AUSTIN, Texas – Valtteri Bottas put his Mercedes on the pole for the United States Grand Prix Saturday during qualifying at Circuit of the Americas.

Bottas’ first lap during Q3 turned out to be his best, with the Mercedes driver turning in a 1:32.029 lap to secure his fifth pole of the season.

“This is very satisfying – it’s been a while since we’ve last been on pole, so this is a great feeling,” said Bottas. “I was struggling with the car yesterday, but we’ve made a number of changes overnight and today the car felt much better. I knew going into qualifying that the car had the potential to fight at the front, I just had to get a good lap together. I’m very pleased with my first lap in Q3; it wasn’t quite perfect, but good enough to put us on pole. It’s always an advantage to start from the front; now it’s up to me to try and maintain the lead at the start tomorrow. Our long runs looked good yesterday, so hopefully we can get a strong result in the race.”

Just like Bottas, the first lap turned out to be the best lap for everyone during Q3. Sebastian Vettel’s first lap was enough to earn him the second starting position, only .012 seconds shy of the lap put down by Bottas.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified third, meaning three different teams took the top-three starting positions in Sunday’s race.

Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari, while championship leader Lewis Hamilton was shockingly fifth following the final round of qualifying after he paced Friday’s round of practice sessions.

Red Bull’s Alexander Albon, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly completed the top-10 in qualifying.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Kevin Harvick will start the defense of his AAA Texas 500 win from the top starting position on Sunday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway.

Harvick crushed the competition en route to his sixth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole of the season Saturday evening during qualifying, with a lap of 28.465 seconds (189.707 mph) in the No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Mustang.

The pole is Harvick’s second at Texas and the 31st of his Cup Series career. He’ll seek a second-straight victory that would advance him into the Championship 4 on Sunday.

“I think the key to the lap was obviously knowing that you had to be wide open,” noted Harvick. “We did a halfway qualifying run yesterday and worked most of the day on race runs and making sure we ran enough laps to know where our car was. I think the first pit stall is obviously a good stall to have here for pit road time and the things that go with that, because I think it is going to be a track position game like it was last time.

“Hopefully this pole and that first pit box help us stay on the right side of that come Sunday afternoon.”

Erik Jones, who was eliminated in round one of the playoffs, will join Harvick on the front row Sunday after posting a time of 28.588 seconds (188.890 mph) with his No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry.

Jones’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin rolls off third (28.615/188.712), followed by the Chevrolet duo of Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman.

Four Ford Mustangs – driven by Aric Almirola, Daniel Suarez, Brad Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse, respectively – qualified sixth through ninth, with Matt DiBenedetto’s Toyota completing the top 10.

Eleventh through 15th are five of the remaining playoff drivers, with defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano leading that rostrum. Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney ended the time-trial session just behind Logano.

Notably lowest of the playoff drivers, Martin Truex Jr. qualified 17th Saturday evening, but is already locked into the Championship 4 thanks to his win last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

The AAA Texas 500 goes green at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, with live coverage on NBCSN, the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series; Texas Motor Speedway; Nov. 2, 2019

