BOXING
Kameda defends title
Japan’s Koki Kameda pulled off a technical knockout victory over Daniel Diaz of Nicaragua to defend his WBA bantamweight title on Saturday in Osaka, Japan. Kameda, who sent the challenger to the canvas with a left hook in the eighth round, was declared as the winner when the referee stopped the fight, before the final 12th round. It was Kameda’s first defense since he won the vacant title, beating Alexander Munoz of Venezuela in December last year and stretched his record to 25 wins, including 16 knockouts, against one defeat.
SOCCER
QPR celebrate promotion
Queens Park Rangers (QPR) manager Neil Warnock shed tears of joy as his side were finally able to celebrate their promotion to the English Premier League as winners of the Championship. Warnock’s side enjoyed a champagne-fueled celebration at Loftus Road on Saturday following the FA’s announcement just before kick-off that they would not be docked points over the Alejandro Faurlin affair. After their win at Watford clinched the title and a return to the top-flight after a 15-year absence, it was feared QPR might be hit with a points deduction that would plunge them into the lottery of the end of season playoffs. However, the west London club were instead fined.
BOXING
Geale beats Sylvester
Australia has a new world champion after Daniel “The Real Deal” Geale earned a split decision victory over Germany’s Sebastian Sylvester to claim the IBF middleweight belt on Saturday night. The new champion claimed victory on Sylvester’s home turf in Neubrandenburg, east Germany, with two judges awarding the fight 118-110 and 118-110 to Geale, with the third judge awarding the fight 118-112 to Sylvester. Geale showed plenty of grit to go the 12 rounds with the champion and left the home favorite with visible signs of a hard fight peppered all over his face.
CRICKET
Indians quiet Daredevils
Ambati Rayudu cracked a half-century and Munaf Patel took two quick wickets to help the Mumbai Indians post a 32-run win over the Delhi Daredevils in their Indian Premier League match on Saturday in Mumbai. Rayudu made a 39-ball 59 and seamer Patel finished with 2-29 as Mumbai bowled Delhi out for 146 after scoring 178-4 to boost their chances of qualifying for the next round of the Twenty20 tournament. In the other rain-hit game, Australian paceman Brett Lee conceded just eight runs in four overs as the Kolkata Knight Riders beat the Chennai Super Kings by 10 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.
BOXING
Holyfield TKOs Nielsen
Former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield defeated Denmark’s Brian Nielsen on a 10th round stoppage in Copenhagen on Saturday, as the 48-year-old moved a little closer to another world title shot. Holyfield, a four-time world champion, had the 46-year-old Nielsen pinned in a corner before the referee stepped in. Holyfield, who now has 44 wins, with 28 knockouts and 10 defeats, had last fought in January, but that clash against Sherman Williams was declared a no-contest due to a cut over his eye. Now he hopes Saturday’s win will be a stepping stone to a fight with either of the Klitschko brothers who hold the major heavyweight belts between them.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed