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Just 10 years since its formation, ONE Championship has spent much of the past few years diving head-first into the United States market. The Asia-based organization splashed onto the scene with its historic swap, sending Ben Askren to the UFC while pulling the legendary Demetrious Johnson into its flyweight division. It then hosted its first live events on TNT, beginning with ONE Century back in October 2019.

But now, on the heels of being ranked among the top-10 global sports properties in terms of engagement and viewership, CEO Chatri Sityodtong, vice president Rich Franklin, and ONE Championship’s slew of world champs are drawing a line in the sand against the UFC’s best.

“From an executive standpoint, when you look at what’s been going on with a lot of these ‘specialty fights,’ circus fights, whatever you want to call them with,” Franklin told Uproxx Sports. “You know, the theme: Conor McGregor, Jake Paul, and then obviously Mayweather just fought Logan Paul. It’s something that you’ve never seen before. I think the closest thing to it would be when the UFC allowed Chuck Liddell in Pride and that’s about the closest thing that’s ever been done to this. So I think if something like this was done, you would see a ton of interest.”

The recent run on TNT has only increased any potential interest in a UFC/ONE Championship crossover, with former UFC fighters Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, and Sage Northcutt all suffering losses within the past two years. To Franklin, that’s proven ONE’s fighters can stand with the best of them.

“I think our run on TNT really showed the American audience or the international audience for that matter, that there’s always been some speculation about whether or not ONE championship athletes are on the level,” he says. “So I think that the fans now understand that ONE has some tough, tough guys and, you know, there’s, I mean, there’s a couple of match-ups that I would get, I would love to see, uh, as a fan, I think. One or two that come to mind, maybe like there’s like, uh, Charles Olivera versus Christian Lee. But you could make matchups for days just with champion vs. champions.”

There’s some extra motivation for a slew of fighters like Johnson, Alvarez, and current heavyweight champion Arjan Bhullar, who wants some of the UFC’s current best.

“I want to get Stipe [Miocic],” Arjan Bhullar told Uproxx Sports in early June. “There’s some history with my guy [Daniel Cormier] that I’d like to exact some revenge. He’s supposed to be the heavyweight GOAT, so I would love that. I was a part of every one of those camps with DC and I didn’t want to see him go out (with a loss).”

For now, Franklin and ONE Championship wants continue its rise in the MMA world by churning out quality fights and turning its attention to hosting the first live event on U.S. soil sometime in 2021.

“As a company, we’ve always had our eye on U.S. territory as a priority market,” Franklin said. “We’ve always been focused on the Asian side of things. There’s a lot of challenges to making the jump across the Pacific, logistics, man power, etc. We had a great run on TNT. And it seems like the natural time to make the transition to this side.”

So, two things became readily apparent over the holiday weekend: One, Michael Rubin’s party in the Hamptons was the place to be for the Fourth Of July, and two, Meek Mill really can’t stop getting into altercations with his fellow entertainers. Since patching things up with Drake in 2018 (incidentally, the last time Meek put out a full-length album), he’s had run-ins with his ex Nicki Minaj and her husband in LA, Tekashi 69 in a parking garage in Miami, and even strangers on Clubhouse.

At Rubin’s party on Sunday, he reportedly added another name to the list, and this one was even more bewildering than usual. According to Complex via Page Six, the Philadelphia rapper needed to be separated during a heated argument with Travis Scott in which the two rappers yelled at each other until they were led away from each other before it could get physical. Sources say Meek was still yelling, even after Travis left. There’s no information on what the fight was about, only that there may very well be video because heaven forbid two grown men air out their grievances without a bunch of bystanders filming it — something Meek himself has alluded to obliquely with his comments about blogs only covering his “goofy sh*t.” He could also consider doing slightly less of it though.

Before the fight effectively ended the party, though, it seemed everyone was in high spirits, as the other video to emerge caught Lil Uzi Vert showing off his breakdancing skills.