1. #4 – Kevin Harvick, 28.465 seconds (189.707 mph)
2. #20 – Erik Jones, 28.588 seconds (188.890 mph)
3. #11 – Denny Hamlin, 28.615 seconds (188.712 mph)
4. #1 – Kurt Busch, 28.657 seconds (188.436 mph)
5. #88 – Alex Bowman, 28.669 seconds (188.357 mph)
6. #10 – Aric Almirola, 28.675 seconds (188.317 mph)
7. #41 – Daniel Suarez, 28.723 seconds (188.003 mph)
8. #2 – Brad Keselowski, 28.727 seconds (187.976 mph)
9. #17 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 28.734 seconds (187.931 mph)
10. #95 – Matt DiBenedetto, 28.740 seconds (187.891 mph)
11. #22 – Joey Logano, 28.755 seconds (187.793 mph)
12. #18 – Kyle Busch, 28.764 seconds (187.735 mph)
13. #42 – Kyle Larson, 28.782 seconds (187.617 mph)
14. #9 – Chase Elliott, 28.817 seconds (187.389 mph)
15. #12 – Ryan Blaney, 28.841 seconds (187.233 mph)
16. #8 – Daniel Hemric, 28.846 seconds (187.201 mph)
17. #19 – Martin Truex Jr., 28.863 seconds (187.091 mph)
18. #24 – William Byron, 28.901 seconds (186.845 mph)
19. #13 – Ty Dillon, 28.901 seconds (186.845 mph)
20. #37 – Chris Buescher, 28.914 seconds (186.761 mph)
21. #3 – Austin Dillon, 28.915 seconds (186.754 mph)
22. #43 – Bubba Wallace, 28.931 seconds (186.651 mph)
23. #48 – Jimmie Johnson, 28.936 seconds (186.619 mph)
24. #14 – Clint Bowyer, 28.938 seconds (186.606 mph)
25. #6 – Ryan Newman, 28.951 seconds (186.522 mph)
26. #38 – David Ragan, 28.983 seconds (186.316 mph)
27. #34 – Michael McDowell, 29.004 seconds (186.181 mph)
28. #47 – Ryan Preece, 29.018 seconds (186.091 mph)
29. #36 – John Hunter Nemechek, 29.097 seconds (185.586 mph)
30. #96 – Parker Kligerman, 29.123 seconds (185.420 mph)
31. #21 – Paul Menard, 29.135 seconds (185.344 mph)
32. #00 – Landon Cassill, 29.194 seconds (184.970 mph)
33. #32 – Corey LaJoie, 29.311 seconds (184.231 mph)
34. #53 – J.J. Yeley, 29.534 seconds (182.840 mph)
35. #27 – Ross Chastain, 29.633 seconds (182.229 mph)
36. #52 – Garrett Smithley, 29.830 seconds (181.026 mph)
37. #77 – Quin Houff, 29.831 seconds (181.020 mph)
38. #15 – Joe Nemechek, 30.025 seconds (179.850 mph)
39. #51 – Josh Bilicki, 30.278 seconds (178.347 mph)
40. #66 – Timmy Hill, 30.647 seconds (176.200 mph)

BOSTON -- Ottawa forward Scott Sabourin has been transported to a hospital for evaluation after being taken off the ice on a stretcher with his head immobilized following a collision with Boston forward David Backes early in the first period of Saturday night's game between the Senators and Bruins.

The Senators sent an update on their Twitter feed that Sabourin was conscious and speaking with the attending doctors while leaving the arena.

He gave the crowd a brief "thumbs up" as he was leaving the ice.

Sabourin had skated up to make a hit on Backes when the players' helmets collided. Sabourin immediately fell to the ice, appearing to be unconscious, and he lay motionless for a brief period.

Medical staff from both teams rushed to Sabourin, and a Bruins trainer quickly signaled for a stretcher. There was a large blood spot on the ice under Sabourin's face.

TV cameras showed Backes visibly upset, looking as if he was fighting back tears as he watched medical personnel attend to Sabourin. An Ottawa player could be seen consoling Backes, putting his glove on his shoulder. Most of the players on both teams took knees in front their benches and skated over to Sabourin when he was finally put on the stretcher after a delay that lasted about 10 minutes.

Fans gave Sabourin a loud ovation when he was taken from the ice. Backes went to the dressing room after Sabourin was wheeled off.

The Bruins announced in the second period that Backes had an upper-body injury and would not return.

There was no immediate word on Sabourin's injury or condition.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Retief Goosen shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead over fellow Hall of Famers Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer into the final round of the Invesco QQQ Championship, the second event in the PGA Tour Champions' Charles Schwab Cup playoffs.

