That Will Do

Post-Fight Post Scripts

Antonio Escalante at his post-fight press conference. Could be hurting to 

smile a little, but Escalante already proved that he's a tough guy.

Here's the post-fight press conference, stem-to-stern.

 

The Main Event may be just exactly what Antonio Escalante and his handlers wanted it to be -- a coming out party. 

Escalante represented El Paso well in decisioning Cornelius Lock, dominating the fight, though he didn't get the knockout he wanted. 

Not to get caught up in promoter/fight night promo mode, but hopefully El Paso can represent itself if and when Escalante gets to fight again in his hometown.

Official attendance was just under 5,000. Not bad -- it wasn't a title fight and it was on ESPN2. 

But the pound-for-pound king of pay-per-view cities back in Oscar de la Hoya's salad days should really bring it if Escalante brings it. Escalante is not only a hard fighter in the ring, he seems to be a genuinely nice person out of it. 

If he comes home with a belt someday he deserves night-on-the-town support from a city used to ordering delivery.

True, anyone who wants to go to see an actual fight card would have to pay for their own tickets rather than have friends and relations chip in money for the pay-per-view, and they won't let you bring your special recipe bar-b-q into the Don Haskins Center. 

But how many times might a city get to see it's own champ take on contenders?

Speaking of, that's Escalante right now...A real-life contender.

Download Escalante Post-Fight

A Fitful Nap

YYYYAAAAWWWWWNNN! (Stretch)

Ah, that feels better. I had a good nap this summer, but it's time to reactivate, renew and forge ahead.

There's a lot of ground to cover getting ready for football this season. Looking over the UTEP Miners schedule I can't help but wonder...

How is it that -- given the Miners are usually November turkey -- the school still gets three of its four games on the road late? 

Who keeps making Mike Price's schedule, Don James?

However, other than going to Rice on November 21, the other contests don't leap out as exceptionally dangerous competition. 

And the Owls no longer have Jarett Dillard to perform acts of magic -- a receiver who always seemed to pull a football from thin air in the end zone, even if it was against UTEP's secondary. 

Gone also is quarterback Chase Clement. If Dillard conjured, he used Clement's spells.

Rice follows trips to Tulane and SMU on Nov. 7th and 14th, respectively. Nothing is automatic for the Miners, but on the surface this schedule seems to offer a softer landing for Price and Co.

Says here that if UTEP's 3-3-5 defense is even marginally improved (and if Braxton Amy stays healthy, it will be), the Miners will be a candidate to fill one of Conference USA's five bowl tie-ins. 

A stretch, you think? Not really. Remember, UTEP needed just one more win to be bowl eligible last season. They almost had a trip to New Orleans dialed in before losing a close one at Houston and an expected popping at East Carolina.