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If Isco was injured, his absence from even the substitutes’ bench for the Champions League win over Roma on Tuesday would hardly have warranted a second look, but Solari’s tactical choice pointed to something deeper. Solari had not picked him in any of his first five starting line-ups but three times brought him on, against Real Valladolid, Viktoria Plzen and Eibar. Then, at the Stadio Olimpico, Isco was not involved at all, instead sitting in the stands, dropped beneath the likes of 20-year-old Federico Valverde, 21-year-old Javi Sanchez and 22-year-old Dani Ceballos....

There’s plenty of uncertainty, though, about Ravi Ashwin’s involvement at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and what influence that could have on India’s main goal of the tour Down Under: to win a test series on Australian soil for the first time. All Kohli’s crew needs to do to achieve that feat is avoid a loss in the fourth test, having ensured they’ll retain the bilateral trophy by taking a 2-1 lead in the series with a 137-run victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the Boxing Day test....

Then the reviews started rolling in for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Critics the world over heralded it as Naughty Dog’s latest triumph, with Game Rant’s own Anthony Taormina awarding the title a coveted 5 out 5. The intrigue was certainly there at this point, but after chatting briefly with members of our team, namely the aforementioned reviewer in question, I realized that I’d have to play through the first three games in order to appreciate the events of Nathan Drake’s final adventure....

For all appearances, Carnahan seems keyed into what the Uncharted games embraced thematically. Here are his thoughts on protagonist Nathan Drake and how he compares to Indiana Jones: Carnahan refers to Amy Hennig’s writing in the first Uncharted game when noting the Indiana Jones contrast, stating he sees Hennig’s writing of Drake as, “an anti-Indiana Jones.” He cites Nathan’s off-handed treatment of Elena as evidence of Drake’s roguish tendencies. Naturally, he doesn’t go into detail as to how his feelings on Nathan Drake and the mature nature of the games will be reflected in-movie....

Bone was one of the undecided or uncommitted voters in the St. Louis area that Gallup researchers selected to ask then–presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump a question during that election cycle’s town hall–style debate on October 9, 2016. Video of Bone’s question quickly went viral and he became an overnight celebrity before controversial comments discovered in his Reddit history triggered a backlash to his sudden fame. During an interview last week, Bone told Newsweek that he was once again uncommitted—a term he said more accurately describes his positioning than “undecided”—heading into the 2020 presidential election....

In a public Dominance MMA media Interview, Cejudo was asked about the future of his run as Flyweight Champion by ESPN and potentially vacating one belt. Cejudo gave a very interesting and detailed response. “Eventually I do have to leave a belt” When asked by ESPN about his future as a champion of two divisions, Cejudo admitted that eventually, he has to leave one belt. He continued, saying (H/T Credits MMAMania):...

While talking to MMAFighting, Adesanya revealed that he firmly believes he will become the first person in UFC to earn $100 million and that he doesn’t need to go to boxing for that to happen. He did, however, affirm that he is in it for legacy at the end of the day: Adesanya also said that he wants to end his career in the UFC. His coach Eugene Bareman revealed in the build-up to his last fight that his career goal was always to be a UFC Champion and that an extensive kickboxing career was merely a part of that....

It’s certainly one of the longest spells that Gaethje has had away from the Octagon and he told Luke Thomas of Sirius XM that waiting is a part of the game and he doesn’t have an issue with the long layoff. It’s also no secret that Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson is a fight that makes people nervous for different reasons. The fight has been scheduled four times in the past and has been canceled on all four occasions due to various issues....

On Friday morning, UFC confirmed the date on Twitter. The last time they were in London was earlier this year, on March 17. Tickets to go live in January end The promotion revealed the confirmed news from their UFC Europe twitter handle and also provided the link to register for early tickets. Tickets for the general public will be available from January 31. Those who register for early access will be able to buy it online from January 29....

What’s the story? UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping is the biggest mixed martial arts star from United Kingdom. 2016 was Bisping’s year as he defeated Luke Rockhold at UFC 199to become the UFC champion, and then went on to successfully defend his title against Dan Henderson to end the year on a high. After spending more than a decade in the UFC, ‘The Count’ has a great career behind him which started off as him winning TUF season 3....

