Kamaru Usman (18-1) TKO’d Gilbert Burns (19-4) in the main event of UFC 258 to retain the welterweight title Saturday night from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
Burns came out firing, dropping Usman with a big right hand and stinging him again with an overhand right. Burns ended up on his back, challenging Usman to meet him on the ground. Instead, the champ regained his composure and waited for Burns to get back on his feet. The challenger struck with precision early and often, chipping away with little jabs and trading strikes with the champ.
Usman continued to jab away to open the second, finding his range and putting together a handful of combinations. Midway through the second, Usman hurt Burns with a huge right hand, sending him stumbling against the cage. Usman stunned Burns again with a jab-right hand combo, but the challenger kept coming forward. With around a minute remaining in the round, Usman dropped Burns with the jab and allowed the challenger to get back on his feet to close the second.
Usman opened the third, switching southpaw and dropping Burns with a big jab before getting the stoppage for a huge TKO victory.
Usman has steamrolled the welterweight division since earning the title in 2019 in a dominant win over Tyron Woodley. After knocking out Colby Covington and taking a decision victory from Jorge Masvidal in 2020, Usman opened 2021 with his toughest challenge to date against Burns. Following the fight, Usman signaled that he would like a second bout with Masvidal.
Burns came into his title tilt on a three-fight win streak, dominating the former champ, Woodley to a five-round decision victory in May 2020. He was scheduled to fight Usman in July before testing positive for COVID-19, but after more than six months away from the Octagon made his much-anticipated return.
But not every interview Letterman did earns high praise, and we were reminded of that on Saturday when a cringe-worthy interview he did with Lindsay Lohan went viral on Twitter. The video seems to have been passed around in the wake of the Framing Britney Spears documentary on Hulu, which is making a lot of people reexamine the way young women have been treated in the media.
On Saturday, journalist Trey Taylor shared a two minute clip from a 2013 interview Lohan did on Late Night With David Letterman where the titular host pressed Lohan about a number of issues including her time in rehab, making jokes at her expense that were called “horrifying.”
This Lindsay Lohan interview on David Letterman in 2013 is horrifying to watch now. pic.twitter.com/lZxKVvbVB0
You can watch the full interview above, but many people on social media noted how uncomfortable Lohan looked and criticized Letterman’s flippant attitude toward rehab, addiction and sobriety. Letterman consistently went back to Lohan’s time in rehab, and that she was scheduled to head back to rehab shortly after her appearance on the show.
“What are they rehab-ing? What is on their list? What are they going to work on when you walk through the door?” Letterman asked at one point, drawing some laughs from the audience.
Neither Lohan or Letterman had commented on the clip resurfacing by Saturday night, and the video that was on Twitter was just a portion of the total interview, which you can watch in full above. But it’s a reminder of how many young female celebrities were treated in pop culture less than a decade ago, and how poorly much of that footage looks in hindsight.
When it comes to traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, there are few presents more expected than chocolate. Roses come in a close second. Whiskey probably isn’t in the top ten.
To help you have more fun this weekend than chocolates and flowers can provide, we asked a handful of bartenders to tell us the best whiskeys to give to your Valentine. Check their answers below!
Chivas Regal Mizunara Cask Blended Scotch
Chivas Regal
Pablo Guerrero, food and beverage manager at Azabu in Miami
Chivas Regal Mizunara Cask is the way to go. The special Japanese wood gives this whiskey depth, creamy and smooth texture. Great for a cold winter day for lovers.
Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis
If you want to swap a box of chocolates for whiskey, Journeyman’s Last Feather Rye is the move. Distilled from the chocolate rye strain, this is unlike its more bright and spicy counterparts. It’s rich and woody on the nose, while the palate is dominated by cocoa nib and cherry.
The finish has some heat — perfect to send the right message to your Valentine on a special night.
Rabbit Hole’s Founder’s Collection Boxergrail is a great option with its high proof, enticing nuances, and rich texture. It is the perfect indulgence for all whiskey lovers this Valentine’s Day. The experience begins with citrus and spice heightened by bright floral notes and develops to a creamy, vanilla finish with a hint of nuttiness.
I recommend serving neat or over ice as this whiskey really sings on its own.
Charles Hardwick, former bartender at The Aviary in New York City
Aberlour 12 Year. It has great notes of dried fruit and heather, so delicate and complex and versatile. It’s a truly sexy whisky to share with that special someone.
Woodford Reserve Five Wood. This bottle is finished in sherry and port barrels giving the bourbon a rich taste of dark cherries, dry fruit, and caramel-coated nuts. It is a great gift for someone who wants the flavors of a box of chocolates.
