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Francis Ngannou (17-3) earned a unanimous decision victory over Ciryl Gane (10-1) to retain the UFC heavyweight crown Saturday night from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California at UFC 270. Despite being seriously hampered, fighting on a torn MCL and an injured ACL, Ngannou battled valiantly and managed to outlast Gane in a statement championship title defense.

Gane was quick on his feet early, moving around the Octagon before rushing in to push Ngannou against the cage. The champ was patient, landing a flurry of shots, then following Gane as he escaped out. Gane continued to strike and move, connecting on a few kicks to the midsection while moving out of the champ’s range.

Gane continued to chip away with slight kicks to the leg and midsection early in the second. Ngannou, with two knee wraps, looked a little stuck in the mud as the quicker Gane refused to be a stationary target. Gane continued to frustrate Ngannou, and the crowd, with his movement, but he kept scoring points on the judges’ scorecards.

In the third, Ngannou jumped in much more aggressively, attacking with pace and eventually catching a kick from Gane, picking him up and bodyslamming him to the mat. From side control, Ngannou moved into mount then took Gane’s back. Gane moved out and back to his feet before Ngannou earned another takedown, but Gane was right back to his feet again. At the end of the round, Ngannou earned yet another takedown in a true statement round for the champ.

The fourth saw Ngannou’s pace slow significantly, while Gane continued to chip away with slight leg kicks and a few body shots. The champ earned another big takedown, moving to take Gane’s back. Gane found his way back to his feet before Ngannou took him down again, thwarting any transition attempts from the challenger and taking control of the bout.

With the margin of error razor thin headed into round five, Gane shifted his gameplan slightly and opened with sitting down on his punches. Gane caught a leg kick early in the round and put the champ on his back. From this back, Ngannou earned a gigantic reversal and found his way on top, but the challenger attempted to put him in a leg lock. Ngannou survived and took Gane’s back before moving into half guard, where he held the position through the final buzzer.

Ngannou, whose UFC contract has now expired, won the heavyweight belt after knocking out Stipe Miocic in March 2021 and may not ever fight in the Octagon again. Gane’s rise to the championship fight came on the back of an unbeaten UFC record and three consecutive wins in 2021, with decision victories over Jairzhino Rozenstruik and Alexander Volkov, before knocking out Derrick Lewis in the interim title fight in August.

Two fights couldn’t seal one of the UFC’s best rivalries in recent years and Dana White was eager to sign off on the trilogy bout between Brandon Moreno (19-6-2) and Deiveson Figueiredo (21-2-1) at UFC 270. Their third fight in just three years, Figueiredo retained the flyweight belt in their bout fight thanks to a majority draw, Moreno claimed the title with a submission victory in their second, and on Saturday night from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, Figueiredo earned his championship back thanks to a 48-47 decision victory.

A slimmer Figueiredo opened the bout the more aggressive of the two, walking down Moreno and chopping the champ down with counter leg kicks, sending him to the mat twice in the first round. Figueiredo earned a takedown and took Moreno’s back, but the champ easily found his way back to his feet. Confident in his approach, Moreno put his power on full display in the second round, stuffing takedowns and exchanging bombs from his feet. Figueiredo appeared to stun Moreno momentarily, only for the champ to come back with a big right of his own just before the end of the round.

In the third, Figueiredo earned a takedown again in the third, but couldn’t capitalize on the ground. Figueiredo sent Moreno stumbling backwards, but it was Moreno again hurting the former champion with a heavy-handed shot. A short left hook stopped Figueiredo in his tracks, hurting the challenger again. Figueiredo continued to chop Moreno with outside leg kicks and the champ appeared to Figueiredo yet again with a big right hand. Toward the end of the third, Figueiredo sent Moreno fast first into the mat with a quick, counter right overhand, then locked in a front choke as time in the round expired.

Figueiredo found his rhythm with short outside leg kicks over and again throughout the round as Moreno was clearly compromised by the pain of his leg. Moreno appeared to take control back over the fight toward the end of the round, walking down Figueiredo before the challenger clinched him against the Octagon. Moreno fought his way from the cage, continuing to stand in and toss big shots.

