Neiman Gracie meets Kiichi Kunimoto at Bellator 236 in Hawaii

Neiman Gracie will make the trip to the Aloha State next month.

[autotag]Neiman Gracie[/autotag] will make the trip to the Aloha State next month.

A former Bellator welterweight title challenger, Gracie (9-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) will meet former UFC fighter [autotag]Kiichi Kunimoto[/autotag] at Bellator 236, promotion officials confirmed to MMA Junkie following a report from ESPN on Tuesday.

Bellator 236 is expected to take place Dec. 21 at Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. The main card will stream on DAZN after prelims on MMA Junkie.

Gracie most recently competed at Bellator 222 in June. While he suffered a loss to Rory MacDonald that night in the semifinals of the welterweight grand prix tournament, Gracie competed against the then-champion for all five rounds.

The defeat was the first of Gracie’s career. Prior to the loss, Gracie handed Ed Ruth his first defeat. Gracie defeated the former Penn State wrestler by fourth-round submission in the grand prix’s opening round.

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His opponent, Japan’s Kunimoto (20-8-2 MMA, 0-1 BMMA), will look to pick up his first Bellator victory. In his promotional debut at Bellator 224 in July, Kunimoto lost to the aforementioned Ruth by second-round TKO.

In addition to the welterweight pairing, promotion officials informed MMA Junkie of a preliminary card booking between featherweights [autotag]Kai Kamaka III[/autotag] (5-2 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) and [autotag]Spencer Higa[/autotag] (7-10 MMA, 0-1 BMMA).

Check out the current Bellator 236 lineup below:

  • Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs. Kate Jackson
  • Derek Campos vs. A.J. McKee
  • Bruna Ellen vs. Juliana Velasquez
  • Neiman Gracie vs. Kiichi Kunimoto
  • Nainoa Dung vs. Zach Zane
  • Kona Oliveira vs. Reno Remigio
  • Kai Kamaka III vs. Spencer Higa

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Midweek Mailbag – Get Your Questions In!

Your questions can be anything in regards to Notre Dame or college football for that matter.  They can be incredibly serious and big-picture or something small and funny.  I’ll pick out the best ones from the following places:

Last week we debuted the “Midweek Mailbag” and answered five of your best questions we could come up with.  They ranged from hypotheticals such as “IF Brian Kelly were to leave who would be the first three people you’d target who would be REALISTIC candidates, not dream ones?” and there was a solid one about being independent and if players prefer that or conference-life.

If you missed it, you can check out last week’s right here.  I was even asked if I even liked Notre Dame because I dared to repeat information that Paul Finebaum gave, even though his info appears to have been correct.

Your questions can be anything in regards to Notre Dame or college football for that matter.  They can be incredibly serious and big-picture or something small and funny.  I’ll pick out the best ones from the following places:

1. Leave a comment on this or any other post on Fighting Irish Wire

2. Leave a question on our Facebook page – either on one of our posts or on our wall

3. Tweet us @IrishWireND or me personally @Shep670

4. Leave a comment on our Instagram Page. And even if you don’t leave a question – you should go follow it as it’s going to become a lot more active soon.

Now get asking those questions and see if yours makes the cut.  Get-on, now!

Josh Richardson acknowledges it won’t be ‘last night’ Sixers struggle

Philadelphia 76ers guard Josh Richardson says that Tuesday won’t be the last night the Sixers have an off night.

The Philadelphia 76ers are going against the current NBA trend of speed and shooting and on Tuesday night, it showed off their style in a big way. They shot the ball a putrid 8-for-38 from deep and were still able to somehow pull away with a 98-97 win over the pesky Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tobias Harris shot a ghastly 0-for-11 from deep and Josh Richardson shot 1-for-8 from deep. That’s two guys in the starting lineup expected to make shots from the perimeter shooting a combined 1-for-19. Yet, they were able to come out with a win and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.

Richardson stated:

I mean, we play hard. That’s all you can really say about it. Guys were showing a lot of toughness down the stretch even when things weren’t falling for us. It’s going to be plenty of nights like that. Like this is not going to be the last night where we have a tough night shooting, so you’ve just got to learn how to fight through it.

Fight through it they did. They were missing star power forward Al Horford and they had to dig deep to battle through that plus the woeful shooting. Joel Embiid was the team’s leading three-point shooter as he knocked down three from distance, yet they still won. It’s a positive sign for them.

Our team has resilience. I think that we fought through a lot of adversity with our offense not going the way we wanted it to, but we pulled it out at the end. We got stops down the stretch when we neeed it.

The Sixers will now hit the road in Orlando to face Markelle Fultz and the Magic. [lawrence-related id=19164,19154,19143]

Falcons LB Foye Oluokun was PFF’s highest-graded defender vs. Saints

The team nearly doubled its sack total and contained Drew Brees for most of the day. Second-year linebacker Foye Oluokun had himself a day as well, leading Atlanta with eight tackles on Sunday.

The Falcons played their best defensive game of the season by a mile on Sunday, holding the Saints to just nine points in New Orleans.

Atlanta nearly doubled its 2019 sack total and contained quarterback Drew Brees for most of the game. Second-year linebacker Foye Oluokun had himself a day as well, leading the team with eight tackles in Week 10.

While his role hasn’t been as big as it was last season when the team lost Deion Jones for most of the year, Oluokun has shown in limited time that he can be a productive part of this Falcons defense.

According to Pro Football Focus, Oluokun was the team’s highest-graded defender — earning a PFF grade of 85.5:

In just 29 snaps, Oluokun was able to make his presence felt, even though that accounted for only 43 percent of Atlanta’s defensive plays. It was the most the former Yale standout has played all season.

Oluokun’s role should grow going forward with the team currently 2-7 and unlikely to make the playoffs.

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Brett Brown reveals Tobias Harris played through illness against Cavs

The news drastically alters the way Harris’ performance against the Cavs is viewed.

The Philadelphia 76ers eeked out a 98-97 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday night, a game in which Tobias Harris struggled mightily.

Harris finished with just eight points on 4-17 shooting. He missed all 11 of his attempts from beyond the arc and had just five rebounds and four assists. After the game, head coach Brett Brown was asked about Harris’ performance, and it turns out there was a pretty good reason for his struggles.

Brown noted that Harris has been battling an illness and that he had prepared for the game under the assumption that Harris wasn’t going to play. He didn’t learn that Harris would be available until the team’s walkthrough when Tobias told him “I want to go.”

The revelation makes it easier to understand Harris’ struggles on Tuesday night, and it’s commendable that he wanted to tough it out and be out there, especially with Al Horford already sitting the game out to rest.

As Brown noted, Harris was huge down the stretch for the Sixers, scoring two buckets and assisting on Joel Embiid’s game-winning dunk as the team closed the game on a 6-0 run. For him to not only battle through not feeling well but to stay in the game mentally despite his struggles is admirable.

Brown’s comments certainly serve to alter the way Harris’ night is viewed. Hopefully, he’ll be feeling better soon.

Notre Dame: Hoops 2-1 After Herding Howard

26 of those 41 came in the paint where Notre Dame dominated all night, also eventually winning the rebounding battle 45-32.

The Notre Dame men’s basketball team moved to 2-1 on the young season Tuesday night, dismantling Howard 79-50.

Pre-season All-ACC John Mooney led the way with a monster night, scoring 18 and pulling down 16 rebounds.

Juwan Durham (11), Dane Goodwin (11) and Rex Pflueger (10) all wound up with double-digit points as well in the dominating Irish victory.

Leading 15-9 early on the Irish went on an 8-0 to stretch the lead to 14 before eventually going to the half up 41-21.

26 of those 41 came in the paint where Notre Dame dominated all night, also eventually winning the rebounding battle 45-32.

For all intents and purposes, the game was over at halftime but the Irish still did well down low, “only” putting up 20 of their 38 second half points in the paint.

The double-double was Mooney’s second in three games this season and the 23rd of his Notre Dame career.

The Irish, who forced 17 Howard turnovers Tuesday, return to action Friday night when they host Marshall at Purcell Pavillion.

Ohio State gets leapfrogged by LSU in latest CFP Rankings, but is that the right call?

The CFP Committee is supposed to rank the best teams, not the teams with the best resumes. Ohio State drops to No. 2 and it’s not right.

We all saw it coming from a mile away. By way of its win on the road against Alabama, the LSU Tigers have moved ahead of Ohio State and grabbed the No. 1 spot in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings. The Buckeyes checked in at No. 2.

So much for looking at things objectively and railing against the national narrative. It’s one thing for it to happen with the narrow-minded AP and Amway Coaches Polls, but it’s another for the so-called smartest minds in football to do it with an unbiased eye.

I agree that there’s something to be said about the resume the Tigers have put together with four Top 25 wins and all, but at some point it seems like a bit of a cop out. Do you reward the most deserving team, or the better team? Ohio State has been more dominant than any other team out there, yet it drops to LSU because of the Alabama and SEC curve yet again.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Teams that play well against Alabama are given preferential treatment time and time again. A two-loss Georgia team appeared ahead of a one-loss Big Ten Champion Ohio State in the last set of CFP Rankings last year. And now, simply for beating the Tide, LSU gets the benefit of the doubt and leaps over the Buckeyes for the No. 1 spot.