Daniel Burns, bartender at Elixir in San Francisco
Bruichladdich Black Art 1994 Edition 07.1. It’s got the coolest packaging of any whisky I’ve ever seen. It’s also got the coolest story. Bruichladdich refuses to divulge exactly what goes into this blended malt each year, but you know it’s going to be old and delicious.
Much like true love, there is an element of mystery and much to discover. Year after year Black Art surprises and impresses us, and if you wanted to send a message on Valentine’s Day, I’d suppose you couldn’t do any better than that.
Chris Zulueta, bartender at Sylvain in New Orleans
I’d go with Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit. It’s a single barrel selection carefully watched under the longest-tenured master distiller (Jimmy Russel) at over 60 years. It has such great depth of those sweet nutty warm esters. It is also such an easy spirit to drink neat even at a 100+ proof, a true testament to his tenure.
Israel Meléndez Ayala, bartender in San Juan, Puerto Rico
The perfect gift for Valentine’s Day would be Knob Creek Stright Rye with vanilla and nuances in the nose perfect for a hot toddy if it’s cold. In warm weather, as in Puerto Rico, it goes well in a lion’s tail cocktail that matches well with the allspice dram liquor.
Aaron Polsky, former bartender at Harvard & Stone in Los Angeles
Westward Oregon Stout Cask—the notes that the stout cask layers over the single malt really give it some dark chocolate overtones — just like your Valentine might be expecting — and it’s a very gift-worthy bottle.
Isaac Rice, lead bartender at Urban Farmer in Philadelphia
If your love loves whiskey, go for WhistlePig 12 Year Old World Rye. It’s dessert in a glass. They take their signature rye whiskey and finish it in in port, Sauternes, and Madeira casks separately and blend them together to create an extremely unique flavor profile. It’s very rich with dark fruit from the port, butterscotch and honey from the Sauternes, and roasted nuts and toffee from the Madeira, all interwoven in a spicy rye.
Gabriel Benavides, bartender at Bar Abi Maria in Miami
Slane is such an amazing Irish Whiskey to give. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it leads me to enjoy Slane with chocolate due to the vanilla and butterscotch notes from the three cask styles used in the whiskey. Slane pairs so well with chocolate which is why I’d give your Valentine a bottle of Slane instead of chocolate this year.
Benjamin Pozar, bartender at Fogo de Chao in Philadelphia
My love likes bourbon. Angel’s Envy would be a go-to for us. It’s finished in port wine casks to give it a unique, sweet, caramel flavor. It’s a worthy alternative to chocolate.
A new football league kicked off its season on Saturday evening. Fan Controlled Football, a league that is exactly what it sounds like, began what will be a three-week regular season in a bubble in Georgia. The league has created some buzz due to the names involved — Richard Sherman, Quavo, and Mike Tyson are among its owners, Johnny Manziel is one of the players — and in a surprise move prior to his team’s first game, Marshawn Lynch took the field to play.
Lynch is one of the owners of Beasts alongside Tyson, professional wrestler Miro, and WNBA star Renee Montgomery. He turned some heads with his commentary during the first game — Wild Aces beat Glacier Boyz, 33-20 — which could only be described as “hilariously Marshawn.” Well, it’s also a little NSFW, but that’s neither here nor there.
After the game, Uproxx Sports learned, Lynch went into the locker room and threw on his pads, suiting up for a football game for the first time since the 2019-20 NFL season in which he played for the Seattle Seahawks.
The broadcast team later announced he wouldn’t play, but with Marshawn, you never really know for sure.
Lynch has floated a potential return to the NFL, but before that, he has some business to take care of in the FCF. If you’re interested in watching, you can head on over to the league’s Twitch account.
Donald Trump didn’t get convicted on his impeachment charges for a second time on Saturday, this time after a hectic day where Democrats hurriedly decided not to call witnesses to testify in his Senate trial. The resulting vote, 57-43, to convict him wasn’t enough for the measure to pass. That decision will have political fallout for generations to come, but Fox News isn’t exactly staying “fair and balanced” in the aftermath of the vote.
On Saturday afternoon, the right-wing news organization sent out a tweet about the impeachment trial that shared an article about who “turned their backs on Trump” during the trial. As in, who they voted to convict Trump for inciting insurrection on January 6.
Twitter
The tweet was eventually deleted, but it was also sent out in a push notification that got a lot of people talking.
And others made sure to get a screenshot because it was particularly inflammatory considering the rhetoric that led Republicans and Trump to having supporters storm the US Capitol in a deadly riot.
It should be said that the same news could be shared in a much less inflammatory manner. The New York Times, for example, has a similar post titled “Here are the seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump.” But the phrase “turned their backs” on Trump certainly made waves on Saturday. And when the network resent out that tweet, it was much more innocuously written.
