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Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou signed as Saudi Arabia’s boxing takeover continues

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Ex-UFC champion Ngannou made his pro boxing debut in October, knocking down Tyson Fury before losing a controversial decision

A boxing match between Anthony Joshua and former UFC champion Francis Ngannou has been made official, as Saudi Arabia’s boxing takeover continues.

Combat-sports journalist Ariel Helwani reported the news on Friday (5 January), citing Turki Al-Sheikh – the Saudi adviser overseeing boxing in the region. Queensberry Promotions, which works closely with Al-Sheikh, then confirmed the news and stated that a press conference will take place soon.

Joshua boxed in Riyadh in December, stopping Otto Wallin in the main event of a seismic fight card, two months after Ngannou made his professional boxing debut against Tyson Fury in the same city.

Francis Ngannou looks back at 2023 and reflects on the dark side of the MMA business | Marca

Mixed martial artist Ngannou, 37, lost a controversial decision to Fury after knocking down the WBC heavyweight champion, and he is now set to fight another Briton in Joshua.

The date of the contest is expected to be announced next week, and the fight is due to be held in Riyadh. According to Helwani, the bout will be scheduled for 10 rounds.

Joshua, 34, beat Wallin via fifth-round TKO after the Swede’s corner pulled him from the fight, marking “AJ”’s third win from as many bouts in 2023. That trio of victories has marked an emphatic response by Joshua to his back-to-back defeats by Oleksandr Usyk.

Joshua’s second reign as unified heavyweight champion came to an end at the hands of Usyk in 2021, when the Ukrainian won via decision in London. The unbeaten Usyk also outpointed Joshua in 2022, in Saudi Arabia, to retain the belts.

Usyk has since signed to fight Fury, also unbeaten, in Riyadh in February, with the winner set to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in 24 years. Fury’s WBC belt will be on the line – unlike in his bout with Ngannou – as will Usyk’s WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO titles.

<p>Ngannou mocks Tyson Fury after knocking down the boxer</p>
Ngannou mocks Tyson Fury after knocking down the boxer

Ngannou held the UFC heavyweight title from 2021 until 2022, before vacating the gold while leaving the UFC in 2023. The Cameroonian soon signed with the Professional Fighters League, a rival MMA promotion to the UFC, which has allowed him to box ahead of his debut in the company.

Joshua was expected to fight Deontay Wilder after beating Wallin, but the American lost a lopsided decision against Joseph Parker on the same fight card, seemingly ruining the chances of a mega-fight between AJ and Wilder. It was then suggested that AJ would target a bout with Filip Hrgovic, likely for the IBF heavyweight title, if the Fury vs Usyk winner were to vacate the belt.

It is unclear what Friday’s news means for a potential Joshua vs Hrgovic bout.

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TENNIS

Coco Gauff: US Open champion cruises into ASB Classic semi-finals after east win over Varvara Gracheva

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Coco Gauff has progressed to the semi-finals of the ASB Classic after beating France’s Varvara Gracheva in straight sets. The 19-year-old American produced a complete performance against her error-prone opponent, slamming down five aces and hitting 13 winners as she went on to book her place in the last four. “I thought I served really well,” Gauff said after her third win of the year.

Coco Gauff cruised into the semi-finals of the ASB Classic with a 6-1 6-1 win over Varvara Gracheva in Auckland on Friday.
The reigning US Open champion has now won her last eight matches in Auckland and not dropped a set in that time. She will play No. 4 seed Emma Navarro in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Gauff, who is defending her title in New Zealand, needed just 53 minutes to dispatch her opponent, Gracheva, after a rain-delayed start to the match.

Gauff raced to a 3-0 lead before Gracheva held her serve for the first time, but the American took the opening set in 33 minutes as her first serve, combined with her power and precision from the baseline, proved too much for the Frenchwoman.

The second set followed a similar pattern as Gauff built up a 4-0 lead. Gracheva’s unforced error count continued to rise while Gauff was clinical on break points, converting five of seven.
The world No. 3 sealed her place in the semi-finals by converting her third match point.

“I thought I served really well,” Gauff, who won 21 of 29 points on her first serve, said afterwards.
“Probably the best so far in the tournament, which is something I’ve been working on off-season. I’m really happy with how I played.
“I’m glad I was able to finish my match [before more rain].”

China’s Xiyu Wang is through to the semi-finals after a 7-6(3) 3-6 6-4 win over Diane Perry.
Wang won the last five games in a row to come back and beat Perry and extend her head-to-head record to 2-0 over the Frenchwoman.
The world No. 71 will play Elina Svitolina next after the Ukrainian beat Marie Bouzkova 6-0 6-3 in just one hour and six minutes.