Goosen birdied five of the last seven holes on the front nine at Sherwood Country Club, added a birdie on the par-5 11th, bogeyed the par-3 12th and rebounded with a birdie on the par-4 14th. The 50-year-old South African, the Senior Players Championship winner at Firestone in July for his first senior title, had a 10-under 134 total.

"I was walking down No. 6 or so and you see Langer's name at the top of the board and you know now you've got to put your foot down," Goosen said. "Luckily, he stumbled a bit coming in, but I also sort of stumbled a bit. It's going to be nice going up against Freddie and Bernhard tomorrow."

Langer, the 62-year-old German star who has won the season Schwab Cup title five times, matched Couples with a 65. Langer closed with a bogey, and Couples finished with a birdie.

"I hit it a little better, a little closer and made some putts, that was really the difference," Langer said. "Just sour to have finished with a bogey there on the last. Not the way to finish a day like that, but played really well, did everything well."

The top 36 in the standings will advance to the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship next week in Phoenix. Goosen began the week seventh, Langer fourth and Couples 32nd.

"If you want to take away that Charles Schwab Cup, you have to win these last two events," Goosen said. "I sort of feel like my game is there, although earlier in the week I hit the ball horrible, but my swing got better as the week went on. Today was nice. I played the par 5s horrible, but otherwise the rest of the course good."

The 60-year-old Couples won the last of his 13 Champions titles in 2017.

"I hit a lot of very good irons and it was an easy 7 under," Couples said. "Really the only bad shot I had was on the 10th. It was probably the easiest shot I had, it was a 100-yard sand wedge and I missed the green to the right and I made a really great up-and-down. Then the round just kept going and I made a few birdies in a row."

Miguel Angel Jimenez, tied for the first-round lead with Billy Mayfair and Woody Austin after a 66, had a 70 to fall into a tie for fourth with defending event champion Scott Parel at 8 under. Parel shot 66.

Jimenez won the playoff opener two week ago in Virginia and is 10th in the season standings. Parel is eighth.

Charles Schwab Cup leader Scott McCarron was 5 under after a 69. Second-place Jerry Kelly had a 70 to get to 2 under.

Austin was 5 under after a 73. Mayfair had a 75 to fall to 3 under.

Instagram sensation Muni He is on her way back to the LPGA after breezing through Q-Series.

Teen phenom Yealimi Noh earned a tour card, too.

So did former University of Arizona standout Haley Moore.

Forty-five players earned LPGA status Saturday at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina with every one of them taking home a story about their trek through the two-week, 144-hole marathon that constitutes the final stage of the tour’s qualifying tournament.

“Emotions are pretty surreal right now,” Stanford senior Albane Valenzuela said. “It's a dream come true getting my full LPGA card.”

Valenzuela (T-6) was one of three collegiate amateurs securing LPGA status for next year by finishing among the top 45. She shared the thrill with her college teammate, Andrea Lee, the top women’s amateur in the world, who finished T-30. USC’s Jennifer Chang finished T-9.

Florida’s Sierra Brooks finished T-62 and Florida State’s Frida Kinhult finished T-67. They both won the right to play the Symetra Tour next year.

Chang and Kinhult told Golfweek they intend to forgo the spring collegiate season to turn pro at the start of 2020 and take up the tour status they earned at Q-Series, with Valenzuela, Lee and Brooks saying they remain undecided when they will turn pro. Amateurs making it through have until July 1 to decide to take up tour membership.

Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi were the only amateurs who chose to defer turning pro after earning LPGA privileges in Q-Series last year, with both opting to complete their collegiate careers. The choices worked out well. Kupcho won the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur and Fassi won the NCAA Championship. After turning pro this past summer, each went on to secure their LPGA status for 2020, despite limited starts in the second half of this year.

He won Q-Series, closing out with a 2-under 70 at Pinehurst No. 9, finishing at 21 under overall. That was three shots better than Hee Young Park (70) and six better than Noh (69).

