36 0 N THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTSSUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020
N.F.L. INJURY REPORT
SUNDAY
BUFFALO AT JETS
BILLS: OUT: WR John Brown (knee), LB
Tyrel Dodson (hamstring), T Cody Ford
(knee), TE Dawson Knox (calf), CB Josh
Norman (hamstring). QUESTIONABLE: CB
Cameron Lewis (wrist), LB Matt Milano
(pectoral), CB Tre'Davious White (back).
LIMITED: QB Jake Fromm (not injury
related), CB Cameron Lewis (wrist), LB Matt
Milano (pectoral). FULL: QB Josh Allen (left
shoulder), S Jaquan Johnson (back). JETS:
DOUBTFUL: K Sam Ficken (right groin),
G Alex Lewis (shoulder). QUESTIONABLE:
T Mekhi Becton (shoulder), WR Jamison
Crowder (groin), QB Sam Darnold (right
shoulder), T Chuma Edoga (calf), T George
Fant (knee). FULL: LB Tarell Basham
(illness), WR Braxton Berrios (quadricep),
RB Frank Gore (not injury related), LB
Jordan Jenkins (shoulder), WR Breshad
Perriman (ankle, knee).ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Team GP W D L GF GA Pts
Everton .......5 4 1 0 14 7 13
Liverpool ......6 4 1 1 15 14 13
Aston Villa .....5 4 0 1 12 5 12
Leeds........ 6 3 1 2 12 9 10
Crystal Palace.. 6 3 1 2 8 9 10
Chelsea ......6 2 3 1 13 9 9
Leicester ......5 3 0 2 12 8 9
Arsenal .......5 3 0 2 8 6 9
Wolverhampton. 5 3 0 2 5 7 9
Tottenham .....5 2 2 1 15 8 8
West Ham .....6 2 2 2 12 8 8
Man City ......5 2 2 1 8 8 8
Southampton... 5 2 1 2 8 9 7
Newcastle .....5 2 1 2 7 9 7
Man United ....5 2 1 2 9 12 7
Brighton ......5 1 1 3 9 11 4
West Brom ....5 0 2 3 5 13 2
Burnley .......4 0 1 3 3 8 1
Sheffield United. 6 0 1 5 3 9 1
Fulham .......6 0 1 5 5 14 1
Saturday, Oct. 24
West Ham 1, Man City 1
Fulham 1, Crystal Palace 2
Man United 0, Chelsea 0
Liverpool 2, Sheffield United 1
Sunday, Oct. 25
Southampton vs. Everton
Wolverhampton vs. Newcastle
Arsenal vs. Leicester
Monday, Oct. 26
Brighton vs. West Brom
Burnley vs. Tottenham
Friday, Oct. 30
Wolverhampton vs. Crystal Palace
Saturday, Oct. 31
Sheffield United vs. Man City
Burnley vs. Chelsea
Liverpool vs. West HamBASEBALLM.L.B. PLAYOFFS
WORLD SERIES
(Best-of-7)
Los Angeles Dodgers 2, Tampa Bay 1
At Arlington, Texas
(All Games on Fox)
Tuesday, Oct. 20: Los Angeles Dodgers 8,
Tampa Bay 3
Wednesday, Oct. 21: Tampa Bay 6, Los
Angeles Dodgers 4
Friday, Oct. 23: Los Angeles Dodgers 6,
Tampa Bay 2
Saturday, Oct. 24: Los Angeles Dodgers
vs. Tampa Bay
Sunday, Oct. 25: Los Angeles Dodgers
(Kershaw 6-2) vs. Tampa Bay, 8:08 p.m.
x-Tuesday, Oct. 27: Tampa Bay vs. Los
Angeles Dodgers, 8:08 p.m.
