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Israel Adesanya knocks out Alex Pereira in UFC title rematch

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Israel Adesanya wanted a quick rematch after a November loss to Alex Pereira stripped him of the 185-pound championship belt he’d held since 2019.Five months later in UFC 287 in Miami early Sunday, Adesanya dropped the middleweight champion Pereira with two right hands, then raised his fists in triumph as he took back his middleweight championship belt and cemented his legacy as one of the greatest fighters in the sport’s history.“I hope every one of you behind the screen or in this arena can feel this level of happiness just one time in your life,” Adesanya said. “But guess what, you’ll never feel this level of happiness if you don’t go for something.”Pereira (7-2) landed a knee that pushed Adesanya (24-2) into the cage in the second round. Adesanya came off the cage with two right hooks and a right hammer fist, followed by ground and pound to end the fight at 4:21.The 35-year-old Pereira had never lost to Adesanya. Before he scored a TKO win for the welterweight belt ...

Bassi makes history in Dynamo’s 3-0 victory over Galaxy

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — Amine Bassi became the first player in MLS history to score on a penalty kick in four straight matches, helping the Houston Dynamo defeat the LA Galaxy 3-0 on Saturday night.Bassi’s goal came in the 65th minute and gave Houston (3-3-0) a 2-0 lead. Bassi has needed just six matches to pull within one PK score of Erick Torres’ record of five for a season.The Galaxy (0-3-3) have gone six matches without a win to open a season just once before — in 2003 when they didn’t get their first victory until the ninth match.The Galaxy entered play with a 4-2-2 record in its last eight trips to Houston.The Dynamo have won three straight at home for the first time since winning their final three home matches in 2019. Houston is 5-1-1 in its last seven home contests dating to last season.The Galaxy had a 16-13 edge in shots with both teams taking three on target.Steve Clark had three saves to earn the clean sheet for Houston. Jonathan Klinsmann did not make a save f...

Kuzmenko lifts Canucks to 3-2 win over Flames in SO

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Andrei Kuzmenko scored in the shootout and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 3-2 on Saturday night.Elias Pettersson and Cole McWard — with his first NHL point — scored for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko made 41 saves. Elias Lindholm and Nazem Kadri put away third-period goals for the Flames to force extra time. Jacob Markstrom stopped 31 shots.Calgary pulled one point behind Winnipeg for the second wild card in the Western Conference. The Flames have two games left on their regular-season schedule while the Jets have three.In the tiebreaker, Kuzmenko skated wide of the Flames’ net, then fired a shot up into the top corner to secure the win.McWard scored his first NHL goal 9:03 into the game and Pettersson scored his 38th of the season on a short-handed breakaway a little more than four minutes later to put the Canucks up 2-0.Vancouver now has 15 short-handed goals this season, including 13 since Rick Tocchet took over as head coach o...

Malgin helps Avalanche keep rolling in 4-3 win over Kings

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Denis Malgin scored twice and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 on Saturday night for their fourth straight victory.Brad Hunt and Alex Newhook also scored, Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves and the Avalanche kept pace with Dallas for first place in the Central Division and still have a game in hand. It was their ninth straight road victory, matching the longest streak in team history. Adrian Kempe had two goals, Viktor Arvidsson scored on the power play, and the Kings dropped their third straight game since wrapping up a playoff spot. Pheonix Copley made 19 saves.Colorado has managed to thrive this season in spite of myriad injures, and that trend continued when Hunt — taking the place of an ill Bowen Byram — scored off Lars Eller’s faceoff win early in the third period to go up 3-2. Malgin got his second goal on a back post tap in set up by Valeri Nichushkin for a 4-2 lead, but Kempe notched his second 26 seconds later to cut it to 4-3. The Ava...

Atencio, Ruidíaz lead Sounders to 3-0 win over St Louis City

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Joshua Atencio and Raúl Ruidíaz scored second-half goals to spark the Seattle Sounders to a 3-0 victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night.The Sounders (5-1-1) improved to 6-1-4 all-time against expansion teams at home. Seattle’s only loss against first-year teams came against LAFC in 2018.Seattle handed St. Louis City (5-2-0) its second straight loss after the league’s newest team began the season with five straight victories. Seattle takes over the top spot in the Western Conference with the win — one point in front of St. Louis City and two ahead of LAFC.Neither team scored until Atencio took a pass from Nicolás Lodeiro and found the net in the 65th minute. Ruidíaz made it 2-0 with an unassisted goal six minutes later. The Sounders’ final score came on an own-goal by Jake Nerwinski in the 89th minute.Seattle had a 12-9 edge in shots and a 6-2 advantage in shots on goal.Stefan Frei finished with two saves to earn the clean sheet for the Sounders...

