Minggu, 29 November 2020

Dana White reacts to Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr.: ‘I hope they both made a zillion f*cking dollars’ - MMA Fighting

UFC President Dana White rarely holds back when he doesn’t like something, particularly when it comes to boxing. But on the exhibition fight between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr., he didn’t really have a bad thing to say.

“You guys have been asking me questions leading up to this thing, and I didn’t want to say anything negative, because I love Tyson and he’s a good friend of mine,” White said after the boxing legends faced off Saturday for social media website Triller. “He’s 56 years old. Time is undefeated. Time takes us all down, and one of the things that I was worried for Mike is he has this incredible aura still, and 56 years old, fighting is a young man’s game. All that being said, he looked f*cking awesome tonight. I was blown away by how good he looked.”

Sitting octagon-side at UFC APEX, UFC President Dana White watched three screens during UFC Vegas 15: his fights, Tyson vs. Jones Jr., and college football.

“I was worried about Roy – Roy is 51 years old, but Roy has been way more active than Tyson has been, but Roy actually got more tired than Mike tonight, which was shocking,” White said. “I’m happy for them. I hope they both made a zillion f*cking dollars, and it exceeded my expectations.”

The eight-round boxing match was declared a draw by three former fighters turned judges that scored the bout for the sanctioning body WBC. Even though the decision didn’t count against either fighter because it was an exhibition, the internet erupted with criticism.

White might have been impressed by Tyson and Jones, but there was a clear winner.

“Tyson won that fight,” he said.

The former heavyweight boxing champ and feared legend didn’t complain about the result on Saturday night. In the leadup to the internet-streamed pay-per-view, Tyson said no matter what happened, he might continue on in the fight game, using his platform to serve charities that help as many people as possible.

Tyson doesn’t need White’s blessing, but the UFC boss isn’t upset about that, either.

“Listen, he’s a grown-ass man – he’s going to do what he wants anyway,” White said. “But good for him. It was actually a good fight, it was an entertaining fight to watch, and I thought he looked really good. I’m happy for him.”

As to whether that support would extend to Jones Jr., who said the bout with Tyson could open the door for a long-awaited showdown with former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, White wasn’t as positive. As successful as Triller appeared to be in capturing the attention of fight fans around the world, completely drowning out the UFC’s offering on Saturday night, the UFC exec said he isn’t interested in competing with other promotions who attempt to capitalize on nostalgia.

“I don’t know,” he said of Silva vs. Jones Jr. “To my core, I”m a f*cking fight fan, and what I truly believe is the fight business is for young guys. It’s not for old guys. Listen, I get that there’s still some name value out there, and you can make some money. But when you’re a fight fan, I want to see the best in the world, the up-and-coming kids, I want to see these guys fight, and I want to know who the baddest mother f*cker in the world is in every division. As a fight fan, that’s who I am, and that kind of stuff doesn’t interest me.

“Anderson Silva had his day. Roy Jones Jr. had his day. Today is not their day. It’s just not. These guys that you saw fight are the future. This is what I’m interested in. I could sit here all f*cking night and watch kids that fought tonight fight. It’s just not really what I do. There’s other people out there that do that, plenty of people that do the old guy stuff. I don’t do the old guy stuff.”

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2020-11-29 13:00:00Z
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Mike Tyson: Boxing owes fighters like Jake Paul for bringing back interest, ‘UFC was kicking our butts’ - MMA Fighting

Mike Tyson shared a card with Jake Paul on Saturday night, but the heavyweight boxing legend admits he’d never heard of the 23-year-old YouTube celebrity until just recently.

In fact it wasn’t until Paul and his older brother Logan started engaging in high-profile celebrity boxing matches that Tyson’s sons initially mentioned the siblings to him.

“I didn’t know he existed until my sons wanted to fight him one day,” Tyson said after going to a draw with Roy Jones Jr. on Saturday night. “I said, ‘Who are you going to fight? This guy? Come on,’ and he was a big star.

“Everybody knows who he is, and I’m so happy that he joined on the bandwagon with me and Roy.”

On the night Tyson returned to the ring for the first time in 15 years, Paul competed in the co-main event and demolished ex-NBA player Nate Robinson with a second-round knockout. Paul is now 2-0 as a professional boxer with plans to devote even more time to the sport moving forward.

While Paul and his brother have received a ton of criticism from boxing purists for their involvement in the sport, Tyson argues they actually deserve a lot of credit and much more respect than they’ve been shown thus far.

“Listen, my ego says so many things, but my reality is they help boxing so much,” Tyson explained. “Boxing owes these guys, they owe these YouTube boxers some kind of respect. They should give them some belts because these guys make boxing alive.

“Boxing was pretty much a dying sport. UFC was kicking our butts, and now we got these YouTube boxers boxing with 25 million views. Boxing’s going back. Thanks to the YouTube boxers.”

To put that into perspective, the Logan Paul-KSI YouTube pay-per-view where Jake Paul competed on the undercard drew over 2.25 million viewers while generating a $3.5 million live gate for the event.

Of course, boxing has thrived around massive events like the heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder as well as recent cards airing on networks such as ESPN with high profile bouts such as Vasyl Lomachenko taking on Teofimo Lopez.

While boxing seems to come alive around high-profile fights like those, the UFC is a more consistent product with notable events taking place week-to-week and massive events promoted when superstars such as Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya or Khabib Nurmagomedov compete.

In an age where television networks are struggling to maintain ratings while going up against streaming services and videos shown on YouTube and TikTok are earning billions of views, Tyson believes boxers like Paul are exactly what the sport needs right now.

“I believe the more anyone boxes the bigger it is for the sport,” Tyson said. “Cause boxing took a couple of beatings since the UFC’s been around.”

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2020-11-29 08:35:29Z
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Heavy blows, heavier breathing: Tyson, Jones Jr. exhibition ends in 8-round draw - CBC.ca

Mike Tyson showed glimpses of his destructive prime Saturday night during the 54-year-old boxing icon's return to the ring for a lively exhibition bout with 51-year-old Roy Jones Jr.

Both fighters had impressive moments during a fight that was unofficially ruled a draw by the WBC judges at ringside. Tyson and Jones fought eight two-minute rounds, and both emerged smiling and apparently healthy from a highly unusual event at Staples Center.

"This is better than fighting for championships," Tyson said of the heavyweight exhibition, which raised money for various charities. "We're humanitarians now. We can do something good for the world. We've got to do this again."

The former heavyweight champion of the world's return to the ring after a 15-year absence attracted international attention, and Iron Mike did his best to show the form that made him a legend to a generation of boxing fans. Tyson tagged Jones with body shots and a handful of head punches during a bout that was required to be a fairly safe glorious sparring session by the California State Athletic Commission.

"The body shots definitely took a toll," said Jones, the former four-division world champion widely considered the most skilled boxer of his generation. "It's something to take the punches that Mike throws. I'm cool with a draw. Maybe we can do it again."

Jones walked to the ring with gloves and trunks honouring Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, while Tyson wore his signature all-black trunks. After the traditional pre-fight pomp and an introduction by Michael Buffer, the 50-something champions both came out throwing punches that evoked echoes of their glorious primes.

They also tied up frequently on the inside, and their occasionally laboured breathing could be heard on the microphones in the empty arena.

Hip hop performances also featured in empty arena

Hip hop star Snoop Dogg's witty television commentary was among the loudest noises inside Staples, and he had a handful of zingers. "This is like two of my uncles fighting at the barbecue," he exclaimed.

Tyson and Jones were the headliners in the most improbable pay-per-view boxing event in years, engineered by social networking app Triller and featuring fights interspersed with hip hop performances in an empty arena.

The event was derided as an anti-sporting spectacle by some critics, yet both Tyson and Jones appeared to handle themselves capably and safely. Fans were clearly enamoured, with the show getting enormous traction on social media.

"I hit you with some good shots, and you took it," Tyson said. "I respect that."

In the co-main event, YouTube star Jake Paul knocked out former NBA player Nate Robinson, stopped in the second round of Robinson's pro boxing debut. Paul, in his second pro fight, recorded three knockdowns against Robinson, the three-time NBA Slam Dunk contest champion, before an overhand right put Robinson flat on his face and apparently unconscious.

Tyson who posted a 50-6 career record with two no-contests, won his first heavyweight championship belt in 1986, and he was the undisputed world champion from 1987-90. He spent three years in prison after he was convicted of rape in 1992; upon his release, he regained pieces of the heavyweight crown in 1996.

Tyson retired from boxing in 2005, saying he longer had "the fighting guts or the heart" after he quit in a dismal loss to journeyman Peter McBride. Finally free of his sport's relentless pressure, Tyson gradually straightened out his life, kicking a self-described drug addiction and eventually succeeding in acting, stage performance, charity work and even marijuana cultivation while settling into comfortable family life in Las Vegas with his third wife and their children.

The idea of a boxing comeback seemed preposterous, but Tyson started toward this unlikely fight when he started doing 15 daily minutes on a treadmill a few years ago at his wife's urging in a bid to lose 100 pounds. The workouts soon became multi-hour affairs encompassing biking, running and finally punching as he regained a measure of his athletic prime through discipline and a vegan diet.

Tyson posted a video of himself hitting pads on social media early in the coronavirus pandemic, and the overwhelming public response led to several lucrative offers for a ring comeback. With the chance to make money for himself and for charity, Tyson eventually agreed — but he had to find an opponent.

Jones first entered the spotlight when he won a silver medal as a light middleweight in the 1988 Sumnmer Olympics in Seoul. He went on to hold the world middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight championships during a career that saw him start 49-1 before he ended up at 66-9.

Jones fought steadily into his late 40s, but thought he was done with the sport after winning his last bout in 2018. He couldn't resist the chance to take on Tyson after the greats never met during their first professional careers because Tyson was a heavyweight and Jones mostly was a light heavyweight (178 pounds).

Tyson and Jones negotiated with the California commission over the limitations of their bout, eventually arriving at eight two-minute rounds of hard sparring with only ceremonial judging and no official winner. The WBC still stepped in to award a ceremonial "Frontline Battle Belt" to both fighters.

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2020-11-29 06:28:00Z
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Sabtu, 28 November 2020

Twitter Reaction: Football world offers Broncos advice during QB crisis - Sportsnet.ca

The Denver Broncos find themselves in an unprecedented situation, with all of their quarterbacks ineligible to play Sunday due to COVID-19 concerns.

The team is expected to turn to Kendall Hinton as their emergency quarterback against the New Orleans Saints Sunday with Drew Lock, Brett Rypien, and Blake Bortles sidelined after the trio reportedly didn't wear masks while coming in contact with fellow quarterback Jeff Driskel, who later tested positive for COVID-19.

Hinton has experience playing quarterback during his five years at Wake Forest but has never played a snap behind centre in the NFL — and was signed to the practice squad as a receiver.

The situation understandably drew plenty of reaction from around the football world:

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2020-11-29 01:18:00Z
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SIMMONS: Rogers needs to spend on ball team not ballpark - Toronto Sun

ssimmons@postmedia.com
twitter.com/simmonssteve

IBAKA COULD HAVE STAYED WITH RAPTORS, HE CHOSE NOT TO

“How to explain what Toronto, Canada, and the Raptors mean to me?

“I was welcomed to a new country and a new team more than three years ago and I felt at home from day one. I feel really blessed to have played for this city, these fans, and this organization.”

That was Serge Ibaka’s emotional goodbye to the city. It was also pretty much social-media, agent-driven packaged bunk.

Ibaka had a choice to make about his NBA career. He was a free agent, had earned that right, and the key word being free. From that, you can decide what you, as a player, want to do and where you want to play and if there’s more than one offer, and there was in this case, then the decision gets a little more complicated.

