Sports

5:00 PM ET Jeff Carlisle Close U.S. soccer correspondent Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC. Eric Gomez The games between Mexico and the United States have emerged as some of the most heated on the soccer calendar. Who can forget Rafa Marquez’s harsh red on Cobi Jones at the

1:55 AM GMT Wallabies scrum-half Nic White has dubbed Eddie Jones the “king of mind games” ahead of Saturday’s clash at Twickenham, after the England coach wasted little time whipping up a pre-match sideshow on multiple fronts to start the week. It has already been a busy week for Jones, after he referenced US Open

8:37 AM ET 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 Kid Galahad is looking forward to making a first world title defence in front of his home city fans in Sheffield, England, on Saturday,

9:30 AM ET Going into his UFC 268 main event against Colby Covington, welterweight champion Kamaru Usman already was No. 1 in the ESPN men’s pound-for-pound rankings. There was no room for upward movement. However, Usman’s strong performance at Madison Square Garden did earn him the backing of the last holdout on our voting panel.

1:07 PM ET Novak Djokovic plans to become a tennis coach once he calls time on his playing career as he has no intention of taking his knowledge “to the grave,” the world No. 1 told Serbian media after clinching the Paris Masters on Sunday Djokovic secured a record-breaking 37th Masters title and his sixth

7:11 PM ET Associated Press AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson won. That was the expected result of NASCAR’s season-ending championship race, right? Larson closed his comeback season in NASCAR with his first championship Sunday, where he capped his return from a nearly yearlong suspension with a title-winning victory at Phoenix Raceway. “I can’t believe it,”

1:59 PM ET Associated Press MIAMI — The NBA told its players, coaches and referees Sunday that they should receive booster shots against the coronavirus, with particular urgency for those who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The league and the National Basketball Players Association — working jointly based on guidance from the league’s

11:58 PM ET It is notoriously difficult to see a truly great race car driver ever show us a lot of real, raw emotion. Not anger. We’ve all seen that plenty. Not celebratory joy. That’s what we see most, when the driver who has just pulled into Victory Lane finally shows us their face after

6:29 PM ET Associated Press PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Viktor Hovland won again on the PGA Tour, this time without a clutch finish. The Norwegian star was too dominant to give anyone else a chance Sunday in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. Hovland seized control with three birdies on the front nine,

2:10 PM ET Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield gave his team a 21-7 lead in the second quarter with a 60-yard touchdown bomb to Donovan Peoples-Jones down the middle of the field. Coming off a week in which Cleveland agreed to release Odell Beckham Jr. in the wake of Beckham’s father trashing Mayfield on social

1:29 AM ET In the final three minutes of Saturday’s slugfest against Tulsa, Cincinnati had eight chances to lose a football game, and yet it won. There are two ways to tell this story. In one, Cincinnati failed miserably once more. By ranking the Bearcats sixth last week, the College Football Playoff committee sent a

9:30 PM ET Associated Press DEL MAR, Calif. — Knicks Go burst into the lead out of the starting gate and kicked away to a 2¾-length victory in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar. No one seriously pressed the colt, who earned his fourth straight victory and in the process

11:45 AM ET The 2021 World Series is in the books, with the Atlanta Braves triumphing over the Houston Astros in six games. Now, it’s 2021-22 MLB offseason time for all 30 teams, with trades to be made, extensions to consider, and free-agency decisions charting the courses of players and teams alike looming. Some of

6:36 AM ET The 38th edition of the Breeders’ Cup will kick off two days of action Friday afternoon at Keeneland. A lot of eyes will be on the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and with so many high-profile races in the mix, there are numerous opportunities to wager on horses that offer significant value. Chris “The

9:00 AM ET There’s something wholly appropriate about the Vegas Golden Knights having a trade announced at 4:30 a.m. local time in a city where high-stakes gambles still happen in the predawn hours. Every blockbuster trade is a gamble. Assuming Jack Eichel comes through his artificial disk replacement surgery as a healthy star, the Golden

10:51 AM ET Antonio Conte is betting on himself. He’s betting that he can restore star-crossed players to greatness (or, at least, a level of output equal to their salaries/transfer fees). Betting that he can jolt Tottenham Hotspur to life. Betting that his “intensity/winning mentality schtick” — which has generally been around as long as

1:58 AM BST Motivated by the stunning return of Quade Cooper, Kurtley Beale is hoping to add his own influence to a Wallabies team on the up and keep his dream of a fourth Rugby World Cup appearance alive. The veteran Test back is enjoying a first taste of Dave Rennie’s Wallabies environment, after being

5:14 PM ET Associated Press DEL MAR, Calif. — For the first time, all 14 Breeders’ Cup races this weekend at Del Mar will be run without race-day medication, the final step in a process that had the antibleeding medication Lasix prohibited in races for 2-year-olds at last year’s world championships. Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien

7:48 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN On Saturday, we’re set to see arguably the biggest fight night of the year. Canelo Alvarez, the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, looks to become an undisputed world champion for the first time in his career as he faces Caleb Plant in a super middleweight unification fight at

Jul 20, 2021 Mike Coppinger Ben Baby Close ESPN Staff Writer ESPN Staff Writer Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News University of North Texas graduate Editor’s note: This story was originally published on July 20. It has been updated to reflect the upcoming fight on Nov. 6 between Canelo Alvarez and