Hobart featherweight has five-fight UFC streak snapped

The biggest fight of his career didn't quite go the way Darren Elkins hoped.

Underdog Wineland feeling no pressure for UFC title fight

Eddie Wineland is two months away from the biggest fight of his career. No pressure or anything.

Eddie Wineland

Westville's Eddie Wineland is used to being the underdog in big UFC fights.

Mike Santiago submits Terry House in Hoosier Fight Club 15 main event

VALPARAISO | Terry House vowed that he wouldn't be worried about going to the ground with Mike Santiago.

Mike Santiago, Terry House

Mike Santiago scoops up Terry House before slamming him in Saturday's main event of Hoosier Fight Club 15 at Porter County Expo Center. Santiago submitted House in the second round.

Belal Muhammad, James Fritz

Belal Muhammad punches James Fritz during Saturday's co-main event of Hoosier Fight Club 15 at Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso. Muhammad stopped Fritz with a second-round TKO.

Matt Hemry, Reggie Brown

Matt Hemry, bottom, defends against Reggie Brown on Saturday at Hoosier Fight Club 15 at Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso. Despite being cut open, Hemry rallied to win with a second-round submission.

House bringing 'bad intentions' to HFC 15 main event

For right now, Josh Shockley's loss is Terry House's gain, and he plans to make the most of it.

Wineland, Elkins book biggest fights of their careers

A pair of Northwest Indiana's most successful MMA fighters have the biggest opportunities of their careers right in front of them.

Elkins gets the UFC finish he was looking for

MONTREAL | It may not have come without a little bit of controversy, but Darren Elkins certainly won't turn it away.

Elkins hopes finish of Carvalho elevates him in UFC

MONTREAL | Darren Elkins is close, and he knows it.

Close races: Matt Erickson's picks for the Academy Award winners

Everyone knows about flip-flopping when it comes to politics, but this is taking it to another level.

Oscar Countdown: 1 Days

Best Picture — Argo: What happened with "Argo" has been absolutely fascinating to watch. It started out as the frontrunner when it was released in October. But then it cooled down and "Lincoln" started to steal the heat. When Ben Affleck wasn't nominated for Best Director, its hopes really w…

Oscar Countdown: 2 Days

Best Picture — Lincoln: With 12 nominations, "Lincoln" was at one time leading the pack for Best Picture. But now it appears to have taken a backseat to "Argo. Still, Steven Spielberg's brilliant biopic of the 16th president will win some big ones. Spielberg looks like a lock for Best Direct…

Oscar Countdown: 3 Days

Best Picture — Silver Linings Playbook: If I have an emotional favorite this year that I'd love to see win Best Picture, "Silver Linings Playbook" is it. It pulled off a rarity with nominations for Picture, Director, Screenplay and all four acting categories. Heck, just to get nods in the "B…

Oscar Countdown: 4 Days

Best Picture — Les Miserables: Make no mistake, the film adaptation of "Les Miserables" is not for everyone. Fans of the 1862 Victor Hugo novel and eventual Broadway smash-hit musical will consider it a must see, of course. But if you're not into musicals, good luck getting into this. The ca…

Oscar Countdown: 5 Days

Best Picture — Life of Pi: A monumental undertaking, "Life of Pi" may fall short in the Best Picture category. But that shouldn't diminish the importance of it as a film, and I believe as time marches on, it one day will be considered a masterpiece of modern filmmaking. With 11 nominations, …

Oscar Countdown: 6 Days

Best Picture — Zero Dark Thirty: "Zero Dark Thirty" fell back in the pack not long after it was released, joining "Argo" and "Lincoln" as a film with an up and down roller coaster ride when it comes to its chances of winning Best Picture. Before it had its wide release, this story of the cap…

Oscar Countdown: 7 Days

Best Picture — Django Unchained: When it comes to response from real, live moviegoers, no Best Picture nominee this year beat out "Django Unchained," Quentin Tarantino's uber-violent and ultra-controversial nod to the spaghetti westerns of old. It's a middle-of-the-pack longshot to win Best …

Oscar Countdown: 8 Days

Best Picture — Beasts of the Southern Wild: "Beasts of the Southern Wild" is a remarkable bit of out-of-nowhere filmmaking that deserves to be seen, especially for Quvenzhane Wallis, 5 years old when she was cast in the role of Hushpuppy. The movie already is out on DVD and Blu-Ray, so you h…

Oscar Countdown: 9 Days

Best Picture - Amour: Over the next nine days, we'll look at the nine films up for Best Picture this year. Today, we start with "Amour." To be certain, this little Austrian love story is a longshot to win Best Picture, with oddsmakers setting the line around 100 to 1. But with nominations in…

Oscar Countdown: 10 Days

Best Director: The crazy thing about Best Director this year is not who was nominated. It's who wasn't. Ben Affleck ("Argo"), Kathryn Bigelow ("Zero Dark Thirty") and Quentin Tarantino ("Django Unchained") all were snubbed. And really, that means Steven Spielberg can start walking to the sta…

Oscar Countdown: 11 Days

Best Actor: The odds on Daniel Day-Lewis winning in the title role of "Lincoln" currently are 1-to-50. That means to win $1, you have to bet $50 on him. In other words – he's an absolutely massive favorite. And deservedly so. He's really never not amazing, and the fact this will be "only" hi…

Oscar Countdown: 12 Days

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence already was one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood before "Silver Linings Playbook" came out thanks to her Oscar-nominated breakout in "Winter's Bone" and her mega-roll in "The Hunger Games." Then "SLP" hit – and she was amazing. She soared to the front o…