x-Wednesday, Oct. 28: Tampa Bay vs. Los
Angeles Dodgers, 8:09 p.m.SOCCERM.L.S. STANDINGS
EAST W L T Pts GF GA
Toronto FC... 12 2 5 41 30 17
Philadelphia... 11 3 5 38 34 17
Columbus ....10 4 4 34 30 15
Orlando City... 8 2 8 32 30 18
New England... 7 5 7 28 21 18
N.Y.C.F.C. .....8 8 3 27 24 19
Red Bulls .....7 8 4 25 22 23
Nashville SC... 6 6 6 24 18 17
Montreal ......7 10 2 23 29 36
Chicago ......5 8 5 20 24 28
Atlanta .......5 10 4 19 18 22
Inter Miami CF.. 5 11 3 18 19 29
Cincinnati .....4 11 4 16 11 30
D.C. United ....3 10 6 15 17 33
WEST W L T Pts GF GA
Seattle .......9 4 5 32 36 18
Portland ......9 5 5 32 39 31
Kansas City ....9 6 3 30 31 25
Los Angeles FC. 7 7 4 25 40 34
Minnesota .....6 5 6 24 28 23
FC Dallas .....6 5 6 24 22 20
San Jose .....6 7 6 24 28 43
Vancouver .....7 12 0 21 22 40
Real Salt Lake.. 5 7 6 21 24 29
Houston ......4 7 8 20 27 32
Colorado ......5 4 4 19 25 20
LA Galaxy .....5 9 3 18 22 34
NOTE: Three points for victory, one point
for tie.
Friday, October 23
New England 1, Nashville 1
Saturday, October 24
Miami 2, Orlando City 1
D.C. United 2, Atlanta 1
Red Bulls at Chicago
Minnesota at Cincinnati
Montreal at N.Y.C.F.C.
Toronto FC at Philadelphia
Columbus at Houston
Colorado at Kansas City
FC Dallas at Real Salt Lake
San Jose at Vancouver
Sunday, October 25
LA Galaxy at Los Angeles FC, 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 27
Nashville at Montreal, 7 p.m.
Seattle at Vancouver, 10 p.m.
Wednesday, October 28
New England at Red Bulls, 7 p.m.
Kansas City at Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m.
Atlanta at Orlando City, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m.
NYCFC at Toronto FC, 7:30 p.m.
Columbus at D.C. United, 8 p.m.
Colorado at Minnesota, 8 p.m.
Miami at FC Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
LA Galaxy at Portland, 10 p.m.
Houston at Los Angeles FC, 10:30 p.m.
Real Salt Lake at San Jose, 10:30 p.m.FOOTBALLN.F.L. STANDINGS
AMERICAN CONFERENCEEast W L T Pct PF PA
Buffalo 4 2 0 .666 156 168
Miami 3 3 0 .500 160 113
N. England 2 3 0 .400 109 110
Jets 0 6 0 .000 75 185
South W L T Pct PF PA
Tennessee 5 0 0 1.000 164 126
Indianapolis 4 2 0 .666 157 115
Houston 1 5 0 .166 146 182
Jacksonville 1 5 0 .166 125 181
North W L T Pct PF PA
Pittsburgh 5 0 0 1.000 156 94
Baltimore 5 1 0 .833 179 104
Cleveland 4 2 0 .666 163 187
Cincinnati 1 4 1 .250 129 157
West W L T Pct PF PA
Kansas City 5 1 0 .833 175 127
Las Vegas 3 2 0 .600 151 152
Denver 2 3 0 .400 100 110
L.A. Chargers 1 4 0 .200 110 125NATIONAL CONFERENCEEast W L T Pct PF PA
Phila. 2 4 1 .357 163 196
Dallas 2 4 0 .333 173 218
Washington 1 5 0 .166 108 162
Giants 1 6 0 .142 122 174
South W L T Pct PF PA
Tampa Bay 4 2 0 .666 177 122
New Orleans 3 2 0 .600 153 150
Carolina 3 3 0 .500 138 141
Atlanta 1 5 0 .166 162 184
North W L T Pct PF PA
Chicago 5 1 0 .833 128 116
Green Bay 4 1 0 .800 162 139
Detroit 2 3 0 .400 133 143
Minnesota 1 5 0 .166 155 192
West W L T Pct PF PA
Seattle 5 0 0 1.000 169 135
Arizona 4 2 0 .666 166 112
L.A. Rams 4 2 0 .666 152 114
San Fran. 3 3 0 .500 148 130
SUNDAY
Buffalo at Jets, 1
Pittsburgh at Tennessee, 1
Green Bay at Houston, 1
Cleveland at Cincinnati, 1
Carolina at New Orleans, 1
Detroit at Atlanta, 1
Dallas at Washington, 1
Tampa Bay at Las Vegas, 4:05
Kansas City at Denver, 4:25
San Francisco at New England, 4:25
Jacksonville at L.A. Chargers, 4:25
Seattle at Arizona, 8:20
Open: Baltimore, Indianapolis,
Miami, Minnesota
MONDAY
Chicago at L.A. Rams, 8:15
THURSDAY, OCT. 29
Atlanta at Carolina, 8:20
SUNDAY, NOV. 1
Tennessee at Cincinnati, 1
Jets at Kansas City, 1
L.A. Rams at Miami, 1
Indianapolis at Detroit, 1
New England at Buffalo, 1
Las Vegas at Cleveland, 1
Pittsburgh at Baltimore, 1
Minnesota at Green Bay, 1
L.A. Chargers at Denver, 4:05
New Orleans at Chicago, 4:25
San Francisco at Seattle, 4:25
Dallas at Philadelphia, 8:20
Open: Houston, Jacksonville, Ari-
zona, WashingtonITALIAN OPEN
Saturday
At The Chervo Golf Club
Brescia, Italy
Purse: $7 million Yardage: 7,434; Par: 72
Third Round
Laurie Canter England .....60-68-69—197 -19
Ross McGowan England....66-64-67—197 -19
Dean Burmester South Africa 64-68-68—200 -16
Sebastian Heisele Germany.. 68-67-66—201 -15
Nicolas Colsaerts Belgium... 68-67-66—201 -15
Tapio Pulkkanen Finland....67-68-67—202 -14
Adri Arnaus Spain ........65-70-67—202 -14
Bernd Wiesberger Austria... 67-68-68—203 -13
J. Caldwell Northern Ireland.. 67-68-68—203 -13
Louis De Jager South Africa. 68-68-67—203 -13
Darius Van Driel Netherlands 71-64-68—203 -13
Martin Kaymer Germany....69-66-68—203 -13
Wil Besseling Netherlands... 65-71-68—204 -12
Emilio Cuartero Blanco Spain 68-68-68—204 -12
Joost Luiten Netherlands....70-66-68—204 -12
Julien Quesne France......66-71-67—204 -12
Adrian Meronk Poland......67-71-66—204 -12
Richard Bland England.....65-70-70—205 -11
Nicolai Hojgaard Denmark... 67-67-71—205 -11
Matthieu Pavon France.....70-65-70—205 -11
Chris Paisley England......69-67-69—205 -11
Jamie Donaldson Wales ....68-69-68—205 -11
Jens Fahrbring Sweden ....70-67-68—205 -11
Joel Sjoholm Sweden......68-70-67—205 -11
Steven Tiley England ......68-71-66—205 -11
Yikeun Chang Korea.......70-66-70—206 -10
Adrian Otaegui Spain......67-67-72—206 -10
Oscar Lengden Sweden....65-71-70—206 -10
Kristoffer Reitan Norway ....66-70-70—206 -10
Marcus Armitage England... 67-70-69—206 -10
Bryce Easton South Africa... 68-69-69—206 -10
Hurly Long Germany ......69-69-68—206 -10GOLFZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday
At Sherwood Country Club
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Purse: $8 million Yardage: 7,027; Par: 72
Third Round
Justin Thomas...........65-65-67—197 -19
Jon Rahm..............68-67-63—198 -18
Lanto Griffin.............66-65-68—199 -17
Sebastian Munoz.........64-70-66—200 -16
Ryan Palmer ............69-65-66—200 -16
Patrick Cantlay...........67-65-68—200 -16
Webb Simpson ..........69-65-67—201 -15
Brian Harman............66-68-67—201 -15
Matthew Fitzpatrick .......69-65-67—201 -15
Bubba Watson...........70-63-68—201 -15
Scottie Scheffler..........67-65-69—201 -15
Dylan Frittelli ............66-65-70—201 -15
Cameron Smith.......... 67-69-66—202 -14
Tony Finau .............69-64-69—202 -14
Cameron Champ.........70-68-65—203 -13
Joel Dahmen............68-70-65—203 -13
Alex Noren..............67-68-68—203 -13
