Benoit Saint-Denis will fight at UFC 315 after all, but fans aren’t happy with his new opponent booking.

UFC lightweight contender Benoit Saint-Denis‘s originally scheduled opponent, Joel Alvarez, withdrew from UFC 315 this past weekend due to an undisclosed injury. After the news broke of Alvarez’s withdrawal, many questioned whether or not the knockout artist Saint-Denis would remain on the UFC 315 card or if the matchmakers would save him for another event.

It was a big blow just days ahead of UFC 315, which marks the promotion’s return to Montreal after a lengthy absence. It was an important opportunity for Saint-Denis after suffering back-to-back knockout defeats in 2024.

Despite a Top 15 lightweight offering to step in to fight Saint-Denis, the French star will face a significant downgrade in competition at UFC 315.

Fans are extremely critical of Benoit Saint-Denis’s new booking for UFC 315

As reported by TSN‘s Aaron Bronsteter, Saint-Denis will face 26-fight veteran Kyle Prepolec in a lightweight bout at UFC 315. Prepolec fought twice previously in the UFC Octagon, dropping unanimous decisions to Austin Hubbard and Nordine Taleb.

Prepolec was scheduled to face PFL veteran Michael Dufort at a Samourai MMA event on Friday before getting the call to face Saint-Denis at UFC 315.

After the news broke of Saint-Denis vs. Prepolec, fight fans weren’t happy.

“This is awful considering the potential available options,” one fan responded on X.

“Free win for BSD,” another said.

“Fair play to him, but he’s well up there in years.”

“F— you [UFC]. You guys fumbled Benoit vs. Rebecki. Benoit in 1.”

“Who da f— is that guy?”

“Saying no to Gamrot and then taking this fight. SMH.”

“They doing anything to let Benoit get a win.”

“Jeez I’m Canadian and even I never heard of this guy.”

“Tell me this is a joke, please.”

“Can’t even imagine what the odds are gonna look like.”

Saint-Denis is looking to bounce back from the first losing streak of his MMA career after losses to Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano last year. Before his recent struggles, Saint-Denis won five consecutive fights, including finishes of Ismael Bonfim and Thiago Moises.

While Prepolec’s UFC tenure didn’t impress, he’s been on a roll in this current chapter of his career. He’s won four of his last five fights and is fresh off three brutal knockout victories.

UFC Hall of Famer praised ‘complete package’ Belal Muhammad ahead of UFC 315

After Saint-Denis’s position on the UFC 315 was secured, the matchmakers can turn their attention towards an intriguing card on Saturday night. UFC 315 is headlined by UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad‘s first title defense against Jack Della Maddalena.

Ahead of UFC 315, Muhammad received huge praise from UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre, whom he is chasing down in discussing the all-time great welterweights. St-Pierre called Muhammad a ‘complete package’ and compared his style to the one he demonstrated during his Hall of Fame career.

If anything happens with the UFC 315 main event, Ian Machado Garry will be on site to serve as the backup fighter, although Muhammad dismisses that he’ll be needed this weekend. Garry most recently defeated Carlos Prates at UFC Kansas City.

Dutch grappler De Ridder (20-2) co-headlined
UFC on ESPN 67 opposite Nickal (7-1) at the Wells Fargo Arena
in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday. While de Ridder closed in as a
hefty betting underdog ahead of the pairing, he surprised everyone
by choosing to wrestle the former three-time NCAA Division I champ
right from the start. De Ridder spoiled Nickal’s unbeaten record by
folding him with knees to the body in the second round.

“The Dutch Knight” then called out Sean
Strickland, a decision he admitted he might already regret due
to the former champ’s well-known trash talk. But De Ridder believes
Strickland is an interesting matchup for him stylistically, and
can’t want to get the bout booked. De Ridder said at the UFC Des Moines
post-fight presser:

“I think I might be regretting it a little bit,” De Ridder remarked
later that night after calling out Strickland in the Octagon. “But
as I said in the cage, [Bo] is the best American wrestler, let’s do
the best American striker. I like Sean, he’s a funny dude, he’s a
real character… And I think it’s an interesting matchup style wise.
He’s got a very good jab, I don’t think my jab is too bad. I would
like that fight… next week, Montreal baby, let’s go.”

A former two-division ONE Championship title holder, de Ridder has
finished all three of his UFC opponents since joining the promotion
last November. Meanwhile, Strickland is coming off a failed
middleweight bid to regain his title in a rematch against Dricus Du
Plessis.

Score: UC Davis 0, UC Riverside 1
Winning Pitcher: Maddie Heinlin (13-14)
Losing Pitcher: Ashley Sawai (11-13)
Records: UC Davis 15-36 (9-18), UC Riverside 21-29 (12-15)
Location: Davis, Calif. (La Rue Field)

The short story: In the season finale, where UC Davis softball honored its four seasons, the Aggies fell in a close game to UC Riverside to end the 2025 campaign.
 
LEADING OFF

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The game was very much a pitching duel between the two Aggie aces and UC Riverside’s Heinlin, with neither team scoring runs over the first four frames
• Over those opening frames that Aggies held UC Riverside to just four hits
• But in the fifth, UC Riverside got on the board after a runner was knocked in via a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0
• Despite the Aggie attempts at scoring the tying run over the final three frames, UC Davis could not find the run it needed to extend the game and the season, falling 1-0 to wrap up 2025

Read Full Article

LEONIA, N.J. — The No. 4-ranked Cornell men’s lightweight rowing team swept all three races against No. 7-ranked MIT and No. 10-ranked Columbia on Overpeck Creek inside Overpeck County Park on Saturday morning.

Cornell’s 3V8+ opened the day with a 10.6-second victory over Columbia’s 3V8+ with a time of 5:53.4. The Big Red’s 4V8+ also competed, finishing in third in 6:06.5.

The Big Red’s 2V8+ crew logged the closest margin of victory on the day, edging Columbia by 3.6 seconds after clocking a 5:46.5 piece. MIT finished in third with a 6:15.1 time.

Posting a 7.5-second victory over MIT in the Geiger Cup race, Cornell clocked the fastest time of any crew on the day (5:34.3). MIT was second with its 5:41.7 time and Columbia placed third (5:45.0).

Cornell has won consecutive Geiger Cup races for the first time since 2019 and 2022, and is the first instance it won in successive years since 2014 and 2015. The Big Red’s success on Columbia’s waters were further solidified on Saturday, as the Big Red has now won the Geiger Cup in each of the last seven runnings (2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2022, 2024, and 2025).

Saturday’s racing featured MIT for the first time since 2018, as the Engineers had its best placing in the cup race since also finishing in second place in 1993 in Ithaca.

RESULTS
1V8+:
Cornell: 5:34.26
MIT: 5:41.72
Columbia: 5:44.97
 
2V8+:
Cornell: 5:46.5
Columbia: 5:50.1
MIT: 6:15.1
 
3V8+:
Cornell: 5:53.35
Columbia: 6:03.95
Cornell 4V8+: 6:06.49

BOATINGS
1V8+: Aden Walsey (coxswain), Jack Savell (stroke), Emmett Patterson, Andrew Hohlt, Nathan Bechard, Grant Smith, Peter Albrecht, Sam Alston, Eliott Swinney (bow).
 
2V8+: Amanda Johnson (coxswain), Jack Oliveira (stroke), Eric Genden, Gabe Xu, Steven Busby, Colin Bailey, Calder Fritz, Tomas Eliot Foxley, Patrick Reilly (bow).
 
3V8+: Joycelyn Vu (coxswain), Luke Zaslow (stroke), Owen Brown, Keaton Lynch, David Soucie-Garza, John Zegger, Teddy Holtman, Jon Mayer, Maximilian Purcea (bow).
 
4V8+: Sofia Lago (coxswain), Matteo Calalang (stroke), Tyler Forg, Ryan Aghazadeh, Tanas Kazlas, Francis Lau, Dylan Price, William Fang, Michael Phelps (bow).

A LOOK UPSTREAM
Cornell will return to action on Sunday, May 18, when it races at the Eastern Sprints Championship in Worcester, Mass., on Lake Quinsigamond.

The Big Red are scheduled to send five crews to the event, highlighted by four V8+ crews and a V4+.
 

Jorge Valdano says of Sergio Ramos that he ‘has the attributes of a hero’; Messi of Andrés Iniesta that ‘every player would want to score the goals he did’; Carolina Marín’s coach that ‘if there’s someone who cannot fail, it’s her’; Schumacher’s wife about her husband that he is ‘tremendously strong’; and the Olympic commentator about Simon Biles that she is ‘a unique athlete’.

The list of adjectives is endless, all following the same epic path: immense, exemplary, magician, phenomenon, extraordinary, unique, unstoppable, a star… This is how Carlos Alcaraz is also portrayed in the documentary recently released by Netflix. Docuseries about athletes or teams—from Pelé to ‘skater’ Bob Burnquist, from Real Madrid to the Boston Celtics in basketball—have become a television genre in their own right, the latest phenomenon embraced by streaming platforms. Amazon Prime, HBO, Netflix…

All have made room for them among Nordic series, true crime, or luxury real estate reality shows. But where does this fever… and this prolific production come from? ‘It responds to a viewer’s need to know the ‘human side’ of success. For years, we have seen athletes as almost unreachable figures, and these documentaries have opened the door to their vulnerabilities, internal struggles, and growth processes,’ explains Alejo García-Naveira, coordinator of the sports psychology section of the Official College of Psychology of Madrid and professor at Villanueva University.