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TENNIS

Can Hurkacz, Swiatek continue Polish dominance in United Cup SFs vs. France?

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Mannarino, Garcia lead fourth-seeded French team

Poland has lived up to its billing as top seed at the 2024 United Cup, roaring into the semi-finals with the loss of just one match in three ties. The nation’s most dominant victory came in the quarter-finals, a 3-0 shutout of China that was clinched after one-sided singles wins for Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek.

Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek have led Poland on a dominant run to the United Cup semi-finals.
Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek have led Poland on a dominant run to the United Cup semi-finals.

That dynamic duo is also 2-0 in doubles play, though they did not compete in the dead doubles rubber against China on Wednesday.

France, their semi-final opponents, did not have the luxury of resting players for what was a decisive doubles match against Norway in the quarter-finals. Caroline Garcia pulled double duty on Thursday, winning a third-set tie-break against Malene Helgo in singles before teaming with captain Edouard Roger-Vasselin for a clinching doubles victory.

 

After the big win against Norway, both Garcia and fellow French singles player Adrian Mannarino billed themselves as underdogs against their Polish opponents.

“Playing the best player in the world, it’s always a good test,” Garcia said of her matchup with Swiatek, the WTA’s World No. 1. “It pushes you to your limits. It’s why you train. You want to be able to compete at the highest intensity of the game and try to find solutions against the top player.”

While Garcia trails Swiatek 1-3 in their head-to-head, Mannarino and Hurkacz are knotted at 2-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry.

“He’s in a good place. It’s going to be a tough one,” Mannarino said of his opponent, who sits at No. 9 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. “I have my chance. It’s not going to be easy, but… it’s probably 55-45 for him, so we’ll see. It’s going to be interesting.”

France is into the knockout rounds for the first time at the United Cup, while Poland returns to the semis for the second straight year. In 2023, the Polish team was swept at that stage by the United States, the eventual champions, in Sydney.

“Hopefully this year is going to be a little bit better,” said Swiatek, who was thankful for the two days off as she and her teammates travelled from Perth to Sydney. “We’ll do our best to use that one day of practice to get used to the court.”

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GOLF

How visiting Tiger Woods’ house deeply humbled Patrick Cantlay

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Only a short list of pros have set foot in Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Island, Fla., manse, but they always come away with great stories. That is, as long as they choose to share those stories.

Rory McIlroy was there in March 2021, just over a month after Woods was in a near-fatal car accident. McIlroy later said he was in awe of Woods’ 15 major trophies, but he was more impressed by Woods’ response regarding the location of his other non-major hardware. (“I don’t know,” Woods told him, when McIlroy asked where all of his other trophies were. “My mom has some and a few are in the office and a few are wherever.”)

“I was driving home, and I was thinking [those major trophies] are all he cared about,” McIlroy said. “So how easy must that have felt for him to win all the others?”

There’s also this story from Justin Thomas, who has become one of Woods’ best pals on Tour. Thomas said the first time he went to Woods’ house, which was right before a Masters that Woods wasn’t going to play in due to injury, Tiger asked him to stop over and chip and putt in the backyard.

“And so he’s just teaching me so many shots around the greens, and holes I’m going to use them on [at Augusta] and how to hit different bunker shots and why I can’t do this and why I can’t do that,” Thomas said on GOLF’s Subpar Podcast in 2020. “And I was like, ‘Man, that was unbelievable.’ And then the next year, I’m like, ‘Hey, let me know if you want to do some short-game work this week, I’m around.’ He’s like, ‘I’m playing this year.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know? But let me know if you want to practice.’ He’s like, ‘I’ll see you in Augusta.’” [Laughs]

Which brings us to Patrick Cantlay, who spoke to the media on Wednesday at this week’s season-opening Sentry. In the wake of Scottie Scheffler winning PGA Tour Player of the Year honors over Jon Rahm, Cantlay was asked how he thinks Tour pros prioritize things like scoring average and top finishes and wins.

“Well, I think it comes down to the individual,” said Cantlay, before the ordinarily private pro decided to unveil a little extra. “I’ll tell you a story.”

A story? Count us in.

“I went over to Tiger’s house, I think to talk Ryder Cup after I had won Player of the Year [in 2021], and it felt like a big deal to me at the time that I had got a Player of the Year, and they give you this little Jack Nicklaus bronze trophy,” Cantlay said. “So we’re walking through Tiger’s house and we’re in the basement and he’s got like, 11 of ’em lined up right next to each other all in the corner of the basement — boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I go, ‘Hey, I’m catching up,’ and he looked at me and he goes, ‘You got a lot of work to do.’” [Laughs]

The moral of the story here? If you get an invite to Tiger’s house, don’t turn it down.

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BOXING

Mourning a Personal Loss, Terence Crawford Blasts a Fan for Disrespectful Remarks About His Dead and Alive Close Aides

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Is it ever okay to speak ill of the dead? Most people would say no, but not this X user! In a string of unfortunate events, Terence Crawford had to say farewell to two close friends within the past few months. First, it was Samuel Teah, who passed away in November last year. Now, the new year started with tragedy for ‘Bud’ Crawford, as his former manager Cameron Dunkin passed away.

‘Tsunami’ Teah became the unfortunate victim of gun violence during the last Thanksgiving holiday weekend after landing himself in a domestic dispute. On the other hand, Dunkin had fought cancer for quite a while and succumbed to the disease. However, an X user tried to make things worse for Crawford by making an insensitive remark about both diseased individuals and one of Crawford’s close aides, still living. So, the undefeated pugilist decided to rip the fan a new one on social media today.

Terence Crawford issues a dare
On January 2, Crawford turned to X, sharing a heartfelt message after Cameron’s passing. Despite the sensitivity of the situation, the user remarked, “First Samuel yeah now Cameron Dunkin next is BOMAC.” Upon discovering the disrespectful comment, Crawford wrote back. “Bet you yo soft a** wouldn’t say that in my face,” ‘Bud’ wrote.

Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre is Crawford’s trainer and also a very close friend. The pair have known each other for nearly all their lives, having grown up on the same street. Before becoming a trainer, ‘BoMac’ was a boxer himself. But after noticing Crawford’s talent, he took Crawford under his wing. McIntyre was also in Crawford’s corner when he became the undisputed welterweight champion. Moreover, here’s what ‘The Hunter’ wrote about his departed friends.

Crawford on Samuel Teah & Cameron Dunkin
Joining the likes of Teah’s manager, Sarah Fina, Terence Crawford wrote, “Rest in peace my boy! You was a great person.” On the other hand, Dunkin’s passing saw a similar controversy! Hours after Dunkin’s death was confirmed on social media by his family, boxing matchmaker Rick Glaser made an equally rude comment about the late manager.

“There’s no R.I.P. here, it’s Good Riddance Cameron Dunkin. The lies have now officially stopped,” wrote Glaser. Meanwhile, Crawford wished for peace for Dunkin after death and expressed gratitude for what his former manager had done for his career. “RIP Cameron Dunkin, appreciate what you done for me, the good and bad,” wrote Crawford.

“There’s no R.I.P. here, it’s Good Riddance Cameron Dunkin. The lies have now officially stopped,” wrote Glaser. Meanwhile, Crawford wished for peace for Dunkin after death and expressed gratitude for what his former manager had done for his career. “RIP Cameron Dunkin, appreciate what you done for me, the good and bad,” wrote Crawford.

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Uncategorized

Rhea Ripley addresses WWE fans’ complaints about lack of matches as champion

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Rhea Ripley is one of the most dominant women’s wrestlers in the WWE active roster, who has been putting her opponents down with her powerful offence. Ripley is one of the most influential members of The Judgment Day and played an important role in the success of the faction.

Rhea Ripley WWE

However, Mami became too busy that she only had a few matches in her division and has been spending a lot of time with Judgment Day members. As the WWE fans blamed her for too limited matches in the previous year, Ripley addressed the complaints for the very first time. She also has addressed R Truth’s Judgment Day status.

Rhea Ripley is too busy for complaints
The Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley joined through facetime for an interview at WWE 2024 Preview Special on Peacock. During the interview, Mami addressed the complaints the WWE fans put on her for having less matches and being involved with Judgment Day business all the time.

“People like to complain that Mami doesn’t have many matches, Mami doesn’t do too much, she’s too involved with The Judgment Day. At the end of the day, Mami is busy doing business, I’m running Monday Night RAW and I’m running my division. And, there’s nothing that anyone can do anything about it.”

Rhea Ripley on R Truth’s status with The Judgment Day
Rhea Ripley was also asked about the reunion of “Awesome Truth” against JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio at Raw Day 1 and R Truth’s status, whether he is in or out of The Judgment Day.

