ility are what has set him apart from almost every fighter in the UFC during his tenure. F.A.N.G, like Silva, is just annoying to fight against -- the long, lanky limbs of both fighters are able to out-range opponen

The XV Paralympic Games open in Rio on Wednesday night with 10-time gold medallist Lee Pearson leading Great Britain into a full to capacity Maracana Stadium.The Rio 2016 organising committee admitted as the Olympics came to a close last month that only 12 percent of the 2.5 million Paralympic tickets had been sold, while International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven admitted it was the worst build-up to a modern Games.However, it seems Rio has turned things around. Sales passed the 1.5m mark on Sunday and Rio is expected to be behind only London in terms of tickets sold. The London 2012 Paralympics saw 2.7m tickets sold.Wednesdays opening ceremony has been sold out, with 159 nations, plus two refugees in an Independent Paralympic Athletes team, represented, while unlike in the Olympics Russia is banned for state-sponsored doping.Rio 2016 spokesperson Mario Andrada said: We passed 1.6million tickets sold. The opening ceremony is sold out.We are following very much the same pattern that we have seen in the Olympic Games. Right before the Olympic Games we were selling around 40,000 tickets a day and we are selling around 40,000 tickets a day now for the Paralympics.We had peaks of selling 146,000 tickets (a day) for the Paralympics. The day that we sold most tickets was for the Paralympics.If you count the tickets sold we expect more people in the Paralympic Park next Saturday and Sunday than we could have seen during the Olympic Games.Britains chances of surpassing their target of 120 medals won at London 2012 and finishing second on the medal table, behind China, are boosted by Russias absence. Russia were second in the standings four years ago.Pearson will lead ParalympicsGB into the Maracana Stadium at the start of his fifth Games.The 42-year-old equestrian rider from Staffordshire describes himself as a colourful character.He believes the fact a gay bloke has been selected as flag bearer by his 263 teammates shows the strength and diversity of the team and the nation.The selection follows Kate Richardson-Walsh, who won hockey gold alongside wife Helen, being chosen to carry the flag at the Olympic closing ceremony last month.It just shows how diverse, how accepting, how lovely and how strong our team is, Pearson said.Thats why Im so proud of my fellow athletes. What an amazing nation to have - weve got so many diverse characters, different religions and races... To vote a gay bloke to be in that position is a massive honour.The first of 11 days of competition takes place on Thursday and the Games run until September 18.Irelands Jason Smyth is expected to be the fastest performer at the Games.The 29-year-old partially sighted sprinter from Londonderry set the fastest time in Paralympic competition in winning gold at London 2012 in 10.46 seconds.He competes on Friday morning, while the eagerly anticipated T44 100m final featuring amputee sprinters and defending champion Jonnie Peacock takes place later on the same day.Smyth is a four-time Paralympic champion and has been nicknamed the Paralympics Usain Bolt.Smyth, whose personal best is 10.22secs, said: Everyone in the world knows Usain Bolt and how incredible an athlete he is. To be put in the same sentence as him is a great honour and hopefully the main thing is for me to continue and run fast.Usain Bolt didnt break a world record this year either so maybe I can get away with not doing it.Major championship running is about trying to win. At the end of the day its about trying to make sure youre the first person across the line and thats my main target. Jim Leyland Jersey . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city. 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On July 9 at the recently opened T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will celebrate its milestone 200th event with UFC 200, a mammoth of a card that features high-level bouts all the way from the preliminaries to the main events on pay-per-view.A week following the mixed martial arts spectacle, another type of fighting event will be taking hold of Sin City: the 2016 Evolution Championship Series (Evo) for competitive fighting games. The main event, the Street Fighter V top eight, will be broadcast live on ESPN2 on July 17 at 7 p.m. PDT/10 p.m. EDT from inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center.What would happen if these two worlds collided? In preparation for Saturdays fights, which coincide with UFCs International Fight Week, we took the top matches from the UFC 200 lineup and set out to determine which SFV character each of the UFC competitors would be.Heavyweight 3-Round Main Event: Brock Lesnar (Necalli) vs. Mark Hunt (Birdie)Necalli, known as the Emissary of the God, is a beast-like being that wakes from his slumber every few hundred years to feast on the souls of the worlds strongest warriors. Wait, are we sure Capcom didnt base this brand-new character on Brock Lesnar in the first place?The former heavyweight champion of the world returns at UFC 200 for his first MMA bout in five years since losing back-to-back fights to Cain Velasquez, who just so happens to be on the card, and Alistair Overeem. After competing in World Wrestling Entertainment since 2012, the man known as the Beast Incarnate is hungry to return to the Octagon for his next battle.Unlike Lesnars Necalli, who towers over the rest of the fighters in stature, Mark