UFC 200 happened. That much we can all agree on.The finished product did not look like any of us thought it would. Check the dumpsters behind UFC headquarters to confirm that; youre sure to find plenty of unused promotional material. The UFC 200 main event changed three times overall -- twice in the final three days.Did it eventually live up to the hype? And what should we truly take away from it? Heres what we learned from one of the most bizarre and eventful weeks this sport has ever seen.No one is better at turning lemons into lemonade than the UFCEven if it wasnt the most delicious lemonade youve ever had. Lemon water, at least. Look, Ive been to many memorable UFC events where stars align, every fight is better than the last and the energy level never ceases. UFC 200 was not that.Jose Aldos interim featherweight title victory over Frankie Edgar was an extremely impressive performance and it was well-received in Las Vegas, but it did not bring the arena to its feet. Daniel Cormier vs. Anderson Silva was strange, honestly. It felt more like a handshake deal than a real cage fight. With Jon Jones off the card, the UFC needed a big fight, Cormier still needed a payday and Silva was happy to step in and cash his own payday for a low-pressure fight he was expected to lose. It was nice to have, but not entirely memorable.Mystery is sort of Brock Lesnars thing when it comes to mixed martial arts participation, but was there too much of it this week? He granted almost no media availability, taking the stance of, Im here, and thats enough. Which, in a way, it was -- but it would have been nice to have some perspective on what this weekend meant for him. Perhaps he just cant say much because of his contract with the WWE. But for me, it kind of lessened the Lesnar experience. It was fun having him, but only in the brief way its fun to see a celebrity movie cameo.And the main event was fine. Spectacular upset by Amanda Nunes...crushing result for Miesha Tate. Not a bad way to end the night at all, but of course, it was hard to not feel Jones absence at the same time.UFC 200 delivered in that it packed the lineup with big names under awful circumstances. Sure, you can argue the promotion shot itself in the foot by removing Conor McGregor from the main event. And when all that went down in April, I did argue that. But it happened and the promotion moved on and if it werent for Jones getting the boot the week of the fight, it was a well-constructed card. UFC 200 wasnt the best night of fights but it still felt big, and only the UFC could have managed to pull that off.In his own way, Aldo just made a McGregor rematch must-seeI really, really wanted Aldo to jump out of the Octagon on Saturday and confront McGregor in the first row. I wanted it so bad, you guys.Or if he didnt want to flip the script on McGregor by copying exactly what the current champ did to him in 2015, at least throw the interim belt on the floor and walk straight towards McGregor and let him know exactly what youre going to do to him. Tell him to never come back to 145 pounds. For his safety, dont come back.The best Aldo gave was a quick point in McGregors general direction and a half callout on the mic. And thats alright -- but after what happened in December, that 13-second knockout and this perception McGregor mentally defeated Aldo before they stepped into the cage, it would have been exciting to see some direct fire out of Aldo. An assertive challenge aimed right between the eyes of his greatest rival.His performance against Edgar will have to serve as that challenge. And dont get me wrong, that alone does the job for the most part. Aldo was very good on Saturday. He did not look like a burned out former champion still feeling the effects of a shocking loss. Well see what happens between McGregor and Nate Diaz at UFC 202 on Aug. 20. Win or lose, McGregor certainly has a compelling rematch against Aldo waiting for him. Teddy Bridgewater Jersey . Blackwood, 28, has played the last three seasons in the San Diego Padres system, including the past two summers with Class AA San Antonio of the Texas League. Renaldo Turnbull Jersey . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. http://www.customsaintsjersey.com/custom-pierre-thomas-jersey-large-1352e.html . Westbrook has missed 27 games since having a procedure on Dec. 27 to deal with swelling in his injured right knee — the third operation on the knee in nine months. Archie Manning Jersey . Then the Pacers gave Oladipo and his Orlando teammates the cold shoulder. Paul Georges buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter spurred a 21-4 run, finally sending Indiana past the Magic 97-87 in a tougher-than-expected opening night matchup. Morten Andersen Jersey . Louis Blues teammates who would also be participating in the Olympics, Alex Pietrangelo felt right at home, no different in some ways to the