I was in Las Vegas on the night Mike Tyson bit his opponent’s ears twice in a fight that descended into jungle-grade anarchyAt the risk of undermining this admirable exercise in nostalgia, “game” is a towering misnomer when attached to the peculiar art of rendering a fellow human being unconscious. As the late Brendan Ingle famously said, you don’t play boxing; he also said it is the only sport in which it is legal to kill someone.There were no deaths the surreal Saturday night of 28 June 1997 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. No knockout, even. But there was much blood, most of it pouring from an inch-long open wound running along where the top of Evander Holyfield’s...
The heavyweight’s comments after his loss to Tyson Fury are best euphemised as misjudged – but he is not the first boxer to be pilloried for offering up a bizarre excuseCan anyone confirm whether there’s a possibility Deontay Wilder may have suffered a bump to the head of late? However outlandish that theory might initially seem, it is one we have to work on after the heavyweight addressed the circumstances of his loss to Tyson Fury in Las Vegas on Saturday night in an interview best euphemised as misjudged.According to Wilder, whose team threw in the towel in the seventh round, he has an entirely understandable excuse. “He didn’t hurt me at all,” this ran. “But the simple fact is...
This week’s roundup also features Fury v Wilder highlights, Tony Hibbert scoring and a wind-assisted long-range kick1) Chelsea face Bayern Munich in the Champions League next week, a fixture which immediately recalls this classic final in 2012. Bayern got lukewarm revenge in the 2013 Super Cup, as Pep’s Bayern beat José’s Chelsea on penalties. Let’s not forget the brilliant quarter-final first leg in 2004-05, which ended up 4-2 to the Blues. Chelsea would go on to win the tie 6-5 on aggregate, before going out to Luis García and Liverpool’s “ghost goal” in the semis.2) Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury meet again in Vegas this weekend: here’s a quick refresh on what happened last time out. And why not revisit...
This week’s roundup also features a boxer’s challenge failing before the first bell, free-kick routines and a dog in the race1) It’s the Club World Cup this week, a competition that a Premier League side has won only once since its inauguration in its current form in 2000. That came in 2008, when Manchester United beat LDU Quito 1-0 thanks to a Wayne Rooney goal. The competition’s uncertain standing in England might have something to do with that first campaign in 2000, when Manchester United sat out the FA Cup in order to take part, and a certain amount of schadenfraude ensued when they were well beaten by Vasco da Gama and didn’t even make it out of their group....
When international sport comes to the Arabian kingdom it must be with a raised voice on issues of human freedomAs Saturday night spilled into Sunday morning in Saudi Arabia, something unusual happens. The shrieking bass line of House of Pain’s Jump Around starts pumping out across the Diriyah stadium, where Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight showdown against Andy Ruiz Jr is about to begin. A few people stand up. Then several more. And suddenly hundreds of men and women in traditional dress are pogoing and waving their hands in delirium.This, to put it mildly, is not something one expects to see in a country that is a byword for patriarchy and religious extremism. But when I speak to one local, he tells...