Top contender Lerone Murphy can’t stomach the idea of Yair Rodriguez being next up for the UFC featherweight championship.

Murphy, an undefeated title contender at 145 pounds, thinks it would be a bad call to put Rodriguez in a rematch with champion Alexander Volkanovski, who’s in need of a challenger. Aside from Rodriguez campaigning for the title shot, some have made the argument that he could indeed be next, given this year’s Noche UFC event is scheduled to go down in Guadalajara, Mexico. “El Pantera,” being a star and a pioneer for Mexican MMA, could be a solid candidate to headline the event on Sept. 13.

Murphy sees Rodriguez as undeserving of the opportunity and wouldn’t like to see that happening.

“That would be terrible for the division, for the sport, because realistically – not to say Yair is not a good fighter – but he’s lost about three or four title shots,” Murphy told Submission Radio. “He’s only had one win in three fights, and it was against a guy that’s unranked.

“It wouldn’t make sense. Personally, me being in the division, I would want a shot, but I know I probably need one more, as well, but I wouldn’t be against Mosvar getting the shot. I believe out of everybody, if someone is going to get a shot, it would be Movsar (Evloev) or myself. We’re the both undefeated fighters, fresh fighters, never challenged for the title, and never fought Volkanovksi. You can’t put Yair back in there.”

Rodriguez has had one crack at the UFC featherweight belt. That opportunity came in 2023 when he collided with Volkanovski in a title-unification bout, as Rodriguez held the interim belt. He lost the fight by third-round TKO. Since then, he was submitted by Brian Ortega in 2024 and last month bounced back with a unanimous decision win over former Bellator champion Patricio Freire.

Meanwhile, both Movsar Evloev and Murphy remain undefeated. Evloev is coming off a decision win over Aljamain Sterling, and Murphy a decision win over Josh Emmett.

Murphy doesn’t think much has changed since Rodriguez and Volkanovski fought in 2023. He expects a similar outcome should the two get matched up again, reinforcing his stance on the title picture.

“It wasn’t close. It wasn’t close,” Murphy said regarding the potential rematch. “Who wants to see that fight again? What’s really going to change? Nothing is going to change in that fight.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Lerone Murphy against Yair Rodriguez’s potential UFC title shot

The Golden State Warriors have had over 600 players don the more than 60 jersey numbers used by their players over the more than 75 years of existence the team has enjoyed in its rich and storied history.

Founded in 1946 during the Basketball Association of America (BAA — a precursor league of the NBA) era, the team has called home the cities of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, and even San Diego.

 To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Warriors Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. For this article, we begin with the second of 28 players who wore the No. 12 jersey for the Warriors.

That player would be Golden State guard alum Mike Gale. After ending his college career at Elizabeth City State University, Gale was picked up with the 47th overall selection of the 1971 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls.

The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native instead signed with the ABA’s (defunct) Kentucky Colonels, and also played for the (then) New York (now, Brooklyn) Nets, San Antonio Spurs, and Portland Trail Blazers before he was dealt to the Dubs for the final season of his NBA career in 1981.

During his time suiting up for the Warriors, Gale wore only jersey No. 12 and put up 5.6 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.6 steals per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Warriors Wire: Warriors jersey history – No. 12 – Mike Gale (1981-82)

The Oklahoma City Thunder (and the Seattle Supersonics before them) have 51 jersey numbers worn by the players who have suited up for the franchise since its founding at the start of the 1967-68 season. To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Thunder Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team.

And while those Supersonics jerseys may not remain part of the franchise history should a new team be established in Seattle as was the case with the return of the Charlotte Hornets, they are part of the Thunder’s history today.

For this article, we continue with the 30th jersey number in the series, jersey No. 30, with 13 players in total having donned the jersey in the history of the franchise.

The third of those players did so in the Seattle SuperSonics era, forward alum Al Fleming. After ending his college career at Arizona, Fleming was picked up with the 30th overall selection of the 1976 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns.

