Sports News 4/28/21-5/5/21

UFC: This past weekend two light heavyweight contender fought each other in fifth ranked Jiri Prochazka and third ranked Dominick Reyes. This was an overall really good fight and in the end Jiri won this fight via knockout with a spinning elbow that landed right on his chin. This was an impressive win for Jiri and will get a title fight in his next fight.

NFL: This past week there has been a lot of NFL news from Tim Tebow working out for the Jags at the tight end position, yes at tight end. He will probably end up signing with the Jags because his college coach is now the head coach of the Jags. Also it was reported that Aaron Rodgers wants out of Green Bay and doesn’t plan on playing for Green Bay this year. It was only the NFL draft this past week and it was quite a good one. The first five picks were QB Trevor Lawrence, QB Zach Wilson, QB Trey Lance, TE Kyle Pitts and WR Ja’Marr Chase. The most surprising pick of the first round was QB Justin Fields dropping all way down to number 11 and being drafted by the Bears. Coming from a bears fan I am so excited the bears finally have a good QB and can’t wait to see what’s next for Justin Fields. We also saw Quinn Meinerz get drafted in the third round. You’re probably asking who that is and he played football here at Whitewater and will be playing for the Denver Broncos.

NBA: LeBron James returned from his ankle sprain this past week but he reaggravated it and will be out the next few games and get healthy for the playoffs. Dennis Schroder of the Lakers will be out for two weeks because of health and safety protocols. The Lakers have two of there top three players out at the end of the regular season will be a huge loss for them.

Sports News 4/21/21-4/28/21

UFC: This past week UFC 261 took place and it was an unbelievable fight card. In the light heavyweight division Anthony Smith fought Jimmy Crute. This was a really weird fight Smith did a really good job with his jab but later on in the first round Smith kicked Crute near his knee. But he fell right away and looked like he hit a nerve and the doctor stopped the fight and Anthony Smith won. In the middleweight division Uriah Hall fought Chris Weidman and this was a quick and scary one. Weidman kicked Hall and right away Weidman’s ankle completely snapped, this was such a gruesome injury. Next fight was in the women’s flyweight division between Valentina Shevchenko and Jessica Andrade and was for the flyweight championship. Shevchenko completely dominated this fight and eventually won this fight via TKO and retained her belt. The next fight is in the women’s strawweight division for the championship between Weili Zhang and Rose Namajunas. This was a quick fight Thus Rose landed a head kick and completely knocked out Zhang. Thus Rose would reclaim her strawweight belt after losing in two years ago. In the main event Kamaru Usman fought Jorge Masvidal for the welterweight championship. Usman once again dominated this fight and KO’d Masvidal in the second round with a vicious right hand and retained his belt. This would be the first time in Masvidal’s career where he was KO’d.

NFL: This past week the Ravens traded there starting left tackle Orlando Brown to the Chiefs for the 31st pick in the draft. The Bucs were able to resign Antonio Brown and Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee announced his retirement. The Falcons are listening to offers on all pro receiver in Julio Jones. This Thursday(4/29) is the draft and expect the first two picks to be Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson.

NBA: Kentucky guard Terrance Clarke who declared for the NBA draft was in a car accident and sadly passed away. De’Aaron Fox is expected to miss 10-14 days because of the league’s health and safety protocols. John Wall will be out for the year with a hamstring injury aka rockets tanking. Kevin Durant returned to the lineup after dealing with a left leg contusion.

Sports News 4/14/21-4/21/21

UFC: This past weekend Robert Whittaker whos ranked as the number one contender in the middleweight division, was suppose to fight Paulo Costa. But costa pulled out because of severe flu symptoms, so Whittaker fought Kelvin Gastelum. Whittaker completely dominated this fight and won this fight. Whittaker should be fighting for the title for his next fight since he has won three in a row.

NFL: This past week a lot of players signed with new teams and those players include Marquise Goodwin signing with the Bears, Aldon Smith signing with the Seahawks and Cordarrelle Patterson signing with the Falcons. Quarterback Alex Smith retired from the NFL who recovered from a brutal and gruesome leg injury. During his playing career he played for the 49er, Chiefs and the Washington Football Team (Redskins). Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin signed a three year contract extension. Tomlin was due a new contract since he is one of the better head coaches in the NFL.

NBA: A couple weeks age LaMarcus Aldridge signed with the Nets but he just announced that he is retiring from the NBA because of health concerns citing from an irregular heartbeat. Zach LaVine will be out two weeks due to leagues health and safety protocols. Donovan Mitchell suffered a lower ankle sprain and will be out for a couple weeks. Jabari Parker recently signed with the Boston Celtics. LaMelo Ball was recently cleared to return from his wrist injury. Anthony Davis is returning to the Lakers starting lineup tomorrow (the 22nd).

Sports News 4/7/21-4/14/21

UFC: This past week the number 6 ranked middleweight Marvin Vettori was supposed to fight number 5 ranked middleweight in Darren Till. But Till broke his collarbone when he was training for this fight. So number 10 ranked Kevin Holland came in to fight Vittori last minute. Holland recently lost his last fight against Brunson. During this fight Vittori completely dominated this fight, he took him to the ground every time and dominated him on the ground. Holland just doesn’t have any defense when getting taken to the ground. So Vittori won via unanimous decision, now Vittori is the 3rd ranked middleweight who might get a title shot next. 

NFL: Former Bears, Browns and Falcons receiver Taylor Gabriel retired from the NFL. The Bucs signed running back Gio Bernard, who will be the James White of this offence when Brady was with the Patriots. The Cardinals signed running back James Conner, who was with the Steelers the last four years. Recently the Patriots released receiver Julian Edelman with a failed physical but soon after he was released he retired from the NFL.

NBA: This past week guard Patrick Beverly suffered a fracture in his left hand and underwent surgery so he will be out 3-4 weeks. Warriors rookie center James Wiseman was diagnosed with a torn meniscus and will most likely be out for the year. Nuggets guard Jamal Murray suffered a torn ACL and will be out for the year. This is a huge loss to this team, they will have to lean on Jokic a little more. But this team is really deep so I think they will be okay but we’ll have to see. 

Sports News 3/31/21-4/7/21

NFL: Earlier this week Bears GM said that Andy Dalton is the starting quarterback this year. Eagles QB changed his number from number 2 to 1. The Bengals released back up running back Gio Bernard. The Jets traded starting quarterback Sam Darnold to the Panthers for a 2021 6th round pick and a 2022 2nd round pick and a 4th round pick. Since the Jets traded their starting QB it seems as if the Jets will be selecting QB Zach Wilson out of BYU with the second pick in the draft. 

NBA: This past week PG Isaiah Thomas signed a 10 day contract with the Pelicans and C DeMarcus Cousins signed a 10 day contract with the Clippers. Bucks starting PG Jrue Holiday signed a contract extension worth 160 million dollars over 4 years. Recently the Rockets released Ben McLemore and he signed with the Lakers. Hornets starting F Gordon Hayward suffered a right foot strain and will be out for 4 weeks. This is a huge loss for the Hornets since they are competing for a playoff spot right now. Timberwolves G Malik Beasley will be out 4-6 weeks with a grade 3 left hamstring injury. Nets G James Harden will be out 10 days with a right hamstring strain but with Harden being out Durant is returning to the starting lineup on Wednesday (April 7th).

MLB: The night before the MLB season started Francisco Lindor signed a 10-year contract with the Mets worth 341 million dollars, he would be making about 34 millions dollars a year for ten years. The MLB moved the all star game out of Georgia and will now take place in Colorado. While Padres SS was batting he injured his left shoulder and was placed on the 10 day IL. The Brewers traded starting third baseman Orlando Arcia to the Braves and the Rangers traded starting second baseman Rougned Odor to the Yankees. 

Sports News 3/24/21-3/31/21

UFC: This past weekend UFC 260 took place and in the main event the heavyweight title was on the line between the champion Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou. This would be their second fight against each other and the first time Stipe dominated that fight and retained the title. But this time Ngannou completely dominated this fight and won with a vicious knockout and was the new heavyweight champ. In the co-main event in the welterweight division between Tyron Woodley and Vicente Luque fought. Woodley who used to be the champ of this division for a while but eventually lost the title to Usman. When this fight began Woodley rushed Luque and took him down, but then later in that round Woodley got rocked and he eventually tapped out and lost. Finally in the bantamweight division Sean O’Malley and  Thomas Almeida fought. O’Malley completely dominated this fight and won via knockout.

NFL: There were two huge trades that happened this past week. The Dolphins traded their number 3 pick in the draft to the 49ers for the number 12 pick, 2021 third round pick and 2 first round picks in 2022 and 2023. Then the Eagles traded their number 6 pick to the Dolphins for number 12 pick (the pick they just got from the 49ers) and their 2022 first round pick. The Cardinals signed cornerback Malcolm Butler and the Ravens signed wide receiver Sammy Watkins.

NBA: This past Thursday was the trade deadline and so many trades happened. The magic traded pretty much all of their good players and decided that they are going to start a rebuild. They traded their all-star center Nikola Vucevic and Al Farouq Aminu to the Bulls for Otto Porter, Wendell Carter and two first round picks. They also traded guard Evan Fournier to the Celtics for two second round picks. Lastly, they traded forward Aaron Gorgon to the Nuggets for Gary Harris, RJ Hampton and a first round pick. There were other teams that made trades during the trade deadline which include the Raptors trading Norman Powell to the Trail Blazers for Gary Trent and Rodney Hood. The Hawks even traded Rajon Rondo to the Clippers for Lou Williams and two second round picks. The Rockets traded Victor Oladipo to the Heat for Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk. The Cavs bought out Andre Drummond’s contract and he signed with the Lakers. The Spurs did the same thing with LaMarcus Aldridge and he signed with the Nets.

Sports News 3/17/21-3/24/21

UFC: This past weekend a middleweight fight between Derek Brunson and Kevin Holland took place. Brunson was ranking number 7 and Holland was ranked number 10 in the middleweight division. Going into this fight everyone kind of thought that Holland would win this fight because he was undefeated in 2020 with a 5-0 record during the year. Also, people thought that this would be a back and forth fight. But when this fight started Brunson dominated this fight by taking Holland to the ground every time and Holland didn’t know how to stop it. So Brunson won this fight via unanimous decision.  

NFL: Free agency is still underway and free agents continue to sign with teams and players are continuing to get released. Players that are getting released are Kyle Fuller who signed with the Broncos about 30 minutes after he was released. But players are still getting signed off the open market which include wide receiver Kenny Golladay and cornerback Adoree Jackson signing with the Giants, wide receiver signing with the Rams, running back Kanyan Drake signing with the Raiders and cornerback signing with the Bears. We also saw players re-sign with teams which include running back Chris Carson re-signing with the Seahawks and wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster re-signing with the Steelers.

NBA: Remember last week when I said there were a lot of injuries well that continues this week with LaMelo Ball fracturing his right wrist which will end his season. Ball was projected to win the rookie of the year award this year but that might not happen anymore since he’s out for the season. Not only that but LeBron James has a high ankle sprain which will force him out of the lineup for an extended period of time. Losing AD was huge but now losing LeBron is even worse for this team since the Lakers are only 2.5 games ahead of the 7th seed. This could reshape the playoffs that begin in May. It’s sad to see that Lakers great Elgin Baylor has passed away at the age of 86 of natural causes. This coming Thursday is the trade deadline and we could see Lonzo Ball, Kyle Lowry, Lauri Markkanen, Aaron Gordon, Victor Oladipo and many others traded by tomorrow (3/25).

Sports News 3/10/21-3/17/21

UFC: This past weekend Leon Edwards fought and it was his first fight in almost two years. He was supposed to fight Khamzat Chimaev but Chimaev pulled out because he is having trouble coming back from covid-19. So Edwards fought Belal Muhammad in the welterweight division. This was a strange fight because during the night Edwards accidentally poked Muhammad in the eye and he couldn’t continue fighting. So in the end the fight was ruled a no contest.  

NFL: During this past week one of the greatest quarterbacks retired from the NFL and that player is Drew Brees. He brought New Orleans a super bowl 2010 and won super bowl mvp and is currently leading all quarterbacks in NFL history with the most passing yards in the regular season. On Monday NFL free agency started so any free agent can sign with a new team or re-sign with the team they played with last year. Players that re-signed with teams they played with last year are Cam Newton and the Patriots, Aaron Jones and the packers, Shaq Barrett and the Bucs, Leonard Floyd and the Rams, Jameis Winston and the Saints, Rob Gronkowski and the Bucs and finally Trent Williams and the 49ers. While not all players re-signed with their teams a lot of players signed with new teams. The Patriots signed a lot of good players during free agency which isn’t like them at all. They signed tight end Jonnu smith, defensive end Matthew Jodon, defensive back Jalen Mills, wide receiver Nelson Agholor and tight end Hunter Henry. While many other players signed with other teams which include safety John Johnson and the Browns, defensive end Yannick Ngakoue and the Raiders, wide receiver Corey Davis and the Jets, defensive end Bud Dupree and the Titans, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Washington football team, cornerback Shaquill Griffin and the Jags and quarterback Andy Dalton and the Bears and many more. These signings are the players that will have the biggest impact in their new teams but there are so many players that signed with new teams during this offseason.

NBA: Throughout this week there have been a lot of injuries which include Rockets guard Eric Gordon with a groin strain that will rule him out for 4 to 6 weeks. Not only that but 76ers center Joel Embiid will miss 2 to 3 weeks with a bone bruise. Losing Embiid will be a huge loss since he’s having an MVP season and is the best player on that team. But on a positive note Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum is finally returning to the starting lineup from a fractured foot.

Sports News 3/3/21-3/10/21

UFC: This past weekend UFC 259 took place with three title fights. The main event was for the light heavyweight championship between Jan Blachowicz vs Israel Adesanya. Blachowicz was the light heavyweight champion while Adesanya is the middleweight champion but would be moving up to challenge Blachowicz for the title. This was a really good fight that Blachowicz ended up winning via decision. Another fight that happened was for the women’s featherweight championship, it would be between the champion in Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson. This was a quick fight Nunes dominated this fight and was able to get Anderson to tap in the first round. The next fight would be for the bantamweight championship, between the champion Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling. This was a really good fight, Aljamain Sterling came out on top via DQ. Sterling won this fight by Yan kneeing Sterling in the face when he was on the ground and while Yan was standing up, which is illegal to do in a MMA fight. Lastly, Islam Makhachev and Drew Dober fought in the lightweight division. Makhachev is from Dagestan and trains with no one other than Khabib Nurmagomedov and Khabib was actually in his corner coaching him during this fight as well. Makhachev dominated this fight and he ended up winning this fight via submission. Makhachev was the 14 ranked lightweight but after this fight he is now ranked number 11.

NFL: Earlier this week the Dallas Cowboys finally signed Dak Prescott to a long term extension. They signed him to a four year $160 million dollar contract, he would be making $40 million a year. This would make him the second highest paid quarterback in the NFL right behind no one other than Patrick Mahomes. The Tennessee Titans released starting cornerback Malcolm Butler, the Minnesota Vikings released starting tight end Kyle Rudolph and New Orleans Saints released Emmanuel Sanders and Kwon Alexander.         

NBA: The day of the all star game Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid couldn’t play in the game because they went to get a haircut from a barber who had COVID so they had to sit out of games until Friday. Also, Devin Booker had a strained right knee a couple days before the all star game so he was replaced by Mike Conley. The all star game wasn’t a close game, team Lebron beat team Durant 170-150. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 35 points and shot 16-16 from the field and was named MVP of the all star game. The Detroit Pistons were able to buy out the contract of Blake Griffin and he made the decision to sign with the Brooklyn Nets.        

Sports News 2/24/21-3/3/21

UFC: This past weekend Jairzinho Rozenstruik fought Ciryl Gane in a heavyweight fight. Rozenstruik was ranked number 4 and Gane was ranked 7 in the heavyweight rankings. Gane ended up dominating him in this fight and has yet to lose a fight with an 8-0 record. After this fight Gane was ranked fourth in the heavyweight division. Gane is now on a five fight win streak which is the longest fight streak in the heavyweight division.

NFL: This past week a really big free agent signed with the Arizona Cardinals, well I’m talking about JJ Watt. The Cardinals signed him to a 2-year 31 million dollar contract. This really surprised everyone because people didn’t think that he would want to play with the Cardinals since he said he wanted to play in the midwest where he is from. People thought he would sign with the Packers, Browns or even the Titans. JJ Watt now teaming up with his former teammate that he was teammates with on the Texans in DeAndre Hopkins. It was reported this past week that if the Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson were to request a trade he would only accept a trade to the Bears, Cowboys, Raiders or the Saints. 

NBA: The Atlanta Hawks decided to fire their head coach Lloyd Pierce since they have started the season 15-20 and it was only his third season being the head coach. He was replaced by the former Iniana Pacers head coach in Nate McMillian on an interim basis. Last week I told you how Kevin Durant made the all star team but now he won’t be playing in it this week. He is gonna miss it with a hamstring injury that he has been dealing with for a couple of weeks now. Since he was a starter the NBA named Jayson Tatum the starter to replace Kevin Durant and they named Domantas Sabonis as the replacement for Tatum on the reserves.   

MLB: Spring training started on Sunday and if you don’t know what spring training is it is basically preseason for the MLB season. So baseball is right around the corner a lot sooner than you think.