No Mas Weekend TV Guide: 6/8 - 6/10
THE NO MAS WEEKEND TRIFECTA
Belmont Stakes
NBC, 5 p.m.
Miguel Cotto v. Zab Judah
HBO PPV, 9 p.m.
French Open Men's Final
NBC, 9 a.m.
Three great showdowns make this a great No Masian weekend - Preakness-winner Curlin, Hard Spun and the dangerous Rags to Riches in the Belmont, undefeated Miguel Cotto facing his toughest opponent yet at the Garden (on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade no less), Brownsville's Zab Super Judah, and then the tennis smackdown that the world truly awaits, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the men's final of the French Open. Here's my No Mas trifecta box - Hard Spun, Judah and Federer. Underdogs all. Take it to the bank.
BEST OF THE REST
6/8
Auburn v. Alabama, 1982
ESPN Classic, 4 p.m.
The Iron Bowl from 25 years ago, and a game to remember for two reasons - Bo Jackson bruising performance and game-winning touchdown run, and the fact that this was Bear Bryant's last showdown with Auburn - the big Bear would be dead not two months after this game.
Election
Showtime, 5:15 p.m.
A modern classic that in my mind belongs to a class of drama that includes Mozart's operas - which is to say it's the wicked stepsister of Bring It On and all such films in its hilariousness, realistic-osity and overall viciousness. No, it's not a sports movie, but it's one of the best movies I know of on the reptilian beast that is the competitive heart. And, you know, the football/cheerleading culture of the American high school presides in all of its dipshit vicissitudes.
Friday Night Smackdown
CW, 8 p.m.
"One Night Stand" results reveal whether Edge survived his Cage Match. Also - the countdown to the WWE Draft.
The Karate Kid
ABC Family, 8 p.m.
Wax on, wax off, yadda yadda yadda...
Herman Ngoudjo v. Randall Bailey
ESPN2, 8 p.m. (replay at 3 a.m.)
Friday Night Fights travels to Montreal, and they're showcasing a very exciting young fighter who fights out of the Ville Marie by way of Cameroon, Herman Ngoudjo. Ngoudjo gave Jose Luis Castillo all he could handle this past January (read what I had to say about this bout here). Tonight in his adopted hometown he faces Randall Bailey, who's been through the wars - last big fight I remember Bailey having he was getting the beating of his life from Cotto.
Roberto Duran v. Ken Buchanan
ESPN Classic, 9 p.m.
What a lean, ferocious, beautiful monster Duran was as a lightweight. This is a classic fight, the night that Duran won his first world title at the Garden. Very brutal fight, very strange ending.
60 Minutes on Classic
ESPN Classic, 10:30 p.m.
Two segments about sports fall from grace - the first interviews Roger Staubach and Arthur Ashe about the loss of innocence in pro sports, and the second takes us back to Leslie Stahl's interview with Latrell Sprewell after the strangling donnybrook.
Miguel Cotto v. Ricardo Torres
HBO2, 11 p.m.
Had it not been for Castillo/Corrales, this would have been the clearcut Fight of the Year in 2005. I was in the house, and man, let me tell you - it was some shit. Both fighters tasted canvas, both fighters were at one point or another completely out on their feet. Trust me, this is a jaw-dropper.
Zab Judah v. Demarcus Corley
HBO2, 11:30 p.m.
A year and a half after losing his IBF belt at 140 to Kos Tszyu, Zab himself another 140 belt, the WBO, from Demarcus Corley in a split decision. I don't feel like checking this right now, but I think that Corley is the only common opponent between Cotto and Zab. Cotto destroyed Corley in 2005.
Tonight Show with Jay Leno
NBC, 11:35 p.m.
Kenny Smith jumps on the couch with Jay. Myself, I'd about ready to send Kenny fishing.
6/9
French Open Women's Final
NBC, 9 a.m.
Breakfast at Roland Garros - Henin v. Ivonovic. If you want to get some tennis-watching in this morning, you better get up early, because I have a feeling that Henin - winner of three of the last four women's singles titles en Paris - will make quick work of this Serbian upstart.
The Masutatsu Oyama Trilogy
IFC, 10 a.m. & 2:35 p.m.
