ICYMI: UFC 224 did not disappoint

Another great weekend of events: UFC had some fun in Rio De Janeiro, the PLAYERS Championship saw some record breaking rounds, the Cavaliers got annihilated in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Premier League wrapped up for the season, the Capitals are making strong moves towards the Stanley Cup finals, a handful of expert performances in MLB this past week and Harvick takes another Checkered Flag.

UFC 224 - 36 days since we watched Khabib Nurmagomedev beat AL Iaquinta by unanimous decision in 223

Some criticism against Raquel Pennington’s team who sent her back out for a fifth round against Amanda Nunez despite her saying “I’m done”. Amanda went on to unleash a flurry of kicks and punches on her for a TKO in the fifth round.

Middleweight: Kelvin Gastelum over Jacare Souza (split decision)

Women’s Straweight: Mackenzie Dern by submission over Amanda Cooper

Bantamweight: John Lineker TKO over Brian Kelleher

Middleweight: Lyoto Machida TKO over Vitor Belfort

Middleweight: Cezar Ferreira by submission over Karl Roberson

Heavyweight: Aleksei Oleinik by submission over Junio ALbini

Lightweight: Davi Ramos by submission over Nick Hein

Welterweight: Elizeu Zaleskei Dos by TKO over Sean Strickland

Welterweight: Warlley Alves by TKO over Sultan ALiev

Middleweight: Jack Hermansson by TKO over Thales Leites

Welterweight: Ramazan Emeev by Decision over Alberto Mina

Middleweight: Markus Perez by submission over James Ochnovic

MLB – around 25% into the regular season

Ben Zobrist is banned from wearing black cleats, Javier Baez went a month without a walk, the Padres called up the MiLB leader in Home Runs (Franmil Reyes), Francisco Lindor has a .483 batting avg, .516 OBP and 1.017 slugging percentage over the last 2 weeks and Shohei Ohtania pitched 11k over 6.1 innings yesterday.

NBA – Conference Finals

Al Horford and Jaylen Brown combined for 43 points as the Celtics held LeBron to just 15 and the Cavaliers to just 83 points in a 108-83 win to take Game 1.

Golden State faces off against Houston Rockets in game 1 tonight at 9:00EST.

The PLAYERS Championship

Another great event saw Webb Simpson grasp the lead early but showed some strong names down the stretch with Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka, Adam Scott, Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar and some up and coming names like Xander Schauffele. Meanwhile some fan favorites (Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Hideki Matsuyama and Rickie Fowler) all missed the cut.

NHL – Conference Finals

Capitals put up 6 goals to take a 2-0 game lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Goals by Brett Connolly, Lars Eller, Evgeni Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin, Devon Smith-Pelly and Tom Wilson.

Winnipeg Jets put up 3 goals in the first and outlasted Vegas 4-2 for a 1-0 game lead in the Western Conference. Mark Scheifele leads the league in postseason goals with 12 currently.

Premier League

Manchester City reached 100 points with a 1-0 win over Southampton Saints. Manchester United sits in 2^nd place with 81 points. Swansea City, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion are relegated to the Champions League.

NASCAR

Kevin Harvick missed out on a wreck initiated by William Byron who hit Clint Bowyer almost hit Kevin, missing by just a foot or two as Harvick went on to pass Martin Truex Jr. in the final two laps and win the KC Masterpiece 400 for his fifth win this season. (I had William Byron and Clint Bower in my picks this week as well as Kevin so the wreck and outcome were bitter sweet)

AVIVA Premiership Rugby

This Saturday shows off the Semi-Final matchup of the Saracens vs. Wasps & the Exeter Chiefs vs. the Newcastle Falcons

MLS

A battle of the top 2 teams presented itself on Wednesday as Sporting Kansas City gave Atlanta United their 2^nd loss of the season, Atlanta rebounded over the weekend to beat Orlando City SC 2-1 to hold on to their spot atop the standings. Columbus Crew moved into a tie with New York FC in 2^nd place in the Eastern Conference two wins (1-0 ove rPhiladelphia Union & 3-0 over Chicago Fire) Columbus now has a clean sheet in 3 straight matches. Josef Martinez (Atlanta) remains atop the stats in goals tied with Gyasi Zardes (Columbus) at 8 goals each.

Boxing

Visiliy Lomachenko was knocked down but rallied to TKO Jorge Linares in the 10^th round.