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QUEBEC -- Welterweight Chad (The Disciple) Laprise won a split decision over Olivier Aubin-Mercier on Wednesday to become the first Canadian winner of the UFCs "Ultimate Fighter" reality TV show. The judges scored it 28-29, 29-28, 30-27 for Laprise, who finished strongly in what was a very close fight. "I cant describe what I am feeling right now. People are asking me what it feels like to be the first winner of The Ultimate Fighter from Canadaa and all I can say is I feel blessed," said Laprise. "Olivier was tough. I knew he would be, hes a southpaw and has a very difficult style to figure out. He is young and will come again. "Right now, I feel so happy right now, so proud. I just had Dana White hand me a TUF finale trophy. I cant describe whats going on in my head." Laprise (9-0) got on his knees in the middle of the cage after the fight. Aubin-Mercier (5-1), seemingly favouring his right foot, hung on to his cornermen. The welterweight and middleweight finals of "The Ultimate Fighter Nations," which pitted Canada against Australian, were all-Canadian affairs after the Aussies were eliminated earlier. Torontos Elias (The Spartan) Theodorou stopped Edmontons Sheldon Westcott via second-round TKO in the middleweight final. After Theodorou (10-0) came into the music of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Westcott (9-2-1) ran into the arena to Imagine Dragons, almost wiping out as he turned a corner. It was a frantic opening as Westcott looked to take the fight to the ground quickly, hoping to bring his submission game into play. The bigger Theodorou fought him off and started punishing him with knees. Theodorous size and wrestling skills took their toll. He dumped Westcott midway through the second round and hammered him. The referee eventually stepped in to stop the beating at 4:41 Canadian coach Patrick (The Predator) Cote, who fought Australian coach Kyle Noke in a welterweight bout later on the Colisee Pepsi card, was runner-up to Travis Lutter on Season 4 of "The Ultimate Fighter," which featured veteran fighters looking for a second chance. Aubin-Mercier stalked Laprise, who looked to counter from the outside, as he waited for the right moment to try a takedown. Laprise stuffed two attempts in the first round but was cut under the left eye as the crowd chanted his opponents name. Laprise was finally taken down a minute into the second round, to the delight of the crowd. But he quickly got back up. Aubin-Mercier kept coming but never got his ground game going. Laprise denied another takedown to open the third but was bundled down soon after. Again he got back up quickly. Aubin-Mercier connected with kicks as Laprise continued to fight from the counter position. Laprise finished the fight with a flourish of blows. Wednesdays card marked the UFCs first visit to Quebec City. In addition to being teammates on the show, Laprise and Aubin-Mercier have also trained together at Montreals Tristar Gym, home to former UFC weltwerweight champion Georges St-Pierre. "Theyre both my friends," said GSP. "Both very nice guys." St-Pierre, however, picked Aubin-Mercier to win. The former champion has closer ties to Aubin-Mercier than Laprise -- they have known each other longer, live close to each other and Aubin-Mercier was an important training partner ahead of St-Pierres last fight against Johny Hendricks. Aubin-Mercier, 25, does most of his training at Montreals H2O Gym, A former member of the Canadian judo team, he advanced to the TUF Nations final by beating a pair of Australians: Jake Matthews by decision and Richard Walsh by submission. A native of Windsor, Ont., Laprise now makes his home in London, Ont., and trains mostly out of Adrenaline MMA Training and Fitness. Laprise, 27, won a unanimous decision over Australian Chris Indich before defeating Kayan Johnsons jaw via a brutal knockout to advance to the final. "It was difficult seeing the aftermath with Kajan and his jaw breaking, obviously," said Laprise. But both knew what they had signed up for. "That could easily just as well been me," Laprise said. Johnson returns to the cage in June to face lightweight Tae Hyun Bang at UFC 174 in Vancouver. Like others on the show, which wrapped up filming in December, Laprise was unable to talk about what happened until the episodes aired. "Keeping it a secret for so long was definitely tough," he said. Both Laprise and Aubin-Mercier have spent most of their fight career at lightweight (155 pounds) but competed at welterweight (170) on the show. Laprise normally walks around at 190 pounds. "Im probably one of the biggest lightweights in the division," said the five-foot-10 Laprise. "So me fighting at 170 is actually awesome." Laprise added after the fight: "Id like to drop down to 155 pounds now, Im a little small for 170 pounds. But I will fight anyone the UFC want me to. Im here to fight." Fighting aside, Laprise is a man of faith. After weighing in Tuesday, he donned his trademark large