This Week in Sports: August 3rd

The NBA and MLB are officially back (for now), and we also had a little UFC this weekend. Who knows how long major sports leagues will be able to hold it together, but for now we can enjoy sports being back in a more limited fashion.

UFC Vegas 5 on Saturday (August 1st) Night

Derek Brunson won his fight as a +250 underdog in the main event against Edmen Shahbazyan in the UFC’s first event after their successful stint in Abu Dhabi, or fight island. Brunson was about to TKO him at the end of Round 2 but Edmen was saved by the bell. Brunson continued to dominate him in the 3rd round to win by TKO with only 26 seconds remaining in the fight.

Yankees and Dodgers remain at the top of the MLB's power rankings

Aaron Judge continues his incredible beginning to the season with 6 homers in only 8 games. On the other side of the coin the Dodgers have 5 players with at least 10 hits through 10 games (Pollock, Seager, Hernandez, Betts, Turner). Both these teams had fantastic weekends winning both of their games on Saturday and Sunday, look for them to continue their early success.

A tale of two cities: Rockets and Mavs since the NBA restart

If you had told me one of these teams would be off to a 0-2 start in the bubble I wouldn't have believed you. Maybe it's because I'm way more of a Luka fan than a Harden fan, but I would have guessed the Rockets were 0-2. But nope, the Mavs have lost 2 straight blowing double-digit leads in both to the Rockets and the Suns. The Rockets have obviously comeback against Dallas and managed to pull off a similar revival in their win over the Bucks.

Justin Thomas wins the WGC-FedEx St. Jude this weekend

A big win for JT to become the number #1 ranked golfer on the PGA tour this year. He had a crazy 15th Hole tee shot that he turned into back to back birdies on holes 15/16 to secure his victory. Brooks Koepka fought hard to take the lead late by cutting a corner on 18 and landing his ball in the water. He double bogey'ed that hole which lost him the solo-2nd place. Thomas began Sunday 4 strokes back but took the lead shooting 5 under, his best day of the tournament.

The Rock buys the XFL for $15 Million

This is huge news as the XFL had canceled their season due to COVID and prior to this buyout, had no plans to conduct a season next year either. If the MLB is an example of how the NFL season will go, I could see the XFL creating a bubble with their 8 teams and doing it more NBA-style.

There were some great moments in sports this week between some home run-heavy baseball games or late-game comebacks in the NBA bubble, but more than anything it was amazing to be able to watch some real sports again. I don't mean to shit on soccer and UFC because honestly, I've grown to like them a lot more, but I think everyone's missed the NBA and MLB. There have been reports that the MLB recently told their network stations to prepare for alternative programming; and with half of the Marlins team getting COVID, I don't know how great the future looks for baseball (And in turn what that will mean for the NFL). For now, I'm down to enjoy it while I can, but if I have to go back to betting on horses then so be it🤷‍♂️.