Producer Jordi Marquès also emphasizes the value of seeing the person behind the athlete. ‘Sports have epic and values like overcoming and teamwork. But there are also hatreds, envies, egos, betrayals… Hence, it is reasonably easy to have a good story to tell.’ Because, García-Naveira agrees, ‘today what connects is not just the victory, but the story that precedes it.’

The precedent of ‘La Roja’ ‘Everyone is portrayed as heroes, stars. They are the best, number one, unrepeatable…’, adds García-Naveira. Many of these products tend to mythologize the protagonist, constructing an almost epic figure. But it is also a narrative strategy that seeks to inspire and engage. Do they exaggerate? Sometimes, yes. But if we look beyond the ‘legend’, they also show insecurities, sacrifice, pressure… For example, the one about David Beckham talks about his sporting successes, but also about mental health issues, the harassment he suffered, his obsessions, the problems with his partner… Even without being the Beckhams, other less renowned athletes also have ‘great stories’ in their biography. ‘Senna’, dedicated to Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, is an audiovisual gem.

In ‘Brothers and Enemies: Petrovic and Divac’, basketball player Vlade Divac narrates a story of sports, friendship, and war that leaves no one indifferent. And ‘Red Army. The Cold War on Ice’ shows how international politics and hockey mix masterfully,’ adds other examples Marquès, producer of Minoría Absoluta. Both experts agree that the genre is experiencing a ‘boom’, but it is difficult to pinpoint when it exploded. ‘I would say the turning point was ‘The Last Dance’, the documentary about Michael Jordan.

It wasn’t the first, but it created a before and after in terms of narrative, production, and reach. From there, many platforms saw the emotional and commercial potential of telling these stories,’ opines the psychologist. The producer looks back to the pre-streaming platform era, which arrived in Spain in 2015. ‘Canal+ was already broadcasting ‘Informe Robinson’ with documentaries about the sports world, like the one dedicated to the Spanish national team’s triumph in the 2010 South Africa World Cup.’ More Dramatic But what started only with football has now extended to (almost) any sport.

‘In documentaries about cycling, boxing, or Formula 1, the focus is more dramatic because the physical and mental wear is extreme, and that provides a lot of material. These sports have a component of risk and solitude that lends itself well to the television format: the body’s suffering, the mind under pressure… They are powerful stories,’ highlights Alejo García-Naveira. Jordi Marquès is surprised by ‘the rise of documentaries about climbing, a very minority sport. Even if you’re not interested, there’s a title, ‘Free Solo’, that gives you goosebumps and generates tension on par with any other. You also have to see ‘The Price of Gold’, which portrays the rivalry between skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding for the Olympic gold, leading them to court. And in the sports underworld, we find the title about the sexual abuse by doctor Larry Nassar of American gymnasts.’

New Maryland men’s basketball head coach Buzz Williams‘ first high school recruiting class with the Terps now stands at two.

Class of 2025 point guard Guillermo Del Pino has signed with Maryland, CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported on Friday afternoon.

Del Pino, not rated on 247Sports’ ratings, is listed at 6-foot-4 and 183 pounds, per RealGM.

Del Pino, who turned 18 on Jan. 12, averaged 11.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.9 blocks per game in seven games playing for Spain at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup in Türkiye. 

He was recognized as an all-star at the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders camp this past February. He did an interview with 247Sports’ Dushawn London shortly after and described his game.

“I consider myself to be a very energetic player who gives 100% on the court,” he told London. “I can contribute to the creation and management of the game. I can shoot the three and I think I have great potential as a defensive player. I do those things well. I am working to improve on my physical conditioning.”

Del Pino helped guide Spain to the FIBA U16 European Championship in North Macedonia in August 2023. He earned MVP honors after scoring 22 points in a 77-68 win over Italy in the final. For the tournament, he averaged 14.6 points, 1.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

“He takes a lot of off the dribble shots,” popular talent evaluator Arman Jovic said on a radio appearance with ESPN Louisville in February. “He’s shifty. He can really play. He was the MVP of E16, and so he’s a really, really talented guard. I’m a little bit lower than him amongst like some other European services I’ve seen, but I think he could be a good depth piece and for [the future would] be a good player.”

Del Pino joins McDonald’s All-American and five-star combo guard Darius Adams in the Class of 2025 heading to College Park. He is the 10th player on Williams’ first roster at Maryland, joining Texas A&M transfers Pharrel Payne, Solomon Washington, Andre Mills and George Turkson Jr., Indiana transfer Myles Rice, Washington State transfer Isaiah Watts, Kansas transfer David Coit and Virginia transfer Elijah Saunders.

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