Back in November, we introduced you to Beercup, a hybrid of mixed martial arts and soccer that mostly amounted to a bunch of weird dudes who wanted to punch each other using “soccer” as a reason to rent a local gym and throw down. It wasn’t the most successful execution of the idea — MMA + ??? = Profit — but it was a start.

The next attempt at hybrid sports comes from MMA legend Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and combines two of the things we love most in the world: MMA guys doing something other than MMA, and basketball players fighting. It’s MMA basketball, and while there don’t appear to be a lot of rules, it DOES involve lay-ups and tons of choking. So it’s either ‘MMA basketball’ or Pau Gasol visited Croatia.

Video is below.

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The last time the NHL locked itself out, I almost stopped watching for good. You’d think I’d have a similar reaction to the lockout going on right now, and that I’d get really into golf and just pretend they’re having long-distance shootouts on a tiny open net, but I’m not, and I won’t. The lack of Caps games is sending to places like the SPHL (for goalie fights) and to Hungary, where the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation organized a teddy bear toss for charity, and fans threw over 4,000 bears onto the ice. I’ll just pretend this is happening in the Verizon Center and try to be a little less depressed today.

For more, here’s the YouTube description:

A magyar-horvát meccs végén tradíciót követve be lehetett dobni plüss állatokat, amelyek gyermekkórházaknak lesznek odaajándékozva

I don’t know what that says, but I think somebody on the team is a vegan.

Here’s the toss:

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Bizarre story out of Croatia today, and really, that’s the only thing we’d ever cover out of there. The staff in our With Leather Croatian Bureau are a bunch of lazy-asses.

The 32-year-old defender collapsed on the pitch in the 35th minute of the County League game against Hratski Sokola. The referee officiating the game, thinking that Tunjic took a dive, ran towards the fallen player and gave him the yellow card. Turns out, he wasn’t faking it. Tunjic had a heart attack. –Guanabee (from EuroSport)

That’s not really funny so much as bizarre, but it speaks to how much the referee can actually see in a game, being one person. If this had happened in America, mothers everywhere would be calling for referees to get basic medical training. That makes perfect sense to people that work in the kitchen all day. So…has the World Cup started yet?

This is Croatian Tomislav Bosec scoring a goal and then getting slapped by a fan. Hey, that’s what happens when you climb up on the railings. This isn’t mid-90s Berlin, bucko. David Hasselhoff can’t save you at that point. I’d tell you who won the game but I’m not sure you even care. This site says that Bosec is only 20 years old, and honestly, people at that age can’t get slapped around enough. Especially now that the Cold War is over. These kids have to get their downtrodden attitudes from somewhere. Oh, and his team also won the game, 1-0. That’s nice.

This might have been the only soccer game in Europe that I didn’t have any money on. Those crazy Croats are just too unpredictable. Case in point. Read the rest of this entry »