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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- This is Urijah Fabers town.For as long as there has been a fight scene in Sactown, it has revolved around Faber. He is The California Kid, and his California Love walkout song is so iconic that UFC president Dana White refuses to let him come out to anything else.On Saturday, Faber will make one last walk in his hometown. He fights Brad Pickett at UFC Fight Night inside Golden 1 Center, in what Faber has said will be the final appearance of his career.Its a chance for the city to celebrate and say goodbye to its favorite fighter. Its also not the main event.If we were to go back to 2006 and someone told me, Oh, a 115-pound girl is going to headline your last fight, Id be like, Yeah right, Faber said with a laugh. Its a shifting of the times.Few represent that shifting of the times better than Paige VanZant.Its VanZant (7-2) who is scheduled to headline Saturdays event, against fellow strawweight Michelle Waterson. VanZant is 22, attractive, well-spoken and marketable.In this sport, some would argue thats more important than boxing and takedown defense.Its also something that tends to make some think VanZant isnt long for fighting. Since she appeared (and did very well) on Dancing With the Stars this year, VanZant says that question has followed her a lot.The biggest [question] I get is, Oh, did Hollywood steal you after Dancing With the Stars? VanZant said. Nobody asked Antonio Brown or Von Miller if they were going back to the NFL [after being on DWTS].Maybe its a stereotypical thing, because Im a girl in something I dont necessarily belong in? Ill take it as a complement. I do belong in Hollywood, but I also belong in the UFC.Perhaps thered be fewer questions about VanZants longevity in the sport if fans were more aware of where she came from.Her earliest memories of fighting involve backyard boxing with neighborhood boys. After being a target of bullying when she was young, VanZant began training mixed martial arts as a teenager in Reno, Nevada.Her father, Steve, remembers one male member of the gym in particular, who was determined not to look bad against a female. There were many evenings in which VanZant would hold back tears long enough to exit the gym, then break down during the ride home.Every time she took a beating, wed have a little conversation on the way home, her father said. Id say, Are you OK? And shed go, No, he beat the crap out of me. What else could I say? Id say, Yep, he sure did.There were a few people who wanted to show her who the boss was -- and they did -- but she kept coming back.VanZant took her first professional fight in 2012 as an 18-year-old college student. After that experience, VanZant and her parents agreed she should dedicate her entire focus to fighting, even though women were not even fighting in the UFC yet.Stories like that make VanZant and her family laugh at the notion that her time in MMA will be short-lived.I needed the money from my first fight for school books, VanZant said. I made $2,000, paid for my college books, and then decided I wanted to pursue a fighting career.That was around the time Dana White said women would never be in the UFC. I kind of knew he was going to change his mind, but I didnt know it would be so fast. I took my first fight when I was 18 and signed with the UFC by the time I was 19.All that said: VanZant is a fighter, but thats never a guarantee shell always be a cage fighter.There are attractive opportunities away from fighting. She turned down a role in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie to focus on this fight and her manager, Mike Roberts, says he regularly fields similar offers.Projects with Netflix. Reality show pitches. Public appearances. Even at this moment, VanZant is working on an autobiography.VanZant has proven shes not afraid of a tough fight -- a one-sided five-round loss to Rose Namajunas last year showcased that -- but she also says shell continue to pursue other career paths.?Is it possible to do both as a young, developing talent? That unknown only adds to VanZants appeal.Shes still very green, UFC president Dana White said. This next fight is a challenge for her. We saw what happened when Paige stepped up too far and it didnt work out well for her at all [last December] against Rose Namajunas.To jump right back in there and get her head straight again, what she did is prove shes a real fighter. I dont worry about her walking away from fighting because if you walk away from fighting, you shouldnt be here anyway.Swell Drinkfles .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. Swell Waterfles Kopen . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. The teams, and a few thousand fans, waited nearly four hours from the 7:05 scheduled start time before an announcement was made shortly before 11 p. http://www.swellnederlandkopen.com/ . PAUL, Minn. Swell Fles Kopen .4 million title. Ryan Riess emerged with the title after a session in which he started behind, but used expert skill to gather the chips to his side amid the unpredictability of no-limit Texas Hold em. Riess put his final opponent Jay Farber all-in with an Ace-King. Swell Water Nederland . All of the scoring came in the final 20:04. Lucic scored on a power play at 15:46 of the third period, when he tipped a shot over Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen for a 3-1 lead.FORT WORTH, Texas -- Kevin Harvick doesnt just want to run well this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway because running well could go a long way toward advancing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.With tires that will be the same compounds as the ones Cup drivers will have in two weeks at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the season finale, Harvick views this race as a good predictor of who could run strong at Homestead, a race many believe a driver needs to win