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
- 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