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Leon Edwards dropped Kamaru Usman with a kick to the head and neck in the final minute of the fifth round to win the welterweight championship at UFC 278 on Saturday night.

Usman appeared to be seconds away from a 16th consecutive victory, which would have tied an all-time UFC record, before Edwards came up with the stunning finish just in time. He delivered the knockout blow with 56 seconds left in the bout.

“That crosshead kick landed perfectly,” Edwards said.

Edwards (20-3) is undefeated dating back to his previous bout with Usman in 2015. The British fighter rose to No. 2 in the welterweight division while accumulating nine wins in that stretch ahead of the title bout.

Usman (20-2) lived up to his reputation as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world for much of the bout. The Nigerian weathered a late first-round takedown and turned the tables with a late second-round takedown. Usman controlled position throughout the third round, earning two more takedowns, and led 39-37 on the judges’ scorecards after four rounds. He appeared on his way to a win by unanimous decision before Edwards rallied in the final round.

“The octagon belongs to nobody,” Edwards said. “No man is meant to hold the belt for that long. I said all week I felt like this was my moment. This is how it was meant to play out.”

If this is what the regular season Subway Series was like, imagine the Yankees and Mets meeting in October for baseball’s biggest prize.

“You’d like to think ahead a little bit, because of the pace they’re on and where we’re at, too,” Aaron Judge said, “but we got to get there first.”

Judge hit a 453-foot drive halfway up the bleachers for his major league-leading 48th home run and added an RBI single during a seventh-inning rally, boosting the New York Yankees past the Mets on Tuesday night for their second straight 4-2 win and a two-game sweep.

The Yankees turned a pair of sparkling 6-4-3 double plays, Andrew Benintendi came through with another big hit and rookie right fielder Oswaldo Cabrera made three key contributions. The go-ahead rally was boosted by a fluky popup that dropped for a single, and fans stood for nearly 20 minutes in the ninth inning anticipating the final out.

Francisco Lindor lofted Wandy Peralta’s changeup for a routine fly to center, stranding the bases loaded and ending as scintillating a regular-season game as you’ll see.

Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola have been no sweat for the Mets this  season, but when the Phillies start somebody named Bailey Falter, look out.

A rookie, Falter accomplished something Saturday in Game 2 of a doubleheader that neither Wheeler nor Nola have been able to do against the Mets this year: He beat them.

The Mets managed just two hits over six innings against the left-hander and three total in a 4-1 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Earlier in the day, the Mets jumped on Wheeler and rolled to an 8-2 victory in the first game.

The Mets are 13-5 against the Phillies in 2022 and will finish the season series on Sunday. Most notably, the Mets are 9-0 in games the Phillies’ top guns, Wheeler and Nola, have started against them.

But the Mets managed just two singles against Falter, in his ninth major league start.

“His ball was getting on us,” Francisco Lindor said. “It seemed like his fastball had a little bit more on it than we expected. It had more ride on it. We didn’t make the adjustment quick enough.”

Pete Alonso has been at his best when it matters the most, raising his play when the moment calls for it.

After the Mets dropped three of four to the Braves this week, the division matchup against the rising Phillies that began Friday night certainly mattered, and so the first baseman responded.

Alonso passed the 100 RBI mark and crushed his 30th home run of the season to jump-start the Mets in a 7-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park.

The Mets bounced back nicely after those four games in Atlanta, in which they lost a series to an NL East opponent for the first time this year. With a 77-43 record, they remained 3 games up on the Braves, who beat the Astros on Friday.

“He wants to be everything for us every night,” manager Buck Showalter said of Alonso, who went 2-for-5 and finished the night tied with Aaron Judge for the major league lead with 102 RBIs. “He takes pride in his defense, in his driving in runs.”  

The goose egg reared its ugly head once again on Friday night in The Bronx.

On another lifeless night for their offense, the Yankees were blanked by the Blue Jays in a 4-0 loss at the Stadium.