Three-time winner Christina Kim (T-24), Karine Icher (T-26), Emma Talley (T-6) and Kim Kaufman (T-30) were among LPGA veterans improving their status by finishing among the top 45. Those finishes will allow them to compete out of Category 14 of the tour’s priority list next year.

England won the toss and chose to bowl v New Zealand

Saqib Mahmood, the Lancashire fast bowler, has been handed the chance to make his debut in the second T20I against New Zealand in Wellington, as England seek to build on their seven-wicket victory in Friday's opening fixture in Christchurch.

Saqib, whose natural fast-bowling attributes earned him 28 wickets at 18.50 in Lancashire's Royal London 50-over campaign last summer, comes into the starting XI in place of Tom Curran, who has been rested to manage his return from a side strain.

"He's a guy who offers a bit at the front and the end, a cool calm character in high-pressure situations," said Eoin Morgan, England's captain, after Saqib had received his cap from the former Lancashire batsman and Sky Sports commentator David Lloyd.

"It's something you dream of as a child growing up," Saqib told Sky Sports before the start of play. "I've still got to pinch myself that I'm going to be making my debut in an hour or so."

"Morgs told me yesterday, I was having a nap in the afternoon and he sent me a text to tell me the good news."

Morgan won the toss and chose to bowl for the second match running, and hoped for more of the same from his side after an impressive first outing of the tour.

"We expect the Black Caps to come back hard so we are expecting a good competitive game," said Morgan, who confirmed Saqib as the one change to the side, meaning that Dawid Malan will once again open alongside Jonny Bairstow. "It looks a pretty good wicket but it's a different stadium, so a different challenge."

"It was a high-scoring game here last year so hopefully we can get a good score on the board and defend it," said Tim Southee, New Zealand's captain, who confirmed that James Neesham would be coming into his side in place of Scott Kuggeleijn.

With Sam Curran, Pat Brown and Lewis Gregory all making their T20I debuts in the opening game of the five-match series, Saqib's selection means that all but two of the uncapped players in the squad have now been blooded - Somerset's explosive opener Tom Banton and Saqib's Lancashire team-mate, Matt Parkinson, will have to wait their turn.

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Colin de Grandhomme, 6 Daryl Mitchell, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 James Neesham, 9 Tim Southee (capt), 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Ish Sodhi

England: 1 Dawid Malan, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 James Vince, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Sam Billings (wk), 6 Lewis Gregory, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Saqib Mahmood, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Pat Brown

UFC 244 could easily go down as the biggest fight card of 2019 -- even though the headline bout involves one fighter, Nate Diaz, who recently took three years away from the sport, and another, Jorge Masvidal, who has headlined exactly one event in his UFC career.

There is also not a single championship fight to speak of. Except, of course, the one for the made-up BMF belt.

Saturday's pay-per-view event at Madison Square Garden is about as nontraditional as you can get, but it illustrates the power certain athletes are enjoying and perhaps a newfound willingness by the UFC to embrace different ideas and marketing concepts.

Don't forget, less than four months ago, the UFC was at odds with its biggest star, Conor McGregor, over a dispute about his potential placement on a summer card. The UFC wanted to book McGregor in the co-main event, behind a championship fight. The entire negotiation eventually fell through, in part due to a McGregor injury.

If New York isn't the beginning of a new era, it's at least an outlier worth noting. Diaz has willed this main event slot, and even the creation of a BMF belt, into existence with his enormous popularity. And it's very likely this welterweight fight will outshine next month's actual welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, which will headline UFC 245 in Las Vegas.

Longtime fans of the sport have to appreciate the irony in all of this. It took Diaz and Masvidal years to turn into household names and start generating the type of paychecks they long felt they deserved. And now here they are, breaking some of the unspoken, but very real, rules the UFC has traditionally lived by.