Danny Trejo has lived a colorful life, and that’s putting it mildly. Before he became an actor, he was in and out of prison. In fact, he got his first acting gig, on 1985’s Runaway Train, because one of the screenwriters, fellow former inmate Eddie Bunker, recognized him from San Quentin. Also he’s much older than he looks; when he was born, FDR was president. You can learn all about his fascinating life in his new memoir, Trejo, which includes — among plenty of others — a story about the time he got hypnotized by Charles Manson in the slammer.

This didn’t happen in, say, the 1970s, when the struggling musician-turned-cult leader began what wound up becoming a lifetime sentence. It was 1961, the Tate-LaBianca murders still nearly a decade away. Both were locked away in Los Angeles County Jail. Trejo remembers him as “greasy, dirty, scrawny,” and that he was “so poor, he didn’t have a belt, and instead used a piece of string to keep his pants up.”

Trejo says he took pity on the twentysomething Manson, and a couple days after meeting him, the future infamous criminal told him and some friends he “could get us high.” Of course, he couldn’t do it with drugs; they were behind bars. Instead, Manson got them high with his mind.

“It was like a guided meditation,” Trejo recalls in the book, as per Page Six. He talked them along every step of the way, making them feel like they’d just ingested some heroin. “By the time he described it hitting my bloodstream, I felt the warmth flowing through my body,” he writes. “If that white boy wasn’t a career criminal, he could have been a professional hypnotist.”

Six years later Manson was released, and the rest, tragically, is history. As for Trejo, he says he was out of custody in the early ‘70s, at which time he got his life together. By the Reagan era, he began a long and fruitful career in the film and television industry, appearing in everything from Heat to Spy Kids to Rob Zombie’s Halloween to the beyond sleazy Charles Bronson vehicle Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects.

Trejo is on sale now. Manson, meanwhile, appears in a new novel version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, written by Trejo’s occasional collaborator Quentin Tarantino.

(Via Page Six)

Hitting a baseball is an incredibly difficult thing to do. The very best people at doing so succeed only about a third of the time, because the very best pitchers are insanely good at their job.

With pitchers throwing with more velocity and more movement than ever before — even accounting for the crackdown on sticky substances — there are a lot of swings and misses now, including some that make batters look flat out silly. Every once in awhile, though, a batter gets to turn the tables on a pitcher, taking their best pitch and still managing to turn it into a hit.

On Wednesday, White Sox speedster Billy Hamilton did this accidentally, when he gave a half-hearted check swing at a ball that bounced a full foot in front of home plate in a 2-2 count, but somehow managed to get the barrel on the ball as it bounced up for a grounder to the third baseman. Because Hamilton is one of the fastest people in baseball, he naturally beat out the throw for the most ridiculous infield single of the season.

Look at where that ball bounces! It’s not even close and Hamilton was so fooled by the break that he still tried to swing and accidentally bunted the ball to third. The reaction of Jason Benetti on the White Sox call going, “what in the world was that?!” encapsulates what everyone’s first thought is. The first baseman is in total disbelief that Hamilton got on base off of that pitch, and Hamilton himself has a laugh at first realizing he absolutely stole one.

Jayson Tatum is headed to Tokyo. The Boston Celtics’ star is among the 12 players who will represent the United States in the men’s basketball tournament a little later this month, and after his involvement in the U.S. team that crashed and burned in the World Cup in 2019, Tatum will be eager to achieve international redemption.

This tournament also holds quite a bit of significance for Tatum. A well-documented Kobe Bryant fan, Tatum will wear the No. 10 when the United States takes the floor in Japan, which was also the number that Bryant wore during his international basketball career. On Wednesday, Tatum was asked about this, and made clear that wearing his favorite player’s number is something he holds near and dear to his heart.

“It’s a tremendous honor,” Tatum said, per Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. “And I’ll wear it proudly.”

