The Philadelphia Phillies brought back Aaron Nola on a seven-year deal Sunday, but that won't be the end of their free-agent pursuit.

Conor McGregor has reiterated his criticism of the bout structure on The Ultimate Fighter, after his team fell to a 0-5 skid against Michael Chandler’s team. McGregor’s fighters have lost every contest in the first five episodes of the new season of the UFC television show. In this week’s episode, Carlos Vera suffered a decision defeat by Brad Katona – a long-time training partner of McGregor. Katona won both rounds on the judges’ scorecards, with former UFC champion McGregor bemoaning the lack of a third round in The Ultimate Fighter’s bouts. “Tell them ‘three rounds’, yeah?” McGregor said after Vera’s loss to Katona, appearing to aim the comment at UFC president Dana White. “The fight’s not over, they’re unfinished fights,” the Irishman added in a backstage interview. “If they got unfinished fights, give them a third round. The guys are fighting for their life here. In those situations where they’re closely contested, back and forth, there should be a third round. “I mean, this guy [Katona] is in there, [saying]: ‘Yeah!’ What was done there? Nothing. I’m surprised that those two [fighters] were called at the second round to be honest.” McGregor, 34, also told Vera in the team’s locker room: “Unfinished fight, that’s it. They’re unfinished fights, man. Let them go another round. They’re three-rounders [that] we need. F*** two rounds. “That was great, that was great. That body kick was money, man – beautiful shot. He’s a solid fighter, I know; he’s trained with us a long time. So, keeping going, Carlos. Great work, my man. Proud of you, bud.” Vera, meanwhile, said in an interview on this week’s episode: “I hate to lose. It is what it is, and there’s a lot of things I have to work on, but I fought my fight. I have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be sad about. So, onto the next one.” McGregor and American Chandler are supposed to fight one another at the conclusion of The Ultimate Fighter’s run this summer, but McGregor is still not in the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s testing pool. Fighters must be in the pool for six months and return at least two negative tests – and zero positives – in order to compete in the UFC, unless an exemption is granted. As such, McGregor vs Chandler is unlikely to take place in 2023. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More How to watch The Ultimate Fighter 31 in the UK Conor McGregor denies allegation he sexually assaulted a woman at NBA Finals McGregor Forever: The problem with the new Conor McGregor documentary UFC schedule 2023: Every fight happening this year Football pays tribute to Craig Brown – Monday’s sporting social Conor McGregor complains as his team lose yet again on The Ultimate Fighter

Aryna Sabalenka says she wants to talk only about tennis during Wimbledon and not the war in Ukraine that became a contentious topic for the Belarusian during the last Grand Slam event

A loaded Padres lineup can't come through when it needs to.

Will Benson hit a three-run homer, and the Cincinnati Reds snapped San Francisco’s seven-game win streak with a 3-2 victory over the Giants

Virgil van Dijk has received a new one-game suspension after his red card against Newcastle.

The NBA Finals matchup is set!The No. 1-seeded Denver Nuggets have home-court advantage against the No. 8-seeded Miami Heat, who are looking to become the first No. 8 seed to ever win an NBA Finals.Miami isn’t a typical No. 8 seed, as the team was the top seed in the East last season b...

Rangers have confirmed the appointment of Philippe Clement as their new manager. The 49-year-old arrives at Ibrox following the departure of Michael Beale at the start of the month. After playing at Genk and Club Brugge, Clement has won the Belgian Pro League as a manager with both teams and had Champions League experience with Brugge.

South Korea forward Casey Phair on Tuesday became the youngest ever player to appear at the World Cup -- just 26 days after celebrating her 16th birthday.

