Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
Bongarts/Getty Images
STUTTGART, Germany - Vitali Klitschko stopped Juan Carlos Gomez in the ninth round Saturday night, easily retaining his WBC heavyweight title.
The 37-year-old champion twice put down the Germany-based Cuban defector, in the seventh and ninth rounds, before the referee Daniel Van de Wiele stopped the fight with 1 minute, 11 seconds remaining in the round.
Klitschko (37-2, 36 KOs) was making the first defense of the title he reclaimed by stopping Samuel Peter in dominating fashion last October. The Ukrainian, whose brother Wladimir holds two other versions of the title, hasn’t lost since getting knocked out by Lennox Lewis in 2003.
“I knew that he was a world-class boxer,” Klitschko said. “I said before that the fight would not be easy.”
At 6-foot-7, Klitschko had a size advantage of more than 3 inches and 19 pounds against his southpaw opponent, who tired in the middle rounds and eventually couldn’t move fast enough to get inside of Klitschko’s long reach.
Gomez (44-2) joked afterward that he had not expected to last so long.
“I thought I gave Vitali a very hard fight but I realized it wasn’t enough,” Gomez said. “He was so tall and so heavy.”
Trainer Orlando Cuellar said it was his decision to send Gomez out for the ninth.
“I asked him, ’Can you try for one more round?’ He was a very valiant fighter,” Cuellar said.
The 35-year-old Gomez was the mandatory challenger and Klitschko’s former sparring partner, and was trying to become the first heavyweight champion from Cuba.
Gomez managed to frustrate the champion early, keeping his hands high to fend off jabs and peppering Klitschko with right hands.
Klitschko landed his first big right midway through the second round, drawing a smile from Gomez, who showed he could push the bigger man back when he landed a few combinations.
The champion found success leading with his right in the fourth as he began to take control, and opened a small cut on Gomez’s right eyebrow in the fifth.
A cut opened high on Klitchsko’s forehead in the sixth, and he was forced to backpedal to the ropes in the seventh. But that effort seemed to tire the Cuban, who lowered his hands and provided a better target for Klitchsko, who dropped Gomez to a knee for a count of eight.
Gomez was trapped in the corner and took another big right, and the challenger pulled both fighters to the ground before ending the round defending himself in his own corner.
Gomez got some breathing space in the ninth when Klitschko was reprimanded for gouging, but Klitschko just launched into another assault, downing Gomez by the ropes with another right and finishing the fight a minute later.
“I was a little hectic,” Klitschko said. “I wanted to end the fight earlier but I didn’t get to hit him enough.”
Klitschko said he wants to meet Russian giant Nikolai Valuev, who holds the WBA title, but his next battle might well be in the court room.
Klitschko has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, which will decided whether the WBC can force him into another mandatory defense against Russian former champion Oleg Maskaev.
Wladimir, who was in his brother’s corner, holds the IBF and WBO versions of the heavyweight title and the Klitschkos have long talked about rounding up all the belts between them.
Wladimir Klitschko is in negotiations to face Britain’s David Haye, the charismatic former cruiserweight champion, on June 20.
A three-time champion, Vitali retired because of injuries and vacated the WBC belt in 2005, only to return last October and reclaim when Peter decided not to come back for the ninth round.
Gomez previously held the WBC cruiserweight title for four years before vacating in 2002 to move up to heavyweight. He earned the right to face Klitschko by winning a unanimous decision over Vladimir Virchis last September.
On the undercard, two veteran American southpaws who sparred with Klitschko to prepare him for Gomez won against German opponents.
Tony Thompson (32-2, 20 KOs) stopped Adnan Serin in the sixth round, and Chris Byrd — who defeated Vitali to win the WBO belt in 2000 and lost it to Wladimir six months later — stopped Mathias Sandow in the fourth round.
The 38-year-old Byrd (41-5-1) now fights in the cruiserweight division.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
 | Slide show |
 | The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | Who's hot on Twitter? Check out which of your favorite athletes have the best pages and most followers! NBCSports.com |
 | Special feature |
 | NBCSports.com |
| Slideshow |
 | Presidential candidates and sports How do President Obama and his Republican rivals stack up when it comes to their sports backgrounds? |
Inside NBCSports.com |
| Slideshow |
 |
The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.