“You know what? I agree with the sentiment; I get why people say that.”

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Although the UFC is plugging back along with fights being hosted in Florida and Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White is expected to move forward with “Fight Island” beginning on June 27. And while the location has for the most part remained a mystery, Marcelo Russio from Combate is reporting the location is Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

https://twitter.com/MarceloRussio/status/1269295230492258306

With flights still restricted coming into the United States due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, White’s move to Abu Dhabi opens up more opportunities for international fighters to continue competing. White previously laid out a plan to host fights every week from Fight Island, flying in international fighters on private planes and ensuring rigorous COVID-19 testing.

The UFC last hosted an event in Abu Dhabi when UFC lightweight champion defeated Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242 in September of 2019. While the story doesn’t note where exactly Fight Island will take place, Bloody Elbow notes one possibility is Yas Island, where the UFC could hold an open-air arena event with a 25,000 person capacity.

The June 25 card has not been announced as of this writing, but Dan Hooker is expected to face off against Dustin Poirier in the main event, while Aspen Ladd battles Sara McMann in the undercard, per MMA Junkie.

At the end of March, it was revealed through his lawyer, Bradford Cohen, that Kodak Black was given an additional 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal weapons charges against him. Cohen expressed dissatisfaction with the added sentence saying, “it should have been completely dismissed, as it was for the other 2 individuals in the same car, who testified that Kodak knew nothing about the firearm in the vehicle, and it was registered and legal to one of the other individuals he was with.” However, in a new report from TMZ, it appears that Kodak could possibly see a semblance of freedom for the last year of his sentence.

According to his lawyer, Kodak could spend the last year of his prison sentence at a halfway house and be released by 2021 as long as a number of variables go in their favor. To be eligible for the halfway house, Kodak would have to complete a court-ordered 500-hour drug treatment order, but the maximum-security facility that he is currently in does not offer that program. According to Cohen, the hope is that Kodak could be moved to a lower-security prison after Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle dropped three felony counts of possession of a firearm by an individual under 24. The lower-security prison they hope Kodak is moved to does offer the drug program, thus aiding his move to the halfway house.

A rep for State Attorney Rundle also revealed to TMZ that the three felony firearm charges were dropped because Rundle “felt that the [state] charges were a duplicate of the federal charges for which [Kodak Black] had already been convicted and is currently serving his sentence.”

[via TMZ]

Kodak Black is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Twenty-two NBA teams will get the chance to play for a championship this season when the league descends on Orlando for its proposed Bubble League. The idea for the league took shape over the last few weeks, and following the NBA’s Board of Governors approving it by a 29-1 margin on Thursday, the Players Association unanimously approved of the idea. Now, the wheels are in motion for a plan that will see the 16 playoff teams from before the league’s COVID-19 hiatus and six squads on the outside looking in take to Disney World and resume play on, tentatively, July 31.

It’s good news for those 22 squads, but for the eight teams that saw their seasons abruptly end in March, the potential for a monster layoff until the beginning of the 2020-21 season apparently isn’t all that appealing. As such, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that a number of those squads are interested in doing something to get themselves back on the floor.

Fearful of significant setbacks in the development of young players over months of inactivity, several teams left out of this season’s regular-season resumption in Orlando, Florida, have proposed ideas for regional mini summer leagues, training camps and organized team activities, sources told ESPN.

According to Wojnarowski, some of the plans that have been brought up include workouts that would occur in July, “regional minicamps” that would lead to joint practices and televised games in August, and organized team activities in September. Additionally, there’s a desire for training camps to start early heading into next season. The only team Wojnarowski did not mention as “pushing to engage in joint practices as ramp-ups for regional summer leagues in August” is the Golden State Warriors, which is understandable, as they have played a whole lot of basketball over the last few years and could use some sort of extended break.

Both Hawks owner Tony Ressler and Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas mentioned the obvious: If next season begins in early-December, teams that missed out on the bubble league will go nine months without any sort of basketball, which is a remarkably long time to go between games. As such, these various proposals would give them the opportunity to keep from too much rust building up. Whether or not something comes of these various proposals remains to be seen, but it appears there is enough will power to make something happen that we shouldn’t count out the possibility.

The death nearly two weeks ago of George Floyd has led to largely peaceful protests across at home and abroad, some of which have turned ugly, and some of which have led to looting and destruction. A number of celebrities, including Cardi B, Billie Eilish, and Beyonce, have used their platform to promote the Black Lives Matter agenda, sharing messages that align with the protestors in various cities. Despite the efforts of celebrities, Fox News took a moment during a recent broadcast to call them out for “getting violent rioters out of jail.”

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson tried to shame celebrities who’ve donated money to protester charities and fundraisers, posting their names onscreen, among them Steve Carrell, Janelle Monae, Seth Rogan, Colin Kaepernick, Kehlani, and Lil Nas X. Carlson singled one out: “Lil Nas X urged his 4.7 million Twitter followers to donate to bail groups in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. Imagine if he had those followers instead to help small businesses destroyed by the riots he helped incite.”

Lil Nas X and Kehlani responded to Carlson on the social media pages.

Kehlani posted the video to her Instagram page with a caption that read, “finna sign this n send it to my granny.” Lil Nas X shared the video as well to his Twitter page, saying, “this man just lied and told millions of people on national television that i was inciting riots. you can’t make this up.” Seth Rogen shared his reply on Twitter as well, writing, “I think when white supremacists are bothered by your actions, that’s probably a good thing.”