Colorado tops Sporting KC 1-0 for first win of season

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Diego Rubio scored in the second half, William Yarbrough made it stand up and the Colorado Rapids earned their first win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night.Neither team scored until Rubio took a pass from Darren Yapi and found the net in the 68th minute. Colorado (1-3-3) beat Sporting KC (0-4-3) for just the second time in the last nine match-ups. Sporting KC has gone winless in seven matches to open a season for the second time in club history, joining the 1999 squad. The Rapids have gone two straight matches on the road without losing, something they hadn’t done since a six-match run in 2021.Sporting KC finished with an 18-8 advantage in shots, but both teams had two shots on target.Yarbrough saved two shots to earn the clean sheet for Colorado. Tim Melia had one save for Sporting KC. Colorado travels to play Charlotte FC on Saturday. Sporting KC hits the road to play the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.____...

Marseille building collapses, rubble fire stymies rescue

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — A residential building in France’s port city of Marseille collapsed in a loud explosion early Sunday followed by a fire deep within the rubble that hindered rescue efforts.More than six hours after the collapse of the five-story building, it was not known if anyone was killed. More than 100 firefighters were trying to put out blazes under huge piles of rubble in a slow and delicate operation aimed at trying not to harm people potentially trapped. Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan said two neighboring buildings were partially brought down and one was in danger of collapsing, creating a double challenge.“Firefighters are gauging minute by minute the best way to put out the fire,” the mayor said at a televised briefing. “The lives of firefighters are also at play,” he said.The noise from the explosion shortly before 1 a.m., resounded in other neighborhoods. Nearby streets were blocked off.Residents of neighboring buildings were evacuated and six were hospitali...

Once everywhere, Saddam’s image scrubbed from Baghdad

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Of his countless stories of his life as a hairdresser in Iraq, the one Qaiss al-Sharaa most enjoys retelling is about the day April 9, 2003, when he watched Iraqis and American Marines pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in front of his salon in Baghdad’s Firdos Square.The 12-meter (39-foot) statue of the Iraqi dictator extending his right hand had been erected just a year earlier to celebrate his 65th birthday.“There were lots of younger Iraqis from around the country with the American troops topping the statue — who naturally wanted their freedom,” al-Sharaa told The Associated Press. “The statue showed the face of a man everyone feared.”For the world, it became an iconic moment of the U.S.-led invasion; live TV coverage as Marines tied the statue to a vehicle to pull the statue down inflated it into a symbol of the end of Saddam’s quarter century rule. In reality, the Firdos Square statue was a minor part of the huge number of monuments and palaces that Saddam e...

Why you keep having the same dream

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

For years, dreams of my teeth cracking, loosening or falling out plagued my sleep. Loved ones of mine have repeatedly dreamed of flying, rolling away in a self-operating car, or running late for school or work. These aren’t typical nightmares, which usually happen once. They’re some of the most common recurring dreams, which tend to lean negative and can take some work to overcome.“Recurring dreams are likelier to be about very profound life experiences or just very character logic issues that are kind of guaranteed to recur in waking life because they’re part of you rather than a one-time event,” said dream researcher Deirdre Barrett, a lecturer of psychology in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.Since our dreams typically don’t repeat themselves, all it takes is dreaming the same dream twice or more for it to be considered recurring, Barrett said. They’re more common in childhood, Barrett said, but can last into adultho...

Padres play the Braves leading series 2-1

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:10:48 GMT

San Diego Padres (5-4) vs. Atlanta Braves (6-3)Atlanta; Sunday, 7:08 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Padres: Seth Lugo (0-0); Braves: Dylan Dodd (0-0)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Braves -118, Padres -101; over/under is 9 runsBOTTOM LINE: The San Diego Padres meet the Atlanta Braves with a 2-1 series lead.Atlanta went 101-61 overall and 55-26 in home games a season ago. The Braves scored 4.9 runs per game in the 2022 season while allowing 3.8.San Diego had an 89-73 record overall and a 45-36 record on the road last season. The Padres pitching staff averaged 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings while giving up 4.1 runs per game in the 2022 season.INJURIES: Braves: Travis d’Arnaud: 7-Day IL (concussion), Michael Harris II: 10-Day IL (back), Collin McHugh: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Max Fried: 15-Day IL (left hamstring), Huascar Ynoa: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kolby Allard: 60-Day IL (oblique), Tyler Matzek: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kyle Wright: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Raisel Iglesias: 15-Day IL (shoulder)Pad...