He would be cut by the team and spent some time playing in another domestic league before signing with Seattle in 1977. His stay with the team would span 20 games of a single season, ending when he was waived in 1978.

During his time suiting up for the Sonics, Fleming wore only jersey No. 30 and put up 2.0 points and 1.5 rebounds per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Thunder jersey history No. 30 – Al Fleming (1977-78)

The Brooklyn Nets have 52 jersey numbers worn by over 600 different players over the course of their history since the franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), when the team was known as the “New Jersey Americans”.

Since then, that league has been absorbed by the NBA with the team that would later become the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets before settling on the name by which they are known today, bringing their rich player and jersey history with them to the league of today.

To commemorate the players who played for the Nets over the decades wearing those 52 different jersey numbers, Nets Wire is covering the entire history of the franchise’s jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. The 16th of those 52 different numbers is jersey No. 14 which has has had a total of 29 players wear the number in the history of the team.

The 26th of those players wearing No. 14 played in the Brooklyn Nets era, forward alum Reggie Perry. After ending his college career at Mississippi State, Perry was picked up with the 57th overall selection of the 2020 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Flowood, Mississippi native was dealt to Brooklyn on the next day, where he spent his first season in the league. That ended when he signed with the Toronto Raptors in 2021.

During his time suiting up for the Nets, Perry wore only jersey Nos. 0 and 14 and put up 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets jersey history No. 14 – Reggie Perry (2021-22)

Michigan State baseball wrapped up its 2025 season in the Big Ten tournament with a 4-2 loss to top-seeded Oregon on May 22 in Omaha, Nebraska.

The 12^th-seeded Spartans (28-27) tied it at 2-all in the top of the seventh after Parker Picot doubled and advanced to third on an outfield error, then scored on an error by the second baseman with one out.

But MSU couldn’t pull ahead, and soon surrendered go-ahead runs to the Ducks, who opened the bottom of the inning with a pair of singles sandwiched around a walk, with the second hit, by Drew Smith giving Oregon the lead. Anson Aroz then added an insurance run with another single to make it 4-2.

MORE FROM THE BIG TEN TOURNAMENT: Michigan baseball season likely finished with loss to UCLA

First-inning frenzy

The Spartans took an early lead, with leadoff hitter Ryan McKay opening the game with a double and advancing to third on a sac fly. McKay then scored on a sac fly to left by Sam Busch for a 1-0 lead.

But the Ducks grabbed the lead in the bottom of the inning on a two-out, two-run double down the left-field line by Anson Aroz.

What’s next?

MSU, with two losses in round-robin pool play, is eliminated from the tournament, while Oregon will face eighth-seeded Nebraska (which beat MSU on May 20) for the Pool A crown and a spot in May 24’s first semifinal in Omaha.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State baseball KO’d in Big Ten tournament with loss to Oregon

Top-seeded Austin Peay broke up a pitcher’s duel with five runs in the bottom of the sixth and went on to beat Jacksonville University 9-1 on May 22 in the ASUN baseball tournament at Melching Field in DeLand.

JU (29-24) will face North Alabama (24-30) in an elimination game on May 23 at 10 a.m. The Dolphins beat the Lions 5-1 in the first game of the tournament on May 20 and UNA survived by eliminating North Florida 14-11 a day latter.

The Governors (46-12) will play the winner of a winner’s bracket game between Stetson, the top-seeded team in the ASUN’s Graphite Division, and Florida Gulf Coast, on May 22 at 6 p.m. The winner of that game advances to the championship on Sunday at Noon needing only to win one game for the conference championship and a spot in the NCAA tournament.

JU, in the meantime, will have to win three elimination games to get to the championship, then beat the last remaining unbeaten team twice.

Blake DeLamielleure gives JU early lead

The Dolphins took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when senior Blake DeLamielleure belted his sixth homer of the season to center.