By the numbers

7: Consecutive fights in which Diaz (+120 as of Friday afternoon) has been the betting underdog, including this one. Nate won four of the previous six.

5: Seconds it took Masvidal to knock out Ben Askren in July, making it the fastest KO in UFC history.

2,131: Strikes by Diaz during his UFC career, the fourth most in promotion history.

2: Previous main event slots for Diaz in a UFC pay-per-view event. Both were fights against Conor McGregor (UFC 196 in March 2016 and UFC 202 that August).

26: Fights for Masvidal since he last was finished. That happened in a 2009 Bellator bout in which Toby Imada submitted him via the rarely seen inverted triangle. Since then, Jorge has finished eight of his opponents.

Source: ESPN Stats & Information

A look back

Five vs. five

Jorge Masvidal's most recent results
Win: Ben Askren (KO1, July 6, 2019)
Win: Darren Till (KO2, March 16, 2019)
Loss: Stephen Thompson (UD, Nov. 4, 2017)
Loss: Demian Maia (SD, May 13, 2017)
Win: Donald Cerrone (TKO2, Jan. 28, 2017)

Nate Diaz's most recent results
Win: Anthony Pettis (UD, Aug. 17, 2019)
Loss: Conor McGregor (MD, Aug. 20, 2016)
Win: Conor McGregor (SUB2, March 5, 2016)
Win: Michael Johnson (UD, Dec. 19, 2015)
Loss: Rafael Dos Anjos (UD, Dec. 13, 2014)

Fighting words

"Ben Askren had never been knocked out when I got a hold of him. The dude from England [Darren Till] had never been knocked out when I got a hold of him. And the list goes on and on. If you look through my career, I put an end to a lot of guys [who had] never been knocked down, never been stopped. ... That's the only thing I'm trying to do, is take this guy out of consciousness for a while. That's my job. That's entertainment."
-- Masvidal, during a UFC conference call with the media

"I think it's already set in stone: I'm the baddest m-----f-----, and he's the runner-up."
-- Diaz, during the same media call

Dom & Gil's film study

Cruz on Masvidal as a stand-up guy

Melendez on Diaz making advances

Brett Okamoto's prediction

Could be a tale of two fights. Early on, I like Masvidal's boxing and his power. I like his defensive grappling for the most part, especially against a non-dominant wrestler in Diaz. I also like his experience. I don't think a couple of "Stockton slaps" are going to throw Masvidal off his game. And even though they are both former lightweights, I look at Masvidal as the more natural 170-pounder. The longer the fight goes, however, the more it could favor Diaz and his unmatched cardio. Very tough fight to pick, but I'll go Masvidal via TKO, fourth round.

This fight show is brought to you by the No. 500

UFC 244 will mark the 500th live event in the fight promotion's history. How many did you see? Remember your first? Here are some numbers to ponder, compiled by ESPN Stats & Information:

Number of fights: 5,394
Number of fighters: 1,997
Number of male fighters: 1,834
Number of female fighters: 163
Number of champions: 95, including superfight and tournament champions
Number of cities that have hosted: 156 (Las Vegas has hosted the most events: 121)
Number of countries that have hosted: 28 (United States has hosted 334 events)
Number of continents that have hosted: 5 (No Africa or Antarctica)
Number of KO/TKO wins: 1,796
Number of submission wins: 1,121
Largest attendance: 57,127 at UFC 243 (Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya on Oct. 5 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia)
Smallest attendance: 594 at UFC Fight Night 5 (Anderson Silva's UFC debut, a 49-second KO of Chris Leben) on June 28, 2006, at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas; the show was headlined by Jonathan Goulet vs. Luke Cummo and also featured future light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans as well as future welterweight title challengers Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch)
Longest title reign: 2,457 days by Silva, from 2006 to 2013
Shortest title reign: 33 days by Georges St-Pierre in 2017

What else to look for ... beyond the main event

The rest of the card, co-main event down:

