This Week in Sportsball (11/9//25 - 11/20/25)
- lavozlatinatu
- Nov 24, 2025
- 5 min read
By Jael Hernandez
We’re finally back with another edition of Sportsball This Week! This week, UFC 322 in Madison Square Garden ends with a new champion, heartbreak and excitement as the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers come to a close, and the NBA and NFL continue!
Jack Della Madalena vs Islam Makhachev
The fight of the night. Or at least that’s what people hoped for. It only took a round or 2 for Jack to start looking like he might cry. The poor guy couldn’t do ANYTHING. He was able to go toe to toe with a decent grappler like Belal Muhammad, but Islam is cut from another cloth. Makhachev kept him on the ground nearly the entire fight, and even on the feet, where JDM is supposed to have the advantage, Islam controlled as well. In the end, it went the distance and Islam won the welterweight title by unanimous decision, becoming the 11th fighter to be a champion in 2 divisions, joining names like Conor McGregor, Jon Jones and Illia Topuria.
Valentina Shevchenko vs Zhang Weili
Before this, a lot of people said this was gonna be one of the greatest WMMA fights ever. One of the most exciting strawweights ever in Zhang Weili who’s put down legends like Joanna Jędrzejczyk against the legendary flyweight Valentina Shevchenko, who’s put up an impressive resume with wins over Alexa Grasso, (also) Joanna Jędrzejczyk and gone the distance with UFC Hall of Famer Amanda Nunes. But when fight time came, that shit was a snooze fest. And it's no hate against Valentina, because she absolutely dominated, but it wasn’t even a contest. Weili, who’s been used to fighting at 115lbs, was unable to go against the strength of 125. Valentina smothered her and Weili was helpless against her much stronger opponent. In the end, the fight went the distance and Bullet won by unanimous decision, keeping her title.
Sean Brady vs Michael Morales
Morales went into the fight as the underdog and knocked Sean Brady out in the first round. The Ecuadorian is now 18-0, undefeated, and it looks like he’s the most likely candidate for Islam’s first title defence.
Leon Edwards vs Carlos Prates
They call him The Nightmare for a reason! Former welterweight champion Leon Edwards looked to snap his 2 fight losing streak with a win over rising star Carlos Prates. After a strong first round, Edwards looked hopeful, until his dreams were shattered by a nasty punch from the Brazilian. Shit had Leon on the ground smiling, he knew it was wraps; he not getting another title shot. Meanwhile, Carlos solidifies himself as a contender for the next title shot.
Soccer This Week
2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifying
It’s official! CONCACAF Qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup are over. Typically, the confederation is dominated by the US, Canada, and Mexico, but since they’re the hosts this year, it’s given the other nations in North America a chance to qualify.
Winners
Those who’ve qualified directly are Panama, who last qualified in 2018, Curaçao, who’ll be making their World Cup debut, and Haiti, who’ll be making their first appearance since 1974. Those who still have to go to the inter-confederation playoffs are Jamaica and Suriname. They’ll be joining Bolivia, New Caledonia, DR Congo and Iraq, where the 6 teams will fight for one of the 2 available spots through playoffs in the World Cup.
Currently qualified are; host nations; Canada, Mexico and USA, and those who’ve earned their qualification; Japan, New Zealand, Iran, Argentina, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Qatar, England, Saudi Arabia, Ivory Coast and Senegal. And the teams who’ve recently qualified; France, Croatia, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and Scotland.
Losers
But with winners we also have losers; Guatemala, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago, Bermuda, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua are the unlucky teams. The teams go through yet another qualification process without qualifying and have yet to make a recent World Cup appearance.
NBA This Week
As we head into week 5 of the NBA season, we’ve already got some notable teams shaping up to do great.
Starting off, we have the defending champions. As expected, they’re off to a hot start, at the time of this writing; 15-1. With last year’s MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading them, and a decently young core consisting of Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, and others, they’re shaping up to go deep into the playoffs and perhaps go for a back to back.
Last year, the Rockets entered the playoffs as the two seed, where they were later bounced out by the Warriors in 7 games. They’ve made some adjustments to their roster; namely the addition of Kevin Durant. As of this writing, they currently sit 3rd in the Western Conference at 10-3.
2 years ago, the Pistons lost a record 28 games in a row from October 30 to December 30, tying the longest losing streak in NBA history. They ended that season 14-68. Now skip ahead to last year, they end the season 44-38, where they end up losing in the first round to the Knicks in 6. However, the fact they made such a massive turn-around in just a year is what shocked people the most, and currently, they sit at the top of the Eastern Conference 13-2. With star point guard Cade Cunningham, the Pistons look to make the playoffs once more.
Now here’s a surprising one, the Celtics currently sit at 10th in the East, at 8-7. It might not seem bad, but considering they won the Finals 2 years ago, I beg to differ. Not sure what’s going on with their recent run of mediocrity, but I think they’ll bounce back.
Last year’s runners-up are slated to go through this entire season without franchise star Tyrese Haliburton, after he suffered a heartbreaking Achilles tear after starting hot, going for 9 points in just 7 minutes. However, without Haliburton, the Pacers are lost. They can’t seem to get anything going and they’re absolutely terrible. They sit at 14th in the conference at 2-13.
NFL This Week
The only reason I’m talking about this shit show is because it’s the NFL’s first game in Spain. Over 80,000 fans showed up to watch whatever the hell happened here. There’s low scoring games because of great defense. This… was not one of them. This was ass. Like actually.
Anyways, that’s all I’ve got for this semester’s last edition of This Week in Sportsball! Hope you’ve enjoyed the series! I’ll be back next semester to recap more sportsball! Remember, to win the game, you gotta beat the other team.
Comments