Mickey Togs

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, then 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 Benintendicame 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.

“We hope that we do the things it takes to get a chance to hopefully come back to this place,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said.

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.”