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

7:34 PM ET Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. — Denny Hamlin hoped a visit to the track he watched races at as a youngster would help kick-start a season that started in an uncharacteristic fashion — poorly. Thanks to some crafty tire strategy that his team timed right, he got it done. Hamlin ran down William

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

1:02 AM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors have been coy about how much they’ve been watching the Western Conference standings. Some have admitted to monitoring them. Others have said they’re an afterthought. But, heading into Saturday’s game against the Utah Jazz, there was not one person in Golden State’s locker

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

3:12 PM ET FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots have acquired wide receiver DeVante Parker and a 2022 fifth-round draft pick from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a 2023 third-round pick, a move that has a significant trickle-down effect in multiple areas. WR depth chart: Parker joins a clear-cut top four on the

7:00 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. Beyond the Colorado Avalanche and Calgary Flames leading their respective divisions, the NHL’s Western Conference playoff races remain fairly wide open. Four weeks from today we’ll have much more clarity on the first-round

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

10:29 PM ET New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom felt tightness in his right shoulder while throwing long toss and might not be able to make his scheduled spring start Friday, according to manager Buck Showalter. The timing is far from ideal for the Mets, who open the season in a week, with deGrom slated

The weekend brings four major main events and some entertaining undercard bouts from California to Texas to Japan. Middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin faces fellow champion Ryota Murata in a highly anticipated fight in Saitama, Japan. A GGG victory will put him in position to face Canelo Alvarez in a trilogy fight, this time at super

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

6:00 AM ET SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Inside a luxury hotel roughly nine miles from the site of the final game of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, United States men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter was at ease Tuesday. Six days earlier, he called the forthcoming week the most important of his coaching career and

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

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 PM ET Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas — Scottie Scheffler is the hottest player in golf and now has the ranking to prove it. Six weeks after his first PGA Tour victory, Scheffler won the Dell Technologies Match Play for his third title in his past five starts, this one enough to move him to

1:04 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN MIAMI — When news first broke on Wednesday that the New York City mandate that prevented unvaccinated athletes from playing in home games has been lifted, Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving said he had to keep pinching himself to make sure it was real. On Thursday, New York City mayor

2:43 PM ET BEREA, Ohio — Deshaun Watson said that he has never disrespected women and that he was surprised by the allegations of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct that have been made against him. “I know these allegations [are] very, very serious,” Watson said. “But I’ve never assaulted any woman. I never disrespected any

7:00 AM ET Earlier in the offseason, I ranked the top 100 MLB prospects and all 30 farm systems heading into the 2022 season. Now it’s time to go deeper with my team-by-team rankings, wrapping up with the American League after my National League team-by-team rankings came out Wednesday. A quick refresher on a key

7:30 AM ET The 2022 NHL trade deadline had a little bit of everything. Stars moving to Stanley Cup contenders. Rebuilding teams growing treasure troves of picks and prospects. A canceled deal between division rivals. Kevin Weekes popping out of my hotel’s ice machine to break a trade. (I might have hallucinated that last one.)