This Weekend in Sports - UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal & F1's Steiermark Grand Prix

Things are changing every day, and I don’t want to be overly optimistic about the state of athletics in this country. But as it stands, we’re less than a month away from the return of major sports.

This week, we saw major progress in the continuation of hockey. The NHL and Players Association have reached an agreement, targeting August 1st as the official return-to-play. The top four teams in each conference will receive automatic playoff bids with the 5-12 teams battling it out for the remaining four spots.

That means that the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers will be representing the East while the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars represent the West. Seeding will be based on a round robin tournament

We can say goodbye to the Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings; the seven worst teams in the league according to points percentage. Everyone else will be squaring off in a five-game series with the winners claiming the remaining 4 playoff spots in their respective conference.

Due to surging cases of Covid-19 in the United States, the NHL has elected to use two Canadian locations for the remainder of the season. The Western Conference will hold their games in Edmonton, Alberta and the Eastern Conference will play in Toronto, Ontario.

In other news, the MLB announced their 60-game regular season schedule, featuring a double-header opening night with the New York Yankees at the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants at the LA Dodgers. The remaining 26 teams will play the following night beginning with the Atlanta Braves at the New York Mets and concluding with the LA Angels at the Oakland A’s. It all kicks off on Thursday, July 23rd.

WHAT TO WATCH

UFC 251 – Usman vs. Masvidal:

What. A. Card. The inaugural event on Fight Island promises to be the best pay-per-view of the year.

Four out of the five fights on the main card are legitimate PPV headliners. There are six current or former UFC champions in those four fights. Think about that.

You have Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas – a rematch of the fight of the night performance that headlined UFC 237 – currently scheduled for the 2nd fight on the main card. Just imagine watching a fight like that and realizing you still have three title fights ahead of you. Those are the moments that make a stacked card truly special.

First, you’ve got Jose Aldo attempting to become a two-division champion against the red hot Petr Yan. Undefeated in the UFC, Yan will be entering the Octagon for the 7th time, fresh off his head kick knockout of the bantamweight legend, Urijah Faber.

Yan was likely next in line for former champion Henry Cejudo prior to Cejudo’s sudden retirement. Instead, he will face the legend Jose Aldo. Aldo, the man who has lost four out of his last six fights and is currently 0-1 at 135 pounds. Does the matchup make sense? Not in the slightest. But it’s a fun bout and I’m excited to watch.

That said, Aljamain Sterling had better be next in line for the winner!

In the co-main, we’ve got a rematch between bantamweight king Max Holloway and the man who dethroned him, Alexander Volkanovski. Despite one judge (somehow) scoring the fight 50-45 in Volkanovski’s favor, it was a close, back-and-forth brawl and I fully expect the rematch to live up to the hype. Holloway is a 2-to-1 underdog, his worst odds since he fought McGregor back in 2013 and the first time he’s been an underdog since he first fought Aldo three years ago.

Finally, we’ve got the highly anticipated welterweight clash between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal, a perfect conclusion to this perfect card. Gilbert Burns was originally slated to challenge Usman for the belt, but he was pulled from the card after testing positive for COVID-19 on July 3rd. While Usman vs. Burns looked to be a great fight, Masvidal adds an even bigger name to the event. This is a can’t-miss pay-per-view.

The Steiermark Grand Prix – Formula One

The first race of 2020 is officially in the books and what a wild ride it was. Only 11 of the 20 drivers completed the race with some unlikely podium finishes and plenty of drama along the way. Red Bull and Haas failed to get either of their cars across the finish line and only Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren managed to get both.

For Red Bull, favorite Max Verstappen suffered from unexpected mechanical failure and was the first to retire from the race. Later, his teammate Alexander Albon was in a position to challenge for the podium when Lewis Hamilton ran him off the road. Albon won ‘driver of the day’ which pales in comparison to a top-three finish and Hamilton was docked 5 seconds for the maneuver.

Those five seconds proved costly as McLaren’s Lando Norris finished 4.8 seconds behind Hamilton, switching their positions and earning Lando his first-ever podium. In the end, Valtteri Bottas recorded his eighth win with Mercedes, Charles Leclerc climbed from 7th to 2nd for Ferrari and Lando Norris wound up in 3rd.

This was my first time watching an F1 race and I’m now a fan for life. As a Leclerc fan, I’m concerned about Ferrari’s pace, but I can’t wait for Carlos Sainz Jr. to join the team next year. I’m learning to love the comical errors of Haas and Williams racing. Seeing a Haas car driving through the gravel just tickles me for some reason, and the fact that Williams was one of eleven cars to avoid retirement and they still failed to get a top-ten finish is laugh out loud funny. Oh and Mercedes seems to be as unbeatable as ever.

In any event, we’re on to… well, the same track as last week… for the second race in the 2020 eight-race calendar! With such a short schedule, the room for error is increasingly small. Every point carries so much weight and the window for race-to-race improvement is a narrow one. Could this be the year that Bottas finally beats out Hamilton for a championship? A couple more P1 finishes and Mercedes may have to make that call, but it’s still early. I’ll see you all on Sunday morning for Race #2!

HIGHLIGHTS

Worth watching from a production standpoint alone. Fight Island baby.