Deshaun Watson’s got a lot going on right now. The All-Pro signal caller wants out of Houston, as things have gotten pretty weird with the Texans due to the fact that they’ve hit near-rock bottom over the last year. Their struggles on the field and their turmoil off of it — including a coaching search that reportedly rubbed Watson the wrong way — have all come to a head, and now, Watson wants to join J.J. Watt in moving on from the organization. Houston, meanwhile, has made it pretty clear it wants to keep Watson around, which isn’t a shock, because he is quite good.
Like most athletes, though, Watson has other things to do away from the daily grind that is playing his sport. For example, on Saturday, he met up with legendary music producer Timbaland for lunch, where the pair were joined by Watson’s most recent purchase: A 1994 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson rookie card from back in his football days.
The card recently sold at auction for just a hair more than $45,000.
Of course, if someone wanted to really read way too far into this, they would probably mention something about how the Miami Dolphins have long been rumored as a potential landing spot for Watson, and Johnson both is from and went to Miami. Or they could just say “oh cool Deshaun and Timbaland got lunch and Deshaun brought a cool card,” which is probably much closer to the truth.
Alaina Castillo has come a long way since her moody, Latin-influenced pop turned her into a rising pop star to watch. After last year’s Voicenotes EP, Castillo had plans to ready her debut album, but with the impact of the pandemic on the music industry, she had to put some of those plans on hold. Luckily, like a lot of other young artists, Castillo is ready to head into 2021 with guns blazing, and her cocky new single “STFU (I Got U)” does just that. While her earlier material was quieter and sometimes reminiscent of church music and hymns, this swaggering new track represents stepping into a new era for Alaina.
“I’ve always been that quiet person that thought it was better to be silent than to put myself out there so “STFU (I Got U)” is the confidence of who i was always too shy to be,” she said of this new single. The song is anything but shy, with Castillo chiding a lover who is insecure about her feelings for them. It’s a more adult sound for the 20-year-old Texan singer, and a track that gets at the complicated push and pull of confidence and self-doubt that comes with new relationships. Check out the video above and look for a lot more new music from Castillo throughout this year.
The Bachelor and its extended online universe is always full of drama in one way or another, but a contestant’s racist past has now officially sidelined show host Chris Harrison. The longtime host of ABC’s reality program apologized twice this week for comments he made about a current contestant, Rachel Kirkconnell, and a racism controversy of her own. On Saturday, in his second apology he announced he would be “stepping aside” from the role of Bachelor host for a period of time.
“The historic season of The Bachelor should not be marred or overshadowed by my mistakes or diminished by my actions,” Harrison wrote Saturday on Instagram. “To that end, I have consulted with Warner Bros. and ABC and will be stepping aside for a period of time and will not join for the After the Final Rose special.”
The controversy comes amid a season of the long-running reality program that was supposed to be a step toward diversity for The Bachelor. Matt James, the current Bachelor, is the show’s first Black male lead in history, and the show touted a much more diverse cast than the white-dominated past seasons. But as the show progressed, many fans on social media called out Kirkconnell’s history of racism and cultural appropriation seen on social media, including photos of her in Native American costumes and attending an Antebellum-themed party in college.
As that controversy grew among Bachelor followers, Harrison addressed it in an interview on Extra between he and the show’s first Black lead, Rachel Lindsay. As People laid out, Harrison essentially defended Kirkconnell and attempted to downplay the racism involved because, among other reasons, it happened in 2018.
“I saw a picture of her at a sorority party five years ago and that’s it. Like, boom. Like, ‘Okay. Well, this girl is in this book now. And she’s now in this group.’ And I’m like, ‘Really?’” said Harrison.
Lindsay went on to explain that the image in question “was from 2018 at an Old South antebellum party … that’s not a good look.”
Harrison proceeded to suggest that perspectives change over time. “Well, Rachel is it a good look in 2018? Or, is it not a good look in 2021? Because there’s a big difference,” said Harrison.
You can watch the full segment between Harrison and Lindsay here. But that argument, and excusing racism that happened just three years ago because it’s a different time now, didn’t sit well with many Bachelor fans. And it quickly prompted a first apology from Harrison that he posted to social media on Wednesday.
Harrison apologized for “wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism,” but it did little to change the situation. And other Black former members of the cast have condemned both the photos and Harrison’s response to them, which has caused added fuel to the fire and likely caused Harrison to step aside. Tayshia Adams, who stepped in as a midseason replacement for The Bachelorette, was particularly critical according to People.