All three movies back-to-back-to-back in which Sonny Chiba plays his legendary karate mentor, Masutatsu Oyama - Karate Bullfighter, Karate Bearfighter and Karate for Life. I still feel like the third movie would be more awesome if it were called Karate Sharkfighter, but whaddya gonna do?
Juwanna Mann
Comedy Central, 12 p.m.
Look it's Saturday, it's noon, and most likely you're just waking up on a beautiful summer afternoon and facing the fact that you're probably not going to make it outside today because you're too hungover. So why not just take it a notch lower and turn on Juwanna Mann? Seriously. Crack open a beer for breakfast too. Revel in your disgusting-ness.
NBA's Greatest Games
ESPN Classic, 12 p.m.
Game 4 of the '87 finals, the last of the epic 80's showdowns between the Celtics and Lakers.
NCAA Track and Field Championships
CBS, 1 p.m.
Always fun watching. Last year the Florida State men and the Auburn women were each first time champions.
NBA's Greatest Games
ESPN Classic, 2 p.m.
Game 6 of the '88 finals between the Lakers and Pistons. I may be mistaken, but I think this is the one that the Pistons had won in the last minute when Dennis Rodman inexplicably took a jump shot which got L.A. the ball back at a crucial moment. Remember that? That was back before the Worm was crazy... when he was just stupid.
Diego Corrales Tribute
Showtime, 6 p.m.
Showtime gets us primed for Saturday night's big fights with a trilogy of Chico Corrales fights. Unfortunately, only one of them really shows the fallen champ at his best - his beatdown of Popo Freitas from 2004. The other two bouts, last year's Casamayor loss and the knockout to Castillo in their rematch, were kinf of embarrassing for Chico and signalled the downhill side of his career.
Antonio Tarver v. Elvis Muriqi
Showtime, 10 p.m.
The Magic Man hasn't been in the ring since his humiliation at the hands of Bernard Hopkins last summer, and for his comeback he's chosen a good opponent in Muriqi - a journeyman, a certain victory, but not such a pushover as to be completely ridiculous. Chad Dawson is on the card as well, who figures to be a future opponent for Tarver, provided of course Muriqi doesn't manage to drug him like Hopkins did.
The Basketball Diaries
Sundance, 10 p.m.
Jim Carroll's uber-cool memoir of his basketball, street urchin, prep-school, heroin-addict adolescence in Manhattan. With Leo DiCaprio in the starring role, this is one of those movies that makes you remember that no matter how cool erstwhile teenagers make themselves out to have been in retrospect, they were really just as lame and stupid as the rest of us.
TNA Wrestling Impact
Spike, 11 p.m.
Sting faces Christopher Daniels, Jerry Lynn takes on Robert Roode, and a King of the Mountain qualifying match to boot.
6/10
NBA's Greatest Games
ESPN Classic, 10 a.m.
Game 6 of the '98 Finals, the clincher for the Bulls second threepeat, won with M.J.'s unforgettable buzzer-beater after he shook off Bryon Russell. You can't tell me that His Airness doesn't wish that this was still his last NBA moment.
Ben Hogan: The Quest for Perfection
CBS, 12:30 p.m.
These treacly, soft-shot CBS golf docs are usually annoying as hell, but this one in my memory is pretty good, mostly because Hogan is an irrepressible subject.
The Prefontaine Classic
NBC, 4 p.m.
One of the best U.S. track and field events on the calendar, and this year's promises to be a winner, with big-name sprinters like Asafa Powell, Shawn Crawford and Jeremy Wariner taking part and the Bowerman Mile sporting a loaded field.
NBA's Greatest Games
ESPN Classic, 4 p.m.
Game of the 2001 finals, in which the Sixers shocked the mighty Lakers. Watching in bed with my girlfriend at the time (who was, I must say, a very good sport about my histrionics) I all too briefly believed that a miracle might happen in that series. It didn't.
NBA Finals, Game 2
ABC, 9 p.m.
Kind of looks like Prince James is going to have to wait another year to take the throne. Unless, that is, he gets all Super MJ. We'll see in this one. I say no way can the Cavs crawl out of a 2-0 hole against the Spurs. They just don't have the firepower.
Belmont Stakes
NBC, 5 p.m.
Miguel Cotto v. Zab Judah
HBO PPV, 9 p.m.