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp wants their match against Tottenham to be replayed after a significant VAR error ruled out Luis Diaz’s goal but accepts he is unlikely to get his wish. With the score at 0-0, Diaz was flagged offside but replays showed he was actually onside although Darren England, the VAR, mistakenly believed the on-field decision had been to award the goal, leading him to tell referee Simon Hooper the check was complete. Liverpool’s complaints promoted the publication of the audio between officials which revealed the first person to spot the mistake was the replay operator, who urged the team of officials to stop the game, but the VAR and assistant VAR repeatedly said they could not intervene because play had restarted. Klopp felt such an unprecendented scenario required a similarly unprecedented solution. “The audio didn’t change it at all because I was not really interested in why things happened because I knew,” he said. “I saw the outcome, I saw goal we scored and it didn’t count so I wasn’t now waiting for the audio and sitting there hoping I’d find out how it could happen or whatever. “Yes, it was an obvious mistake and I think there would have been solutions for it afterwards. I’m absolutely used to wrong decisions, difficult decisions but something like that as far as I can remember has never happened. That’s why I think the replay would be the right thing Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp “If not, I can say immediately – and probably some people don’t want me to say it – not as the manager of Liverpool but, much more as a football person, I think the only outcome should be a replay. It probably will not happen. “The argument against that will probably be if you open that gate then everybody will ask for it. I think the situation is that unprecedented – it didn’t happen before. “I’m 56 years old and I’m absolutely used to wrong decisions, difficult decisions but something like that as far as I can remember has never happened. That’s why I think the replay would be the right thing. “The next argument would be if it would happen again, I think a replay would be the right thing to do or the referee has the opportunity to bring both coaches together and say ‘sorry, we made a mistake, but we can sort it, that Liverpool score a goal and we start from there’.” Asked whether the club had made – or would make – a formal request for the match to be replayed Klopp, after taking advice from his press officer, said: “We are still going through the information that we have.” The PA news agency understands the Premier League’s stance remains the same as earlier in the week – that a replay would not be considered. The manager stressed he did not want to single out the individuals involved for the errors made, but wanted to find a solution within the framework of the system which would prevent something similar recurring in futrure. “What I want to say is it’s really important that as big as football is, and important as it is for us, that we really deal with it in a proper way,” he added. “I mean that all the people involved – on-field ref, linesman, fourth official and especially now in this case VAR – they didn’t do that on purpose. We shouldn’t forget that. “I’m not angry with any of them (the officials), not at all. It’s not only the respect, but the only thing for human beings in general is we should not go for them. It’s not allowed to go for them in any way. “They made a mistake and they felt horrible that night, I’m 100 per cent sure. That’s enough for me. Nobody needs further punishment. We should discuss it on a completely normal basis without emotions.” Klopp was still unhappy with some other decisions taken in the game, notably the upgrading of Curtis Jones’ yellow card to a red, and also the two yellow cards issued to Diogo Jota. “The referee got called to the screen and saw for the first three seconds a frozen picture. I would have given immediately a red card for that picture. Then he sees the replay in slow motion and I’d have given a red card for the slow motion. But in reality it’s not a red card. “The ref’s first decision is yellow. Then the clear and obvious mistake is showing a frozen picture and in slow motion. “On top of that, Diogo Jota got two yellow cards for not touching a player once. That is unprecedented as well I would say.” Jota will be available for Thursday’s Europa League visit of Belgian side Union Saint Gilloise but fellow forward Cody Gakpo, who was injured in the Spurs game, is out. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live George Turner knows Scotland must find their ‘best performance’ against Ireland Ireland centre Robbie Henshaw an injury doubt for crucial Scotland clash Mikel Arteta gives Bukayo Saka injury update ahead of Arsenal vs Man City

Ange Postecoglou has promised Tottenham supporters they will take the game to Arsenal in Sunday’s derby fixture. Spurs have won four of their five Premier League matches under the Australian, but the biggest test of this bold new era in N17 will occur this weekend at a ground where victories have been notoriously hard to achieve. Tottenham’s last league success at the Emirates was in 2010, although the most underwhelming aspect of recent displays at Arsenal has been the lack of attacking imagination with Postecoglou’s predecessors Antonio Conte, Nuno Espirito Santo and Jose Mourinho all favouring pragmatism in this match. There appears no chance of the current Spurs head coach employing a defensive approach and the 58-year-old is excited to watch how his young group cope in a fiery atmosphere against one of the division’s best teams. “When I went into Champions League games with Celtic or went into World Cup games with Australia, people said I should have changed my approach and we got some pretty decent lessons along the way, but I just think that’s the only way you can measure yourself,” Postecoglou explained. “How do you know if you want to be that kind of team? That’s the question. If you want to be a team that challenges, you know you have to play that way irrespective of the opponent. “There’s no point not using a game like Sunday as a measure to see where we’re at. “If we shy away from it, don’t play our football, manage to get a draw and survive the experience, what have we really learned? Apart from surviving 90 minutes of football? Nothing. “The players already know that’s what will be my message to them. We’re going to go out and play our football. “If we’re short, we’re short and we need to make it up. If we match them it’s great isn’t it (because) we know we have a long way to go and we’ve already established ourselves and on the biggest occasions we’ve shown we’re prepared to play our football.” Spurs have had a full week to prepare for the trip across north London, while Arsenal warmed up for Sunday with a 4-0 thrashing of PSV on Wednesday night. PSV tried to aggressively press Mikel Arteta’s side and were picked off to devastating effect on the Gunners return to the Champions League. It was put to Postecoglou that Arsenal would prefer an open match, but the Tottenham boss responded: “I’m not really bothered about what Arsenal want as a game. I’m bothered about what we want as a game. “It’s about us challenging ourselves to be the football team we want to be and the kind of progress we want to make is playing the football we’ve started playing. It’s as simple as that. “What the opposition may want or may not want becomes a moot point for us if we don’t play our football. There’s always natural adjustments during a game because of what the opposition do. “But we’ve started playing this way because it’s how I believe we’re going to be successful, not because I’m trying to create something easy on the eye.” We’re going to go out and play our football. If we’re short, we’re short and we need to make it up Ange Postecoglou on facing Arsenal Postecoglou acknowledged the inexperienced nature of his squad for this derby date with Guglielmo Vicario, Pedro Porro, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie and James Maddison set to be involved in the fixture for the first time. Even Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr have limited memories of playing for Tottenham against Arsenal but the ex-Celtic head coach says that all contributes towards Sunday being a crucial part of the group’s journey. He added: “This is the experiences I want the guys to have and for us to have as a group to help us grow. It is the only way you grow. “You don’t grow by literally being in the shade. You need to stick your head up and see the sun and allow yourself to grow even if it means at times that experience isn’t a great one because you can grow from that. “It is a challenge for all of the group and us, but irrespective it won’t stop our real intent to become this kind of football team whatever the outcome.”