Sports

Dec 21, 2022 Naoya Inoue became the undisputed bantamweight champion after earning an 11th-round KO victory on Dec. 13 in Tokyo. The win also earned him eight first-place votes from our ESPN’s pound-for pound 21-member panel, moving him closer to Terence Crawford at No. 1. In his other fight this year, Inoue scored a second-round

4:45 PM ET STARKVILLE, Miss. — Former Mississippi State coach Mike Leach was a luminary and a larger-than-life character in college football. On Tuesday, his impact was spelled out in detail as friends, coaches and players shared personal stories of Leach’s humanity, his sense of humor and the deep curiosity that drove him to the

Dec 20, 2022 Augusta National Golf Club announced Tuesday that any golfer who qualified for the Masters tournament based on its previous criteria will be invited to play in 2023, including 16 players who are currently competing in the LIV Golf League. Six past Masters champions are part of the group that defected from the

6:30 AM ET NFL Nation reporters Welcome to Week 16 of the NFL regular season. Our power panel — a group of more than 80 writers, editors and TV personalities — has evaluated how teams are stacking up through 15 weeks. As we near the end of the regular season, the surprises are still coming.

11:05 AM ET The NHL trade market has been gummed up by a lack of salary-cap room this season. It also doesn’t help that so many teams are within a reasonable distance of playoff seeds, unable to determine their position in the market. When the NHL trade deadline arrives on March 3, the contenders and

6:54 AM ET CHAIM BLOOM HAS been reliving the negotiations with Xander Bogaerts in his head. “There are a couple of regrets,” the chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox told ESPN a week after Bogaerts signed with the San Diego Padres. When Bogaerts landed an 11-year, $280 million deal this month, the question

Dec 18, 2022 ESPN News Services MELBOURNE, Australia — Venus Williams has been awarded a wild-card entry to play at the Australian Open next month, 25 years after she played the Grand Slam tournament for the first time. The 42-year-old Williams has reached the final twice in Australia, including a loss to her younger sister,

3:27 PM ET The 2022 World Cup in Qatar has flown by. Wedged into the middle of the European club season, it has had to. It’s hard to believe that the tournament began 26 days ago, yet so much has transpired in that time, including whittling down a field of 32 to just France and

Dec 16, 2022 England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU) on Friday approved the application by a bidder for the planned takeover of Wasps but rejected another for Worcester Warriors after an assessment by the governing body’s Club Financial Viability Group. Financially-hit Wasps and Worcester have both been suspended for going into administration and will drop from

Dec 15, 2022 The UFC will end its year with a main event highlighting one of the promotion’s most interesting divisions. Sean Strickland will take on Jared Cannonier in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in a critical middleweight battle. Both men are coming off losses against elite fighters, and the winner

8:00 AM ET 2022 featured the breakout of many boxers, the retirement of others — some of them short-lived — and a few new undisputed champions. The year also included plenty of upsets, disappointing performances, and of course, controversies. What fight will be remembered as the best of 2022? Who did we select as Fighter

5:07 PM ET Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. — Twenty years have passed since Padraig Harrington first faced Tiger Woods on the weekend at a major, and he has kept a close watch ever since. He doesn’t think Woods is finished. Harrington says Woods can win another major if he can just get to the final

Dec 15, 2022 Associated Press SANDUSKY, Ohio — Hailie Deegan will drive full time in the NASCAR Truck series next season with ThorSport Racing. ThorSport formally added Deegan to its driver lineup Thursday as it announced a manufacturer move from Toyota to Ford. Deegan, a 21-year-old California native, will race in the Truck series for

8:54 AM ET Associated Press LONDON — Iga Swiatek and Rafael Nadal were honored by the International Tennis Federation as its 2022 ITF World Champions on Thursday after each claimed two Grand Slam titles this season. The ITF determines its awards based on criteria that include all events and give special weight to the four

9:21 PM ET Kendra AndrewsESPN INDIANAPOLIS — Stephen Curry will receive an MRI on Thursday in Philadelphia after injuring his left shoulder in the Golden State Warriors‘ 125-119 loss at the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. Curry sustained the injury with 2:04 left in the third quarter after attempting to strip Indiana’s Jalen Smith of the

6:30 AM ET NFL NationESPN There are just four weeks left in the 2022 NFL season, and while some teams are thinking about making the playoffs, others are looking ahead to the 2023 NFL draft. Let’s turn our attention there for a moment. The ESPN Football Power Index (FPI) projects the Houston Texans and the

Dec 14, 2022 December 14, 1947 was a Sunday afternoon. Yes, most of the men who gathered in Daytona Beach, Fla. on that chilly, gray day were dressed in suits. But no, it was not a church service. Far from it. There was entirely too much brown liquor on the table and cigar smoke in

Dec 1, 2022 Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Goodyear will remain the exclusive tire for NASCAR’s top three national series under a new multiyear deal announced Thursday. Specifics of the extension weren’t included, but the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company will continue as title sponsor of the annual Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway as part

12:33 PM ET Before we knew Mike Leach was a first-ballot hall of fame interview, before the sideline dissertations about marriage or candy or anything in the world, really, there was Mike Leach, the football genius. Leach, who died Monday night at 61, likely would scoff at that notion, that anyone needed to be a

Dec 11, 2022 ESPN staff Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is currently chasing down career NHL goal No. 800. After starting the 2022-23 season at 780, he has scored 17 goals thus far. Ovi is third on the all-time NHL goals list, behind Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801). The next highest active player