This weekend, all the world's an arena

Big events span 6 sports, 3 continents

The Belmont Stakes, NBA Finals and the World Cup are just some of the major sporting events happening this weekend.

(CNN) -- Around the clock and around the globe, the world's finest athletes will be battling for our delight, our remote controls and our sleep this weekend.

For the armchair fan, the weekend's six major events may sate even the most gluttonous sporting appetite. And even if most sports leave you cold, there may be something in this weekend's lineup to draw you to your television set.

From Japan, there's World Cup soccer; from Elmont, New York, the Belmont Stakes; from Paris, France, the French Open; from Memphis, Tennessee, a heavyweight title bout; from Los Angeles, California, the NBA Finals; and from Raleigh, North Carolina, the Stanley Cup Finals.

The busy weekend is dominated by the stars with one name -- Kobe, Shaq, Venus and Serena, Hasek, Fedorov, Rivaldo, Totti, Tyson -- but a star with two names and four legs stands closest to securing a place in immortality.

EXTRA INFORMATION Gallery: Major Sporting Events this Weekend    MORE STORIES CNNSI.com coverage:  • The World Cup  • NBA Finals  • Stanley Cup Finals  • The Belmont Stakes  • The French Open   • Lewis-Tyson fight

War Emblem goes to the start gate at the Belmont attempting to become the first horse since 1978 to win U.S. horse racing's Triple Crown. The feat would put him among the sport's immortals like Affirmed, the last horse to achieve the milestone. (Full story)

That was eight years before a young boxer named Mike Tyson lifted his first heavyweight crown seemingly set for immortality in his sport.

Instead, the Tyson tale has been his fall from grace and it is a morbid fascination that draws an audience now for the oft-talked of and now virtually irrelevant fight with Lennox Lewis, a fighter who in many ways is Tyson's mirror image. (Full story)

Many of the weekend's story lines are compelling. In Paris, Serena Williams beat sister Venus for the French Open women's title. (Full story)

This year's World Cup, co-hosted in Japan and South Korea, has had its fair share of surprises. Underdog China will look to upset soccer's four-time world champions Brazil, and European powers Italy and Croatia clash on Sunday. (Full story)

In basketball, the blue-collar New Jersey Nets take their lunch pail and hard-hat image to the home of Hollywood's favorite team, the Los Angeles Lakers. (Full story)

And there is hockey fever in North Carolina. Yes, North Carolina-- famous for good manners, southern hospitality and genteel living -- has adopted the game of the North, with the local Hurricanes taking on the Detroit Red Wings for Lord Stanley's Cup. (Full story)

And when North Carolina takes to ice hockey, you know this is no ordinary sporting weekend.