“I’ve had it up to here with Truth, I really have. He’s not in The Judgment Day. It was cool to see Awesome Truth back together [on ‘Raw’ recently], don’t get me wrong, I was a huge fan of them growing up, but they should stay together. They should stay away from The Judgment Day, because there’s five of us and that’s it. We’re not looking at Truth right now, and he’s trying to weasel his way in.

“He’s breaking into our clubhouse. That’s not okay. You can’t just break into our clubhouse. He’s putting himself into all of the things that we’re working so hard for. He’s coming up to the Judgment Day music. To me, he thinks he’s a part of it, but we have never signed off on that. We have not discussed this. We have not come to an agreement that Truth is in The Judgment Day. So far, he is not. Sorry, everyone.”

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BOXING

“The Kind of Power I Carry…”: Self Proclaimed “Dangerous Fighter” Sends a Stern Warning to Gervonta Davis

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Gervonta Davis is the talk of the town. The fans want to see him back in the ring and so do his rivals. The Baltimore fighter is one of the biggest names in the sport and also a pound-for-pound best. Fighting him is an opportunity other fighters around his weight class tend to seek. His next fight? It is not known yet. This is all the more reason for him to get called out.

In a recent turn of events, a fighter makes a bold claim and sends a stern warning to the undefeated boxer asking him to fight. Who is this boxer? The fighter is an American and is as old as, ‘Tank,’ and boasts a record of 13 victories with only two defeats. The pugilist is none other than Jose Valenzuela.

Gervonta Davis gets called out, by who?
In a clip reposted by Fight Hype.TV, he suggested that if given an opportunity, he would fight Davis in a heartbeat and be very technical, starting out with, “If I fought Tank I would be technical about it. I would have my feet under me.” Amongst other claims, he asserted that he foresees him knocking Davis out.

Reflecting on the same, he stated, “You know, I also got long reach. So, I am a dangerous fighter and it wouldn’t be an easy fight for him, I’ll tell you that. And I wouldn’t be surprised if I knocked him out. Edwin, he made me look bad, I think, when he knocked me out. But he took it with a price. The next fight Chris fought, I was robbed, but he took it with a price.”

He then went on to add, “And this last fight you guys saw the kind of power I carry. So you know an extremely well, good camp for the Tank, I can see myself beating him.” It is safe to say that Valenzuela is not short of confidence. Will his prediction come to light? Only time can tell. For the same, it is essential for Tank to face him first. But will he?

What is next for Tank?
The aforementioned question is not certain. However, his boxing trainer, Calvin Ford, did hint that something is being worked upon behind the scenes and it appears to be “Big.” Without explicitly stating his next opponent, the trainer of the undefeated boxer stated, “Right now, something big is coming. I can tell you that. It’s quiet for a reason. They’re trying to seal the deal. It’s gonna make the world turn.”

This development has the boxing world both curious and thrilled. Now, putting the ball in your court, who would be your ideal opponent for Davis? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

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GOLF

Golf influencer Paige Spiranac, 30, claims she has been ‘shadow banned from TikTok

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Paige Spiranac claimed on Twitter on Thursday that she had been shadow banned from TikTok because of ‘some little innocent cleavage’.

The golf influencer, 30, received just 3,000 views on her most recent video in the first 12 hours of it being posted, despite her huge TikTok platform.

Paige Spiranac, 30, claimed on Twitter on Thursday that she had been shadow banned from TikTok because of 'some little innocent cleavage' (pictured in her Thursday TikTok video)
Paige Spiranac, 30, claimed on Twitter on Thursday that she had been shadow banned from TikTok because of ‘some little innocent cleavage’ (pictured in her Thursday TikTok video)

Paige has 1.5 million followers on the fiercely child-friendly social media app, known for its strict Community Guidelines.

Complaining on X, Paige tweeted: ‘I’m shadow banned on TikTok all because of some little innocent cleavage. Free the cleavage!’

The American star’s Wednesday video did similarly poorly: receiving under 17,000 views to date. It is a far cry from the almost 200,000 views a previous video had.

Complaining on X, Paige tweeted: 'I'm shadow banned on TikTok all because of some little innocent cleavage. Free the cleavage!'
Complaining on X, Paige tweeted: ‘I’m shadow banned on TikTok all because of some little innocent cleavage. Free the cleavage!’

In most of Paige’s videos, she is on a golf course, showing off a golf club and her swing in very busty outfits.

She used to be a professional golfer, playing Division 1 college golf at both the University of Arizona and San Diego State University, winning multiple competitions.

Days ago, Paige revealed her hopes for the New Year on Instagram, where she has almost 4 million followers.