During an interview with Submission Radio, Whittaker reflected on the performance he put on during his title fight rematch with Adesanya. ‘The Reaper’ said: Check out Robert Whittaker’s comments below: The Australian admitted that he’s still disappointed that he wasn’t able to win the title back. However, Whittaker explained that he still took his last fight as a moral victory, given his tremendous improvement from their first encounter. At the end of the day, Whittaker went down 0-2 to Adesanya after the judges gave ‘The Last Stylebender’ a unanimous decision nod....

“Women’s fighting has become very popular,” White told ESPNW. “I waited for a while to pull the trigger on this division, and I think it’s time. I’m ready to do it now.” MORE: Ronda Rousey beat up, shot on NBC’s “Blindspot” This has been the division fans and fighters alike have been calling for. You’ve had women fighting at bantamweight who were too small for the weight class. You’ve had women competing at strawweight who struggled to make weight, like former title challenger Valerie Letourneau, because they were too big for 115 pounds....

It didn’t take long for history to be made as Weili wrecked Jessica Andrade with her powerful striking arsenal in 42 seconds to become the UFC women’s strawweight champion and the first UFC Chinese champion from Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen, China. “My name is Zhang Weili,” Weili said in her post-fight interview. “I’m from China. Remember me!” Weili and Andrade came right out firing, trying to put each other away....

A seven-year deal between Reebok and the UFC came to an end last week, an era littered with frustration, controversy and misspelled names. Since 2014, the UFC has banned the use of external sponsors during fight-week, severely limiting a fighters’ potential to earn. Apart from a marginal pay increase with the new Venum deal, nothing much has changed. With the official reign of Venum underway at UFC Fight Night this Saturday, the first fight-week collection has been released....

“We want those wins, wish we could have them back,” junior guard Rapheal Davis said. “But it’s over with. It was a couple months ago. We know we slipped up. We’re moving on now.” This is the way college basketball operates: Your team loses a game more or less designed for it to win — the opponent is paid to come to your gymnasium with no promise that you’ll ever return the favor — and that is not going to be forgotten by the people who matter....

The head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Gaidai, announced on Facebook that the base of the Pyatnashka battalion, formed in the wake of Russia annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, was ablaze on Monday. “Right now, on the outskirts of Donetsk, either someone was smoking carelessly, or it was ‘stones from the sky,’” Gaidai said. “The base of the famous ‘Pyatnashka,’ an international gang that fought in the Luhansk region, is on fire....

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that three Ka-52 helicopters, called Russia’s “most advanced attack helicopter” in a 2020 Forbes article, had been obliterated in the Donetsk region in under 30 minutes. Ukrainian forces also destroyed one Russian Su-25 fighter jet near the embattled city of Bahkmut, according to the post. “During the day of January 24, Ukrainian Air Defense Forces shot down 3x Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters over a 30-minute span,” the post said....

When Russia’s tanks and artillery rolled into Ukraine on February 24, they signaled that the country was not just launching attacks on its neighbor, but beginning a full-scale invasion. Ukrainian civilians quickly got to work building defenses. Among these was the hedgehog, a large barricade made of steel I-beams. The structure is designed to revolve under a wheeled vehicle and puncture it, or to lodge under a tracked vehicle, such as a tank, and lift it up in the air, according to a U....

Austria made a strong start to their Euro 2020 campaign with a victory against North Macedonia but slumped to a 2-0 defeat against the Netherlands earlier this week. The Austrians have a robust side and have a point to prove in this match. Ukraine, on the other hand, are in the same position as Austria and will have to play for direct qualification in this fixture. Shevchenko’s side has been impressive in patches and will need to be more consistent to threaten the competition’s bigwigs....

The video was posted in Reddit’s “Made Me Smile” forum, where it has been upvoted over 51,000 times as viewers got another apparent glimpse into life in Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia. At the start of the video, the man is seen holding his hand over a door peephole, intending to surprise his family. A younger boy answered the door and immediately hugged his father. Once the father walked into the home, he was embraced by two females....