After years of anonymity, the UFC Bantamweight division finally brings intrigue

Author's note: Sometimes I write about other subjects than hockey, both sports and non-sports. Not everything is hockey. This piece focus upon Sunday's UFC on Fox Sports 1 main event between T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz for the Bantamweight title and what looms in the distance for the division.

This week has seen the most attention turned towards UFC men's bantamweights since the division was moved into the promotion in December 2010.

It is not too difficult to earn that honor, however. Even with a title fight on the line between the champion and a challenger that never lost the belt and whose only defeats has been injuries. Bantamweights have been a hard sell to casual and die-hard MMA fans. Over the last 5 years the UFC 135 pound division has been somewhere between permanently cursed and ignored.

Mixed Martial Arts has struggled to garner eyeballs and promotion of fighters under 155 lbs until recently in the way boxing has with the possible exception of former WEC featherweight (145 lbs) and perennial UFC contender Urijah Faber, who once again is position to take advantage.

On Minnesota sports and the rough week, Parts I-IV

Good grief Charlie Brown, this was a rough week for Minnesota sports.

Emotions were put through the ringer. There were victories on the court, gridiron and rink. There were losses, both real and imaginary. There were tears shed for the fallen and lost.

Over the past seven days, the Minnesota sports landscape has seen its most successful NBA coach in Timberwolves head coach/GM Flip Saunders succumb to cancer and its lone Division 1 football coach step away from the game he loves less than a year after leading Minnesota to its first New Year’s Day bowl in over 50 years for health reasons.