FanHouse Mike Cook

WEC veteran Steve Ramirez received the referee's go-ahead, took four steps forward and swung an overhand right. And in all of three seconds, he staked claim for what could be the fastest knockout in MMA history.

Ramirez (7-5) recorded the knockout over Darvin Wattree at a local PureCombat event on July 25 in Visalia, Calif. A fan uploaded the fight the next day, and at the time of this publication, the video (after the jump) has drawn over 250,000 views.

Ramirez spoke to FanHouse earlier this week about the amazing feat and how it feels to be the latest MMA viral hit.

As of Monday morning, the Bobby Lashley vs. Mike Cook fight video had been seen almost two million times on YouTube. This is tremendous exposure for MMA, Lashley, Maximum Fighting Championship, and most importantly, HDNet.

However, the excitement surrounding Friday's MFC 21 telecast was surely short-lived for HDNet officials, as Time Warner Cable announced on Sunday that they would be dropping HDNet and HDNet movies from their channel lineup "on or about" May 31.

Bobby Lashley is a former WWE star who's trying to become an MMA star. He's also quickly becoming a YouTube star, as the above video of his 24-second victory over Mike Cook has already become a viral video hit.

A word of advice to Bobby Lashley's future MMA opponents: Better lay off the pro wrestling jokes.

The former World Wrestling Entertainment star improved to 3-0 in his MMA career on Friday night when he submitted Mike Cook via guillotine choke in just 24 seconds at Maximum Fighting Championship 21 in Alberta. It was by far Lashley's most impressive performance as an MMA fighter since turning pro late last year.

Jamie Dixon has done a good job with his Pittsburgh team this year. They lost starting guard Mike Cook for the season with a knee injury to sour a win over Duke and then, the next time out, Levance Fields broke his foot in a blowout loss to Dayton. Losing your starting backcourt would kill a lot of teams but Dixon reshaped his team to its new reality. He relied on Sam Young for scoring and DeJuan Blair for interior toughness and got surprisingly strong play from senior guard Ronald Ramon at the point.

It's worked pretty well. The Panthers have gone 8-4 since losing Fields, including a lights-out performance against Providence on Tuesday night. Now, in advance of a crucial stretch run, Dixon gets his point guard back to lead them. Fields is expected to play against Marquette on Friday and, logically, at Notre Dame next week in two games that will have a lot of say in who gets a bye in the first round of the Big East tournament.

Frankly, I like Pitt's chances. With Fields healthy, Ramon and his 42% three-point touch will move to shooting guard. That gives Pitt more flexibility and balance on offense to go with their always strong defense. That's the team that handed Duke their only loss of the season and a team that should close the season with a flourish.

When Dayton coach Brian Gregory is an old man sitting with his grandchildren one afternoon and they ask him about his career as a coach, yesterday's 80-55 win against Pittsburgh will likely come up. He'll tell them how Brian Roberts rained three pointers until the nation finally realized he was a damn fine guard. He'll use Marcus Johnson's 11 rebounds as a lesson that no matter how many inches you're giving up at 6'3", there's no substitute for passion and hard work on the glass. He'll try to pass along just how frenzied the home crowd was, how much they lifted the Flyers on a Saturday afternoon oh so many years ago.

He'll probably leave out the injury that left Pitt without Mike Cook. He certainly won't mention an iffy foul or two on DeJuan Blair which cost Pitt its most talented big man and Levance Fields' injury early in the second half probably won't find its way into the eager ears of the young Gregorys either. No matter. The story of yesterday was Dayton and their impending arrival in the Top 25.

Roberts has gone from unknown to well-known in the early part of this season and if he keeps up his play he'll be in All-America conversations when all is said and done. The Flyers have also entered the bigger picture. They've won 10 straight since stumbling against George Mason, rank seventh in RPI and have wins against Pitt and Louisville. The A-10 hasn't suffered for lack of compliments this season, yesterday's win is a boon for the whole conference which is looking more and more like a four-bid league.

Elsewhere on the mid major hardcourts: