Sports
Kamaru Usman retains UFC welterweight title
Kamaru Usman defeated Colby Covington by unanimous decision to retain the UFC welterweight championship at UFC 268 in New York on Sunday.
With the win, Usman improved to 20-1-0, and has won 19 fights in a row, including five title defenses.
“I am the pound-for-pound best alive right now,” he said.
Covington, the former interim welterweight champion, dropped to 16-3-0.
New York State Athletic Commission judges Derek Cleary (49-46), Dave Tirelli (48-47) and Sal D’Amato (48-47) all submitted scorecards in Usman’s favor.
Going into the fight, Covington said he had recalibrated his approach and would not fight the same way as he did in their first encounter. And the beginning of the opening round revealed a more cautious fighter, though as the round progressed, Usman’s pressure appeared to force Covington into a defensive posture.
Usman got the first knockdown of the fight late in the second round, and attempted to finish Covington with a flurry of punches before the bell rang. He started the third round where he left off, but Covington finished the five minutes by having Usman pinned against the cage.
The two spent much of the fourth and fifth rounds exchanging strikes. Covington staggered Usman with a shot in the fifth, but was unable to put him away.
Usman and Covington headlined the fifth UFC pay-per-view event at Madison Square Garden, and had a pair of rematches in the co-main event and main event.
The Usman-Covington fight was a rematch of their classic title bout at UFC 245. Usman won that five-round, stand-up battle with a technical knockout of Covington with 50 seconds left in the fifth round, although Covington immediately protested referee Marc Goddard’s decision, and continued to grouse about the call in the 22 months since the fight.
There was no such controversy in the first Rose Namajunas-Zhang Weili women’s strawweight title fight, as Namajunas knocked out Weili 1:18 into the first round in their UFC 261 bout in April to retain her title.
Seven months later, the result was the same for Namajunas, even if the path she and Weili trode was unfamiliar. Following a five-round jiujitsu exhibition, Namajunas defeated Weili via split decision in the co-main event.
Judge Michael Bell submitted a 48-47 scorecard for Weili, while Eric Colon (49-46) and Doug Crosby (48-47) had Namajunas winning the fight.
“It was different,” said Namajunas, who was serenaded by chants of “USA” and “Let’s Go Rose” by the partisan crowd throughout the fight. “I was pretty confident in the end I won it.”
The Cable
Sports
Court orders Juventus to pay Ronaldo £8.3m
Court orders Juventus to pay Ronaldo £8.3m
Juventus have been ordered to pay Cristiano Ronaldo £8.3m in owed wages by an Italian court.
Ronaldo, 39, agreed to defer wages when football in Italy was halted by the Covid pandemic in the 2020-21 season.
The Portuguese had claimed he was owed more than £17m by his former club.
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The Court of Arbitration said the club should pay what the player would have received after tax and other deductions.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner spent three seasons in Italy with Juventus between 2018 and 2021, helping them win two Serie A titles.
He left for his second spell with Manchester United and after 16 months at Old Trafford joined Saudi club Al-Nassr.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner – awarded to the world’s best player – was ranked by American business magazine Forbes as the world’s highest-paid sportsman in 2023, with earnings of £109m.
Court orders Juventus to pay Ronaldo £8.3m
Sports
Arsenal need support, love, after Champions League exit – Arteta
Arsenal need support, love, after Champions League exit – Arteta
Mikel Arteta says he has to show his Arsenal side “support and love” after Bayern Munich knocked them out of the Champions League.
Joshua Kimmich’s second-half header in Germany gave Bayern a 1-0 win on the night, and a 3-2 aggregate victory in their quarter-final.
It was a second successive defeat for Arsenal, who lost control of the Premier League title race last Sunday as Aston Villa beat them 2-0.
“I wish I had the right words to say to the players to make them feel better. What I am going to do – and all the coaching staff too – is to be close to the players.” Arteta said.
“I feel so grateful to be the coach and to work with them every single day.”
Arsenal were chasing a first Champions League semi-final spot since 2009, with Arteta accepting his team were inexperienced at this stage of the competition.
This was their first quarter-final appearance since 2010.
“We haven’t played this competition for seven years and we haven’t been in this stage for 14 years,” he said. “There’s a reason for it.
“We want to do everything fast-forward, super-quick, in one season. I think we have the capacity and the quality to be in the semi-final because the margins are very small.
“Those margins are coming from something else that maybe we don’t have yet. We have to learn it.
“When you look historically, it took other clubs seven, eight or 10 years to do it. Today, that’s not going to make us feel better that’s for sure.”
The Gunners, who need City to drop points if they are to win the league for the first time since 2003-04, return to Premier League action at Wolves on Saturday.
“What I need to do is stand right next to them and give them support and our love and we have to pick it up because on Saturday we have a big, big game,” said Arteta.
“We are still playing for the Premier League. The Premier League is there and we really want it. We have to show now that we are capable of turning this around.”
Sports
It’s massive win, says Bellingham as Real Madrid knock out Man City from UCL
It’s massive win, says Bellingham as Real Madrid knock out Man City from UCL
Manchester City are out of the Champions League following a penalty shoot-out defeat they suffered Wednesday night in the hands of Real Madrid in an epic encounter at the Etihad Stadium.
After a 1-1 draw on the night that left the teams tied 4-4 on aggregate, Antonio Rudiger scored the winning spot-kick after Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic had their attempts saved to see the 14-time winners progress 4-3 in the shoot-out.
Rodrygo had given Carlo Ancelotti’s side the advantage on the night and in the tie with an early goal on the counter-attack but Kevin De Bruyne’s 76th-minute equaliser took the game into extra-time, in which neither heavyweight could deliver the knockout blow.
It was a back-to-the-wall effort by Madrid and Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions were applauded from the pitch even in defeat.
But their hopes of an unprecedented second successive treble are over. It is Madrid who face Bayern Munich in the last four.
Bellingham: This was beautiful
“It’s a relief because you put so much into the game,” said Bellingham, speaking to TNT Sports.
“To win the game was a massive reward.
“It is incredible. Moments like this are magic and it just comes down to mentality.”
Man City 1-1 Real Madrid (Agg 4-4, Madrid win 4-3 on pens)
Sky Sport
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