Russell Henley...........68-72-63—203 -13
Jason Kokrak............69-65-69—203 -13
Corey Conners...........69-67-68—204 -12
Joaquin Niemann.........70-66-68—204 -12
Kevin Na...............70-65-69—204 -12
Satoshi Kodaira ..........68-66-70—204 -12
Patrick Reed............70-63-71—204 -12
Carlos Ortiz.............72-65-68—205 -11
Takumi Kanaya ..........70-67-68—205 -11
Sungjae Im .............68-68-69—205 -11
Brad Kennedy...........72-67-66—205 -11
Richy Werenski ..........72-61-72—205 -11
Harris English............66-67-72—205 -11
Daniel Berger............69-68-69—206 -10
Andrew Landry ..........69-67-70—206 -10
Viktor Hovland...........71-64-71—206 -10
Justin Rose.............67-67-72—206 -10
Kevin Kisner.............66-67-73—206 -10
Mackenzie Hughes........67-72-68—207 -9
Jim Herman.............70-65-72—207 -9
Rory McIlroy.............73-67-67—207 -9
Mark Hubbard...........67-70-71—208 -8
Talor Gooch.............74-63-71—208 -8
Brendon Todd...........69-69-70—208 -8
Tyler Duncan............68-68-72—208 -8
Jason Day..............68-71-69—208 -8
Collin Morikawa ..........71-65-72—208 -8
Shugo Imahira...........75-64-69—208 -8
Shaun Norris ............68-73-67—208 -8
Xander Schauffele ........69-72-67—208 -8
Nick Taylor .............70-68-71—209 -7
Jazz Janewattananond.....73-66-70—209 -7
Matt Kuchar.............70-69-70—209 -7
Ryo Ishikawa............73-66-70—209 -7
Gunn Charoenkul.........73-67-69—209 -7
Paul Casey............. 69-71-69—209 -7
Hideki Matsuyama........70-71-68—209 -7
Byeong Hun An..........74-68-67—209 -7
Chan Kim ..............69-73-67—209 -7
Tyrrell Hatton............65-68-76—209 -7TRANSACTIONSN.F.L.
BUFFALO BILLS — Placed TEs Dawson
Knox, Lee Smith, Tommy Sweeney (PUP
list) and Nate Becker (practice squad) on
the reserve/COVID-19 list. Promoted WR
Duke Williams, OL Jordan Devey, LB Andre
Smith and CB Dane Jackson to the active
roster. Placed LB Tyrel Dodson on injured
reserve.
CHICAGO BEARS — Placed DB Michael
Joseph on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
CINCINNATI BENGALS — Activated DT
Mike Daniels form injured reserve to
active roster. Waived DT Kahlil McKenzie.
Promoted CB Winston Rose to the active
roster. Placed CB Torry McTyer on the
practice squad injured reserve.
DALLAS COWBOYS — Activated OL Cam
Erving to active roster. Placed LT Brandon
Knight on injured reserve. Promoted C
Adam Redmond and OT Jordan Mills to
the active roster.
DETROIT LIONS — Activated DB Mike
Ford and RB Bo Scarbrough from injured
reserve. Promoted TE Isaac Nauta to active
roster. Signed OL Beau Benzschawel and
P Arryn Siposs to the practice squad.
Released RB Dalyn Dawkins and TE Matt
Sokol.
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Signed DE
Cassius Marsh to the practice squad.
GREEN BAY PACKERS — Announced T
David Bakhtiari is downgraded to out for
game against Houston. Signed LB James
Burgess from Atlanta practice squad.
Activated LB Lamal Martin from injured
reserve. Signed G Ben Braden and DL Billy
Winn to the active roster.
NEW YORK JETS — Activated WR Denzel
Mims and OL Cam Clark from injured
reserve. Promoted K/P Sergio Castillo and
LB Bryce Hager to the active roster.
PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Re-signed P
Jordan Berry to a new contract. Promoted
Trey Edmunds and LB Jayrone Elliot to the
active roster.COLLEGE FOOTBALL
EAST
Army 49 ................ Mercer 3
Boston College 48 .... Georgia Tech 27
Houston 37 ............... Navy 21
Marshall 20 ................ FAU 9
Notre Dame 45 ......... Pittsburgh 3
SOUTH
Alabama 48 ........... Tennessee 17
Auburn 35 ............ Mississippi 28
Charlotte 38 ............. UTEP 28
Clemson 47 ............ Syracuse 21
Coastal Carolina 28. Georgia Southern 14
Georgia St. 36 ............. Troy 34
Liberty 56 ......... Southern Miss. 35
Louisville 48........... Florida St. 16
Memphis 41 ............ Temple 29
North Carolina 48 ........ NC State 21
UCF 51 ................ Tulane 34
W. Kentucky 13 ...... Chattanooga 10
Wake Forest 23 ...... Virginia Tech 16
MIDWEST
Indiana 36 .......... Penn St. 35, OT
Kansas St. 55 ........... Kansas 14
Missouri 20 ............ Kentucky 10
Ohio St. 52 ............ Nebraska 17
Purdue 24 ................ Iowa 20
Rutgers 38 .......... Michigan St. 27
SOUTHWEST
Middle Tennessee 40 .... Rice 34, 2OT
Oklahoma 33 .............. TCU 14
Oklahoma St. 24......... Iowa St. 21
Texas 27 ................ Baylor 16
Texas Tech 34 ....... West Virginia 27The season is still young. The
sample size is far too small to
draw conclusions. Over the next
month or two, order most likely
will be restored. As the weeks
clog with matches,
as muscles tire and
injuries occur,
chances are that
the familiar faces
will be the ones left
standing. That is
the privilege of having deep
pockets, of course: They tend to
contain the deepest squads.
But a glance at the standings
across Europe’s major leagues is
enough, at least, to make you
wonder if something strange is
happening.
It might only be in the Premier
League that goals suddenly seem
to come so easily, each weekend’s
results now featuring fours and
fives and sixes so frequently that
they have lost their shock factor.
Manchester United, Manchester
City and Liverpool have all en-
dured a humiliation. Chelsea is
gleefully drawing 3-3 with every-
one and anyone, whether you like
it or not.
Those scores may be unusual,
but that the table is led by Ever-
ton and Aston Villa is not so
different from what is happening
elsewhere. Serie A, for example,
has a top four of A.C. Milan,
Sassuolo, Atalanta and Napoli.
Juventus is down in fifth.
In Spain, the top seven con-
tains Getafe and Granada and
newly promoted Cádiz. Real
Madrid is third, behind Real
Sociedad and Villarreal, but Zine-
dine Zidane’s team has now lost
twice in a row — once domesti-
cally to Cádiz and once in the
Champions League to a Shakhtar
Donetsk team decimated by the
coronavirus.
In France, Paris St.-Germain
lost the first two games of its
Ligue 1 campaign, though it has
roared back since. It won five in a
row and closed to within two
points of Lille, the early leader,
before Europe brought it low
again, thanks to a chastening
home defeat to Manchester
United.
Bayern Munich is second in
Germany, behind RB Leipzig, but
it started its season beating
Schalke, 8-0, and then managed
to lose by 4-1 to Hoffenheim a few
days later. Hansi Flick’s team
almost dropped points at home to
Hertha Berlin, too, conceding a
late equalizer before scoring an
even later winner.
The same weekend as his team
squeezed past Hertha, Flick took
in Liverpool’s collapse against
Aston Villa. The temptation was
just to chalk it up as just one of
those things, a Halley’s Comet of
a result, where everything fell in
Villa’s favor. It might have
seemed just another surreal
moment in a surreal season.
Flick, though, saw it differently.
Liverpool and Bayern are, styl-
istically, very similar. Both play
with a high defensive line, and
both do so because they are ar-
dent, almost fanatical, counter-
pressers. The main creative force
behind both teams, for all their
individual talent, is opposition
error.
It is a high-reward strategy.
Done well, it not only gets results
in the short-term, but it con-
serves energy over a long season.
“It is cheaper to play like this,”
Ralf Rangnick, the former RB
Leipzig coach, told El País. “If
you do it well, you complete a
greater number of sprints, but
reduce the number of long runs.”
But it is also high-risk. As
Rangnick said, you “have to be on
fire” to make it work. What Flick
saw, as he watched events at Villa
Park unfold, was a team sputter-
ing out. Liverpool’s press failed
and, as it did, it brought the team
crashing down.
“Pressing is a style of play in
which you have to be absolutely
focused,” Flick said. “You need
total intensity. Every single part
of the team has to be part of that
process. It cannot be 96 percent
or 97 percent: It has to be com-
plete. There has to be pressure onthe ball at all times. There is
always a huge space between the
goal and the defensive line, and if
you don’t have everyone abso-
lutely alert to every moment of
danger, you can suffer badly.”
Liverpool’s fate was, to Flick, a
warning. Bayern, he said,
“needed to learn” from what
happened to Klopp’s team, just in
case defeat at Hoffenheim and
the close call against Hertha were
not evidence enough.
For all of those unlikely league
leaders and surprise contenders
across Europe, though, it should
offer hope. Over the next few
months, Europe’s elite teams face
a relentless torrent of games.
None of the teams has had a
proper preseason. Fatigue is
likely to be a more significant
factor in this compressed season
than normal. Managers will be
forced to rotate their resources
more than they might like. There
will most likely be more injuries
and less cohesion.
The bulk of Europe’s super-
powers favor a style that has to
work perfectly, according to
Flick’s estimation, to work at all.
They have to take that risk to
reap the rewards. In this slog of a
season, they may be more vulner-
able than normal; they may be
more susceptible to more days
like the one at Villa Park, like at
Hoffenheim, days when it all just
falls apart.
And in that there is a glimmer
for those teams who are steady,
rather than spectacular. It may
well be a season defined by vari-
ance, in which the determined
tread of the tortoise has an ad-
vantage, for once, over the erratic
bursts of the hares.
Across Europe, these have
been wild days: breathtaking
score lines and bottomless wells
of goals and a sense that nothing
is certain, not any more.
Those who stand to benefit,
though, are those — perhaps
Everton and Tottenham, maybe
Real Sociedad and Atlético Ma-
drid, even RB Leipzig and A.C.
Milan — who resist that wildness
the best, who grit their teeth and
get their heads down and churn
through the madness, those who
do not waver, those who do notaim for a peak and so never see a
trough.Reign of Spain Falls“Madness,” Iker Casillas called
it. In 2011, over the course of 18
spring days, Barcelona and Real
Madrid played each other four
times: once in the league, once in
the Copa del Rey, and then home-
and-away in the semifinals of the
Champions League. The games
were tense, the atmosphere was
toxic, and the rest of the soccer
world stood still to watch.
Those three weeks, captured
from the inside in “The Duellists,”
the Italian journalist Paolo Con-
do’s account of the four clásicos,
may well have been modern
soccer’s peak: the two defining
managers of their generation, the
two biggest clubs on the planet,
the game’s fiercest rivalry, the
world’s dominant national team
effectively split in two. It was, as
the marketing spiel behind
WrestleMania V had it, the mo-
ment the megapowers exploded.
This weekend brought the first
clásico of this season and — even
ignoring the fact that Camp Nou
was empty — it was impossible
not to notice how reduced the
game’s stature seems to be. It is
not just that Barcelona has spent
much of the last two years in
crisis, or that Real Madrid had
lost twice in a row before its 3-1
victory on Saturday.
It is not even, as it happens,
that both sides seem to be fading.
It is that soccer’s center of grav-
ity has moved away from Spain.
The best teams in the world are
in Germany (Bayern Munich)
and England (Liverpool and
Manchester City). France is the
world’s dominant national team,
and its most prolific producer of
players, while Germany is its
most prolific producer of ideas.
For all the success Spanish
soccer has had over the last
decade in European tournaments,
it is hard to make the argument
that it still represents the game in
its highest form. The clásico is
still an event, of course, still an
occasion, just not one that neces-
sarily seems to hold the rest of
the world transfixed.Chief soccer correspondent Rory
Smith takes you from the biggest
matches to the smallest leagues,
covering the tactics, history and
personalities of the world’s most
popular sport. Sign up to receive
his newsletter at nytimes.com/
rory.