cross to square off with Aubin-Mercier. "I truly believe that God put me here for a reason. And thats to share his light through fighting. Everybody that sees me fight, they know Im a Christian. Hopefully I represent God well." He found religion at the age of 21. "My life has changed dramatically since and Im very grateful for that." Living with 15 other fighters under the same roof with cameras everywhere for six weeks during filming of the TV show was a challenge however. "It was tough, man," he said. "Youre constantly on film, every single day." . LOUIS - The St. . - For a general manager who preaches building through the draft, Reggie McKenzie has struggled to find impact players his first two years in Oakland. http://www.baseballmarlinsstore.com/Dus ... ns-jersey/. Snedekers best result so far this year is a tie for eighth place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. He sits 113th in FedEx Cup standings and has dropped to 31st in world rankings — not the results expected from a player ranked fourth in the world only two years ago. . The second-ranked Jayhawks will play the Miners of Texas-El Paso at Imperial Arena in the Bahamas. The game can be seen live on TSN2 starting at 7pm et/4pm pt. . Louis Cardinals. He was 48. The commissioners office said Bell died in his home state of Ohio. Bell had not been feeling well over the weekend and had been scheduled to see doctors later Monday at the Cleveland Clinic.NEW YORK -- As soon as Luis Collazo threw the vicious right hook, he had a sense of the outcome. Collazo was proven correct as his final punch knocked out Victor Ortiz at 2:59 of the second round in a welterweight fight at the Barclays Center on Thursday night. "It was the shortest hook I ever threw," Collazo said. "It was awesome. I knew he was going to come in wide and I tried to beat his hook with my hook and thats exactly what happened." Nicknamed "The Peoples Champ" for being from the Williamsburg section of the borough, Collazo (35-5) delighted his hometown crowd by catching Ortiz (29-5-2) with a right hook across the face. That sent Ortiz sprawling to the ground near Collazos corner and when he was unable to get up, he was counted out. Collazo recorded his 18th career knockout and the former WBA welterweight champion recorded his first knockout before the third round in nearly nine years. After finishing off Ortiz, he made it clear whom he wants next and where he wants it to happen. "I want Floyd Mayweather, in New York City, I want what the fans want!" Collazo said in an in-ring interview. "I want him to come to the Barclays Center here in Brooklyn." Collazo, however, is more likely to fight fellow welterweights Keith Thurman and Marcos Madana, Adrien Broner and Amir Khan. "It opens the door," Collazo said "Like I said before, the fight here was my future and now its going to open up my future. The quick ending spoiled Ortizs bid from two setbacks that derailed his promising ascent up the welterweight chain. According to Collazo, Ortiz also seemed to overlook this fight and said that he would retire after losing. "Absolutely (he overlooked me)," Collazo said. "(I got his attention) when I landed that hook and he didnt get up. "Imm just a competitive person.dddddddddddd I dont like losing and I took care of business." "Between me and him, he told me he was going to retire after this. Lets see if he keeps his word. Lets see what happens." Ortiz, who turns 27 Friday, was the welterweight champion following a unanimous decision over Andre Berto on April 16, 2011. In his first title defence, he was knocked out in the fourth round by Mayweather five months later and then broke his jaw in gruesome fashion during the ninth round against Josesito Lopez on June 23, 2012, in Los Angeles. Besides training in the last 19-month absence, Ortiz made appearances on ABCs "Dancing With the Stars" and spent time in Bulgaria filming a part in the movie "Expendables Three" "Im good. I got caught, its no big deal," Ortiz said. "It happens. Im just one of the fighters and I put my heart out there." In the co-main event, super welterweight Eddie Gomez (16-0) won a unanimous decision over Daquan Arnett (11-1) in a 10-round fight, taking the bout with scores of 98-91, 97-92 and 97-92. The Bronx native briefly dropped Arnett in the seventh round with a hard right hook to the face, but despite a flurry of punches in the final minute of the round he was unable to produce his 11th career knockout. In the first televised fight on the card, super featherweight Gary Russell Jr. (24-0) recorded his 14th career knockout when he stopped Miguel Tamayo 1:04 into the fourth round. Russell finished the fight by forcing Tamayo into a corner and the fight ended after he landed three consecutive hard right hooks. Promoters said 8,050 attended the fight. The crowd included Brooklyn Nets Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Andray Blatche along with current WBA and WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia also in attendance. ' ' '