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Uriah Hall has won four fights in a row. Sean Strickland has won four fights in a row. On Saturday night, they meet to determine whose momentum will be supercharged.

Hall (17-9) has been at center stage under the bright lights before. This weekend’s middleweight fight at the Apex in Las Vegas will be the third UFC main event for the 36-year-old New Yorker by way of Spanish Town, Jamaica. His last two wins have come against high-profile former champions, Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva.

Even before he was on the UFC roster, Hall was drawing attention to himself. Back in 2013, while competing on Season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter, he announced his presence with a spinning wheel-kick knockout, one of the most stunning finishes in the 16-year history of the reality TV show.

Hall ended the season as runnerup, dropping the finale to Kelvin Gastelum. But Hall was offered a UFC contract anyway, and once in the big show, he continued to produce highlights. Although there have been had ups and downs along the way, seven of Hall’s last eight victories have come via knockout.

Strickland (23-3) is on a similarly successful trajectory, though quieter and perhaps more in need of an eye-opening performance. The 30-year-old from Corona, California, is a first-time UFC headliner, and he has a matter-of-fact way about him that does not draw a lot of attention. His fights just produce a steady stream of violence. Strickland has lost just twice since 2015, and one of the defeats came against an on-his-way-to-a-championship Kamaru Usman.

Strickland is hitting his stride and poised to make his presence known. The stage is all his. Or is it Hall’s? We’ll find out on Saturday.

The fights are on ESPN and ESPN+, with the main card starting at 9 p.m. ET and the prelims at 6 p.m.


By the numbers

8: Knockouts in the UFC by Hall, tying him with former champion Anderson Silva and Thiago Santos for the most in middleweight history. Hall also is tied for the fifth most KOs among all UFC fighters since his 2013 debut.

4-0: Strickland’s record as a UFC middleweight. He previously was 5-3 as a welterweight and also won one catchweight bout.

51: Percentage of significant strike attempts on which Hall has found his target. That is the sixth-highest striking accuracy among active UFC middleweights (minimum five fights and 350 attempts). Paulo Costa is the leader at 57.3%.

68: Percentage of opponents’ significant strike attempts that Strickland has avoided. It is the fifth-highest defensive rate among active UFC fighters (five fights, 350 attempts). Nasrat Haqparast is No. 1 at 74.5%.

8 of 9: Fights, among his most recent appearances, in which Hall (+175) has been a betting underdog. He is 5-3 as an underdog, including three straight wins. Strickland (-210), meanwhile, is 5-1 as a favorite in the UFC.

Sources: ESPN Stats & Information and UFC Stats

Five vs. five

Uriah Hall’s most recent results
Win: Chris Weidman (TKO1, April 24, 2021; watch on ESPN+)
Win: Anderson Silva (TKO4, Oct. 31, 2020; watch on ESPN+)
Win: Antônio Carlos Júnior (SD, Sept. 14, 2019; watch on ESPN+)
Win: Bevon Lewis (KO3, Dec. 29, 2018)
Loss: Paulo Costa (TKO2, July 7, 2018)

Sean Strickland’s most recent results
Win: Krzysztof Jotko (UD, May 1, 2021; watch on ESPN+)
Win: Brendan Allen (TKO2, Nov. 14, 2020; watch on ESPN+)
Win: Jack Marshman (UD),Oct. 31, 2020; watch on ESPN+)
Win: Nordine Taleb (TKO2, Oct. 27, 2018)
Loss: Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (KO1, May 12, 2018)

And the winner is …

“Strickland is a tough draw for anyone,” said Marc Montoya, Factory X MMA coach. “Hall has had his ups and downs. He’s looked good since he moved to Fortis MMA. I think that mentally, he and [Fortis MMA coach Sayif Saud] connect really well. I think he has a new swag about him. He’s always been talented. But Strickland won’t go away. He’ll talk s— to you. You can even hit him and he’ll still come forward, and that’s a tough opponent to deal with.”

Check out how Montoya and other experts break down the main event and predict a winner.


