What happened in January of this year?
4th: NFL Wild Card, Day One- the Texans needed overtime to defeat the Bills and the Titans stunned the football world when they defeated the Patriots 20-13. Soccer action saw FA Cup third-round matches: Birmingham City, Burnley, Millwall, Hull City, Brentford, Sheffield Wednesday, Fulham, Oxford United, Norwich City, Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Leicester City and Manchester City all advanced to the next round

5th: NFL Wild Card action concluded with the Vikings taking down the Saints in overtime and Seattle taking down Philadelphia. Third-round FA cup action continued, with Northampton Town, West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea, Barnsley, Derby County, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Liverpool and West Ham United joining Saturday's qualifiers

6th: FA Cup third-round action saw Arsenal joining the previous fourth-round qualifiers from Saturday and Sunday

7th: Carabao Cup action in soccer saw Manchester City defeat Manchester United in the first-leg game. English EFL Trophy action in soccer saw Newport County, Accrington Stanley, Salford City, Leicester City and Portsmouth advance to the next round

8th: The Asia Olympic qualifier tournament in men's soccer had the opening round-robin games. Carabao Cup action saw the first-leg game between Leicester City and Aston Villa finish up tied 1-1. The English EFL Trophy tournament saw Stevenage and Scunthorpe United advance to the next round    

9th: The Italian Coppa Italia saw Torino advance 5-3 over Genoa despite drawing their final game 1-1. Kenya and Argentina won their respective continental round-robins and qualified for the Tokyo games in women's volleyball. The Europe Olympic qualifier tournament in men's volleyball saw France and Germany win their respective semifinal matches

10th: Claressa Shields defeated Ivana Habazin to move to 10-0 in her pro boxing career and becoming the fastest boxer EVER to win three different titles. France became the Olympic men's volleyball qualifier from Europe as they defeated Germany in the continental final 3-0

11th: The 49ers advanced to the NFC title game 27-10 over Minnesota and the Titans continued their giant-killer act, advancing to the AFC title game 28-12 over the Ravens- in Baltimore. The Europe Olympic qualifier tournament in women's volleyball saw Turkey and Germany win their respective semifinals. The Asia Olympic qualifying tournament in women's volleyball saw South Korea and Thailand win their respective semifinals. The Asia Olympic men's volleyball qualifier saw China and Iran win their respective semifinal matches

12th: The Chiefs had a HUGE comeback against the Texans to advance to the AFC title game against the Titans- they were down 24-0 before scoring 51 of the last 58 points. The Packers advanced to the NFC title game opposite the 49ers with a 28-23 win over Seattle. Turkey won the Europe women's volleyball spot for the Tokyo games as they defeated Germany 3-0 in the final. South Korea won the Asia women's volleyball qualifier tournament as they defeated Thailand in the final 3-0. Iran won the Asia nod to the Tokyo Olympic volleyball field as they defeated China 3-0

18th: UFC 246 took place in Las Vegas. Conor McGregor needed just forty seconds to defeat Donald Cerrone in his first bout since 2018, moving to 2-1 at welterweight; Holly Holm defeated Raquel Pennington by decision in the co-main event; Brian Kelleher submitted Ode Osbourne to snap a two-fight losing streak; Carlos Diego Ferreira submitted Anthony Pettis in Pettis' return bout at lightweight; Roxanne Modaferri rounded off the prelims with an upset win by decision over Maycee Barber, handing Barber her first pro loss

19th: The Chiefs move into the Super Bowl as AFC champions after beating the Titans 35-24 but needed another comeback to do it, going up 35-17 after being down 17-7 early. The 49ers move into the Super Bowl as NFC champs thanks to a 37-20 win over Green Bay- they led 27-0 at the half and 34-7 after three quarters

22nd: Saudi Arabia qualified for the Tokyo games in men's soccer after a 1-0 semifinal win against Uzbekistan and South Korea's men's soccer team also qualified as they beat Australia 2-0 in the semifinals of the Asia qualifiers

25th: LeBron James passed Kobe Bryant for third on the NBA all-time scoring list. The Octagon landed at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. The card opened with two stoppage wins. Michael Chiesa defeated Rafael dos Anjos by decision in the co-main then ended his post-fight interview early by calling out Colby Covington. Curtis Blaydes then defeated Junior dos Santos by second-round TKO in the main event. Bellator 238 hit The Forum in Inglewood, California. In the main event, Cris Cyborg defeated Julia Budd by fourth-round TKO to claim the Bellator featherweight title, which joins her former featherweight titles with Invicta, Strikeforce and the UFC. The co-main event saw Darrion Caldwell advance to the semifinals of the Bellator featherweight Grand Prix with a first-round submission of Adam Borics. The main card also saw Sergio Pettis win his second straight- and Bellator debut- by technical submission of Alfred Kashakyan. Russia qualified for the women's water polo tournament at the Tokyo games.  

26th: Australia became the third men's soccer team to qualify for the Tokyo games in men's soccer from the Asia tournament as they defeated Uzbekistan in the third-place game. The number of teams that qualified for the Tokyo games in men's team handball went from four to six as Spain won the Europe tournament and Egypt won the Africa tournament. Hungary qualified for the Tokyo men's water polo field from the Europe tournament. The basketball world was left stunned at the news that Kobe Bryant and eight others- including his daughter Gianna- had passed away in a helicopter crash.

28th: The opening day of the North America Tokyo qualifiers in women's soccer