CF Montreal will look to build off a commanding mid-week win in the Canadian Championship when they host Orlando City on Saturday afternoon.

Montreal dominated the Calgary Blizzard SC on Wednesday night, picking up a 5-0 win to advance to the quarterfinals.

“For all the players who have been playing a few minutes, it’s good that we had a lot of minutes today, so I’m really happy that we were able to win tonight,” said forward Daniel Rios.

“We’re working on getting our rhythm and the fine details of getting better each game.”

Montreal (3-7-0, 9 points) returns to MLS play looking to rebound from a 3-1 loss at Atlanta last weekend though they have won two of three overall (2-1-0).

German forward Prince Owusu paces Montreal with 10 goal contributions (six goals, four assists) in 10 MLS starts this season.

Saturday is the second and final MLS regular-season meeting between Montreal and Orlando. The Lions picked up a 2-1 home win on March 14 with midfielder Martin Ojeda scoring the decisive goal in the 31st minute.

Orlando (3-7-1, 10 points) travels north of the border looking for back-to-back wins after edging host Inter Miami 4-3 last Saturday. The Lions rallied from a three-goal deficit.

“We have analyzed them like they analyzed us,” said Orlando interim head coach Martin Perelman of Saturday’s match against Montreal. “We are going to prepare the game like we always do, knowing they are at home. We want to go there with a lot of energy, fighting like always for the points, because at the end of the day, it’s what we want.”

Orlando is 4-5-3 in Montreal, having not won since Decision Day in 2021.

Ojeda, who recorded a hat trick in the win over Miami, leads the Lions with seven goals through 11 starts this season. Ojeda has now recorded hat tricks in consecutive seasons.

The Argentine became just the third player in club history to reach the 40-goal mark across all competitions, joining Cyle Larin and Facundo Torres as the only Lions to achieve the feat.

–Field Level Media

UFC 328 will be headlined by Khamzat Chimaev making his first defense as the middleweight champion against former champion Sean Strickland at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Saturday night.

Chimaev will enter as the heavy favorite, with his odds shifting from -525 to -550 at BetMGM by Friday. However, the money was largely split, with Chimaev backed by 51%, while Strickland had drawn 89% of the total bets at +400.

The UFC allowed both men to do the traditional ceremonial faceoff Thursday evening before security pulled both off the stage after Chimaev (15-0 MMA) kicked Strickland (30-7 MMA) in the leg, marking a dark climax to a chaotic week of separation before the fight.

UFC CEO Dana White said the rivalry has bad blood, which has made it a top-three rivalry in the promotion’s history.

Hostility aside, Chimaev enters the fight with four submission wins in nine UFC matches. Strickland earned the title shot off a third-round TKO defeat of Anthony Hernandez at UFC Houston in February.

The fight is set as a five-rounder, marking Chimaev’s first title defense while Strickland attempts to regain the title after relinquishing it to Dricus du Plessis in January of 2024 at UFC 297.

The co-main event sees a re-booked flyweight title fight between Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira. The pair were supposed to meet at UFC 327 last month in Miami, Fla., but Van sustained an undisclosed minor injury that shifted the fight to this event.

Van (16-2 MMA) became the new UFC flyweight champion in December at UFC 323, as an arm injury to then-champion Alexandre Pantoja ended the fight after just 26 seconds. He is the first fighter born this century to become a UFC champion, while Taira (18-1 MMA) aims to be the first UFC champion from Japan with a win over Van, who is from Myanmar.

Taira opened as the -175 favorite but has seen those odds shift a bit to -160. He has been backed by 52% of the fight money, while Van has drawn 61% of the bets at +135.

The main card gets underway on Paramount+ at 9 p.m. ET.

OTHER MAIN CARD FIGHTS

–Alexander Volkov (39-11) vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta (17-2), heavyweight

Volkov opened as the -190 favorite but has been lightly backed with 33% of the total bets and 44% of the money. Meanwhile, Cortes-Acosta has seen his odds shift from +155 to +125, setting this up as one of the most tightly-contested fights on the card.

–Sean Brady (18-2) vs. Joaquin Buckley (21-7), welterweight

This is a battle of highly-ranked contenders who are both coming off losses — Brady to Michael Morales and Buckley to 38-year-old Kamaru Usman.

Buckley has been a very popular underdog, garnering 73% of the total bets and 70% of the money while shifting from +155 to +140. Brady is now -170 after opening as the -185 favorite.

–King Green (34-17-1) vs. Jeremy Stephens (29-22), lightweight

Stephens failed to make weight, coming in at 160 points. It’s the second miss at 145 pounds for Stephens, who hasn’t won a UFC fight in eight years. He returned from a 1-2 stint in the PFL to lose to Mason Jones last year, and will now be fighting for a 30% reduction in pay Saturday night.

Both fighters are 39, but Green is coming off wins over Lance Gibson Jr. and an upset of Daniel Zellhuber.

Green is one of the heaviest favorites on the card, sitting at -400 on Friday while backed by 62% of the money. Stephens’ +310 underdog odds has drawn 72% of the total bets.

–Field Level Media

Ben Crane rolled in eight birdies on his way to setting the pace on the first day of the Insperity Invitational on Friday at The Woodlands (Texas) Country Club.

Crane’s 7-under-par 65 was enough for a one-shot edge over Shane Bertsch, Boo Weekley, Australia’s Richard Green and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee.

Another stroke back at 67 were Steven Alker of New Zealand, Ernie Els of South Africa, Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia and South Koreans Charlie Wi and Y.E. Yang.

Crane, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, turned 50 in March and is hunting for his first win on the PGA Tour Champions. He finished runner-up at the Senior PGA Championship last month.

Crane birdied six of his first 10 holes Friday before cooling off. After his lone bogey at the par-3 14th, where he missed the green off the tee, Crane birdied the next two holes, including a lengthy putt at the par-3 16th.

Bertsch, 56, prevailed once on the PGA Tour Champions back in 2020 and is vying for a return to the winner’s circle. He only got into this week’s field as the second alternate.

“I’ve been in this position this year, unfortunately, just because of, you know, I’m not the greatest player last year, so I’ve been hanging around as first alternate a couple weeks,” Bertsch said. “… You could have a chance to get in and be out all of a sudden if you’re not around (at the course). So it’s kind of nerve-wracking. But it was nice to get in.”

Bertsch played the back nine first and made four birdies with one bogey, then reached the green in two at the par-5 first hole and eagled for a nice bump up the leaderboard. He added one last birdie at the par-5 sixth.

Stewart Cink, the defending champion and winner of the season’s first two majors, opened with a 4-under 68.

–Field Level Media