Sports

Feb 23, 2023 DEL MAR, Calif. — — The Breeders’ Cup has selected Del Mar to host the 41st world championships next year, marking the third time the picturesque Pacific track will stage the season-ending graded stakes races that feature the top thoroughbreds. Del Mar will present 14 Grade 1 races with purses worth more

2:50 PM GMT It was at roughly 5.50 p.m. on Wednesday evening when word of a resolution between the Welsh rugby team and the sport’s powerbrokers emerged from the squad’s hotel on the outskirts of Cardiff. Strike action had been averted. Wales’ third match of the men’s Six Nations against England — their blockbuster fixture

1:27 PM ET The UFC is finalizing a heavyweight matchup between Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes to headline an event on April 22, multiple sources told ESPN. The promotion has not announced the heavyweight fight or a location for the UFC Fight Night event, however both sides have agreed to a five-round main event per

Feb 21, 2023 Timothy Bradley Jr. YouTube sensation-turned-boxer Jake Paul will be back in the ring on Sunday, Feb. 26 to face Tommy Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV). This will be Paul’s seventh professional fight and the first one against a “real boxer.” Paul (6-0, 4 KOs) has

Feb 20, 2023 Pete ThamelESPN The looming changes to the structure of college football simultaneously highlight the strength of the SEC and Big Ten while exposing the fluidity of the rest of the major-conference landscape. With the Big Ten and SEC preparing to start 16-program versions in 2024 and the 12-team playoff looming the same

7:01 AM ET Andrew LopezESPN On Dec. 30, the New Orleans Pelicans were 23-12 and tied for first place in the Western Conference. Just a month and a half later, heading out of the All-Star break, the Pelicans are 30-29 and in the thick of the middle of the West standings. What happened? Well, two

Feb 20, 2023 Associated Press HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Steve Asmussen became the first trainer with 10,000 victories in North America on Monday, when Bet He’s Ready won the fifth race at Oaklawn Park. He’s already the all-time winningest trainer in the United States and Canada, having set the mark of 9,446 on Aug. 7,

3:22 PM ET Stephen HolderESPN INDIANAPOLIS — Shane Steichen’s coaching staff is starting to come together. The new Indianapolis Colts head coach is expected to name veteran NFL assistant Jim Bob Cooter as the team’s offensive coordinator, sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Monday. Cooter, 38, was most recently the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ passing game coordinator.

Feb 19, 2023 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Fifty-two lead changes among 21 drivers. Only three in-race cautions over the race’s first 198 laps and then three more over the final 13 laps, 10 run in overtime. A Daytona 500 winner who didn’t take the lead until that OT and then pulled into Victory Lane for

Woods’ presence in the game remains insurmountable and all-consuming. The crowds this week and the attention he still garners proved as much. Yet as his career has entered a new stage, where his attendance in tournaments will be few and far between, the constant search for his heir apparent seems to have shifted into an

Feb 19, 2023 Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. — Bulldog Hanover, who last year became the fastest horse in harness racing history, is the sport’s first unanimous selection for Horse of the Year. The award, first presented in 1947, was announced Sunday night at the U.S. Harness Writers Association banquet. The pacer was selected on all

Feb 19, 2023 Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz won his first title since his milestone US Open triumph by beating Cameron Norrie in straight sets at the Argentina Open on Sunday. The world No. 2 overcame No. 12 Norrie 6-3, 7-5 in the clay-court final. “I felt very comfortable,” Alcaraz said.

Feb 17, 2023 It was the end of the KISS concert at Dodger Stadium in 2014, when the group hit the final bombastic notes of “Rock and Roll All Nite” and the pyrotechnics illuminated the palm trees near the hockey rink. That was the moment I fell in love with the bizarre, audacious spectacle that

Feb 14, 2023 The offseason is over! SP+ is here! With the 2023 recruiting class — both traditional signings and transfers — in the books for now, and with a reasonable feel for who’s returning and who isn’t, we can take our first step toward the 2023 college football season with the initial SP+ projections.

Feb 17, 2023 Kirk Gibson’s at-bat in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, from the moment he hobbles out of the dugout to Vin Scully exclaiming, “She is gone!” as the ball sails into the right-field bleachers, lasts 6 minutes and 48 seconds. Not that anyone was putting a timer on it 35 years

1:39 PM ET Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and his six fellow Toyota drivers skipped the final practice for The Great American Race. Even action sports star Travis Pastrana, who has little experience at Daytona International Speedway, sat out the 50-minute session Saturday. He is driving a third

6:29 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, the chairman of Qatar Islamic Bank, has launched a bid to buy Manchester United, he confirmed in a statement Friday. Qatar Islamic Bank’s assets are estimated at more than £40 billion ($48bn) and Al Thani is the son of former Qatar Prime Minister Hamad

5:42 PM ET Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge denied Bob Baffert’s request to lift his two-year suspension by Churchill Downs Inc., ruling Friday that the Hall of Fame trainer did not prove its discipline hurt his business and reputation. Baffert will miss his second consecutive Kentucky Derby, and per a Churchill Downs

Feb 15, 2023 Jeff WagenheimESPN Liz Carmouche will defend her Bellator MMA women’s flyweight championship against DeAnna Bennett in the main event of Bellator 294 on April 21, part of the fight promotion’s two-night visit to Honolulu, Bellator announced Wednesday. Carmouche (18-7) won the title last April with a TKO of Juliana Velasquez, then submitted

7:13 AM ET Full-time real estate professional Matija Pecotic stunned former World No. 8 Jack Sock on his ATP Tour main draw debut at the Delray Beach Open on Tuesday. Pecotic, who works as a director at a real estate investment firm, plays tennis part-time and beat Sock 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to set up a