Jones-Miocic UFC heavyweight title fight scrapped after champ is injured
Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic will no longer fight for the UFC heavyweight championship next month in New York after Jones tore a pectoral tendon off the bone during training.
UFC president Dana White said Jones was injured during a training session on Monday. The heavyweight champion needs surgery and will be out at least eight months, throwing out the anticipated main event of UFC 295 on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden.
White said Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall will fight for the interim heavyweight title. The light heavyweight title fight between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira was bumped to the main event.
Former Laker Howard denies sexual assault
Dwight Howard denied accusations by a Georgia man who says he was sexually assaulted by the former NBA star and another person.
Stephen Harper filed a state civil suit against Howard in July, alleging assault and battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In a response filed this week by his attorney, Howard described the 2021 encounter at his home in the Atlanta suburbs as consensual and requested that the case be dismissed.
Harper's lawsuit says he met Howard through Instagram and they exchanged explicit text messages before arranging to meet at Howard's home on July 19, 2021.
While on his way to the Gwinnett County residence, Harper says Howard texted him to ask if another man or woman could join their planned sexual encounter. Harper says he told Howard
he was not interested.
Once at Howard's home, Harper claims they were joined by a man dressed as a woman who identified only as “Kitty.” Harper says he tried to resist the two men, but Howard and Kitty forced him to participate in sexual activity.
“Mr. Harper was trapped in Defendant's bedroom and believed that he would suffer imminent bodily harm if he resisted Defendant's sexual advances,” the lawsuit said. Afterward, “Mr. Harper felt extremely violated and humiliated, and was in complete shock.”
Howard denied the allegations in his response, which says the three men agreed to “engage in consensual sexual activity.” He asked for a summary judgment, with court costs and attorney fees to be assessed against Harper.
Howard, 37, is an eighttime All Star, three-time defensive player of the year and was one of the NBA's most dominant centers during the prime of his 18year professional career.
He played for seven franchises, most notably the Orlando Magic — who took him with the No. 1 overall selection in the 2004 draft out of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy — and the Lakers, the team he was with for his lone NBA title during the pandemicaffected 2019-20 season.
Howard had three different stints with the Lakers, including in 2021-22, his last NBA season. He has career averages of 15.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, leading the league in rebounding five times.
But Howard also had the reputation as being a disruptive presence in the locker room, not spending more than one season with the same team over his last six seasons in the league. Howard played in Taiwan during the 2022-23 season.
OSU, WSU file suit for control of Pac-12
Oregon State and Washington State claim the actions of the Pac-12 and Commissioner George Kliavkoff in response to members announcing their intent to leave the conference in 2024 show those departing schools relinquished their rights to decide the longterm future of the league.
In a filing submitted in Washington State Superior Court, Oregon State and Washington State made the case they alone should be in control of the Pac-12 and its assets as the only members of the conference that have not announced they are joining another league on Aug. 1, 2024.
A preliminary injunction hearing in the school's lawsuit against the Pac-12 is scheduled for Nov. 14. At issue is who gets to decide what happens to the Pac12 between now and when 10 schools officially leave for their new conferences.
Lincoln captures gold in floor exercise
Kaliya Lincoln was once a 12-year-old girl being coached by her hero Gabby Douglas, the first black gymnast to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. Fast forward five years and the teenager from Frisco, Texas, is the gold medalist on the floor exercise at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
A member of the U.S. gymnastics gold-winning team in Santiago, the 17-yearold newcomer is expected to get a push from the result in Santiago to make it to the Paris Olympics next year.
Lincoln beat two favorites to win the title, scoring 14.233 points. Her compatriot Kayla DiCello, the Pan American all-around champion, and Brazilian Flávia Saraiva shared the silver, with both scoring 13.733 points.
Jamaican women shun Gold Cup qualifiers
Players for the Jamaican women's national team say they are boycotting a pair of tournament matches because of “constant mistreatment” by their federation.
Khadija “Bunny” Shaw was among those who posted a statement to Instagram this past weekend that said players from the country's Women's World Cup team would not take part in this week's CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup qualifiers.
Interim coach Xavier Gilbert took a hastily assembled squad to play in Jamaica's qualifier against Panama on Wednesday. A second match against Guatemala in Kingston, Jamaica, was set for Sunday.
The players said they had not received “full and correct” payments for their play at the World Cup this past summer in Australia and New Zealand. Jamaica advanced to the Round of 16 for the first time before falling to Colombia. The players also maintain the federation did not pay numerous bonuses for World Cup qualifying in 2022.
The Jamaican Football Federation issued a statement that claimed all of its debts to players for 2022 were settled.
FIFA said before the World Cup that each player in the tournament would earn $30,000. The amount rose to $60,000 apiece for teams that advanced out of the group stage.