JU starter Collin Rothermel (6-4) throttled the conference’s most potent offense for five innings, spacing three hits and three walks, with three strikeouts. The Governors tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the third on Gus Freeman’s RBI single but Rothemel got the final out of the inning with runners on second and third and retired APU with only two baserunners in the fourth and fifth.

However, the Governors chased Rothermel from the game in the sixth when Cole Johnson led off with a double, Brody Szako walked and Ryan Velasquez was hit by a pitch. Austin Peay then got to reliever Nick Anello for an RBI single by Trevor Conley, and a bases-loaded walk to Andreas Matias, and another JU eliever, Blake Barquin, yielded an RBI ground out, a run-scoring single by John Bay and a sacrifice fly by Cameron Nickens.

Conley hit an RBI single in the seventh and Johnson delivered an RBI double in the eighth.

The Dolphins got only three more hits the rest of the game as Austin Peay starter Gavin Braunecker (10-0) pitched seven innings of five-hit ball and reliever Chance Cox pitched two scoreless innings.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JU Dolphins fall 9-1 to top-seeded Austin Peay in ASUN baseball tournament

With Shedeur Sanders joining the Browns, there’s an extension of the ‘Prime Effect’ coming with him. However, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb is not “all-in” with the storied NFL franchise turning a corner and it’s all centered around the debate over a new stadium.

The local Cleveland government has a history of being resistant to public assistance for new stadiums. The worst event in Cleveland sports history happened because the city was not willing to assist Art Modell in funding for a new stadium. They asked Modell to wait, forcing him to move the team to Baltimore. A transgression that is still felt by Browns fans a quarter-century later.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb doesn’t seem too concerned about the Browns planning to leave the city of Cleveland 😳

(via @fox8news) pic.twitter.com/4NVsdirHI7

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 21, 2025

“There are more important priorities than the Cleveland Browns,” Bibb told Fox 8. “If they go to Brook Park, God bless them, good luck. But by hell or high water, we are going to develop a lakefront our residents can be proud of. It’s important that the city of Cleveland is not left empty-handed. The business community, the state, and the Browns must do the right thing transitioning the city of Cleveland, so we can continue the progress we’ve had on the Lakefront.”

Bibb’s comments are tone deaf to the conversation of progress. Cleveland has been working to rebuild the Lakefront since the Gateway project of 1990. The Browns are not impeding the city’s progress on upgrading. 

The city wants its cake and to eat it too with multiple Browns ownership regimes having an issue with that. The Haslam’s have already secured $600 million from the state. Bibb’s last stand against the Brook Park project is falling on deaf ears. The notion of the Browns staying in the downtown city limits of Cleveland is a foregone conclusion.

Cleveland is a football town. When the Browns leave downtown, there is nothing they can add to the Lakefront that will replace its impact on downtown. It is also a football town that has failed to find its pivotal quarterback leader.

Related: Browns Writer Shows True Colors on Shedeur Sanders

If Shedeur Sanders becomes that Knight in shining armor and wins games, there is no measure to what that would mean to Northeast Ohio. One of the most popular current football players in the landscape saving Cleveland from its 30-year torture. The attention and revenue that will generate will be historic. 

Related: ESPN Analyst Sends Blunt Message to Kevin Stefanski Regarding Shedeur Sanders’ Future

With one of the biggest feathers in the cap of why Shedeur and by some extension Deion should love the Browns situation is in fact this stadium project, which should be hosting games before the end of Shedeur’s rookie contract. 

If Sanders is the QB that was promised, he will rival Lebron James’ impact. That’s how meaningful the Browns are to Cleveland. If Bibb plans on digging his heels in resisting the owners, Cleveland will find themselves missing out on much revenue.