The advanced metrics for Ohio State have been setting records.You couple that with the Buckeyes’ total domination on the field, and it feels like the CFP fell in line with popular opinion because LSU being better than Alabama means it’s better than anyone else.

Hogwash.

It’s time to ask the question of whether this Ohio State team, if having an SEC logo on the front of its jersey, would have dropped. If Alabama would have been this dominant in recent years, I’d bet the farm that there’s no way, no how, it would drop from the No. 1 slot unless it lost. I mean, Ohio State put up 73 freakin’ points against Maryland, hasn’t played a game close yet, has the nation’s best defense, and a top five offense.

Better yet, Ohio State leads the country in yards allowed per game, points per game given up, points scored per game on offense, and yet it still gets leapfrogged because a team from the SEC beat Alabama. OSU looked utterly dominant against a Power Five opponent last game despite missing its best player.

There’s not one thing Ohio State could have done better than what it has to date to be the No. 1 team in the country other than by drinking sweet tea and having grits and bologna sandwiches for breakfast.

It’s a good thing we have four teams that make this playoff because it’ll take a little of the SEC bias out of the equation. Or so we hope.

You have to do better College Football Playoff Committee and quit drinking the SEC Kool-Aid. Just you wait though until the SEC gets two teams in all the fun yet again.

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Will Dillian Whyte make his return on the Ruiz-Joshua II card?

Eddie Hearn has said that Dillian Whyte might make his return on the Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua II card on December 7 in Saudi Arabia.

A recurring injury to Scott Quigg could usher in the return of Dillian Whyte.

Quigg, the former junior featherweight titleholder, was scheduled to fight Jono Carroll on the Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua II card on December 7 in Saudi Arabia but Quigg had to pull out with a bad elbow.

Promoter Eddie Hearn, looking for a replacement fight that could generate some interest, has suggested that Whyte could step in against someone.

Whyte (26-1, 18 knockouts) hasn’t fought since he outpointed Oscar Rivas to become the mandatory challenger to titleholder Deontay Wilder in July. It was later learned that Whyte failed a drug test before that fight but he reportedly was cleared to fight by UK Anti-Doping after a quickly organized hearing. Still, he lost his mandatory status to Tyson Fury and had to get back in line.

That’s where December 7 comes in. Whyte needs to get back into the mix. And what better platform than the Ruiz-Joshua II card?

The news that a fight involving Whyte might replace Quigg-Carroll first surfaced when Hearn was in Los Angeles for the Logan Paul-KSI fight. The promoter was asked on a iFL TV video who might replace Quigg-Carroll and he suggested Whyte.

Hearn had no opponent at that time but said, “It’s not going to be a top five-10 guy. But it will be a good fight. We’re working it out.”

Whyte has won 10 consecutive fights since he was stopped by Joshua in 2015.

Rapid reax: Three takeaway’s from OKC’s 111-85 loss to the Pacers

The Thunder struggled offensively against Indiana, had some personnel issues that allowed Devon Hall to see his first NBA action, and shot well from the free-throw line.

There aren’t a ton of positives to come out of the Thunder’s first lopsided loss of the 2019-20 season, a 111-85 drubbing at the hands of the Indiana Pacers.

But here are three rapid reactions.

Oklahoma City’s shooting wasn’t just cold, it was downright frigid.

When Steven Adams missed a six-footer to start the game, it should’ve been a sign that the Thunder were in for a long night. OKC missed their first five shots from the floor and never recovered.

Their only lead came at 12-10 with 6:30 to play in the first quarter.

As noted by The Oklahoman‘s Joe Mussatto, OKC’s three-guard lineup of Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schröder that has been so effective at times this year, combined to shoot only 8-of-28 from the floor. The trio accounted for 27 of the team’s 85 points.

Even Danilo Gallinari, who led the team with 14, had a quiet night and missed all of his three-point attempts.

Devon Hall made his NBA debut.

Hall saw limited time in Tuesday night’s loss, but it’s still good experience for the guard out of Virginia that the Thunder signed to a two-way contract.

He played for seven minutes and took only one shot, which he made, a layup with 5:55 left to play in the game.

Hey, the free throw shooting was good.

Usually, the free throwing shooting is something that stands out as a glaring negative on the post-game stat sheet.

Tuesday, it was one of the best things about the box score.

Oklahoma City shot 87.5% from the charity stripe, making 21-of-24. Gallinari was a perfect 8-for-8, Gilgeous-Alexander a perfect 4-for-4 and Abdel Nader and Dennis Schröder hit both of their attempts.

The biggest issue with the free throw shooting was that both Chris Paul and Hamidou Diallo, guards that need to be taking to the basket and getting fouled, didn’t take any free throw attempts.