“I am really hurt and disappointed and confused at the ignorance when it comes to race,” said Adams, 30. “The things that have come to light within the Bachelor franchise this past week have just been eye-opening.”
“The photo that [Kirkconnell] was in is racist; the party she attended, racist. Her actions have been racist,” she continued. “When there are blatant forms of racist acts you cannot be defensive of it. It speaks volumes, and I just have to say I am really hurt by this response.”
It’s an uncomfortable situation for Harrison to be in for a number of reasons. So much of the Bachelor ecosystem relies on controversy and commentary, but the episodes are already in the can and the show knows who James picks here well before it airs. Kirkconnell is widely considered to be the frontrunner to win, and the controversy about her past racism shines negative light not only on the show, but its ability to properly vet contestants before they appear on air. If Kirkconnell made it past that process, either it says the show doesn’t think those images were deal-breakers, or they didn’t do enough research to disqualify her as a contestant.
All of that drama, continued speculation about other incidents in Kirkconnell’s past and statements from people of color in the Bachelor ecosystem forced Harrison to issue a second apology on Saturday, which included word that he would leave the show for an unspecified amount of time.
The remaining episodes of The Bachelor are already filmed, so Harrison will still appear on camera. But so, too, will Kirkconnell, and with speculation growing that she makes it far into the season the show will eventually have to address the controversy in some way, without Harrison involved for now.
It’s possible there has never been a debut album more anticipated than Normani Kordei Hamilton. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but while the former Fifth Harmony member has been working on her solo career for a while now, dropping enormous singles like her Sam Smith collab “Dancing With A Stranger” and “Motivation” (a song co-written by Ariana Grande), fans are still waiting for a full-length. That might have something to do with last year’s music industry shutdown of course, but even before that she was clearly struggling in 2020 when she spoke on how fellow 5Her Camila Cabello’s racist past resurfacing impacted her directly.
Before the impact of the pandemic in March of 2020, Normani was hopeful that a new single would be coming last summer, but COVID-19 changed plans for plenty of artists, not the least of which those who were readying their first album. Maybe, fans are finally going to get that single.
Now Normani is acknowledging that fans haven’t heard from her for a while by sharing a song snippet that deals with the same subject matter. “Know it’s been a while,” she wrote as a caption to a new short video posted on Instagram and Twitter, with a new song playing in the background. Sitting on grass somewhere overlooking a city, Normani reminds us all that she can dance better than almost anyone doing it — while sitting down. Let’s hope we get more info on this slow jam soon, because it sounds like a great follow-up to her upbeat first single.
Flopping: People don’t like it! NBA players are no strangers to embellishing contact, and it’s not exactly something that is new to the league, either. There are, of course, some dudes who don’t like doing it, but plenty of guys in the league will try their best to trick referees into giving them a whistle.
One such player who understands this is LeBron James, who is among the league’s best at the dark art of the flop. The issue for James is that this is a reputation that follows him every now and then, and on Friday night in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 115-105 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, James’ propensity for seeking out a whistle came back to bite him.
During the second quarter of action, Anthony Davis missed a jumper that was corralled by Grayson Allen. James, however, flailed his arms about and was able to draw a foul on Dillon Brooks, then got to the charity stripe and hit a pair of free throws. As a result, the league hit James with a flopping warning on Saturday.
Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James received a warning for violating the league’s anti-flopping rule Feb. 12 vs. Memphis. pic.twitter.com/NovQbnBEE0
And now, it is time for a brief defense of flopping. It is unclear why LeBron James should not try to take advantage of the fact that he knows that the referees will have a quick whistle and give him the benefit of the doubt in the moment. Drawing a foul and potentially getting two points at the free throw line gives the Lakers two more points, which means his flopping gets them closer to scoring more points than the other basketball team, which is the thing you need to do if you would like to win a game. As an added bonus, it draws a foul on an opposing player, meaning they inch one step closer to the six fouls that a player is allowed to draw before they are disqualified.
There is a financial penalty for flopping, yes, but for someone like James, it is extremely easy to not care about this. Should he flop and get called on it, the league will respond with a warning, and then, if he keeps doing it, a fine of $5,000 that goes up by $5,000 each time will be assessed. By a quick iPhone calculation, just going off of James’ annual $39.22 million salary (not including the fact that he is, you know, worth at least nine figures due to off-court stuff he has going on), a fine of $5,000 is 0.00012749 percent of what he makes. Perhaps it is a bit silly to waste one of these flopping warnings for a regular season tilt against the Grizzlies as opposed to, say, in a playoff battle with the Utah Jazz, but the point stands: this ain’t a lot to LeBron.
Anyway, in case it was not obvious, I like soccer.
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