Dana White proving naysayers wrong with Power Slap
Dana White proving naysayers wrong with Power Slap
It's Fight Week in Las Vegas, and the prelude to UFC 290 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday is Power Slap 3 on Friday, at the UFC Apex.
Good morning and welcome to The Morning Column presented by The Sporting Tribune. Please subscribe if you haven’t done so already. It’s free and will be delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. OK, let’s get to it!
1. Dana White proving naysayers wrong with Power Slap
It's Fight Week in Las Vegas, and the prelude to UFC 290 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday is Power Slap 3 on Friday, at the UFC Apex, writes The Sporting Tribune’s W.G. Ramirez.
"How in the hell is this a sport?"
It's become the question when talking about Dana White's Power Slap league.
"They said the same thing about the UFC, this isn't a sport - this is fucking human cockfighting. This is fucking brutality at its fucking worst," White said during a conversation with The Sporting Tribune. "I heard all this shit already. I've already been through this."
And as he did in helping to build UFC into one of the most recognizable sports brands in the world, he's giving everything he's got into a phenomenon that may have thousands baffled by its existence, but has triple that in supporters.
"This isn't my first rodeo with this shit," White added. "And let me tell you when the mainstream fucking hates it. You got a winner. You got a fucking winner."
2. Morgan Stickey makes history on and off the ice
The only American-born female to ever be drafted by the WHL, Morgan Stickney is, at the end of the day, still just a teenager, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Deborah Lew.
Morgan Stickney made history on May 11 by becoming the first American-born female to be drafted in the Western Hockey League Prospects Draft when she was selected in the tenth round, 215th overall, by the Portland Winterhawks. A goaltender who just finished her freshman year at Shattuck-St. Mary’s where she plays on the Girls U16 team, Stickney ended the season with a record of 23-4-3 with a .928 save percentage and a goals-against average of 1.52.
That’s a pretty impressive weight stack for a 15-year-old.
Now that it’s summer break, Stickney is at home with her family in Redondo Beach, but she trains on local ice whenever she can with friends and coaches. There is also a five-day summer workout plan that Stickney and her teammates from Shattuck-St. Mary’s adhere to on a weekly basis. While her rigorous schedule requires discipline, Stickney is largely self-motivated.
“Yeah, it’s mostly just me. [My parents] always just say ‘do what you want’ so they’re not going to pressure me to do anything because they know if they pressure me I don’t want to do it,” says Stickney, who idolized Team USA netminder, Alex Rigsby, growing up.
3. Sporting Tribune MLB Mock Draft 1.0
The Sporting Tribune's Taylor Blake Ward releases his first MLB Mock Draft as we are just over a week away from the first selection of the 2023 MLB Draft.
As we are just over a week away from the first selection of the 2023 MLB Draft, Taylor Blake Ward of The Sporting Tribune has put together his first MLB Mock Draft for the year. Team executives, decision makers, and crosscheckers flew in across the country last week and over the weekend to their respective club locations or draft meeting settings to finalize their big boards and systematically map out of a gameplan for the draft in their own personal favor following the College World Series and MLB Draft Combine where they finalized their collection of data and concluded some in-person interviews.
There is a consensus top five talents in this draft, with the often consensus top position player and top pitcher going 1-2 in some order between LSU's Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes. The remaining three of the five have all been mentioned with the top two picks and further with some questions about one of them falling a few picks out of the top five selections. After that, Wake Forest's Rhett Lowder and Virginia's Kyle Teel are in an odd second tier that's not distant from the top five or the next tier of about 12-15 players which could go anywhere from picks 6-20 with the eventual surprise one or two that fall into the 20-25 range.
4. Power Slap 3 will return to UFC Apex
Power Slap will present its third show Friday at UFC Apex, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Paul Delos Santos.
The colorful world of Power Slap will present its third show 6 p.m. Friday at UFC Apex.
The main event features a light heavyweight title match between Ayjay Hintz and Ron Bata.
“It’s going to be a good match,” Bata said.
Bata, who is an experienced fighter in the world of powerslap, will make his third main-event appearance. He fought the first two times at heavyweight. This go around he will make his debut at light heavyweight – a move that made sense to Bata.
5. Sparks’ losing streak reaches four after Dream defeat
The Los Angeles Sparks lost to the Atlanta Dream for the second game in a row, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Rey Moralde.
The Sparks just can't catch a break.
L.A. had another injury happen and it was too much for them to make a comeback after a not-so-desirable first quarter as the Dream got the best of them for the second straight game, 90-79.
The Dream made shots early while Los Angeles did not. Atlanta got off to a 15-5 beginning. And it carried on throughout the quarter as the Dream led after one, 29-16.
It was better for L.A. in the second quarter. A couple of threes did cut the deficit to single digits at one point but the Dream just couldn't stop making shots. Atlanta went into the half with a 53-40 lead.
It seemed like the Sparks got on track early in the second half. Azura Stevens especially got hot as she went on a personal 6-0 run. That cut the deficit to 56-51. But the Dream went on a 13-0 run that gave them their biggest lead at 18. Zia Cooke made a jumper to cut it down to 71-58 entering the fourth.
6. Dodgers cruise to a series win behind Urias’ solid start
The superstars at the top of the lineup supported a return to form for the pitching staff, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Grant Mona.
It is really nice to get a solid Dodger win nowadays especially after such an up and down stretch for this team. The stars put on a performance led by Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and more importantly, Julio Urias. The boys in blue got things started with Freddie Freeman two-run blast to right field making it 2-0 after Mookie Betts hit a double to lead off the game. The Pirates quickly got back in the game on a 2 run double from the red-hot Nick Gonzales to tie the score up, but that was all they would get off of the Dodger pitching Thursday night.
I mentioned Wednesday night that Julio Urias was looking to return to form Thursday night and he certainly did, going 6 innings of 2 run ball. He dominated a Pirates lineup that has been very pesky to Dodger pitching throughout this series, and earned his first win since May 13. Nick Robertson, Brusdar Graterol (who had missed the previous three games with shoulder soreness), and Alex Vesia combined for three clean innings to close out the game and earn Vesia his first career save.
7. Odds and Ends presented by Circa Sports
Here are some odds at Circa Sports if you’re thinking about placing a wager today:
8. Ticket Time presented by TickPick
Here are the “get in” prices for tickets if you’re thinking about going to a game today.
6:40 p.m. - Mets at Padres - $40
7:00 p.m. – Angels at Dodgers – $62
9. On the Air presented by The D Las Vegas
Here are the game times and television channels for professional teams in the region today.
5:00 p.m. - Wings at Aces - Ion
6:40 p.m. - Mets at Padres - Bally Sports San Diego
7:00 p.m. – Angels at Dodgers – SportsNet LA
10. The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune
The Sporting Tribune’s Arash Markazi is joined by Brandon Deutsch and Armani Buckets to talk about where James Harden and Damian Lillard will end up this offseason and which one would be a better fit with the Clippers?
Listen to The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune on The Mightier 1090 ESPN Radio in Southern California, 98.5 The Bet in Las Vegas and the Hawaii Sports Radio Network 95.1 FM and 760 AM in Hawaii. You can also listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.
Thank you for reading. Please click below to subscribe to The Morning Column presented by The Sporting Tribune. It’s free and will be delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
That’s it for today. Talk to you tomorrow!