To open the fifth, Moreno locked in a body lock and pressured Figueiredo to the ground. The challenger quickly found his way back to his feet and midway through the round sent the champion stumbling backwards with a big right hand. Moreno moved even further into counterstriking in the final two minutes, patiently waiting for Figueiredo to toss something before moving forward with a flurry. The final 30 seconds of the fight saw Moreno and Figueiredo throw everything they had remaining to give the judges any further incentive to sway the card one way or another.

With another fight going to decision, it’s hard to imagine White going another direction than Moreno-Figueiredo IV, but at some point, you’ve got to give other challengers a shot at the belt. We’ll see where the UFC goes in the months to come.

Despite getting the 1-seed in the NFC, having home field advantage until they’d reach the Super Bowl, and a pretty subpar game by the San Francisco 49ers’ offense, the Green Bay Packers were one-and-done in the 2022 NFL playoffs. San Francisco went up to Lambeau Field and picked up a 13-10 win on a blocked punt for a touchdown and a pair of field goals by Robbie Gould, including one that went through the uprights as time expired.

The loss marks the end of a weird season for Green Bay. Despite their brilliance on the field, that did not receive a ton of focus for a stretch of their season. That’s because star quarterback Aaron Rodgers made headlines for a number of comments about COVID-19, its vaccine, cancel culture, and a whole lot of other stuff.

Rodgers did not play well in the loss. The Niners defense deserves a ton of credit, but his numbers were subpar — 20-for-25, 225 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions — and down the stretch, Green Bay’s offense totally stalled out.

As a result of his performance in the loss and the controversy he stirred up earlier this year, football fans hopped onto Twitter and got off a ton of jokes at his expense. Unsurprisingly, basically all of them were callbacks to his COVID comments earlier this year

Despite an underwhelming game by Jimmy Garoppolo, the San Francisco 49ers will play for the chance to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. The Niners made the trip to a freezing cold Lambeau Field on Saturday night to take on the top-seeded Green Bay Packers, and thanks to a monster performance by the team’s defense and special teams, San Francisco came out on top, 13-10.

It was a gross, nasty game, with San Francisco’s defense doing everything it could to keep them in the game. Their offense did not always reciprocate that — the Niners ran for 3.7 yards per carry, while Garoppolo went 11-for-19 for 131 yards with no touchdowns and a pick. Still, the door was cracked open, and with the team down by a touchdown with just under five minutes remaining, it looked like San Francisco’s offense was going to get the ball back in good field position as the Packers punted from their own 12.

That didn’t happen, because the Niners’ special teams blocked Corey Bojorquez’s attempted kick. Talanoa Hufanga recovered it, and just like that, the game was tied at 10.

San Francisco’s defense came right back onto the field and forced a three-and-out, giving the ball back to Garoppolo with 3:20 left. The team managed to move the ball down the field and get into range for Robbie Gould, who has never missed a kick in his playoff career. That continues to be the case, as he banged in a 45-yard boot — his second of the evening — to punch his team’s ticket to the NFC Championship Game.

The Niners will once again go on the road for the title game, playing the winner of Sunday’s matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

(Plentiful spoilers from Netflix’s Ozark will be found below.)

If you’re already caught up with Ozark Season 3 (and the big deaths that go down), then you’re probably already headed into Season 4 territory. You’ll want to know what’s up with this unusually structured season, however, so let’s get to that lowdown.

Yes, this season is the final mop-up of the Byrde family’s money-laundering messes. The good news, though, is that this is a supersized season with 14 episodes split into two batches. The first half of those episodes hit Netflix on Friday, January 21. The season’s a hit here on Uproxx (Julia Garner steals the whole joint) with overall critical reception being very strong (92% fresh rating) on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s consistent with the show’s reputation as a critical darling, but how does the viewership stack up?

The verdict’s still out on how Season 4 premiere weekend will go, but Ozark is a crowd favorite show and has been a strong draw for Netflix since its July 2017 first-season premiere. Ratings have stayed strong with the Hollywood Reporter noting that Season 3 (and rewatches) “logg[ed] 30.46 billion minutes of viewing” in 2020, which (in Nielsen terms) made it the top original streaming show of the year.

As far as when Season 4, Part 2 will surface, there’s no concrete answer to that question, but we can make some guesses based upon other two-part seasons from Netflix. For example, Masters of the Universe: Revelation released its first part on July 23, 2021 and its second part on November 23, 2021. And Unsolved Mysteries premiered a first half-season on July 1, 2021 and its second half on October 19, 2021.

If there’s a pattern here, then we can hope for Ozark‘s final batch of episodes to arrive within four to six months and almost certainly within one year, but only Netflix knows the answer to that question for sure. Fingers crossed that we’ll see how Ruth handles the fallout of her Season 4, Episode 7 rage session before too long.

‘Ozark’ is currently streaming (Season 4, Part 1) on Netflix.

The Cincinnati Bengals are headed to the AFC Championship Game. Despite starting signal caller Joe Burrow getting sacked nine times, Cincinnati was able to take down the 1-seed Tennessee Titans in Nashville on Saturday evening, 19-16, to secure the first road playoff win in franchise history.

It looked like Cincinnati was going to face quite the uphill battle. Beyond the fact that their offensive line struggled mightily against the Titans front, the Bengals were forced to punt with 2:43 left in a tied game, meaning Tennessee could make its way down the field and pick up a win in regulation.

Tennessee opted to be ultra-conservative as a result, mixing runs and short passes together and finding itself facing third-and-5 from its own 40. Ryan Tannehill dropped back and looked to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, but the pass was tipped and fell into the arms of Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson.

With 20 seconds left and two timeouts on the board, the Bengals had some time to get the ball down the field if Burrow could stay upright. It took them exactly one play to do that, as Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase for a 19-yard gain to get the team deep enough into Titan territory. After getting the ball where standout rookie kicker Evan McPhearson wanted it, the former Florida standout lined up for his fourth field goal attempt of the game, and his 52-yard attempt was dang near perfect.

Now, the Bengals will sit back and wait to see where they’re headed next week — the team will travel to either Buffalo or Kansas City for the AFC Championship Game as the lower-seeded team. Before then, the Bills will travel to play the Chiefs on Sunday evening.

A lot has been going on with Demi Lovato, so it makes sense that a sonic rebrand would be in order, too. The teen pop star recently came out as nonbinary, letting fans know they prefer using “they/them” pronouns, and helping educate the rest of the mainstream, heteronormative public about what the shift means for dating and attraction. Additionally, after several severe relapses and near-death experiences, the singer has chosen to live completely sober now, not just “California sober,” which usually means the person in question still uses marijuana despite abstaining from other drugs and alcohol.

Last night, Lovato brought that same energy to their music career, posting a somber, staged photo of their team — including manager Scooter Braun – all dressed in black. In the photo, Lovato is also with her new label, Island records, and is shown flipping off the camera with both middle fingers. Very punk rock, indeed. “A funeral for my pop music,” they wrote as the caption for the post. And a snippet of new music, which leaned decidedly pop-punk, was also posted to their Instagram story. Check out the funeral post above, as well as a snippet of what the singer posted to their story to preview a new sound.

It sounds pretty good, but I wonder how Miley feels about all this?

The When We Were Young music festival announced its lineup for their upcoming showcase later this fall. It’s set to be headlined by My Chemical Romance and Paramore and feature additional performances from A Day To Remember, Taking Back Sunday, Avril Lavigne, Bright Eyes, Jimmy Eat World, Boys Like Girls, The All-American Rejects, Mayday Parade, We The Kings, 3OH!3, The Ready Set, and more. While many were excited about the festival, which is set to go down during the weekend of October 22-23, others raised some concerns after seeing who was behind the When We Were Young festival.

Is The When We Were Young festival put on by the same people as Astroworld?

Yes, the one thing that the When We Were Young festival and Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival have in common is that they were both put on by the same company: Live Nation. It was just two months ago, that the tragedy at Astroworld left ten dead and hundreds injured. Both Travis and Live Nation, as well as others, face nearly $1 billion in lawsuits as a result of the incident. While Live Nation being the promoter behind Astroworld may be a point of concern for some, it should be also noted that Live Nation is responsible for a number of other festivals and tours that occur throughout the world. A shortlist includes Bottlerock, Bonnaroo, Rolling Loud, Austin City Limits, and more. Live Nation will also be responsible for upcoming tours done by Jazmine Sullivan, Cordae, Amine, Kane Brown, KYLE, Haim, Beach House, JoJo, and many more.