French Open Men's Final
NBC, 9 a.m.
Three great showdowns make this a great No Masian weekend - Preakness-winner Curlin, Hard Spun and the dangerous Rags to Riches in the Belmont, undefeated Miguel Cotto facing his toughest opponent yet at the Garden (on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade no less), Brownsville's Zab Super Judah, and then the tennis smackdown that the world truly awaits, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the men's final of the French Open. Here's my No Mas trifecta box - Hard Spun, Judah and Federer. Underdogs all. Take it to the bank.
BEST OF THE REST6/8
Auburn v. Alabama, 1982
ESPN Classic, 4 p.m.
The Iron Bowl from 25 years ago, and a game to remember for two reasons - Bo Jackson bruising performance and game-winning touchdown run, and the fact that this was Bear Bryant's last showdown with Auburn - the big Bear would be dead not two months after this game.
Election
Showtime, 5:15 p.m.
A modern classic that in my mind belongs to a class of drama that includes Mozart's operas - which is to say it's the wicked stepsister of Bring It On and all such films in its hilariousness, realistic-osity and overall viciousness. No, it's not a sports movie, but it's one of the best movies I know of on the reptilian beast that is the competitive heart. And, you know, the football/cheerleading culture of the American high school presides in all of its dipshit vicissitudes.
Friday Night Smackdown
CW, 8 p.m.
"One Night Stand" results reveal whether Edge survived his Cage Match. Also - the countdown to the WWE Draft.
The Karate Kid
ABC Family, 8 p.m.
Wax on, wax off, yadda yadda yadda...
Herman Ngoudjo v. Randall Bailey ESPN2, 8 p.m. (replay at 3 a.m.)
Friday Night Fights travels to Montreal, and they're showcasing a very exciting young fighter who fights out of the Ville Marie by way of Cameroon, Herman Ngoudjo. Ngoudjo gave Jose Luis Castillo all he could handle this past January (read what I had to say about this bout here). Tonight in his adopted hometown he faces Randall Bailey, who's been through the wars - last big fight I remember Bailey having he was getting the beating of his life from Cotto.
Roberto Duran v. Ken Buchanan
ESPN Classic, 9 p.m.
What a lean, ferocious, beautiful monster Duran was as a lightweight. This is a classic fight, the night that Duran won his first world title at the Garden. Very brutal fight, very strange ending.
60 Minutes on Classic
ESPN Classic, 10:30 p.m.
Two segments about sports fall from grace - the first interviews Roger Staubach and Arthur Ashe about the loss of innocence in pro sports, and the second takes us back to Leslie Stahl's interview with Latrell Sprewell after the strangling donnybrook.
Miguel Cotto v. Ricardo TorresHBO2, 11 p.m.
Had it not been for Castillo/Corrales, this would have been the clearcut Fight of the Year in 2005. I was in the house, and man, let me tell you - it was some shit. Both fighters tasted canvas, both fighters were at one point or another completely out on their feet. Trust me, this is a jaw-dropper.
Zab Judah v. Demarcus Corley
HBO2, 11:30 p.m.
A year and a half after losing his IBF belt at 140 to Kos Tszyu, Zab himself another 140 belt, the WBO, from Demarcus Corley in a split decision. I don't feel like checking this right now, but I think that Corley is the only common opponent between Cotto and Zab. Cotto destroyed Corley in 2005.
Tonight Show with Jay Leno
NBC, 11:35 p.m.
Kenny Smith jumps on the couch with Jay. Myself, I'd about ready to send Kenny fishing.
6/9
French Open Women's Final
NBC, 9 a.m.
Breakfast at Roland Garros - Henin v. Ivonovic. If you want to get some tennis-watching in this morning, you better get up early, because I have a feeling that Henin - winner of three of the last four women's singles titles en Paris - will make quick work of this Serbian upstart.
The Masutatsu Oyama Trilogy
IFC, 10 a.m. & 2:35 p.m.
All three movies back-to-back-to-back in which Sonny Chiba plays his legendary karate mentor, Masutatsu Oyama - Karate Bullfighter, Karate Bearfighter and Karate for Life. I still feel like the third movie would be more awesome if it were called Karate Sharkfighter, but whaddya gonna do?
Juwanna Mann
Comedy Central, 12 p.m.