PPV (via ESPN+), 10 p.m. ET
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Darren Till | Middleweight
Stephen Thompson vs. Vicente Luque | Welterweight
Derrick Lewis vs. Blagoy Ivanov | Heavyweight
Kevin Lee vs. Gregor Gillespie | Lightweight
ESPN2, 8 p.m.
Corey Anderson vs. Johnny Walker | Light heavyweight
Shane Burgos vs. Makwan Amirkhani | Men's featherweight
Brad Tavares vs. Edmen Shahbazyan | Middleweight
Andrei Arlovski vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik | Heavyweight
ESPN+, 6:30 p.m.
Jennifer Maia vs. Katlyn Chookagian | Women's flyweight
Lyman Good vs. Chance Rencountre | Welterweight
Julio Arce vs. Hakeem Dawodu | Men's featherweight

Dom & Gil break down the co-main event

A couple of things to chew on regarding Kelvin Gastelum vs. Darren Till:

• Gastelum (16-4, 1 NC), coming off April's middleweight interim title bout loss to Israel Adesanya, has never lost back-to-back fights.

• Till (17-2-1), moving up from welterweight, is on a two-fight losing streak after starting his career unbeaten in his first 18.

Strength in numbers at UFC 244

Fighters in the ESPN divisional rankings: 7 -- Derrick Lewis (No. 6 at heavyweight), Corey Anderson (No. 6 light heavyweight), Kelvin Gastelum (No. 3 middleweight), Jorge Masvidal (No. 5 welterweight), Stephen Thompson (No. 10 welterweight), Katlyn Chookagian (No. 3 women's flyweight), Jennifer Maia (No. 7 women's flyweight)

Fighters on ESPN's Top 25 under age 25 list: 1 -- Edmen Shahbazyan, who at age 21 is 10-0 and ranked No. 3 on the list

Former UFC champions: 1 -- Andrei Arlovski, who reigned at heavyweight from 2005 to '06

Title challengers: 7 -- Kelvin Gastelum (middleweight, 2019), Nate Diaz (lightweight, 2012), Darren Till (welterweight, 2018), Stephen Thompson (welterweight, 2016 and 2017), Derrick Lewis (heavyweight, 2018), Kevin Lee (interim lightweight 2017) and Andrei Arlovski (heavyweight, 2005 and 2006). Looking beyond the UFC, Jorge Masvidal challenged for the Strikeforce lightweight belt in 2011, and Lyman Good was welterweight champ in Bellator in 2009.

Top 10 vs. Top 10

A lot of high-level fighters will enter the Octagon on Saturday at the Garden, but only one bout will pit two ranked fighters against each other: the feature fight of the early prelims (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+) between Katlyn Chookagian, No. 3 in the women's flyweight Top 10, and seventh-ranked Jennifer Maia.

Chookagian (12-2), who has won three of her past four, is a victory away from tying Gillian Robertson, Joanne Calderwood and champion Valentina Shevchenko for the most wins in women's flyweight history.

Maia (17-5-1), who has had her arm raised in her past two fights, needs a win to tie Molly McCann for the second-longest active win streak in the division; Shevchenko has won four straight.

Minute man

Johnny Walker (17-3) has fought three times in the UFC, and he has won all three bouts by knockout, earning Performance of the Night bonuses each time (and celebrating with the "worm" dance). He KO'd Khalil Rountree in 1 minute, 57 seconds last November, TKO'd Justin Ledet in just 15 seconds in February and TKO'd Misha Cirkunov in 36 seconds in March.

That makes him one of three fighters (along with Vitor Belfort and Shane Carwin) to win each of his first three UFC fights within two minutes, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. No one has done so in his first four, and with a KO at any point in Saturday's first five minutes, Walker would join Carwin as the only modern-era UFC fighter to start a career with four first-round knockouts.