Oscar Countdown: 13 Days

Best Supporting Actor: This may be the most impressive category this year considering the fact that all five nominees have already won Oscars. That also makes it exceedingly hard to predict. Tommy Lee Jones was long thought to be the frontrunner for "Lincoln," and that still is likely the ca…

Oscar Countdown: 14 Days

Oscar Countdown: 15 Days

Best Original Screenplay: The Original Screenplay gets interesting. Quentin Tarantino is always a threat, and "Django Unchained" is such a hot-button film that it will get plenty of votes. And Tarantino's snub for Director is going to produce some sympathy, as well. Mark Boal's "Zero Dark Th…

Oscar Countdown: 16 Days

Best Animated Feature: After a nice four-year run for Disney-Pixar with "Ratatouille," "Wall-E," "Up" and "Toy Story 3," the streak was snapped last year by "Rango" – thanks to no Disney nominees. This year, "Brave" is the Disney-Pixar entry, but Disney also has "Wreck-It Ralph" and Tim Burt…

Oscar Countdown: 17 Days

Best Foreign Film: At this point, a win for anything but "Amour" would be the biggest upset at this year's awards. The film, Austria's official nomination, is up for four other awards – Picture, Director and Original Screenplay (Michael Haneke) and Actress (Emmanuelle Riva). At 85, Riva actu…

Oscar Countdown: 18 Days

Original Song:

Oscar Countdown: 19 Days

Editing: This is such a fun category because nearly 70 percent of the time, whatever film we hear called out early in the night in the Film Editing category, we hear again at the end of the night as the Best Picture winner. So "Argo," "Lincoln" and "Zero Dark Thirty" probably are your best o…

Oscar Countdown: 20 Days

Cinematography: Talk about a shame – Roger Deakins is the Susan Lucci of cinematography. Lucci, of course, infamously had 18 Emmy nominations before finally winning one. Deakins has 10 nominations, and nary an Oscar yet. He was even nominated twice in one year. This year, it's "Skyfall" that…

Oscar Countdown: 21 Days

Production Design: do a period piece, and do it well, and you'll usually wind up nominated here. So "Anna Karenina," "Lincoln" and "Les Mis" should be of no surprise. But this category often gives out awards to over-the-top sets – "Hugo" last year, "Alice in Wonderland" the year before that,…

NFL INSIDER: Kaepernick, Niners the fashionable (and wise) pick

LAS VEGAS | It's a bit of a ho-hum Super Bowl is what I thought a couple weeks ago.

Oscar Countdown: 22 Days

Makeup and Costume: One of several category clarifications and name-changes this year, Best Makeup now adds Hairstyling to the official category name. With just three nominees, it seems to be between "The Hobbit" and "Les Mis," which turned pretty people into grungy masterpieces. But "Hobbit…

Oscar Countdown: 23 Days

Sound and Visual Effects: Without a little research, it can be hard to know the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Think of it this way: Sound Editing is the creation of sounds for the movie. Sound Mixing is how the picture sounds as a whole. For that reason, a musical like "…

Oscar Countdown: 24 Days

Shorts and Documentaries: Typically the hardest categories to predict because so few of us regular people get to see them, the shorts – Documentary Short Subject, Live Action Short Subject – and Documentary Feature often feature some of the best work of the year. "5 Broken Cameras" is a touc…

Po' Boy

The "Ferdi's Special" po'boy at Mother's Restaurant in New Orleans is special indeed – house-baked ham topped with roast beef and "debris," the bits of beef that fall into the gravy while cooking. But any po'boy will do for your Super Bowl party.

Nola food sign

Liven up your Super Bowl party with selections in the style of the cuisine of America's most famous food city.

Gumbo

Gumbo is a staple of New Orleans cuisine and can be made in many varieties using sausage, chicken, shrimp and even alligator.

Beignets

Beignets like these from the world-famous Cafe du Monde are a must when visiting New Orleans and will be a hit at any Super Bowl party.

Big Easy food for the Big Game

If there are two things that go together better than football and food, it's New Orleans and food.

NFL INSIDER: Favorites looking good for trips to New Orleans

As I sat in Oklahoma City for my day job watching people punch and kick and twist each others' limbs inside a cage, I kept an eye on last Saturday's games.

NFL INSIDER: Manning's destiny guiding hot-hand Broncos

You could say the Denver Broncos were destined to the win the Super Bowl, and it would be hard to argue.

NFL INSIDER: Super Bowl dreams begin today

NEW ORLEANS | You wouldn't know it walking around New Orleans, but the Saints missed the playoffs.

Wineland outslugs Pickett at UFC 155

LAS VEGAS | Twenty minutes into a post-fight news conference, Eddie Wineland only had managed a couple grins.

Eddie Wineland, of Westville

Eddie Wineland, of Westville, listens to a question at Saturday's post-event news conference for UFC 155 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Wineland beat Brad Pickett in a three-round split decision to improve to 2-2 in the UFC.

Westville bantamweight Wineland meets Pickett at Saturday's UFC 155

LAS VEGAS | It's not that Eddie Wineland doesn't want a shot at a UFC title. He does.

Eddie Wineland, Brad Pickett

Eddie Wineland, right, of Westville, squares off Friday with opponent Brad Pickett at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Wineland meets Pickett in a bantamweight bout to close out the preliminary card of the year-end pay-per-view event.

Eddie Wineland

Eddie Wineland, of Westville, weighs in on Friday for his UFC 155 fight against Brad Pickett at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Wineland meets Pickett in a bantamweight bout to close out the preliminary card of the year-end pay-per-view event.