BOXING
Donaire beats Sidorenko
Filipino bantamweight star Nonito Donaire stopped Ukranian Wladimiro Sidorenko in the fourth round on Saturday to set up a Feb. 19 world title showdown with Mexico’s Fernando Montiel. Sidorenko was knocked to the canvas twice in the first three rounds and took a hard right to the nose in the fourth that prompted him to take a knee on the canvas. Referee Marcos Rosales halted the bout after 1:48 of the fourth round. “I wanted to make a statement in this fight and I did,” Donaire said. Former world flyweight champion Donaire, 28, stretched his win streak to 24 fights over nine-and-a-half years, improving to 25-1 with his 17th early stoppage. “We worked really hard for this fight,” Donaire said. “I was motivated and now the fight with Montiel is set. I knew I was able to dominate anybody if I’m motivated 100 percent.”
BOXING
Soto keeps crown
Humberto Soto outlasted Mexican compatriot Urbano Antillon to win a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday and keep his World Boxing Council lightweight crown with a 10th victory in a row. Judges awarded Soto the triumph by two scores of 114-113 and a third of 115-112. Soto improved to 54-7 with two drawn and 7-1 in world title bouts while Antillon fell to 28-2 by losing his first world title fight. “It was a great fight. Both of us gave our hearts out,” Soto said. “I knew he was coming at me all night. I knew he was going to take everything I had. That’s why I had to keep working.” Antillon, 28, had a point taken in the fifth round for a low blow or he might have earned a draw.
BOXING
Burns defends WBO title
Scotland’s Ricky Burns defeated Colombian-born Norwegian fighter Andrews Evensen on points to retain his WBO super-featherweight title on Saturday. Burns had won the belt in September by beating Roman Martinez when he recovered from a first round knock down.
RUGBY UNION
Barbarians overcome ‘Boks
Australian wing Drew Mitchell capped an impressive individual autumn with two early tries as a strong Barbarians side beat a much-changed South Africa 26-20 at Twickenham in London on Saturday. The invitational team, who also beat South Africa at Twickenham three years ago, were worthy of their win over a Springboks side that looked a touch weary at the end of a tour that brought wins over Ireland, Wales and England, but a defeat by Scotland.
RUGBY SEVENS
England wins in Dubai
England produced two late tries to trump Samoa 29-21 and win the Dubai sevens on Saturday, the first tournament of the eight-leg IRB Sevens World Series. The English team’s performance in the final mirrored a day of action in which they had twice come up with last-gasp scores to defeat New Zealand and Australia in thrilling style, in the semi and quarter-finals respectively. “It’s been the story of the weekend,” England captain Ben Gollings said of his team’s rearguard action. Samoa had set up the final against England after seeing off Fiji (24-21) in the semi-finals and the US (38-5) in the quarter-finals. In the tournament’s lower-level play-offs, South Africa beat Australia 19-12 in the plate final, Argentina blanked Zimbabwe 21-0 in the bowl, and Kenya also whitewashed France, 26-0, in the shield.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier