UFC 249 CANCELED AFTER ESPN, DISNEY HALT WHITE’S PLANS
ANGELES» UFC 249 was canceled LOS
Thursday after ESPN and parent company Disney stopped UFC President Dana White’s plan to keep fighting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
After defiantly vowing for weeks to maintain a regular schedule of fights while the rest of the sports world halted, White confirmed the decision to cease competition in a text to The Associated Press.
“I was ready to go on Saturday, but Disney and ESPN asked me to step down,” White wrote. “I love and respect my partnership with them so I postponed the event.”
The UFC moved to ESPN in 2019 with a reported $1.5 billion deal.
UFC 249 was scheduled for April 18 on ESPN Plus pay-per-view, and White planned to follow it with regular fight cards from Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino on tribal land in California’s Central Valley.
Earlier Thursday, Rose Namajunas, the former UFC strawweight champion withdrew from UFC 249 after two deaths in her family related to the coronavirus pandemic.
NFL will have 58 prospects participating remotely in draft.
NEW
YORK» Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow and Ohio State edge rusher Chase Young are among 58 prospects who will participate virtually in the NFL draft next week that will double as a telethon to raise money to fight the coronavirus crisis.
Normally, top prospects would be invited to the draft itself, but this year’s festivities in Las Vegas were scuttled by the coronavirus outbreak and the draft will instead be conducted in a studio with the league’s 32 teams participating remotely from their hometowns.
Rams trade WR Cooks to Texans.
ANGELES» The Los Angeles Rams LOS are trading receiver Brandin Cooks to the Houston Texans, according to a person familiar with the deal.
The NFL Network reported the Rams will get a second-round pick while sending a future fourth-rounder to Houston.
Cooks will help the Texans replace DeAndre Hopkins, who was shockingly traded to the Arizona Cardinals last month for running back David Johnson and two draft picks.
Slugger Mark Reynolds says he’s retiring after 13-year run. PHOENIX» Slugger Mark Reynolds is retiring after hitting 298 homers over 13 seasons with eight teams.
When the 36-year-old free agent was asked t on SiriusXM Radio whether he still was pursuing a new team, Reynolds said he’s “moved beyond that, I’ve retired.”
Reynolds’ best years came with the Diamondbacks. He had a late-career resurgence with Colorado and hit 30 homers in 2017, but when he returned to the Rockies last year he batted .170 with a career-low four homers and 20 RBIs in 162 plate appearances.
H-O-R-S-I-N-G around. The NBA HORSE Challenge will have eight participants. The quarterfinals will be streamed on ESPN’s app Sunday and the semifinals and final on Thursday.
The quarterfinal matchups are
Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks against former NBA player and ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups; WNBA great and 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tamika Catchings against Mike Conley Jr. of the Utah Jazz; Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls against NBA retiree and ESPN analyst Paul Pierce; and Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder against Allie Quigley of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. The players will be isolated and competing on separate home courts.
NBA says players will receive full checks on April 15. NBA players will receive their full checks when the next payday for most of them arrives on April 15 despite no games having been played for more than a month.
The league and the National Basketball Players Association has been in talks for weeks about the status of salaries during the game’s shutdown. The last NBA games were played March 11, the day that Utah center Rudy Gobert became the first player in the league to test positive for the coronavirus.