Walker's opponent in the feature prelim (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2), Corey Anderson, also has won three in a row and also has some superlatives on his résumé. Anderson (13-4), No. 6 in the ESPN light heavyweight rankings, has 52 takedowns in his UFC career, the most in 205-pound history. He has the third-highest takedown accuracy in light heavyweight history (50%), and with a win, he would tie Ovince Saint Preux for the most wins in the division since 2014 (10).

The winner of this fight will tie Aleksandar Rakic for the second-longest active win streak among UFC light heavies, with only Dominick Reyes (six) ahead of them.

Odds 'n' ends

• The UFC has visited Madison Square Garden three previous times, and welterweight Stephen Thompson has been on two of those fight cards. He fought to a draw against then-champion Tyron Woodley in 2016 and defeated Jorge Masvidal in 2017. "Wonderboy" (14-4-1), who has lost his past two outings, faces Vicente Luque (17-6-1), winner of six in a row. It's a bout that, in contrast to the BMF main event, should have at stake a GG belt to honor two of the good guys on the UFC roster.

• Derrick Lewis (21-7), who faces 18-2 Blagoy Ivanov, has 10 UFC wins by KO/TKO, tied for the most ever in the heavyweight division.

• Gregor Gillespie (13-0) is seeking to become the third fighter to start 7-0 at lightweight (joining Khabib Nurmagomedov and Benson Henderson). He fights Kevin Lee (17-5), who is returning to 155 pounds after a one-fight detour to welterweight.

• The featherweight prelim between Shane Burgos and Makwan Amirkhani has some superlatives attached to it. Burgos (12-1) has the highest striking rate (7.06 per minute) and the highest takedown defense percentage (94.4%) in UFC featherweight history. Amirkhani (15-3) has the second-best strike absorption rate (1.62 per minute) and ranks fifth among active 145-pounders in takedown accuracy (48.2%).

• Brad Tavares (17-6 overall, 12-5 UFC), who faces rising contender Edmen Shahbazyan (10-0), is one win from tying Thales Leites, Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami for the third-most UFC middleweight wins, behind Michael Bisping (16) and Anderson Silva (14).

• Andrei Arlovski (28-28, 2 NC), who faces 8-0 Jairzinho Rozenstruik, already has the most wins in UFC heavyweight history (17). If he wins by knockout, he would tie Cain Velasquez, Lewis and Junior Dos Santos for the most KOs. A finish of any kind would be the 12th of his UFC career, which would put him second in division history behind Frank Mir (13).

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs exercised their 2020 club contract option on left-hander Jose Quintana on Saturday and declined their 2020 club contract option on left-hander Derek Holland.

Quintana, who will turn 31 in January, will earn $10.5 million next season. The Colombia native was 13-9 with a 4.68 ERA this season. He also had 152 strikeouts with 46 walks in 171 innings pitched.

Quintana joined the Cubs in 2017 in a trade with the White Sox for then-prospects outfielder Eloy Jimenez and pitcher Dylan Cease along with infielders Matt Rose and Bryant Flete.

The Cubs chose not to pick up their $6.5 million option on left-handed reliever Holland, who was obtained in a midseason trade with the San Francisco Giants for cash.

Holland, 33, pitched 15.2 innings for the Cubs with an ERA of 6.89.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

WASHINGTON -- The song "Baby Shark" blared over loudspeakers and a wave of red washed across this politically blue capital Saturday as Nationals fans rejoiced at a parade marking Washington's first World Series victory since 1924.

"They say good things come to those who wait. 95 years is a pretty long wait," Nationals owner Ted Lerner told the cheering crowd. "But I'll tell you, this is worth the wait."

As buses carrying the players and team officials wended their way along the parade route, pitcher Max Scherzer at one point hoisted the World Series trophy to the cheers of the crowd.

At a rally just blocks from the Capitol, Scherzer said his teammates grinded their hearts out to "stay in the fight." And then, after backup outfielder Gerardo Parra joined the team, he said, they started dancing and having fun. And they started hitting. "Never in this town have you seen a team compete with so much heart and so much fight," he said.