Tatum went on to say that he’s cognizant of the fact that this is the first Olympic Games since Bryant’s passing in early 2020, making this a little more significant to him, and then recalled another time in his life when he got to wear this number right after the 2012 Olympics.

“I remember that first team when I was hoping, wishing, that I got No. 10,” Tatum said. “Kobe, everyone knows that was my favorite player. I was 15 years old and got to wear the number of my favorite player. It just felt like I had some level of connection with him.”

The United States will begin its quest for a fourth consecutive gold medal on July 25. Its group includes the Czech Republic, France, and Iran.

After capturing our attention with the Greenhouse EP last year, Congolese songwriter Miloe — real name Bob Kabeya — is back with a new rendition of “Solo,” from fellow Congolese artist Lous And The Yakua. The track arrives in honor of Congolese Independence Day, and also serves as a call-to-donate to the victims of the recent volcanic eruption in Goma (Eastern Congo) that destroyed several homes and left many displaced.

To celebrate the new track, Kabeya sat down to talk Noname, chilling out, and memory in the latest Indie Mixtape 20 Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

A Good Fucking time.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

I hope that people associate my music with positive life experiences and the songs could be a gateway to tap into those memories and emotions again.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

So far Minneapolis is my favorite city to play in. It might have to with the fact that we haven’t played in many other places and a majority of the people i know and love live here.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

My parents have inspired my work the most i think, they’ve filled my whole life with so much music and have supported me every step along the way.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

I’m not sure if I’ve had one meal that stands out but an Oreo McFlurry after an eventful night out or show is bliss.

What album do you know every word to?

I often forget to listen to the lyrics of most music that i listen to but ive been loving Telephone by Noname again and Songs by Adrienne Lenker.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Low-key some of the best shows I’ve been been to are DIY Basement shows in Como, Minneapolis. However, I got to see the 100gecs, Slowthai, Brockhampton tour which was mad. also Imagine Dragons when I was 14 went pretty hard.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

I think the best performance fit is something mobile, breathable and makes you feel empowered. you wanna feel confident but you don’t wanna be restricted or too sweaty.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

I like following noname on Twitter other than that both apps generally stress me out.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

“TOP” by Playboi Carti is often blasted as we enter the city were going to gig in.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

I Googled “free printable posters” because the walls of my room are lifeless right now. I wanna get a space-themed poster.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

I think gifting someone music that reminds you of them could be cool.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

N/A

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

None.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

I’ve been hearing Arlo Parks on the radio more and more and I love that. Also not turning off Charlie XCX, 1975, or that new Willow Smith song.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

No answer.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

I would tell myself at 18, to chill out on worrying and overthinking. To detach from being in my head so much and enjoy being.

What’s the last show you went to?

The last show I went to was a backyard show a few weeks ago by an MPLS band called Kids Ski Free.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

I would finish Megamind if it were on TV.

What would you cook if Obama were coming to your house for dinner?

I would cook Fufu and Mpondu for President Obama and he’d love it.

“Solo” is out now. Listen here.

Clairo has unveiled the tracklist for her forthcoming album, Sling. Check it out below.

The viral pop up-and-comer will release her highly anticipated sophomore album in just a few days via Fader and Republic Records. Prior to that, she’s laid the groundwork for a huge summer 2021, with a gentle acoustic ballad “Blouse,” which she recently performed on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Plus, she just lent backing vocals to Lorde on her latest single “Solar Power” (also featuring Phoebe Bridgers). Not only that, she’s tapped the ubiquitous Jack Antonoff to produce Sling. Have another peek at the tracklist below.

When “Blouse” came out earlier in the summer, Clairo shared a message about the single on social media, writing, “Joanie, my dog, opened up my world in ways I didn’t think were capable. By caring for her, it forced me to face my own thoughts about parenthood and what it would mean to me. stories as lessons, regrets as remorse.. thinking about something/someone before yourself. It’s a glimpse into a world where I found that domesticity is what I was missing.”

