ae & Mott's, By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor he Douglas College men’s basketball team didn’t get off to the start everyone was hoping for on Friday night, when the Royals played their season opener at home against the Capilano University Blues. The Royals fell 79-67 to the visitors. It was a frustrating night for a surprisingly large crowd at Douglas. The Royals’ basketball off to a tough start = after falling awkwardly. He was replaced by Mark Dabrowski. Douglas attempted a comeback starting in the third quarter, but was still behind by 13 points heading into the fourth. While the Royals were never really close, they at least made things semi-interesting for their fans towards the end of the game, at one point closing the gap to an eight point differential before eventually falling by 12. Capilano was clearly the better team, “Capilano was clearly the better team, and it showed with the sustained pressure they mounted and maintained all game.” Royals, coming off a string of highly successful seasons including a perfect record two years ago, where they captured the national championship, never led over the course of the entire game and despite a late rally in the fourth quarter, were thoroughly outplayed for basically the entire game. Capilano, under the guidance of newly minted head coach and Cap graduate Jordan Yu, were given plenty of time to set up in the offensive zone and you could park a car in the space they had to shoot bombs from the three point line, and that was especially true for Capilano guard Swaroop Clair. The Royals trailed early, and at the end of the first quarter they were down 18-5. The Royals struggled to get back into the game, and by the end of the half they were not only down 36-23, but also had to play without starter Mohammed Jobair Satari, who was dumped while driving hard to the Capilano net and seemed to injure his ribs 22 and it showed with the sustained pressure they mounted and maintained all game. Douglas was forced to scramble defensively numerous times and had trouble breaking out of their own zone. Offensively, they had their chances, but failed to capitalize and were hard to watch at times with frustratingly inaccurate shooting. While the Blues looked strong throughout the contest, they didn’t exactly live up in the class department. Kenneth Fairbairn on Capilano made a highlight reel-worthy block on a Douglas player late in the fourth while defending a one-on-one, but ruined the moment by getting right up in the Royals’ faces and acting like a first-class jerk. Despite their poor initial outing, the season is still very young for the Royals. They play next Friday against the expansion Quest University Kermodes and again the next night on Saturday. Super-Middleweight tournament good for the sport Super Six World Boxing Classic could revitalize the game By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor ne of boxing’s biggest problems On recent years has been the relative lack of exposure to the general public. While other sports have built and maintained strong followings by putting on a good product on free TV, boxing has long since gone the opposite route, charging fans for the big money fights via pay-per-view. Now, 15 or 20 years ago, that was fine. With fighters at varying weight classes like Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard and a host of others, people were willing to plunk down their money in hopes of seeing a great points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. However, should they knockout their opponent, as Arthur Abraham did in thrilling fashion a few weeks ago, they'll get three points. Now, sceptics will say that the tournament doesn’t have much credibility because it delves away from the purist side of the sport and that there’s a lack of star power. I suppose that there is something to be said for both points, but fact of the matter is that this tournament is going to be good for boxing. Call me crazy, but I think it makes for a nice change to see fighters trying to go for the KO late in a bout, rather than the monotonous clutch and grab style “Call me crazy, but I think it makes for a nice change to see fighters trying to go for the KO lIate in a bout, rather than the monotonous clutch and grab style that has populated the sport in recent years.” fight. Now though, things have changed. With a lack of marketable, and more importantly, American, fighters at most divisions beyond Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, boxing has fallen by the wayside. At heavyweight, Vitali Klitschko is an explosive puncher, but the fact is he’s a Russian boxer who’s fought in Vegas just once in his career. That isn’t his fault, but it keeps people from getting excited about boxing in Canada and the U.S. Despite that though, Showtime has devised an interesting new idea designed to get people charged up for boxing again: The Super Six World Boxing Classic. As you might have surmised from the name, the tournament is composed of six fighters competing in a round robin competition for the vacant WBA and WBC Super-Middleweight championships. Plus, to encourage action-orientated bouts, Showtime has dictated a new format of points accumulation; a fighter receives two that has populated the sport in recent years. Take the Abraham-Jermain Taylor fight back on October 17". There was tons of action that even the most casual fan could appreciate all the way through topped off with a dramatic, dynamite finish. If Abraham wasn’t thinking of scoring three points for a knockout, do you think that he would have been nearly as aggressive in the 12" round, as he was against Taylor? Not a chance. Because of that we got to see a fantastic end to a great fight. As for not having enough big names competing, I couldn’t disagree more. Mikkel Kessler is one of the best in the world and while Taylor has lost four of his last five fights, he’s still considered a premier name, and we are talking about a guy who beat Bernard Hopkins. Plus, there has been talk of the winner of the Super Six facing off against other super-middleweight champions in title unification bouts, which can only be considered a good thing. ee