How to watch the fights

Watch on ESPN or ESPN+. Download the ESPN App | WatchESPN | TV schedule

Don’t have ESPN? Get instant access. Don’t have ESPN+? Get it here.

There’s also FightCenter, which offers live updates for every UFC card.


Saturday’s fight card

ESPN/ESPN+, 9 p.m. ET
Uriah Hall vs. Sean Strickland | Middleweight
Kyung Ho Kang vs. Rani Yahya | Men’s bantamweight
Cheyanne Buys vs. Gloria de Paula | Strawweight
Jared Gooden vs. Niklas Stolze | Welterweight
Zarrukh Adashev vs. Ryan Benoit | Men’s flyweight
Bryan Barberena vs. Jason Witt | Welterweight
ESPN/ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET
Wu Yanan vs. Nicco Montaño | Women’s bantamweight
Melsik Baghdasaryan vs. Collin Anglin | Men’s featherweight
Chris Gruetzemacher vs. Rafa Garcia | Lightweight
Danny Chavez vs. Kai Kamaka | Men’s featherweight
Jinh Yu Frey vs. Ashley Yoder | Strawweight
Ronnie Lawrence vs. Trevin Jones | Men’s bantamweight
Phil Rowe vs. Orion Cosce | Welterweight


Four more things you should know (from ESPN Stats & Info)

1. Rani Yahya, who faces Kyung Ho Kang in the co-main event, has six submissions at bantamweight in the UFC, tied for most in division history. Kang has been submitted just once in 27 career fights, and he has spent 50 minutes and 29 seconds in top position, the most in UFC bantamweight history. Yahya has the division’s second-most time spent on top (41:00).

2. Bryan Barberena lands 5.5 strikes per minute, the fifth-highest rate in UFC welterweight history (minimum five fights). He faces Jason Witt, who has been knocked out in five of his seven losses.

3. The Ultimate Fighter is represented not only by main eventer Uriah Hall, the Season 17 runnerup, but also by TUF 26 winner Nicco Montaño. The first women’s flyweight champion in UFC history, Montaño is now a bantamweight. She faces Wu Yanan in her first fight since a loss to upcoming title challenger Julianna Peña in July 2019.

4. In the opening fight of the card, Orion Cosce makes his UFC debut, following in the footsteps of his brother Louis, who debuted in November 2020. The Cosce brothers join such tandems as the Diazes (Nick and Nate), Nogueiras (Antonio Rodrigo and Antonio Rogerio) and Shevchenkos (Valentina and Antonina) as siblings to both fight in the Octagon.

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Sources: Dodgers’ Betts out due to fractured toe

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Sources: Dodgers' Betts out due to fractured toe

LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts stubbed a toe in his left foot during an off-the-field incident and missed the opener of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ highly anticipated series against the New York Yankees on Friday.

Betts is not expected to go on the injured list, according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, but he will not start against the Yankees on Saturday or Sunday. Roberts said the hope is that Betts will return to the lineup shortly thereafter.

“For me, right now, it’s just day-to-day,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 8-5, come-from-behind win.

The incident, which affected the tip of Betts’ second toe, was believed to have occurred late Wednesday night, after the Dodgers returned from a six-game road trip, when Betts banged his toe against a piece of furniture at his house. Betts called Roberts to inform him about his toe on Friday morning, then underwent X-rays at Dodger Stadium later that afternoon.

Those X-rays revealed a fracture, a source told ESPN, confirming what Betts told the Los Angeles Times after Friday’s game. The Dodgers’ training staff will spend the weekend attempting to get the swelling down on his toe. At this point, the Dodgers don’t believe he can make the injury any worse by playing on it.

Said Roberts: “It’s going to be one of those situations per his [pain] tolerance.”

Betts’ injury isn’t the Dodgers’ most serious at the moment. Late-inning reliever Evan Phillips, who was rehabbing a forearm injury, didn’t feel right playing catch earlier this week and will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, knocking him out for all of 2025 and most of 2026.

Phillips, 30, was released by the Baltimore Orioles in August 2021 and designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays less than two weeks later. The Dodgers picked him up and turned him into a valuable late-game option. From 2022 to 2024, Phillips posted a 2.21 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, saved 44 games and struck out 206 batters in 179 regular-season innings.

But Phillips dealt with arm issues during last year’s postseason run and was left off the team’s World Series roster. He then went on the IL because of a rotator cuff strain in the middle of March, returned a month later, notched seven scoreless appearances, then went back on the IL on May 7 because of what the team called forearm discomfort. Platelet-rich-plasma injections did not take. Phillips never got better.

“As we started getting into it, it wasn’t really responding,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “We felt like this could be a possibility, so as he got deeper into the process and it wasn’t really getting better, the decision to do it was pretty much evident with our information.” The loss of Phillips is coupled with the Dodgers having four other high-leverage relievers on the IL — Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech, all of whom are right-handed.

The Dodgers tried to backfill some of that depth by trading for former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz on Thursday. But Diaz, who struggled so badly this season that the Cincinnati Reds optioned him to Triple-A, will initially work out of the Dodgers’ spring training complex in Glendale, Arizona.

The Dodgers also have three starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — recovering from shoulder injuries, with Shohei Ohtani not expected to join the rotation until sometime after the All-Star break.

The lineup, at least, had been healthy. Until now.

Betts, 32, got off to a slow start but was still slashing .254/.338/.405 with eight home runs and five stolen bases while slotting between the hot-hitting Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the No. 2 spot. More notably, Betts had proved to be a capable major league shortstop after working during the offseason at the position.

The hope is that the toe injury doesn’t set him back much longer than the rest of this weekend.

In the meantime, Miguel Rojas will continue to get starts at shortstop.

“It’s a good part about having depth,” Gomes said. “Keep the train moving.”

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Trout returns in new spot, has hit in Angels’ win

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Trout returns in new spot, has hit in Angels' win

CLEVELAND — Mike Trout originally expected to return to the Los Angeles Angels‘ lineup Monday in Boston.

But the timeline was moved up one series and three days.

Trout was activated off the injured list and went 1-for-5 as the designated hitter in Friday night’s 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians. The Angels slugger missed 26 games because of soreness in his left knee that was eventually diagnosed as a bone bruise. The three-time American League MVP had two operations last year on the knee after tearing his meniscus.

“Felt good. Struck out on two at-bats, but other than that, felt all right,” said Trout, who batted fifth for the first time in 1,532 starts.

Trout lined a base hit to left-center in the fourth inning. He thought he had a hit in his first at-bat in the second inning, but Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez made a nice grab on a low line drive.

“I thought he had some good at-bats, considering that he hadn’t seen live pitching in a while,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “He hit the ball hard three times today. They made some good pitches when he struck out. But welcome back, Mike.”

Trout’s return also helped the Angels snap a five-game losing streak and improve to 28-30.

It was the first time since Sept. 26, 2011, Trout’s rookie season, that he started a game hitting lower than third.

Washington is happy to have Trout back, especially because he noted Trout wasn’t aggressive in rushing in his return. Washington also knows that Trout isn’t ready to return to his normal spot batting second or third.

“He hasn’t seen anything. So when you look at what we have, that’s where he sits,” Washington said before the game. “It doesn’t make sense for him to protect [Logan] O’Hoppe. So, I’ll put Mike behind him to protect O’Hoppe. He’s not ready to be at the top of the lineup, especially with those guys up there. As we go along the next couple of days, he’s not going to remain fifth.”

The 33-year-old Trout is hitting .180 with 9 home runs, 18 RBIs and a .712 OPS in 30 games. He will be the designated hitter for the weekend series against the Guardians before possibly returning to right field when the Halos head to Boston on Monday for a three-game series.

Even though Trout has shied away from wanting to be the designated hitter, he has done well in that spot. In eight games this season, he is 9-for-33 (.273) with 6 home runs and 9 RBIs.

Trout said whether he plays more games than originally planned at DH the remainder of the season is something that remains to be seen.

“Bone bruises are tricky. I know I am going to be sore, but I can deal with it,” he said. “I definitely have to be cautious, especially the first couple games.”

Trout has missed 404 of the Angels’ 665 games — almost 60% — since May 17, 2021, when he tore his calf muscle against Cleveland and was sidelined for the rest of that season. This is the fifth straight year he has had a stint of at least 25 games on the IL.

He missed five weeks of the 2022 season because of a back injury, and all but one game after July 3, 2023, after he broke a bone in his hand on a foul ball. Trout played in 29 games last season before the meniscus injury.

“There’s so many games that any sense of newness or something to make you excited is something that you’d latch on to. So, today is definitely a moment like that,” O’Hoppe said about Trout’s return. “He’s the heart of this organization. So, we’re happy to have our heart beating again for sure.”

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L.A.’s Betts day-to-day after stubbing toe in mishap

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Sources: Dodgers' Betts out due to fractured toe

LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts stubbed a toe on his left foot during an off-the-field incident and was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ lineup Friday night for the opener of a highly anticipated weekend series against the New York Yankees.

Betts was scheduled to undergo X-rays at Dodger Stadium before first pitch. Until then, the team will hope for the best.

“It’s day-to-day right now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So, that’s where we’re at.”

The incident — affecting Betts’ second toe — was believed to occur late Wednesday night, after the Dodgers returned from a six-game road trip through New York and Cleveland. Roberts didn’t find out until Betts called him Friday morning. He was vague on the details.

“I really don’t know,” Roberts said when asked how the injury occurred. “I think it was at home. It’s probably a dresser, nightstand, something like that. It’s just kind of an accident. I think that Mookie will be able to give more context, but that’s kind of from the training staff what I heard. So hopefully, it’s benign, it’s negative. Not sure, but I feel confident saying it’s day-to-day … but putting on a shoe today was difficult for him.”

Betts’ injury isn’t the Dodgers’ most serious at the moment. Late-inning reliever Evan Phillips, who was rehabbing a forearm injury, didn’t feel right playing catch earlier this week and will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, knocking him out for all of 2025 and most of 2026.

Phillips, 30, was released by the Baltimore Orioles in August 2021 and designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays less than two weeks later. The Dodgers picked him up and turned him into a valuable late-game option. From 2022 to 2024, Phillips posted a 2.21 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, saved 44 games and struck out 206 batters in 179 regular-season innings.

But Phillips dealt with arm issues during last year’s postseason run and was left off the team’s World Series roster. He then went on the IL because of a rotator cuff strain in the middle of March, returned a month later, notched seven scoreless appearances, then went back on the IL on May 7 because of what the team called forearm discomfort. Platelet-rich-plasma injections did not take. Phillips never got better.

“As we started getting into it, it wasn’t really responding,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “We felt like this could be a possibility, so as he got deeper into the process and it wasn’t really getting better, the decision to do it was pretty much evident with our information.”

The loss of Phillips is coupled with the Dodgers having four other high-leverage relievers on the IL — Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech, all of whom are right-handed.

The Dodgers tried to backfill some of that depth by trading for former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz on Thursday. But Diaz, who struggled so badly this season that the Cincinnati Reds optioned him to Triple-A, will initially work out of the Dodgers’ spring training complex in Glendale, Ariz.

The Dodgers also have three starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — recovering from shoulder injuries, with Shohei Ohtani not expected to join the rotation until sometime after the All-Star break.

The lineup, at least, had been healthy. Until now.

Betts, 32, got off to a slow start but was still slashing .254/.338/.405 with 8 home runs and 5 stolen bases while slotting between the hot-hitting Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the No. 2 spot. More notably, Betts had proven to be a capable major league shortstop after working during the offseason at the position.

But the toe injury could set him back, in much the same way a broken left hand robbed him of nearly two months in 2024.

At this point, Roberts said, “I don’t see it being long term.” But the Dodgers can’t say that definitively yet.

“We need to see the doctors and kind of get a better sense of it,” Gomes said. “It happened pretty recently, so it’ll take some time before we have a better understanding.”

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