Hunts Birdie is less physically imposing, similar to the Kiwi brawler. A master of the bar room brawl, Birdie is as tough as they come in the world of Street Fighter, and his mastery of chains allows him to pull his opponents in for a well-timed knockout shot. Hunt, a veteran of almost 20 years, simply loves to fight. He has fought in mixed martial arts, kickboxing and boxing throughout his career, and has never backed away from a challenge. Dubbed the King of Walk-Offs for his one-punch knockout power, it doesnt matter how large a beast Necalli or Lesnar is; it only takes one precise strike for the result to be the same.Womens Bantamweight Championship: Miesha Tate (R. Mika) vs. Amanda Nunes (Laura)In the only womens fight on the main card at UFC 200, the new bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will attempt to defend her title against the Brazilian contender Amanda Nunes. After beating the seemingly-unbeatable Ronda Rousey for the belt, boxing champion Holly Holm dropped the title to the veteran Tate this past March at UFC 196.A grappling-based fighter, Tate has been in the game for almost a decade in mixed martial arts. Similarly, her counterpart in Rainbow Mika is a fighter who enjoys fighting on the ground with top-notch grappling and powerful throws. Also like Mika, Tate is the type of fighter who will stay in the ring until the bitter end. She routinely stages comebacks in her fights, like in the championship victory against Holm, where she was losing until the final submission.Tates opponent, Amanda Nunes, enters Saturdays matchup on a three-fight winning streak and is capable of holding onto the hot potato that is the womens bantamweight title. A heavy striker, Nunes fits well with her Brazilian peer in Street Fighter V: Laura. While proficient in both fighting on her feet and taking it to the ground, it is Nunes (and Lauras) pressure that makes them both incredibly difficult opponents to fight against.Interim Featherweight Championship: José Aldo (Vega) vs. Frankie Edgar (Guuile)With current featherweight champion Conor McGregor set to settle the score with Nate Diaz at the upcoming UFC 202, a five-round contest will take place this Saturday between the top two contenders to crown an interim champion for the division.ddddddddddddOn one side of the Octagon we have José Aldo, the former longtime featherweight champion of the world who lost his title to McGregor less than a year ago in a shocking 13-second knockout. As he looks to regain his crown, Aldo matches well to the technical specimen that is Vega. When it comes to speed and mechanical ability, there is no one better than Aldo. One of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Aldos quickness and deadly Muay Thai strikes with his knees in the clinch show why he went almost a decade undefeated in competition. Nicknamed the Spanish Ninja, Vega primarily uses his flexibility and bullfighting expertise to lure opponents into lunging forward for attacks and opening themselves up for a powerful counterattack.Opposite him is another legend of the sport in Americas Frankie Edgar. A past champion in the UFCs lightweight division, The Answer wants to become one of the first to claim a title at two different weight classes. A native of New Jersey, Edgar would be Guile in the Capcom universe, as the all-American brawler from Street Fighter has been around even longer than the tenured Edgar. Similarly to Edgar, Guile is an all-around combatant, proficient in most areas and skilled in both the offensive and defensive aspects of battle.Saturdays showdown between the two will be a classic struggle between the Brazilians speed and the Americans grit.Light Heavyweight 3-Round Fight: Daniel Cormier (Zangief) vs. Anderson Silva (F.A.N.G)Daniel Cormier was scheduled to fight in the main event of the evening against fierce rival Jon Jones for the light heavyweight championship. However, the match was called off after Jones was ousted from the card because he failed a drug test back in June. In his stead, on only two days notice, is possibly the greatest mixed martial artist of all time: Brazils Anderson Silva, the 41-year-old who held the middleweight championship for an unprecedented 2,457 days. Although it will be a light heavyweight fight, the title will not be on the line, as Silva stated hell already be considered the man if he can knock off the champ at the biggest UFC event.For The Spider, as Silva is often styled, his funky, unorthodox style of striking and movement around the octagon fits perfectly with Street Fighters F.A.N.G, the second-in-command of the Shadaloo behind M. Bison himself. Although Silvas strength might not be the same as it was back a decade, or even five years ago, his illusive nature and unpredictability are what has set him apart from almost every fighter in the UFC during his tenure. F.A.N.G, like Silva, is just annoying to fight against -- the long, lanky limbs of both fighters are able to out-range opponents and mix up the pace of fights.Cormier, who is the naturally heavier fighter -- showing impressive results in both the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions -- is shorter and has a reach disadvantage against his new opponent; that is what could give him the most trouble on the night hes preparing for. A world-class wrestler, Cormier fits best with the Red Cyclone Zangief, the all-powerful close-range grappler and wrestler. The American Olympian and the Russian bear wrestler both know how to close the space between them and their opponent before delivering a thundering takedown to lay them out on the mat. ' ' '