travel experience of any old road trip – save for the length of the journey, that is. West Indies have always been vulnerable to their players earning more by representing someone else. Garry Sobers almost played in English league cricket in 1963 instead of for West Indies. Two rebel tours took place to apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, exploiting the financial insecurity of fringe players. So those who harrumph that todays Caribbean stars lack the pride of their forebears in representing the region miss the point. West Indies will not return to having their stars available for every game through appeals to romance.Incentives matter. It is not in the financial interests of West Indies T20 stars to devote themselves to the national side. While that remains the case, the dispiriting cycle will continue: at full-strength in the World T20, West Indies will remain formidable, but the rest of the time they will be deprived of most of their best players, with predictable results.The heady talk in April of a resurgent West Indies, after the men and women had triumphed in the World T20 and the Under-19s had won the World Cup, already seems like an age ago. There are a few more trophies on the mantlepiece, but nothing has changed. The internecine squabbling between the players and board continues. Phil Simmons, the most popular coach with the players for many years and the man who oversaw the mens World T20 triumph, has been sacked. Some stars from that tournament are now absent friends; others are only glimpsed in a West Indies shirt when they are underprepared.Dwayne Bravo arrived in the UAE the day before the first T20I against Pakistan, highlighting how West Indies are emasculated by the absence of contracts for their white-ball specialists: the only WICB contracts are for those who play Test cricket too. All the while, other countries are successfully grappling with the notion of white-ball specialists. England have just introduced lucrative new white-ball contracts, which could allow leading limited-overs players to earn more than Test players. Could West Indies limited-overs cricket be reinvigorated by doing the same, and creating six to eight contracts for white-ball specialists?It is much easier for the ECB to award bumper central contracts than for the WICB to do so because the ECB has so much more cash: the result of more lucrative commercial deals. A lack of cash is the reason why, in order to fund the creation of 90 professional contracts in the domestic game, the WICB had to reduce the amount that the top international players earned, and phase out the seniority principle in international payments, under which senior players received higher match fees than less experienced ones did.The WICB has made some effort to compromise with leading limited-overs players. Outside pre-existing arrangements, the WICB has created a window for the IPL in the cricket calendar. That is a big chunk of the prime cricket months in the Caribbean. It is also lost revenue for WICB not scheduling cricket in that window, says Richard Pybus, West Indies director of cricket. Having done that, we wanted players committing to play in West Indies domestic cricket, to give value to fans and sponsors and bring depth to the competitions. So they would have been able to play in the IPL and CPL, then give a commitment to West Indies cricket, international and local. This hasnt been the case. The WICB has ruled that ODI selection is predicated on playing in the Nagico50, the regional 50-over competition, but as that clashes with the Big Bash, the ruling has left a coterie of players unavailable for ODI cricket.So while the WICB is far from blameless, to some extent it is also simply a victim of wider financial imbalances in international cricket. And yet even New Zealand, a board with similar financial realities, finds a way to accommodate white-ball-only contracts.An insider believes that US$100,000-150,000 a year would persuade West Indies players to sign up to limited-overs contracts that allow them to play the entirety of the IPL and CPL but otherwise gave the WICB first refusal over their services, and the right to manage the players workloads. With such security, players would be less inclined to play in every possible T20 competition.In Florida in August, the WICB held discussions with limited-overs specialists on how to work together; among the options proposed by the plaayers representatives was including white-ball contracts and relaxing the requirements to play in the Nagico50.dddddddddddd As yet nothing has materialised from the conversations, though the WICB is understood to be considering introducing some form of limited-overs contracts.There would be significant advantages if they did so. While the cash needed for white-ball contracts - probably close to $1 million a year, depending on the number of contracts - is not ins