You can see the Fox News clip and the replies to Carlson’s comments above.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

These are difficult and scary times, with too many calamities clamping down upon us: a pandemic, economic devastation and unemployment, civil unrest, not to mention a looming election that will decide the fate of the nation. One bright spot is the passion seen at the largely peaceful (and often deeply moving) protests, both at home and abroad, with people coming together to speak out against police brutality against people of color. It can be difficult to explain any of this to young kids, who’ve been through so much the last few months, but luckily Elmo — and his father Louie — are here to help.

On Saturday, the Sesame Street favorite appeared on CNN with his dad, who did a segment — over different webcams, suggesting they were in different places — in which the latter educating his former on the turbulent times. Louie didn’t sugarcoat it.

The segment begins with Elmo saying he “doesn’t understand” why people have been massing together for the last 10 days, and being told they were “gathering together to protest.” “Elmo doesn’t understand,” Elmo said. “What’s a protest?” To which his father replied, “A protest is when people come together to show they are upset and disagree about something. They want to make others aware of the problem. So in protesting, people are able to share their feelings and work together to make things better.”

Louie even said he was planning to take part in one, and showed off the sign he’d made for it, which read “Love Justice Peace,” with heart and peace signs.

Elmo had more questions. “They look upset. Are the protesters upset?” he asked. Again, his dad didn’t sugarcoat it. “They are sad. And upset. And they have every right to be, Elmo,” said Louie. “People are upset because racism is a huge problem in our country.”

That’s when Elmo asked his father to explain what racism is. “Oh, racism is when people treat other people unfairly because of the way they look or the color of their skin,” his dad told him. Elmo was confused. “Elmo doesn’t understand, daddy. Elmo has friends with different types of skin. And fur too.” he said. His father was bracingly direct:

Not all streets are like Sesame Street. On Sesame Street we all love and respect one another. Across the country, people of color, especially in the black community, are being treated unfairly because of how they look, their culture, their race, and who they are. What we’re seeing is people saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ They want to end racism.

“Elmo wants to end racism, too. Elmo wants everybody to be treated fairly,” Elmo said. “How can Elmo support his friends?” His dad responded, “We can start by learning and talking about what is happening and take action.”

The reaction to the exchange went viral, cutting across generations, reaching young and older. Some were shocked to see an Elmo who, thanks to his dad, is now hip to what’s going down in our country right now.

Some wondered when other children’s entertainment characters would address the protests.

Parents, surely finding it difficult to explain to their kids what’s happening without upsetting them nor lying to them, praised it.

One person pointed out the tragic side of Elmo.

You can watch the full exchange in the tweet at the top of this page.

(Via CNN)

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Looking to treat fans to a much-needed live performance, Sturgill Simpson livestreamed a concert from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The auditorium, much like other large venues around the country, is closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The livestreamed concert comes nearly a year after Simpson shared his Sound & Fury album, for which he toured during the early part of 2020.

Simpson was joined by Stuart Duncan on the fiddle, Mike Bub on bass, Sierra Hull on the mandolin, Scott Vestal one the banjo, Tim O’Brien and Mark Howad on the guitar, and Miles Miller drums. It was a group Simpson described as “most likely the greatest bluegrass band on the planet tonight.” Strugill and company performed for over an hour in the empty Ryman Auditorium. The livestream also doubled as a charity drive, with proceeds going to the Special Forces Foundation, the Equity Alliance, and the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

The livestream performance comes nearly three months after Sturgill was forced to cancel the US leg of his tour due to the coronavirus. He later revealed that he came down with Covid-19 symptoms after sharing a picture of himself at his local ER in mid-March. Despite the many symptoms, Simpsons said the doctors would not test him as he “did not fit testing criteria.” A month later he received the test at a testing facility outside a National Guard depot where he tested positive. Sturgill has since recovered from the virus.

You can watch the livestreamed performance in the video above.

Over the last two weeks, two of the UFC’s top stars, Jon Jones and Jorge Masvidal, have publicly vented over frustrations stemming from contract negotiations on their next respective fights. First, it was Jones, who has teased a move to the heavyweight division recently, calling out the UFC over refusing to pay the money required to book a Francis Ngannou super fight. He then requested his release and threatened to vacate the light heavyweight belt.

Masvidal followed suit, expressing frustration over his purse for an expected title fight against Kamaru Usman. He eventually asking for his release, too.

Following the UFC 250 weigh-ins on Friday, UFC president Dana White responded to the latest outcry by sending a clear message to Jones, Masvidal and any other fighters pushing back for better pay: don’t fight.

“These guys are independent contractors,” White said, per MMA Fighting. “This isn’t like the NFL, where I can make you – you come to practice, and you do this, or you’re going to get fined. These guys can do whatever they want. They can say whatever they want.”

While White may not have the power to “fine” fighters for not competing, he does control over what their future in the sport looks like. And Masvidal was quick to point out that they can’t freely move over to a competitor due to promotional agreements.

Masvidal also retweeted retired UFC fighter DaMarques Johnson, who used White’s NFL comparison to breakdown the pay discrepancy based on revenue splits.

For now, it appears Masvidal and Jones are happy to hold out for better pay. But until they get buy-in from the sport’s other big names, it appears White is just fine booking other top stars.