The Yankees (73-47) lost for the 14th time in their last 18 games and fell to 12-24 since July 8. Their lead atop the AL East that day was a season-high 15 ½ games, but after Friday night, the Blue Jays (64-54) have cut it to eight games — the smallest it has been since June 13.

Over their last 10 games, the Yankees have scored just 19 runs — eight of which came in their wild comeback win Wednesday. That game seems little more than a blip on the radar for a team that has otherwise struggled mightily at the plate.

Not even Aaron Judge could put the Yankees on his back. The AL MVP favorite went 0-for-2 with a walk and is now 2-for-23 over his last seven games in a rare off week, though he is far from the only Yankee in that group.

LeMahieu is on a 4-for-28 skid. Anthony Rizzo is 6-for-38. Josh Donaldson is 6-for-37. Andrew Benintendi is 7-for-35. Gleyber Torres is 6-for-40. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is 5-for-33.

When Bruce Springsteen heads out on tour in 2023, he’ll be performing five shows in the New York area.

The first local date is April 1st at Madison Square Garden, followed by a show at Barclays Center on April 3rd. Springsteen will play a pair of shows at the UBS Arena on Long Island on April 9th and 11th. He’ll conclude the U.S. leg of the tour on April 14th at the Prudential Center in Newark.

People will need to register with Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan system for the opportunity to buy tickets.

When a string of injuries to various body parts began during the middle of last season, Jacob deGrom was put on the shelf as the best pitcher in baseball. Now that he has returned, deGrom is making it clear that title still belongs to him.

DeGrom threw six scoreless innings, in which he faced 20 hitters and retired 18, 10 by strikeout, in the Mets’ 1-0 win over the Phillies in front of a sellout crowd of 43,857, the biggest of the season and the ninth largest regular-season crowd in Citi Field history.

Phillies batters swung at 44 of deGrom’s 76 pitches. They connected for two singles — one in the first inning by Rhys Hoskins and one in the sixth by Bryson Stott — and missed 19 times.

The Mets scored in the first inning thanks to Starling Marte’s legs. Marte singled, stole second and took third base when the throw escaped into center field. Pete Alonso came through again with a single off Aaron Nola for his league-leading 97th RBI.

“The value of one run in the big leagues is tremendous — especially  when Jake’s on the mound,” said Alonso, whose average is up to .281. “You know you have a pretty good shot to win the ballgame.”

DeGrom had his run, and he and the Mets’ bullpen made it stand up.

After a miserable few days in St. Louis, the Yankees got back to winning, snapping their season-high five-game losing streak with a 9-4 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. 

But it came with a cost, as Matt Carpenter suffered a fractured left foot in the first inning and could be lost for the season. 

Against Seattle, they had enough to overcome Carpenter’s absence, as Josh Donaldson had four hits — including a two-run single in the first and a solo homer in the third — and Aaron Judge crushed his 44th homer of the season. 

Jameson Taillon continued his pattern of being good every other start, as he gave up three runs in seven innings. 

It came after the team was swept by the Cardinals, with their new top-of-the-rotation pitcher, Frankie Montas, getting hit hard on Sunday and their lead in the AL East had dropped into single digits for the first time since June 15. 

Strong starting pitching from David Peterson and Max Scherzer, plus standout offensive performances by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, fueled the Mets to a doubleheader sweep of the Braves on a steamy Saturday at Citi Field, clinching the pivotal series victory.

After Lindor and Peterson led the way to an 8-5 win in Game 1, Scherzer dominated in the nightcap, with Alonso driving the offense in a 6-2 victory.

With the sweep, the Mets (69-39) took three of the first four games of the series and pushed their lead atop the NL East to 5 ½ games over the Braves (64-45). That marks their largest lead since June 21, and they have a chance to put an exclamation point on the series on Sunday.

“This is what you play the game for,” said Scherzer, who struck out 11 over seven shutout innings on a season-high 108 pitches. “You play to face the best. Especially deep in the season, you grind it out here in the NL East. You face so many tough opponents that you want to go out there and match it and beat them. So it’s rewarding when that happens.”