Sling tracklist:

1. “Bambi”
2. “Amoeba”
3. “Partridge”
4. “Zinnias”
5. “Blouse”
6. “Wade”
7. “Harbor”
8. “Just For Today”
9. “Joanie”
10. “Reaper”
11. “Little Changes”
12. “Management”

Sling is out 7/16 via Fader Label/Republic Records. Pre-order it here.

Monsters at Work: Season 1 Premiere (Disney+ series) — Twenty freaking years ago when Monsters Inc. came out in theaters, Pixar films’ very existence still felt like a revelation, given that adults could straight-up dig these kid-geared movies, too. These days, that’s no longer a novel concept, but this franchise has persisted with a prequel and a few shorts, and now, John Goodman and Billy Crystal return as James P. “Sulley” Sullivan and Mike Wazowski. They have both been promoted, and a new crop of monsters (voiced by Mindy Kaling, Henry Winkler, Ben Feldman, and Alana Ubach) are doing the harvesting. The twist here is that although the franchise is going back to basics, the franchise is trading scares for laughter after realizing that — surprise — laughter generates so much more energy for Monstropolis than screams can produce.

Loki: Episode 5 (Disney+ series, releasing in the wee hours of Wednesday morning) — Tom Hiddleston has an absolute blast playing the mercurial trickster of the MCU, and we shall reap the benefits while he helps (or hinders) the Time Variance Authority during the process of cleaning up the timeline. This week, we’ll see more cleanup following Sylvie and Mobius and Loki, and there are too many Lokis, but hey, it’s all good. We’re also closing in on season finale time.

Dogs: Season 2 (Netflix series) — The best friend of man everyone (who knows what’s good for them) is here to stake a claim on you. In this four-episode season, four lucky humans — an astronaut, a priest, a military contractor, and a university mascot handler — tell stories of these remarkable creatures and how they’re truly family.

Cat People: Season 1 (Netflix series) — Well, some people side with the felines, rather than the canines, in the battle for human hearts. This show will explore exactly why “cat people” are so devoted even in the face of negative stereotypes while also revealing their powerful bonds with these somewhat stuffy and frustratingly independent creatures.

The War Next-door: Season 1 (Netflix series) — A cash-poor-rich-on-live woman wins raffle tickets that gift her a house, but her neighbor is a total nightmare and actually the rightful raffle-ticket owner. Get ready for a knock-down/drag out rivalry for these two women, who both believe that they’re doing the right thing for their families.

In case you missed this pick from last week:

America: The Motion Picture (Netflix film) — Channing Tatum voices a very profane (and buff) George Washington in this series that’s directed by Archer‘s Matt Thompson and produced by The Mitchells vs. the Machines‘ Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Washington declares that he wants to “start a f*cking revolution,” and he’s accompanied by a beer-guzzling Sam Adams, an angry Geronimo, Paul Revere, and Thomas Edison as they decide to take on Benedict Arnold and King James. In the synopsis, Netflix promises, “[T]hese are not your father’s Founding… uh, Fathers.”

When the next line of the Nintendo Switch was announced to the world it was kind of disappointing. It made some definite improvements for anyone that likes to play their console as a mobile device, but it lacked that true upgrade feel that everyone knows the Switch needs to be considered a modern console. As we move further into this next generation with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S it feels like the Switch is just being left behind. However, it only feels like that if we assume this is the only update the Nintendo Switch will be receiving.

Rumors are to always be taken with grains of salt, but most of the rumors leading up to the next Switch was that it would be a more powerful device. This Switch is in every way, except the screen and speakers, not a more powerful device. It won’t run games any differently, as confirmed by Verge, and Wired confirmed that the controllers weren’t much sturdier. Is it an upgrade? For anyone that wants to play it as a mobile device, yes. However, it’s impossible to sell anyone that already owns a Switch as this being an upgrade to their current one.

