Bernard Hopkins, 46, became the oldest man to win a boxing world title on Saturday when he defeated Canadian Jean Pascal by unanimous decision to claim the WBC and IBO light-heavyweight belts.
The bout was a rematch of the duo’s controversial majority decision draw in Quebec City in December last year, in which Hopkins thought he had done enough to win, but only one of the three judges awarded him a win.
On Saturday in Montreal, however, all three judges awarded the canny, former undisputed world middleweight champion the fight, with Hopkins claiming 116-112, 115-114 and 115-113 majorities.
Although Pascal was the younger man by 18 years, he appeared to tire surprisingly early in the fight and took advantage of every second of the one-minute rest between rounds to catch his breath on his stool.
CLEVERLY V KUZIEMSKI
AFP, LONDON
Nathan Cleverly’s first defence of his WBO light-heavyweight title ended with a fourth-round stoppage win on cuts against Poland’s Aleksy Kuziemski in London on Saturday.
The Welshman had been due to face previous title-holder Juergen Braehmer at the O2 Arena, but the German pulled out and was stripped of his title, with Cleverly promoted to champion.
The 24-year-old Cleverly was then due to face Tony Bellow, only for his fellow British boxer to be ruled out after problems making the weight.
Eventually, the Welshman was paired against the 34-year-old Kuziemski.
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