Look it's Saturday, it's noon, and most likely you're just waking up on a beautiful summer afternoon and facing the fact that you're probably not going to make it outside today because you're too hungover. So why not just take it a notch lower and turn on Juwanna Mann? Seriously. Crack open a beer for breakfast too. Revel in your disgusting-ness.
NBA's Greatest Games
ESPN Classic, 12 p.m.
Game 4 of the '87 finals, the last of the epic 80's showdowns between the Celtics and Lakers.
NCAA Track and Field Championships
CBS, 1 p.m.
Always fun watching. Last year the Florida State men and the Auburn women were each first time champions.
NBA's Greatest Games ESPN Classic, 2 p.m.
Game 6 of the '88 finals between the Lakers and Pistons. I may be mistaken, but I think this is the one that the Pistons had won in the last minute when Dennis Rodman inexplicably took a jump shot which got L.A. the ball back at a crucial moment. Remember that? That was back before the Worm was crazy... when he was just stupid.
Diego Corrales Tribute
Showtime, 6 p.m.
Showtime gets us primed for Saturday night's big fights with a trilogy of Chico Corrales fights. Unfortunately, only one of them really shows the fallen champ at his best - his beatdown of Popo Freitas from 2004. The other two bouts, last year's Casamayor loss and the knockout to Castillo in their rematch, were kinf of embarrassing for Chico and signalled the downhill side of his career.
Antonio Tarver v. Elvis Muriqi
Showtime, 10 p.m.
The Magic Man hasn't been in the ring since his humiliation at the hands of Bernard Hopkins last summer, and for his comeback he's chosen a good opponent in Muriqi - a journeyman, a certain victory, but not such a pushover as to be completely ridiculous. Chad Dawson is on the card as well, who figures to be a future opponent for Tarver, provided of course Muriqi doesn't manage to drug him like Hopkins did.
The Basketball Diaries Sundance, 10 p.m.
Jim Carroll's uber-cool memoir of his basketball, street urchin, prep-school, heroin-addict adolescence in Manhattan. With Leo DiCaprio in the starring role, this is one of those movies that makes you remember that no matter how cool erstwhile teenagers make themselves out to have been in retrospect, they were really just as lame and stupid as the rest of us.
TNA Wrestling Impact
Spike, 11 p.m.
Sting faces Christopher Daniels, Jerry Lynn takes on Robert Roode, and a King of the Mountain qualifying match to boot.
6/10
NBA's Greatest Games
ESPN Classic, 10 a.m.
Game 6 of the '98 Finals, the clincher for the Bulls second threepeat, won with M.J.'s unforgettable buzzer-beater after he shook off Bryon Russell. You can't tell me that His Airness doesn't wish that this was still his last NBA moment.
Ben Hogan: The Quest for Perfection CBS, 12:30 p.m.
These treacly, soft-shot CBS golf docs are usually annoying as hell, but this one in my memory is pretty good, mostly because Hogan is an irrepressible subject.
The Prefontaine Classic
NBC, 4 p.m.
One of the best U.S. track and field events on the calendar, and this year's promises to be a winner, with big-name sprinters like Asafa Powell, Shawn Crawford and Jeremy Wariner taking part and the Bowerman Mile sporting a loaded field.
NBA's Greatest Games
ESPN Classic, 4 p.m.
Game of the 2001 finals, in which the Sixers shocked the mighty Lakers. Watching in bed with my girlfriend at the time (who was, I must say, a very good sport about my histrionics) I all too briefly believed that a miracle might happen in that series. It didn't.
NBA Finals, Game 2
ABC, 9 p.m.
Kind of looks like Prince James is going to have to wait another year to take the throne. Unless, that is, he gets all Super MJ. We'll see in this one. I say no way can the Cavs crawl out of a 2-0 hole against the Spurs. They just don't have the firepower.
4 Comments:
I really can't see nadal losing. But then again, everything's ossible.
actually election does count as a sports movie, as matthew broderick spanks it to sports-themed porn. i won't spoil the surprise by saying WHICH sport, however...
man, the ncaa championship and the pre on the same weekend? that's some serious track and field, especially in the sprints at the pre (powell, wariner, and crawford in a meet together? sign me up).
prefontaine classic is always awesome.
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