin’ on your records and you’re doin’ records with Katy Perry, that’s no longer rap. It’s pop music, pop using rap delivery. When you hear Lil Wayne sayin’ ‘I got a chopper in the car,’ you go, ‘Yeah, right you do.‘”