Unfortunately, if you’re interested in attending the When We Were Young festival, tickets for both days of the showcase have sold out.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The When We Were Young music festival announced its lineup for their upcoming showcase later this fall. It’s set to be headlined by My Chemical Romance and Paramore and feature additional performances from A Day To Remember, Taking Back Sunday, Avril Lavigne, Bright Eyes, Jimmy Eat World, Boys Like Girls, The All-American Rejects, Mayday Parade, We The Kings, 3OH!3, The Ready Set, and more. While many were excited about the festival, which is set to go down during the weekend of October 22-23, others raised some concerns after seeing who was behind the When We Were Young festival.

Is The When We Were Young festival put on by the same people as Astroworld?

Yes, the one thing that the When We Were Young festival and Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival have in common is that they were both put on by the same company: Live Nation. It was just two months ago, that the tragedy at Astroworld left ten dead and hundreds injured. Both Travis and Live Nation, as well as others, face nearly $1 billion in lawsuits as a result of the incident. While Live Nation being the promoter behind Astroworld may be a point of concern for some, it should be also noted that Live Nation is responsible for a number of other festivals and tours that occur throughout the world. A shortlist includes Bottlerock, Bonnaroo, Rolling Loud, Austin City Limits, and more. Live Nation will also be responsible for upcoming tours done by Jazmine Sullivan, Cordae, Amine, Kane Brown, KYLE, Haim, Beach House, JoJo, and many more.

Unfortunately, if you’re interested in attending the When We Were Young festival, tickets for both days of the showcase have sold out.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The second SNL of 2022 boasts a big get: the triumphant return of Will Forte. The comic and actor on the show for eight seasons, from 2002 to 2010, though he’s made return appearances from time to time, most recently in 2016. During his tenure, he did the requisite impersonations: He took over George W. Bush from the just-departed Will Ferrell, and he also handled Newt Gingrich, John Edwards, Brian Williams, and more. But he was best known for MacGruber, the MacGyver send-up he later milked for a movie and, now, a show on Peacock. But why did he ever leave?

When Forte’s decision to leave after eight seasons was first announced, his reasons were mysterious. In a press statement, SNL honcho Lorne Michaels was cryptic, simply said he was going to “pursue new opportunities.” But a few years later, after he scored the title role in the popular show The Last Man on Earth, he opened up more about skedaddling from a steady, much-watched gig he had done for almost a decade.

“It was way more of a personal decision than a professional one,” Forte told The Daily Beast in 2017. “It’s always going to be a crapshoot when you leave there in terms of getting work, but it just felt like the right thing to do. I had been there for eight years, just turned 40, and my sister was having kids and they’re all on the West Coast, so I wanted to be closer to them.”

He added, “But I loved that job. I’m so thrilled I got to be a part of that show; it was like my family. But it just felt like it was the right time.”

A few years earlier, he had intimated about some of the other reasons he decided his SNL run should end. In 2013, while promoting his most dramatic starring turn in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, opposite screen legend Bruce Dern (and with Bob Odenkirk as his brother), he talked to Grantland about how the intensity of the show — and the fact that he’s “a little OCD” — didn’t make for an ideal work-life balance.

“I’m not trying to brag, but I’m a hard worker, and there, the actors are writers,” he said at the time. “So I would work really hard to write, and find myself there for long periods of time. And it’s a really hard, intense process. It’s a lot of work. So it’s hard to have a life outside of that.”

But 0nce Forte was no longer caught up in the mad grind of cranking out SNL episodes 20-some episodes a year, he was surprised by how he felt.

“The weird thing is the first time the rest of the cast is back doing the show and you’re not there,” he told Grantland. “You miss it with all your heart. It’s really hard to watch the show for awhile, because you just want to be there. But at the same time, that’s your family there, you want to support the show, but it’s hard to for a little while, because you want to be back there. And it was my choice to leave, so that made it even harder, because it’s like, ‘I could be there right now! Why am I not there, if I’m missing it so much?’ That took awhile, to talk myself into thinking I made the right decision.”

Forte will host SNL alongside musical guest Maneskin on Saturday, Jan. 22. The new MacGruber show streams on Peacock.