BASEBALL

Juan Soto homers and

the Nats’ bats stay hot

in win over Brewers. D5

BELMONT STAKES

Mo Donegal, the 5-2

favorite, captures final

leg of Triple Crown. D2

BY ROMAN STUBBS IN TEMECULA, CALIF.

I

saiah Triana woke around 4:30 a.m.

and shivered in the dark of his hotel

room at a Holiday Inn off Interstate

15. He was cold and hungry. In less
    than eight hours, he would step
    into the cage for the most impor-
    tant mixed martial arts fight of his career,
    but first the 10-year-old needed to cut
    weight to be eligible. He didn’t eat for
    several hours, and when he stepped on the
    scale at the U.S. Fight League national
    championships later that morning, he
    was relieved to learn he was under 63
    pounds, about four less than his normal
    weight and the necessary mark for his
    division.
    “Cutting weight is the hardest,” he said.
    After scarfing down a plate of eggs, bacon
    and hash browns, he finally could turn his
    attention to his first fight.
    He walked by the two cages centered in
    the middle of a gym owned by a former
    UFC fighter and into a musty yoga room
    filled with children warming up. Wearing
    white spandex emblazoned with his nick-
    name, “The Natural,” he stared at his
    stalky 4-foot-3 body in a mirror, his light
    brown hair perfectly jelled, a scab on his
    left knee left over from a recent staph
    infection.

“He’s like a unicorn,” his trainer, Doug-

las Vileforte, said as he began to wrap

Isaiah’s hands. “We just have to make sure

we don’t break him.”

The trainer handed his young fighter a

protective cup, a mouthpiece and head-

gear. An official finally shouted, “Isaiah

Triana, it’s about that time!”

Outside the cage, the organizer of the

tournament, Jon Frank, was still checking

in some of the 182 kids who paid their

$100 entry fees to compete for a national

championship in California, the first state

to regulate youth MMA and one of the few

places in America where young fighters

such as Isaiah can compete in legally

sanctioned bouts. Youth MMA remains

unregulated or illegal in many states, and

as the sport has grown in popularity over

the past decade, so have questions about

how to safely offer it to kids, some of

whom dream of being the UFC’s next

generation of stars.

Like other physically demanding youth

sports, youth MMA is viewed as problem-

atic by some because it exposes kids to

potential brain injuries. But unlike youth

football, hockey or even karate, youth

MMA has been slower to gain public

SEE YOUTH MMA ON D6

The kids are all fight

Legal and regulated in some states and banned in others, youth MMA grows in popularity as safety remains a concern

PHOTOS BY ALISHA JUCEVIC FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

TOP: May’s U.S. Fight League event in California featured 199 bouts for kids aged 8 to 17.

ABOVE: Florida’s Isaiah Triana, 10, mimics his UFC heroes inside and outside the cage.

KLMNO

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 12 , 2022. SECTION D EZ M2

that jersey, he’s the best shooter

on the planet, the hands-down

2022 Finals MVP and the reason

the Warriors will win another

championship.

Now, the Boston Celtics should

win. If basketball was a

meritocracy, in which the better

team always reaped the rewards,

then the Celtics would take

Game 5 and a 3-2 series lead

Monday night. Then they would

return home, and late in Game 6,

somewhere in the bowels of TD

Garden, a gloved handler

cradling the oversized, robin’s-

egg blue bag that protects the

golden Larry O’Brien Trophy

would prepare it for presentation.

For its rightful owners: the 2021-

22 Boston Celtics.

SEE BUCKNER ON D3

boston —
Wardell.
We can stop
there. No need to
further discuss the
ins and outs, X’s
and O’s of these
NBA Finals. Those
mundane details
just get in the way of the fun part.
Instead, go back and re-watch the
highlights of one player carrying
an entire team on his slight
shoulders over the past four
games.
Just marvel at the man who
wears the No. 30 Golden State
Warriors jersey. Outside of it, he
looks as if he could be any guy
you walk past in the grocery
store. Quite possibly someone
who might actually need to shop
for used cars online instead of
getting paid handsomely as a
pitchman to do so. But when
Wardell Stephen Curry puts on

For Warriors, force of one will

may provide the way to a title

Candace
Buckner

shout at Mickelson and his

fellow elopers to the Saudi tour:

“Just say you want to be filthy

rich! It’s so much more

defensible than the tripe that

you’re trotting out!” But you

misunderstand Mickelson’s

motives: He’s not out there to

grasp at nine-figure checks. He’s

there in an ambassadorial role

for the greater good of the game

and his fellow man. Graeme

McDowell and Dustin Johnson,

too. If you have a problem with

kicking bunker sand over the

bloodstains left by crown prince

Mohammed bin Salman, you

simply don’t understand what a

profoundly beneficent influence

Saudi golf can have around the

globe.

“I don’t condone human

rights violations at all,”

Mickelson said, with a look on

his face that suggested he was

SEE JENKINS ON D12

Phil Mickelson

looked like a

fugitive from his

own face as he

cringed at

questions inside

his dirty new

beard.

Meanwhile, goons

strong-armed the reporter who

outed his gambling debts, and

Greg Norman stood in the

background orchestrating it all

with a smile mirthless as

Goldfinger’s. What a “fresh and

fun” new thing this LIV Golf tour

is. You may think it’s just

plutomania backed by a despotic

murderer and sold by duckers

and hucksters, but that’s because

you haven’t thought as hard as

Mickelson has about how to

make the world a better place

with Saudi-blood-money golf

purses.

You may have been tempted to

Mickelson and Co. are saving

the planet, one green at a time

Sally

Jenkins

SCOTT TAETSCH FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

In Virginia, a day for champions

On a Saturday packed with Virginia state championships,

Yorktown’s girls’ lacrosse team earned its first title. D8-10

NBA Finals, Game 5

Celtics at Warriors

Tomorrow, 9 p.m., ABC