Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico is the new WBO welterweight champion after he stopped England’s Michael Jennings at 2:36 of the fifth round at Madison Square Garden.
Cotto dominated, dropping Jennings twice in the fourth round with merciless body shots and once in the fifth before the fight was stopped.
A slow starter, Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) patiently stalked the lightly regarded and overmatched Jennings, cutting off the ring and landing a steady barrage of head and body shots.
Once the glaring Cotto found his mark, the fight was all but over, with Cotto connecting on more than 50 percent of his power punches. Jennings (34-2, 16 KOs) couldn’t survive Cotto’s maelstrom of punches that have demolished plenty of talented fighters.
■PAVLIK V MARCO
AP, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
Kelly Pavlik answered his doubters and retained his WBC and WBO middleweight titles by forcing a retirement by Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday.
The American, fighting in front of his hometown crowd, dominated Rubio from the start, responding to those who questioned whether he was the world’s top middleweight after being beaten by Bernard Hopkins in a non-title bout last October.
“There’s no place like home,” the 26-year-old Pavlik said.
Pavlik outclassed and outpunched Rubio almost the entire fight, hurting him in the eighth and battering him throughout the ninth, after which the Mexican’s corner decided he couldn’t continue.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB