Sports

8:00 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim A championship prizefight makes a Saturday night feel special. And when there are two tussles for titles on the fight card, that doubles the big-event exhilaration. This weekend’s UFC 273 (Saturday, 10 p.m., on ESPN+ PPV) offers all that and more. The 13-fight event at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in

8:00 AM ET As the NBA’s 2021-22 regular season draws to a conclusion on April 10, teams near the middle of the standings are battling for postseason seeding with a special focus on the league’s play-in tournament. Held before the first round of the 2022 NBA playoffs, the play-in tournament adds an exciting wrinkle to

6:28 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com Iga Swiatek left no doubt about her spot atop the game and Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz earned the biggest titles of their burgeoning careers. If there’s one thing we learned during the Sunshine Double in Indian Wells and Miami over the past month, it’s that the future is very

10:42 AM ET Running back Frank Gore said he plans to sign a one-day contract with the San Francisco 49ers and retire as a member of the team that drafted him. “We’re still trying to figure out when I’m going to do my one-day contract. To sign, do my retirement,” Gore said on the SFNiners

11:31 PM ET Associated Press ARCADIA, Calif. — Bob Baffert won the sixth race at Santa Anita on Saturday, sending the Hall of Fame trainer out a winner two days before his 90-day suspension begins. Baffert was in the winner’s circle with Shaaz after the $72,000 race. He was joined by Hall of Fame jockey

8:00 AM ET ESPN staff The ABC Saturday afternoon hockey schedule continues this week with a potential Stanley Cup Final matchup as Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins, with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET and simulcast on ESPN+. To help get you ready for the game, we’ve

4:01 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom will miss Opening Day after an imaging test showed a stress reaction in his right scapula. In a statement on Friday, the Mets said deGrom won’t

9:00 AM ET Shane Beamer had an opportunity to transform South Carolina‘s roster this offseason, and he took it. Like most coaches, Beamer targeted the transfer portal and tried to find players with experience that could help his team win at a faster rate than just recruiting high school recruits. He signed former Oklahoma quarterback

7:00 AM ET Manchester City are hopeful of beating Real Madrid to the signing of Erling Haaland this summer — ESPN’s Insider Notebook has the latest. Jump to: Spain draw up shortlist of Luis Enrique replacements | Nkunku, Leipzig set for crunch contract talks | Flamengo-Pereira deal at risk of falling through Man City confident

3:34 PM ET Associated Press HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Simplification will be the morning-line favorite at Gulfstream Park for Saturday’s $1 million, Grade 1 Florida Derby, one of the last big prep races for the Kentucky Derby. Simplification was given 5-2 early odds. White Abarrio was narrowly installed as the second choice at 3-1. Simplification

3:11 PM ET Jeff Wagenheim Editor’s note: Khamzat Chimaev faces the biggest test of his career on April 9 at UFC 273, taking on top-five welterweight Gilbert Burns. This story has been updated since being published in October following Chimaev’s most recent fight. After an absence of over a year, Khamzat Chimaev returned to the

7:43 AM ET One of the most competitive rounds in women’s golf might not take place at LPGA events. Each Tuesday and Thursday, the Stanford women’s golf team plays qualifiers to determine the top five players to compete in upcoming tournaments. The competitors include five of the top 66 players in the world, according to

12:01 PM ET Boston Celtics center Robert Williams III — an anchor of the league’s best defense — suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee, the team announced Monday. He will miss several weeks, minimally, sources told ESPN on Monday. An MRI on Monday revealed the tear, and further evaluation Monday will help provide

3:37 PM BST Prop Marlie Packer scored a hat trick of tries as England got their Six Nation’s title defence underway with a 57-5 victory against Scotland at Edinburgh’s DAM Health Stadium on Saturday. The result was the Red Roses’ 19th-straight win, breaking the record for most consecutive Test match wins, which was set by

8:07 AM ET Mike Coppinger Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show After a slow start to the year, the boxing schedule heats up starting next month. April 9 really kicks the action off

7:00 AM ET NFL experts The 2022 NFL free agency deals are just now starting to slow down, but a handful of the top names are still on the market. Numerous playmakers and impact talents have agreed to terms for 2022 and beyond, and we’ve seen some wild movement on the trade market, especially under

7:00 AM ET TAMPA, Fla. — At first, the baseball skipped into the glove of Josh Donaldson, but when it spilled out onto the ground to his right, he loudly formed a familiar four-letter word. Donaldson then returned to the deep crouch on a back practice field at the New York Yankees‘ spring training complex,

7:45 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. We often hear that the NHL has some of the best rivalries in professional sports, and there’s nothing like a big rivalry matchup when both teams are in the playoff mix. As it

5:00 AM ET MEXICO CITY — The number of times that the United States men’s national team has walked out of Estadio Azteca seething, on the wrong end of a scoreline, are too many to count. Usually it was because the visitors had been subjected to death by 1,000 passes, no match for Mexico‘s methodical

2:43 PM ET Associated Press ARCADIA, Calif. — Bob Baffert has transferred four of his promising 3-year-old colts to other trainers, which will allow them to earn qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby while the Hall of Fame trainer appeals his 90-day suspension. Baffert on Thursday transferred Messier, Doppelganger and McLaren Vale to trainer Tim

1:18 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com Ashleigh Barty had just won the 2019 French Open and was standing on the court waiting for her team to join her. It was her first major title, and the realization of every young tennis player’s dream. Her longtime coach Craig Tyzzer rushed to be by her side, preparing an

12:03 PM BST Bethan Clargo For the first two months of her new job, Lisa Neumann had a 200-mile commute. She didn’t mind the four-hour drive down the M6 from Manchester to the National Centre of Excellence in Cardiff. It was a journey she had made hundreds of times in the past few years to

12:00 PM ET Curtis Blaydes was riding high in the UFC’s heavyweight division a little over a year ago. He had won four fights in a row, and the only defeats of his career had come against the champion, Francis Ngannou. But then, in February 2021, Blaydes ran into a Derrick Lewis uppercut, and his

7:45 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. There are 17 weight divisions in men’s boxing, and in each one there is a champion determined by each of the four major sanctioning bodies: the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF. Some of these organizations also have a secondary titlist or an interim titlist, and all four have rankings

8:52 PM ET Associated Press HAMPTON, Ga. — William Byron had a freight train in his rearview mirror. A sitting duck, it seemed. Fortunately for him, all those challengers started jostling against each other rather than working together to take down the leader. While Byron cruised to the checkered flag for the third victory of

10:00 AM ET ESPN Betting Insiders The 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is the first World Golf Championships event of the season and the only match play tournament on the PGA Tour. The round-robin tourney with feature 64 golfers from Wednesday to Friday with the top 16 advancing to the knockout stage over the weekend.

8:00 AM ET While the Los Angeles Lakers are in the middle of a disappointing NBA season, LeBron James continues to be the lone bright spot. James passed Karl Malone on Saturday night, moving into the No. 2 spot on the all-time scoring list. Though James racked up another individual milestone, his team fell to

1:50 PM ET ATLANTA — After 14 seasons and becoming the best quarterback in franchise history, Matt Ryan is moving on from the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta traded Ryan on Monday to the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for a 2022 third-round draft pick, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen and Dianna Russini. Ryan will become

7:00 AM ET It’s possible Oklahoma State was just “inches short” of the College Football Playoff last fall — but it’s also a rather grand assumption that had Dezmon Jackson managed to grow a few inches on a desperate fourth-down dive against Baylor in the Big 12 title game, the selection committee would have chosen

10:37 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com Rafael Nadal standing behind him and a captivated audience intently listening to his every word, Taylor Fritz finished his speech on the court at Indian Wells, his voice breaking as he looked toward his family and team in the stands. “Winning this tournament is one of those crazy childhood dreams

7:00 AM ET Now is when it gets good. With teams playing their third and fourth games of the tournament, depth and talent usually win out. We’re down to 16 teams (AKA the Sweet 16) in ESPN’s 2022 fictional NCAA football tournament. The early rounds have already provided some memorable moments, including game-winning field goals,

7:39 PM ET The Philadelphia Flyers traded Claude Giroux, a fifth-round pick in 2024, along with prospects Connor Bunnaman and German Rubtsov to the Florida Panthers on Saturday, in exchange for Owen Tippett, a first-round pick in 2024, and a third-round choice in 2023. The Flyers are also retaining 50% of Giroux’s $8.275 million cap

11:10 AM ET Talk about March madness. Front offices dream of executing the perfect offseason plan, but those aspirations rarely come to fruition because of the complexities of free agency and trades and the need to adjust on the fly. With the signing of shortstop Carlos Correa, this year’s top free agent, to a three-year,