She said: ‘With posting, I just want to post more.’

Days ago, Paige revealed her hopes for the New Year on Instagram, where she has almost 4 million followers (pictured in 2023)

‘Sometimes I just felt like I was posting what I thought would work and what was like the perfect post, and I don’t want to do that anymore.’

Paige’s popularity led to her very nearly winning the title of most-Googled golfer in 2023, losing only to Tiger Woods.

According to the site’s 2023 data, Woods led golf’s Google searches in 42 out of 50 states in the United States.

Paige was the most-Googled player in four states, and second in 32.

In most of Paige's videos, she is on a golf course, showing off a golf club and her swing in very busty outfits (pictured in 2023)
In most of Paige’s videos, she is on a golf course, showing off a golf club and her swing in very busty outfits

Paige has a website entitled onlypaige.com but she does not post any X-rated content, instead offering personalized videos.

In 2016, Paige competed in her first LPGA Qualifying Tournament but did not earn a card to play on the professional circuit.

She debuted at the 2016 Cactus Tour where she beat Hannah O’Sullivan, the then top-ranked amateur in the world, earned Spiranac her only tour victory.

Paige married athletic trainer Steven Tinoco in 2018, but in 2022, she announced that she was no longer married.

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BOXING

Ebanie Bridges responds to Paige VanZant over collab ‘that will break the internet’

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Boxing beauty Ebanie Bridges has teased the idea of a collaboration with MMA stunner Paige VanZant after the sultry duo exchanged messages on social media

Ebanie Bridges has responded playfully after Paige VanZant suggested they collaborate in order to “break the internet”.

Ebanie Bridges during a pre-fight weigh-in

The Blonde Bomber, who lost her IBF bantamweight title to Miyo Yoshida last month, has been actively seeking content partnerships having recently agreed to work with UFC legend Conor McGregor to promote his new Forged stout brand.

VanZant and Bridges have been pals for years and the duo teased the idea of an X-rated link up after messaging back and forth on Instagram this week, having teased something similar in July last year. Bridges lavished VanZant with praise after the American uploaded several sensual snaps wearing a sultry pink maid’s outfit to social media, and it didn’t take long for things to take an even steamier turn.

VanZant, 29, asked her 3.2million followers if they’d be interesting in seeing her and Bridges, 37, collaborate, giving respondents the options to click, ‘YES, I’ll die’, or ‘THAT WILL BREAK THE INTERNET’. The Aussie boxer wrote back saying: “Needs to happen,” along with several suggestive ‘eyes’ emojis.

Keyboard Kimura: Is Paige VanZant still worthy as a UFC headliner? | The Province

Back in July, Bridges claimed the two were working to sort out a collaboration, but that their busy schedules made it difficult to get something in the diary. She told her 800,000-plus Instagram followers: “We were trying to organize it but she got really busy and I moved.

Will we ever see an Ebanie Bridges/Paige VanZant collab? Let us know in the comments section below.

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FORMULA 1

Sir Lewis Hamilton confident Red Bull will be nervous about big change

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Mercedes driver isn’t ruling out a revival for the 2024 Formula 1 season

After two nightmare Formula 1 seasons, Sir Lewis Hamilton is confident that better things will come for Mercedes in 2024 and that they will be a step closer to the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

In an interview with GP Racing, the British driver sees it viable to recover and get closer to the level shown by the Austrian team, who are defending double constructors’ champions.

Video thumbnail

“It’s not going to be that easy, but you have to try and take the good bits and, through trial and error, try and add other bits to improve,” Hamilton told GP Racing.

Why is Hamilton so confident about a recovery?
Given that, the seven-time Formula 1 champion is confident the Milton Keynes outfit will make a mistake in the development of the RB20 in a pursuit of perfection.

“You can imagine Red Bull are also nervous about making too big a change and it being the wrong one,” he added.

“So, we need to be week in and week out close, add better performance and make our targets higher than ever because we have a huge gap to reach. That makes it really tricky.”

The pressure on Mercedes
On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton is aware that there is no margin for error at the Brackley factory to best develop the W15.

“There is a huge amount of pressure,” he concluded.

“Ultimately, as boss, Toto Wolff has to start leaning more on people rather than going in reverse gear.

“How do you do that? Of course, it’s not easy, as people break at a certain point. So, the role he always does is to keep everyone motivated.”

It should be remembered that Lewis Hamilton is living a long drought of Formula 1 victories, the last one being at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix; while last season, his best result were three second places in Australia, Spain and Mexico.

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