That’s probably because this isn’t the new Switch that we kept hearing rumors about. If we look at how Nintendo has handled a lot of their mobile devices in the past, especially the 3DS and DS, we’ll notice that they’re no strangers to releasing multiple updates within a mobile console’s lifespan. The Switch may be considered a home console first, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t receive any updates to it. Nintendo is going to take any chance to sell people on a new console of some kind. Especially one that’s been as successful as the Switch has.

So what about those rumors we kept hearing about a new more powerful Switch? Most likely it’s still in development. Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser told the Washington Post that they don’t want to just release a console for the sake of technology. They want to “improve the gameplay” experience. In other words, until they themselves start making games that need to utilize that 4K resolution with the latest specs they don’t feel the need to release a Switch that can do that.

“We are always looking at technology and how technology can enhance gameplay experiences. It’s not technology for technology’s sake,” Bowser tells The Washington Post. “It’s how specifically can technology enhance a gameplay experience. And then where do you apply that technology? Do you want to apply it on current existing hardware or platforms, or do you want to wait for the next platform? And then what’s the right gameplay experience with that? There’s a host of factors that goes into it, and it’s something we’re always looking at.”

We’ve also seen reporters like Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat saying that the timeline of a Switch upgrade didn’t match up with 2021. Grubb himself said he heard 2022 as the timeframe for when the more powerful Switch could be released, but since he’s not officially reporting it let’s not take that as more than a guestimation.

What all of this information does tell us though is that a new more powerful Switch could absolutely still be in development. For the sake of Nintendo, we should hope one is because the current Switch just isn’t powerful enough to compete with modern-day hardware. Forget the 4K resolution for a second and focus on the chip that runs the console. From the day the Switch launched there have been complaints of games having inconsistent framerates and not being powerful enough to run some of the more elaborate games on it. This hasn’t been too much of a problem for the Switch yet, but third-party games are going to start shifting development to focus on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. If the Switch wants to continue having third-party support it will need more powerful hardware that can support running these newer games. Otherwise, they’re going to run out of games they can feasibly port to the console. The Switch needs a power upgrade desperately.

Lucky for fans of Nintendo a lot of signs point to the Nintendo Switch (OLED model) not being the final Switch. If anything their history of releasing multiple models of mobile devices in the past tells us that we’ll be getting plenty of Switches to choose from. Technically, the OLED model is actually the fourth Switch. The first update to the Switch happened in 2019 to address battery life problems. There is also the Switch Lite for players who want to experience the Switch as only a portable console. We are not done with updates, not by a long shot.

According to Star Wars legend, George Lucas invited his filmmaking buddies to his house to watch an early cut of the classic film that would go on to spawn a multi-billionaire franchise and a merchandising juggernaut. Among that group was longtime Lucas buddy Steven Spielberg, as well as Francis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma. As the story goes, only Spielberg got what was Lucas trying to accomplish, a throwback to old Buck Rogers serials with a dash of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films. Over the years, Spielberg also told people that De Palma was particularly critical, and now, De Palma is finally setting the record straight.

During a recent appearance on the Light the Fuse podcast, De Palma shot down Spielberg’s version of events, and made it clear that he definitely saw the potential in Star Wars. Via The Wrap:

“They always portray me as the guy that says the worst thing that drives everybody crazy, but if you’re gonna show me something, I’m gonna tell you what I think about it,” De Palma continued. “Why am I there unless I’m gonna give an honest appraisal of what I’ve seen? And in this case, the fact that Steven says that only he saw the possibilities of ‘Star Wars,’ that’s not really true.”

According to De Palma, “we all saw it as a terrific thing that George had done.” However, he does admit that he did offer some feedback that Lucas wisely ignored. Specifically, that “The Force” wasn’t the best name for the Jedi’s power. “Needless to say, I had a lot to say about The Force, which obviously I was terribly wrong about.”

(Via The Wrap)