8:58 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Challenger Anthony Joshua on Friday weighed in at 244.5 pounds — the heaviest he’s been for a fight since June 2019 — ahead of his unified heavyweight championship rematch Saturday against Oleksandr Usyk in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) tipped the scales at 221.5 pounds, a quarter-pound heavier
8:04 AM ET Timothy Bradley Jr. After 12 rounds that saw Oleksandr Usyk skillfully outbox Anthony Joshua in September 2021, the two will meet once again for three of the four major heavyweight titles on Saturday in Saudi Arabia. The rematch (DAZN, main event expected at 5:30 p.m. ET), has the potential to be a
8:00 AM ET WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman hasn’t fought in nearly 10 months. Usually, those who follow this sport refer to that amount of time between fights as a “layoff” — but nothing about how Usman chose to spend those 10 months sounds like much of a break. “Everyone says,
7:00 AM ET Like every good summer binge watch, the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship hasn’t been short on drama. Its biggest plot twist so far? The ouster of defending gold medal champion Team USA, which fell 4-2 to Czechia in Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup. The United States had been unbeaten through preliminary tournament action, and
7:00 AM ET The college football extended universe is something a fiction writer could only dream of creating. Star Wars never had a side plot as worthwhile as the BYU-Utah Holy War. The Buffyverse was never capable of something as unexpectedly rich as the Grand Valley State-Ferris State rivalry. (And I say that as someone
7:51 AM ET Mark KriegelESPN Athletes are often asked — indeed, they ask themselves — “How bad do you want it?” It’s as if desire could be quantified. Truth is, that’s an empty question that elicits mostly vacant responses. The athlete usually understands his or her role in this exchange: To make it pass as
5:54 PM ET ESPN News Services ST. LOUIS — Albert Pujols launched a pinch-hit grand slam and drove in five runs, Adam Wainwright pitched seven sharp innings and the St. Louis Cardinals routed the Colorado Rockies 13-0 Thursday for a three-game sweep. “We’re playing right now, I think the way that we were expecting ourselves
ENG vs SA, 1st Test, Day 3: Marco Jansen resumed on his individual score of 41.© AFP England vs South Africa 1st Test, Day 3 Live Score Updates:Alex Lees and Zak Crawley have started England’s second innings of the match. England bundled out South Africa for 326 runs but not before the latter could take
4:00 AM ET Christian Pulisic could be heading out of Chelsea to boost his World Cup prospects — ESPN’s Insider Notebook has the latest. PLUS: David de Gea is on borrowed time at Man Utd. Jump to: Ten Hag’s De Gea concerns | Xavi tells Dest: Time’s up at Barca | Atletico stand firm over
2:53 AM BST Quade Cooper’s Achilles injury appears to be the one problem the Wallabies have no answer for as the Rugby World Cup creeps ever closer and coach Dave Rennie again looks to the past for a solution at No. 10. But a bigger problem perhaps lies within Australian rugby’s inability to sufficiently develop
11:28 PM ET The Seattle Seahawks and Chicago Bears kicked off Week 2 of the preseason Thursday in Seattle. Second-year quarterback Justin Fields looked sharp for the Bears in his lone drive to begin the game, while Seahawks starter Geno Smith and the offensive unit struggled to pick up first downs in their first couple
10:05 PM ET SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. has yet to formally address his San Diego Padres teammates in the wake of his stunning suspension, but Jurickson Profar, one of his closest friends on the team, said he has been speaking with Tatis “every day.” “He’s devastated,” Profar said Thursday when asked about Tatis’
9:26 PM ET For the second straight year, Zhang Weili will get a title opportunity at Madison Square Garden. A UFC women’s strawweight title fight between champion Carla Esparza and Zhang, the former champ, has been verbally agreed to for UFC 281 on Nov. 12 in New York, multiple sources confirmed with ESPN. The fight
11:58 AM ET The NFL and the NFL Players Association on Thursday reached a settlement in the Deshaun Watson disciplinary matter, agreeing that the Cleveland Browns quarterback will serve an 11-game suspension without pay after he was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct during massage sessions. Watson will also pay a
4:15 PM ET Associated Press MASON, Ohio — American Madison Keys upset No. 1 Iga Swiatek 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the Western & Southern Open quarterfinals. Swiatek, a two-time Grand Slam champion, hasn’t gotten past the round of 16 in four tournaments since winning the French Open in June. The win was the
8:54 PM ET Associated Press SAN JOSE, Calif. — Players from Saudi-funded LIV Golf who have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour will be waiting nearly 16 months for the case to go to trial. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman on Thursday set the trial for Jan. 8, 2024. Depending on whether
8:38 PM ET Associated Press PARAMUS, N.J. — Texas A&M senior Sam Bennett won two matches Thursday as the No. 3 amateur in the world moved into the quarterfinals of a U.S. Amateur that already has lost some of its biggest names. Also moving into the quarterfinals was U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad, who took
7:24 PM ET Associated Press MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Kurt Busch said Thursday he’ll miss the final two races of NASCAR’s regular season, bringing it to six races the 2004 champion has been sidelined with concussion-like symptoms. Busch wrote on Twitter he’ll miss the Sunday race on the road course at Watkins Glen International and then