Sassuolo’s Giacomo Raspador after scoring a goal. The team is, for the moment, punching above its weight in Serie A.ELISABETTA BARACCHI/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCKSmall Sample Size Yields Big Surprises
RORY
SMITH
ON
SOCCERThree days before headlining
U.F.C. 254 in Abu Dhabi, the main
attraction, Khabib Nurmagome-
dov, told reporters he planned to
retire as the undefeated, undisput-
ed U.F.C. lightweight champion.
He seemed to mean he’d make
that move eventually.
It turns out he intended to do it
immediately.
He needed less than two rounds
on Saturday night to dispatch a
hard-punching American chal-
lenger, Justin Gaethje, in the main
event of a fight card that the U.F.C.
expected to threaten pay-per-view
records in terms of viewership.
Nurmagomedov’s win unified
the U.F.C.’s lightweight title, solidi-
fied his place as the organization’s
top fighter, and was his first win af-
ter the death of his father and
trainer, Abdulmanap Nur-
magomedov.
After his victory, Nurmagome-
dov said he was leaving the sport.
“No way I’m going to come here
without my father,” he said.
Nurmagomedov’s emphatic win
over Gaethje was the in-competi-
tion high-point of a tumultuous
2020 for mixed martial arts.
He started the year slated to
face Tony Ferguson in April at Bar-
clays Center in Brooklyn, but the
card was postponed because of the
pandemic and the U.F.C. moved it
to Jacksonville, Fla. With Nur-
magomedov unable to return to
the United States from Russia be-
cause of travel restrictions,
Gaethje replaced him as Fergu-
son’s opponent, then pounded out
a bloody, one-sided, five-round
technical knockout win.
In July, Abdulmanap Nur-
magomedov died of Covid-19 com-
plications. Still, Nurmagomedov
agreed to face Gaethje in a tanta-
lizing matchup of styles. Nur-
magomedov is a relentless
wrestler who is also adept with
punches and kicks, while Gaethje’s
high-impact striking earned himthe nickname “The Highlight.”
After a cautious first minute in
their fight, Nurmagomedov ap-
plied pressure, absorbing heavy
blows from Gaethje as the price of
wading close enough to grab his
opponent. Gaethje retreated, but
also unloaded with full power, hop-
ing to give himself space to oper-
ate. Near the end of the first round,
Nurmagomedov dragged Gaethje
to the ground.
In the second, Gaethje landed a
hard kick to Nurmagomedov’s
thigh. When he tried another, Nur-
magomedov grabbed his foot andmauled Gaethje. He wrapped him-
self around the challenger and
eventually knotted his legs around
Gaethje’s neck, locking him in a tri-
angle choke that he couldn’t es-
cape. Gaethje submitted barely
two minutes into the round.
The win earned Nurmagome-
dov a cash bonus for the best per-
formance of the night, and after-
ward he laid his gloves on the can-
vas and explained that he and his
mother agreed he should retire.
“I promised her it was going to
be my last fight,” he said. “I have to
follow this.”
Of course, other U.F.C. retire-
ments have proved temporary.
The longtime light-heavyweight
champion Randy Couture once re-
tired in the octagon, only to return.
And after the May 9 event in Jack-
sonville, the bantamweight cham-
pion Henry Cejudo announced his
own retirement, but has said he
would fight again for the right
amount of money.
Nurmagomedov is in line for big
paydays if he keeps fighting. Earli-
er this month, he expressed inter-
est in a superfight with the U.F.C.
welterweight legend Georges St-
Pierre, who is currently retired.
In January, after Conor McGreg-
or defeated Donald Cerrone, the
U.F.C. president Dana White spoke
of pairing him with Nurmagome-
dov in a repeat of their high-gross-
ing grudge match, which ended
with a melee in the stands.After Unifying U.F.C. Title, Nurmagomedov Bows Out
By MORGAN CAMPBELLKhabib Nurmagomedov taking down Justin Gaethje in their light-
weight title fight on Saturday during U.F.C. 254 in Abu Dhabi.ZUFFA LLC VIA GETTY IMAGES.