Offtopic/fun » the emphasis was on making good cricket

MONTREAL - There was no trash talk between UFC adversaries Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks. Instead, the two exchanged compliments as they held a public news conference before about 1,000 fans and onlookers in the mall on the ground floor of a downtown office complex on Thursday. The event was part of a five-city tour to promote UFC 167 in Las Vegas on Nov. 16, where the pleasantries will be left behind in place of trying to beat each other senseless as Montreals St-Pierre defends his welterweight title against Oklahomas Hendricks. "Actually, hes a really great guy," Hendricks said. "We have fun together whenever were around, and thats what this sports about. "Its business, but we can be friends. Thats what I enjoy. I can go have a beer with him. I can hang with him. But we have to fight and thats the way it goes." The sweet talk was in sharp contrast to St-Pierres last title defence in March, which featured nasty pre-fight exchanges with opponent Nick Diaz and complaints that Diaz wasnt doing his share of the promotional work. There was none of that with 29-year-old Hendricks. "Hes a gentleman and he represents the sport very well," St-Pierre said. "Hes a good role model. "But if were nice to each other, it doesnt mean its going to be a bad fight. Its going to be an even better fight. A style match-up. Im looking forward to it." The only quote with a hint of trash thus far came from Hendricks, who said he would make an exciting fighter out of 32-year-old St-Pierre, who tends to take his time overpowering opponents to win by decision. That brought a laugh from the champion. "Im going to make him exciting too," said St-Pierre. "If you look at people buying pay-per-views, Im one of the highest in UFC. If I wasnt exciting, I dont think people would buy the fights. But I dont focus on that. I focus on the job I need to do." St-Pierre is on an 11-bout winning streak dating to a 2007 loss to Matt Serra, who he beat the following year in a rematch. With middleweight Anderson Silvas recent defeat, he is UFCs longest-serving champion. Hendricks, the top-ranked contender, has won six in a row since 2010. St-Pierre will be fighting away from home for the first time in five bouts, but he points out that he has fought more in Las Vegas than anywhere else in his career and that it is like a second home. He got a roar from his home town fans when he said he would "bring the Montreal crowd with my in my heart." Among the guests in the front row of seats were two of the citys top boxers, WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson and former IBF super-middleweight champ Lucian Bute. Also there were short-track speedskating stars Charles Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais and former judo Olympian Nicholas Gill.Wholesale Shoes Nike . -- Jonathan Drouin gave Halifax the boost it needed to edge host Sherbrooke Phoenix 3-2 in a shootout in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Fake Wholesale Shoes . Detroit and Boston are deadlocked, 1-1, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be forgiven if he was caught rationalizing instead of dissecting how his club could blow a 5-1 lead late in Game 2. https://www.wholesaleshoesforcheap.com/ . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Wholesale Shoes For Sale . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. Wholesale Shoes Adidas . The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling "puts an end to my dreams of being a top player," the 27-year-old Troicki said in a statement. "I worked my entire life for it, and it has been taken away from me in one afternoon by a doctor I didnt know," said Troicki, whose ranking peaked at No.Iyer, Lad miss opening game Mumbai, 41-time champions, will begin their title defence against Tamil Nadu in Lahli without the services of the injured duo of Shreyas Iyer and Siddhesh Lad. While Iyer hasnt yet recovered from a quadricep injury he picked up during India As tour of Australia last month, Lad is suffering from back spasms. Mumbais chairman of selectors Milind Rege said Lad had had a recurrence of an old injury. We will wait on his progress in the next five to seven days, but we hope that Iyer will be fit for the next game [against Baroda in Delhi from October 13], he said.Iyer was the highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 with 1321 from 11 games at an average of 73.38. Lad has established himself in the middle order in recent times, and scored a crucial 88 in the final against Saurashtra last year. Injury to two key players could translate into a debut for Armaan Jaffer, who has been a heavy run-scorer for Mumbai at the Under-19 level. He was more-recently part of Indias Under-19 World Cup squad.Shifting of venues The Rajasthan-Saurashtra game in the opening round has been shifted to Vizianagaram from Chennai because of the hosting of the senior womens one-day league. The second match in Chennai between Karnataka and Jharkhand from October 13 to 16 has also been moved to Greater Noida in the wake of the tense situation in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka following the Cauvery verdict.Tamil Nadus camp in Dehradun Tamil Nadu has had a week-long preparatory camp in Dehradun to get accustomed to the conditions they will be facing during the first half of their campaign in the northern states. Tamil Nadu play their first three matches in Lahli, Bilaspur and Dharamsala.Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund said his team wanted to practice on black soil-based pitches. Our main intention was to practice in mostly similar weather and also similar pitch conditions, Abhinav said. The Abhimanyu Cricket Academy in Dehradun, where we trained, is one of the best facilities I have been in aacross India.ddddddddddddWhatever we asked for - be it the pitches, the gym, the food - we got it.We tried all sort of pitches here - there were a couple of those where the ball kept low, some of those had good carry. We did match scenarios and had center-wicket practice every day. So, from a preparation point of view, things were very good.Unmukt to lead DelhiUnmukt Chand will lead Delhi in their opening game against Assam in Vadodara in the absence of Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, both on national duty. Unmukt had led India to the Under-19 World Cup title in 2012 in Australia. He has also captained Delhi on a few occasions in the past. However, Unmukts returns in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 were middling, as he managed only 439 runs from 14 innings.Focus on uniformity in pitch preparation Daljeet Singh, the chairman of the BCCIs ground & pitches committee, said the emphasis was on making good cricket pitches for the Ranji Trophy. The pitches will be prepared by curators of the host state associations, while the boards curators will travel to different venues at various points to monitor the pitches.We had a two-day workshop in Mumbai where curators of all associations were present, and the only thing that was discussed was about making good pitches for a four-day match, Daljeet told ESPNcricinfo. A good four-day match starts with a little grass and then flattens out to become a good batting track later before having wear and tear in the end.When asked about the instructions given to curators a few years ago to retain 4mm grass on the pitch, Daljeet said there were never any standing guidelines. The 4mm grass was the interpretation of a few people. If you have 4mm grass in Lahli, the match will be over in one-and-a-half days, he said. It is only about uniformity in pitch-preparation, and we have only given general guidelines about good cricketing pitches. ' ' '