in order to win the title. ?While Homestead is similar to Texas as a 1.5-mile track, Homestead has a variable banking that lends itself to drivers choosing different grooves to pass. At Texas a driver spends more time avoiding bumps.Weve worked hard on this race just for the fact that we ran so poorly here in the spring and qualified poorly, said Harvick, who started 22nd and finished 10th in April at Texas. We felt like this is an important race because its on the same tire as Homestead. Its a very similar surface as Homestead.Theres a lot to be learned from Chicago [to start the Chase] to here to Homestead.So watch whoever runs well Sunday in the AAA 500 and remember that for 14 days later when four drivers among the 40 starters will have a shot for the title.Harvick leads the list of what to watch for at Texas, and it doesnt have anything to do with tires:Harvick in the ClutchHarvick needs another clutch performance after a 20th-place finish at Martinsville has him sixth in the series standings, 16 points behind the current cutoff with races at Texas and Phoenix left in the semifinal round.The four winless remaining Chase drivers lowest in points after Phoenix will be eliminated from convention, leaving four drivers to vie for the title.It wasnt much of a surprise when Harvick was solid in qualifying as he will start third Sunday. For whatever reason, the team led by crew chief Rodney Childers appears motivated after sour outings and has delivered clutch victories in must-win moments.We dont really care what we did last week, were coming in to this week and every other week we expect to come to the race track and have a chance to win, Harvick said.Its not about points. Its not about what happened last week. Its about how do we win this week? Thats really the mentality of the team that Rodney had instilled in it from the very first day. It is good motivation.While Harvick has won six of the last eight races at Phoenix -- the site of the finale in the round -- he does not have a winning Cup resume at Texas. He had back-to-back second-place finishes before a third a year ago and then a 10th in April. He was 28th in final practice Saturday.His last win came three races ago at Kansas, a place where he had three runnerup finishes after a victory there in 2013.Kansas -- we finished second like five times and that one finally paid us back, Harvick said. That stuff has a funny way of working itself full circle. We had a car capable of winning the last fall race here and I had to hold it in gear for 100 laps or 100 miles, whatever it was.It is just one of those places that we run well, we just hadnt made it all happen.Busch back in the packKyle Busch didnt have the best of days Friday as he smacked the wall on the first lap of practice. Then in qualifying, a water leak endded his effort after just one round.ddddddddddddThe two events were related.It is a byproduct of pounding the fence before we even completed a lap in practice, Busch crew chief Adam Stevens said. In our hurry to change the motor and all the drivetrain afterwards, apparently we didnt get the lower radiator hose completely clamped on the water neck out of the block and proceeded to dump all the water out of it on pit road after our first run.Were going to start 24th and get after them from there.Busch didnt have to change engines, but teams often do when bringing out a backup car so they can have a non-race-ready engine in the backup car that can run a few laps in a practice session. If they didnt, then teams would? have race-ready engines sitting in the backup cars in the haulers and more than likely not being put to use on a weekend.If there is any consolation for Busch, it appears his backup car has good speed. He ran third in the final practice.All these cars are built probably within five downforce numbers of one another, Busch said. Theyre very similar and I wouldnt be worried for us that were at a disadvantage.Johnson has no pressureJimmie Johnson will start 19th and whether he runs any better than that or not he probably wont worry too much after Sundays race.His organization already has focused on Homestead after his win at Martinsville. The team didnt change which car it would bring to Texas but it was busy during the week preparing cars to take to the wind tunnel to get ready for Homestead.We have the car we raced at Darlington and then a new car that we built that are both going back to the wind tunnel and let the wind tunnel [decide] which one goes [ to Homestead as a primary], Johnson said. Its given us a little time to complete a second car and then make a decision between those two.After the team debrief Tuesday on Martinsville and a little talk about Texas, the Hendrick organization started looking ahead to Homestead. So if Johnson doesnt turn into much of a factor, there could be a reason.We did our Tuesday debrief and we couldnt get through the Martinsville debrief and the Texas prep quick enough because we were all there to talk about Homestead, Johnson said. We stayed long and talked about Homestead and that led to more conversations [that] night.Instead of obsessing over Texas and Phoenix -- were definitely giving it time and attention -- but the obsession is about Homestead.Rain? Drying could take hoursRemember how the 2015 race at Phoenix that determined the finalists was cut short by 93 laps because of rain?Well theres a chance the round could be impacted by rain once again. The forecast for Sunday shows the chance of rain increasing throughout the afternoon.Its a good thing the race will start shortly after 1 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) and Texas has lights. The bad news: It took NASCAR more than three hours to dry the track Friday morning for truck practice. If the track does get some rain, NASCAR will have to ask fans to wait a few hours for the race to resume.It more than likely will make every effort to do just that - especially with Chase spots on the line. ' ' '