And then the Nats danced.

Team officials, Nationals manager Dave Martinez and several players thanked the fans for their support through the best of times and staying with them even after a dismal 19-31 start to the season. "I created the circle of trust and I trusted these guys," Martinez said.

The camaraderie among the players was a theme heard throughout the rally. "It took all 25 of us, every single day we were pulling for each other," said pitcher Stephen Strasburg, the World Series MVP.

Nationals veteran slugger Howie Kendrick, 36, said that when he came to the Nationals in 2017, "I was thinking about retiring. This city taught me to love baseball again."

Mayor Muriel Bowser declared DC the "District of Champions." The Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018, the Mystics won the WNBA championship this year, and now the Nationals.

The city had been thirsting for a World Series championship for nearly a century. The Nationals gave them that by winning in seven games over the Houston Astros; the clincher came on the road Wednesday night.

"I just wish they could have won in DC," said Ronald Saunders of Washington, who came with a Little League team that was marching in the parade.

Nick Hashimoto of Dulles, Virginia, was among those who arrived at 5 a.m. to snag a front-row spot. He brought his own baby shark toy in honor of Parra's walk-up song, which began as a parental tribute to the musical taste of his 2-year-old daughter and ended up as a rallying cry that united fans at Nationals Park and his teammates.

As "Baby Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo" played on a crisp morning, early risers joined in with the trademark response -- arms extended in a chomping motion. Chants of "Let's go Nats!" resonated from the crowd hours before the rally.

Kimberly Ballou of Silver Spring, Maryland, said sports "is a unifier" that transcends race, gender and class and brings people together.

The crowd along the route was deeply packed. Cheers went up and fans waved red streamers, hand towels and signs that said "Fight Finished" as the players rode by on the open top of double-decker buses. General Manager Mike Rizzo, a cigar in his mouth, jumped off with the World Series trophy to show the fans lining the barricades and slapped high-fives. Manager Martinez also got in on the fun.

"We know what this title means to DC, a true baseball town, from the Senators to the Grays and now the Nationals," Bowser said at the rally. "By finishing the fight you have brought a tremendous amount of joy to our town and inspired a new generation of players and Nationals fans."

Bowser added: "We are deeply proud of you and I think we should do it again next year. What do you think?" Then she started a chant of "Back to back! Back to back!"

Martinez said he liked to hear the mayor pushing for back-to-back championships and said: "I get it. I'm all in. But let me enjoy this one first. I don't know if my heart can take any more of this right now. I need to just step back and enjoy this."

Martinez, who had a heart procedure recently, said that during the Series, as things heated up, players and fans shouted at him to watch out for his heart. "All this right here has cured my heart," he said.

And as the "Baby Shark" theme played once more, team owner Lerner told the team's veterans, "From now on, you can call me 'Grandpa Shark.'"

President Donald Trump has invited the Nationals to the White House on Monday, though relief pitcher Sean Doolittle doesn't plan to attend.

"There's a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country," Doolittle told The Washington Post.

The president attended Game 5 in Washington and was greeted with loud boos when he was shown on the giant video screen during a tribute to veterans. The boos more than overwhelmed a scattering of cheers.

Delores Smith of Washington, a longtime baseball fan who said she had an uncle who pitched in the Negro Leagues, said the World Series was "a big win" for the city. "This is the first time in a long time that I've seen the whole city come together. There's no fussing about Trump."

Even with the threat of stars leaving for free agency -- as outfielder Bryce Harper did after 2018 -- fans hoped the Nationals' success would continue.

They greeted third baseman Anthony Rendon with chants of MVP and cheered for the Nationals to re-sign him when shortstop Trea Turner got on the mic and said "Can we bring back Anthony Rendon?"

"I'll second that notion," said outfielder Adam Eaton.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.