Cleveland Mayor’s Stance on the ‘Prime Effect’ Sparks Discussion first appeared on Athlon Sports on May 22, 2025

A year ago, the Knicks were quietly ushered out of the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers in a seven-game conference semifinal series thanks in large part to a hail of injuries from which no team could realistically recover. Center Mitchell Robinson missed all but one game, sixth man Bojan Bogdanovic missed the whole series and star wing OG Anunoby missed all but three games.

Big man Julius Randle had been out half the year with a shoulder injury.   

Beyond that, several Knicks were ailing: Star guard Jalen Brunson had a hand injury; Isaiah Hartenstein had an Achilles tendon injury; Deuce McBride had a bum toe; and Josh Hart had an abdominal injury. 

The Knicks have no such issues this time around. While everyone, as the coaches’ cliche goes, is banged up at this time of year, on Thursday, the Knicks filed their official injury report for Game 2 with the NBA, and the report was entirely clean. No Knicks are injured. 

Down, 1-0, in this series after a wild comeback and overtime win by the Pacers, there are no excuses for a Knicks team that holds homecourt advantage in the series. What the group does lack, though, is momentum–this Pacers team is now 8-2 in the playoffs, and closed the year on a 15-4 run to get to the 50-win mark, just a game behind New York in the East standings.  

The Knicks accept the blame for what happened on Wednesday, when they coughed up a nine-point lead with less than a minute to play. 

“We didn’t do what we needed to do; otherwise, we’d be in here talking about a whole different ballgame,”  center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “There’s a lot of things we did good, to put ourselves in the position to win. It’s just about … and I’ve said this multiple times, executing and discipline for 48 minutes.

“We played 46 good minutes. Those last two minutes is where we lost the game. That’s on all of us.”

Game 2 will take place on Friday at Madison Square Garden, at 8 p.m. ET.

Knicks Make Injury Announcement Ahead of Game 2 vs. Pacers first appeared on Athlon Sports on May 22, 2025

On Wednesday afternoon, the Indianapolis Colts announced that owner Jim Irsay had passed away at the age of 65. The outpouring of love and support for the Colts and the Irsay family following his passing was abundant. 

A lot of his former players all shared heartfelt messages about how much Irsay meant to them. For former Denver Broncos legend Payton Manning, Irsay was the owner who drafted him first overall and brought him into the NFL.

During NFL Live on ESPN, Manning shared a heartfelt message about Irsay, expressing gratitude for the former Colts owner. 

Peyton Manning on Jim Irsay: “I’ll always be indebted to him for giving me my chance in the NFL.” pic.twitter.com/aHcajoHvZA

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 22, 2025

“He gave me my start in the NFL… He was one of a kind,” Manning said. “He loved the Colts, he loved the players that played for him, and I’ll always be indebted to him for giving me my chance in the NFL.”

Manning was drafted by the Colts in 1998, and became the franchise quarterback for Irsay until 2010. The Colts, under Irsay and Manning, won Super Bowl XLI, and had an incredible career together.

When Manning was the quarterback in Indianapolis, the Colts went 141 and 67. The two spent 14 years together, and had an incredible run. 

After Irsay’s passing, plenty of former players who played for a fraction of the amount of time that Manning did came forward and shared their love for Irsay.

For Manning, who came into the NFL as one of the most highly touted number one overall picks, Irsay pulled out all the stops. 

According to Manning, Irsay called Manning ahead of the NFL draft to let him know the Colts were going to take him. Irsay then asked what number Manning wanted to wear in the NFL, and had a Colts jersey made with Mannings number 18 on it. 

There was no owner quite like Irsay, and after his passing, the outpouring of love and support from former players tells the story. Manning’s appreciation for Irsay is just one of many former Colts players that appreciated Irsay.

Related: Former Broncos All-Pro CB Aqib Talib Sends Candid Advice For Jahdae Barron

Related: Broncos Trade Idea Acquires NFC South Receiver for Bo Nix

Former Broncos QB Peyton Manning Shares Heartfelt Message About Jim Irsay first appeared on Athlon Sports on May 22, 2025