BOXING
Pacquiao offers short split
Manny Pacquiao is open to taking a smaller purse in a dream match-up with undefeated US boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr, the Philippine boxing hero’s business manager said on Tuesday. “The talks are already going on. It is more of what the fans want. It’s not about the pay [level]. That’s the least of his concerns,” Eric Pineda said. Pineda declined to discuss the amounts of money involved, but in 2012 there was speculation that a fight between the two could lead to the first US$200 million purse in boxing history. Mayweather has previously demanded a bigger share of the fight purse as a condition for agreeing to any fight with Pacquiao. Other conditions, including a blood test, have delayed any fight between the two despite anticipation of a huge payday for such a match.
BASKETBALL
Five arrested over killing
Police on Tuesday arrested five fans of Turkish basketball team Galatasaray in connection with the fatal stabbing last week of a Serbian supporter of the Red Star Belgrade team in a large brawl that erupted when the squads played. Officers took the suspects into custody after identifying them with the help of surveillance footage that captured the deadly melee involving hundreds of people outside the game on Friday last week, Turkish daily Hurrriyet reported on its Web site. The 25-year-old Serbian fan, identified as Marko Ivkovic, was stabbed in the heart during the wild fighting, in which stones and flares were thrown.
ICE HOCKEY
Murray Oliver dies at 77
Murray Oliver, a five-time NHL All-Star who briefly coached the Minnesota North Stars, has died from a heart attack. He was 77. Oliver, who died on Sunday, played for the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and North Stars in a career that started in 1957 and ended in 1975. He scored 274 goals in 1,127 NHL games. He finished second in rookie of the year voting in 1960 after scoring 20 goals for the Red Wings. He went on to become an assistant coach with the North Stars from 1978 to 1986. Oliver was elevated to head coach for 36 games during the 1982-1983 season when coach Glen Sonmor stepped down.
BOXING
Hernandez injured, fight off
Yoan Pablo Hernandez has been forced to call off his mandatory IBF cruiserweight title defense against Ola Afolabi because of an elbow injury. Hernandez’s management says the champion has loose cartilage in his right elbow. Hernandez felt pain in sparring last week and a scan revealed the injury. The fight had been scheduled for Dec. 6 in Oldenburg, Germany. No new date has been set.
BOXING
Klitschko agency sues Pulev
World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s promotion agency K2 has filed a lawsuit against Kubrat Pulev over the Bulgarian challenger’s doping allegations ahead of their IBF title bout in Hamburg this month. “K2 is suing me for my words,” Pulev told a news conference on Tuesday. “The case is ... I have no right to speak on this topic, the doping.” Klitschko knocked out Pulev with a fierce left hook in the fifth for his 63th win in 66 fights. Pulev, who had won his previous 20 fights, protested several times about being subjected to rigorous drug-testing, saying that Klitschko had not been tested at all before the bout on Nov. 15. He repeatedly called for his 38-year-old opponent to be tested, but the Ukrainian refused.
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