WWE/UFC

WWE, founder Vince McMahon was accused of sex trafficking by a former employee who claims she was used “as a pawn to secure talent deals.” McMahon is currently the executive chairman of WWE’s parent company TKO Group (which also owns UFC).

Speaking of the TKO Group, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has joined the board and in exchange has retained the ownership of his stage name and received $30 million in stock.

BASKETBALL

Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer has become the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history. With 1,203rd career victories, she surpasses Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski.

GOLF

Defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler got to choose his Master Champion Dinner on Tuesday night (a tradition for the tournament). Scheffler asked the Chefs at Augusta National to make: sliders, shrimp, ribeye steak, blackened redfish, chocolate chip skillet cookies, and ice cream.

The tournament, which begins this week, will be surrounded by drama. PGA Tour players will be socializing with the 18 LIV Golf defectors (who are contractually obligated to wear their team logos on their shirts). There is no love lost between the PGA and LIV players. Click here for a refresh on this feud.

WRESTLING

Endeavor acquired World Wide Wrestling for $9.3 billion. WWE will be combined with UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) creating a company worth over $20 billion.

BASKETBALL

Stephen and Ayesha Curry joined the advisory council for Goldman Sachs’s One Million Black women Initiative which will work to invest more than $10 billion in Black women-led organizations over the next 10 years.

It appears Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor has agreed to a deal to sell the team to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore for $1.5 billion. According to reports, Taylor has insisted the team remain in Minnesota. The NBA hasn’t approved the pending deal yet, so both sides haven’t made any official statements.

TOP EARNING ATHLETES

Ultimate Fighting Champ Conor McGregor tops the list of highest-earning athletes at $180 million, most of it coming from the sale of his whiskey brand, Proper No.12. Rounding out the top ten is Lionel Messi ($130M), Cristiano Ronaldo ($120M), Dak Prescott ($107.5M), LeBron James ($96.5M), Neymar ($95M), Roger Federer ($90M), Lewis Hamilton ($82M), Tom Brady ($76M), and Kevin Durant ($75M).

OLYMPICS

FOOTBALL

According to reports, the NFL is close to announcing a decision allowing players to take a knee during the national anthem.  Two years ago the league released a statement with the intention to make players and personnel “stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem”. The policy was never enacted due to very public complaints, but teams did have the ability to issue fines if someone didn’t show respect.

SOCCER

The U.S. Soccer Federation is having discussions on changing its current policy against kneeling or sitting during the national anthem. The current policy states, “All persons representing a Federation national team shall stand respectfully during the playing of national anthems at any event in which the Federation is represented.” This policy went into effect in 2017 after U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem in solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

UFC

Back in April, UFC President Dana White announced he would continue tournaments on “Fight Island“. The details of the fight island have been revealed. It’s called Yas Island in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city of Abu Dhabi. The UFC will host its first major fight there on July 11th.

UFC

The mixed martial arts sporting event, UFC249, took place on Saturday night without fans but gave the sports world their first live event. Justin Gaethje beat out the heavily favored Tony Ferguson, but Ferguson told fans afterward, “We did this for you, to bring sports back.” Even President Trump got into the action with his taped message on ESPN before the event saying, “I want to congratulate (UFC President) Dana White and the UFC. They’re going to have a big match. We love it. We think it’s important. Get the sports leagues back. Let’s play. Do the social distancing and whatever else you have to do. We need sports. We want our sports back.”

FOOTBALL

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh sent a letter to the NFL and NCAA outlining a plan to allow players the opportunity to enter the NFL draft at any point during their college careers and allow them to return to school if they don’t get drafted. Harbaugh insisted he is advocating for a system that “allows for more freedom and self-determination”, but many believe he’s mostly interested in reducing the number of elite players at his rival schools.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft decided to auction his Super Bowl LI championship ring for the fundraiser “All In Challenge.” In announcing his donation, he said, “I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. I finally thought about our experience in Super Bowl LI against the Atlanta Falcons. We were down 28-3 (in the third quarter) and had 99.6% (odds) to lose. And we came back, and we won.” The winner will also receive a personal visit with Kraft and the use of the team plane to get to Boston if the winner lives too far to drive.

BASEBALL

The Chinese Professional Baseball League has gotten creative announcing that the Rakuten Monkeys will have robot mannequins instead of fans in the stadium seats when their season opens on Saturday, April 11th.

FOOTBALL

In college football, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy insisted programs try and “power through the pandemic” and wants his program back by May 1st saying it was time “to run money through the state of Oklahoma.” He went on to say, “From what I read, the healthy people can fight this, the antibodies make it better.”

ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP

Dana White announced he’s canceling UFC 249 which was scheduled for next weekend at Tachi Palace, a casino on Native American tribal land. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, as well as Disney and ESPN, urged White to cancel the event. White still insists the private island “Fight Island” is still a possibility for future fights.

BASKETBALL

Kudos to the NBA for trying to keep us all entertained. The League announced they are airing a “HORSE” competition with current and former NBA players and WNBA players. The game will be a single-elimination contest held remotely. The contest begins on Sunday, April 12th at 7 p.m. ET with NBA All-Star Chris Paul (Oklahoma City Thunder), 2020 NBA All-Star Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks) and Basketball Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings headlining the event. For more information on the tournament, click here.

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ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP

UFC President Dana White announced he’s buying a private island to hold fights during the coronavirus pandemic. He told TMZ, “I am a day or two away from securing a private island. I have a private island that I’ve secured; we’re getting the infrastructure put in now, so I’m gonna start doing the international fights, too. With international fighters, because I won’t be able to get international fighters into the U.S., I have a private island that I’m gonna start flying them all in and doing international fights from there. So as of April 18th, the UFC is back up and running.”

FOOTBALL

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell officially declared the draft would be “fully virtual” with personnel in separate locations and communications via phone or internet. The NFL draft begins on April 23rd.

GOLF

All of golf’s major championships have been rescheduled. The Masters will be held from November 12-15 (previously played in April); the PGA Championship will be played August 6-9th (previously in May) at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco; and the U.S. Open will be held from September 18-21 (previously in June) at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y. The British Open, however, will be outright canceled for 2020. The Open was supposed to be played at Royal St. George in July but will be rescheduled to July 15-18th, 2021.

UFC

Ultimate Fighting Championship President, Dana White, is not too happy with ESPN analyst Darren Rovell for making fun  of the whopping $4 billion sale of UFC to William Morris and IMG. Over twitter the two went at it with Rovell starting the fight by asking if it was too late for the sale to fall through considering UFC’s main stars have been accused of using performance enhancing drugs. White then responded by calling Rovell some not so nice names. Fun times!

NBA

The NBA announced its All-Star weekend will relocate from Charlotte, NC to another city due to the controversy over the HB2 law, which states that people need to use restrooms according to the sex they were assigned at birth versus the sex they identify with.  Many public figures went on record expressing their views, which may have led to the NBA decision. Mike Krzyzewski, legendary coach of Duke’s basketball program stated, “It’s an embarrassing bill,” Many celebrities including Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr  have also expressed disappointment in the law by cancelling shows in NC.

NFL

Ray Rice, former running back for the Baltimore Ravens before his suspension for domestic violence, said he’d donate his salary to charity if he was signed by an NFL team for the 2016 season. He said, “Me donating my salary is something that’ll be from the heart for me. I only want to play football so I can end it the right way for my kids and for the people that really believed in me.” So far no word on a team taking him up on this but stay tuned.

MLB

It looks like New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey might miss opening day. The player is done for the preseason due to an undisclosed medical issue, and he looks poised to miss Opening Day this Sunday. Mets officials have assured fans there’s nothing wrong with the pitcher’s arm. “His arm is fine! His arm is fine! O.K.? His arm is fine,” Mets Manager Terry Collins was quoted saying. “I think we need to wait for more medical information before we decide it’s of concern, or great concern, or no concern,” the team’s general manager said.

UFC

While Mixed Martial Arts fighting is now legal in all 50 states, drag racing is still illegal pretty much everywhere. UFC star Jon Jones was recently cited for drag racing with an illegally modified car in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Of the five total citations issued, speeding wasn’t one of them. That’s because, according to Jones and his attorney, the fighter wasn’t speeding at all. “He wasn’t speeding, he was not driving recklessly. All Jon did was rev his engine to acknowledge a fan,” his attorney said in a statement. The key to this mystery may lie in a small detail Jones admitted to reporters. “I regrettably said words to the police officer out of frustration, for which I apologize for, but I do feel this was excessive.” Jones clearly forgot the old adage, don’t bite the hand that issues citations. It should be noted this isn’t his first trouble on the road. Jones was cited in February for driving without a license, registration, or proof of insurance, and he’s currently still under supervised probation for an incident last April when he caused a car accident that left a pregnant woman with a broken arm, then fled the scene. It is essential to get insurance as the cost of driving without insurance is a lot more.