Let’s be clear here: For all Ibaka loved Toronto, Canada and the Raptors, and how much it apparently tore him apart to leave, the first opportunity he had, he left. He signed on with the Los Angeles Clippers. With Kawhi Leonard. He was championship chasing here, not unusual in the NBA, and in this case it’s championship chasing and getting the opportunity to live in LA.

Serge Ibaka could have stayed and played with the Raptors at least one more season, maybe more. He made a decision in his best interest. It was his choice to leave.

TORONTO DESERVES NEW BALLPARK. MAYBE JUST NOT NOW

In downtown Pittsburgh, hardly the economic centre of the U.S., there is one of the great ballparks in all of America.

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2020-11-28 23:56:39Z
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Steelers place running back James Conner on reserve/COVID-19 list - Sportsnet.ca

The Pittsburgh Steelers placed running back James Conner on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Saturday, joining three teammates already on the list as well as over a dozen Baltimore Ravens, casting further doubt on the playing a rescheduled game currently set for Tuesday.

Conner, who leads the unbeaten Steelers (10-0) with 645 yards rushing and five touchdowns, joins defensive end Stephon Tuitt, defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs and reserve offensive lineman Kevin Dotson on the COVID-19 list.

The Steelers also announced special teams co-ordinator Danny Smith will not coach on Tuesday due to what the team described as an "illness." Quarterbacks coach Matt Canada will also be unavailable due to an illness.

The announcement came the same day six more Ravens joined the reserve/COVID-19 list, an outbreak that seems to put Tuesday's game in Pittsburgh in serious jeopardy. The game was originally scheduled for Thanksgiving night before being pushed to Sunday afternoon and then Tuesday night.

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2020-11-28 21:23:00Z
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Fuller makes history as first woman to appear in Power 5 football game - TSN

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Vanderbilt’s Sarah Fuller became the first woman to participate in a Power Five conference football game when she kicked off to start the second half against Missouri on Saturday.

“Honestly it’s just so exciting, and the fact that I can represent like the little girls out there who wanted to do this or thought about playing football or any sport really and it encourages them to be able to step out and do something big like this,” Fuller said after the game.

Fuller kicked off the turf with a holder rather than using a tee, and she sent a low kick to the 35-yard line where it was pounced on by Missouri’s Mason Pack. Fuller didn’t get any opportunities in the first half as the Tigers opened a 21-0 lead over the Commodores.

She went straight to the sideline where she high-fived some of her new teammates and swapped some elbow bumps. Fuller’s parents watched and cheered from the stands along with her boyfriend and best friend.

Fuller said she was really calm when she went out for the second-half kickoff.

“The SEC championship was more stressful if I’ve got to be honest,” Fuller said. “I was really excited to step out on the field and do my thing.”

That was Fuller’s only chance in Vanderbilt’s 41-0 loss.

Fuller, a senior goalkeeper on the Vanderbilt soccer team, joined the football team this week after helping the Commodores win the Southeastern Conference Tournament last weekend. COVID-19 protocols and restrictions left Vandy football coach Derek Mason with a limited number of specialists available against Missouri. Mason reached out to the soccer team for help.

Fuller agreed to give football a try and practiced with the winless Commodores before making the trip to Missouri. She wore “Play Like A Girl” on the back of her helmet. She wore No. 32 on Saturday, the same as her number when playing soccer.

After her kickoff, reaction poured in on social media. Fuller was the No. 2 trending topic on Twitter, followed by Vandy. Her soccer team wrote on Twitter: “Glass. Everywhere.”

As in glass ceiling.

Pat McAfee, a former NFL punter, reviewed Fuller’s squib kick, noting the ball didn’t go out of bounds and there was no chance of a return, setting up the defense.

“Congrats to (at)SarahFuller_27 for being THE FIRST EVER WOMAN TO KICKOFF A POWER 5 GAME,” McAfee wrote. “Incredibly rare to be the ‘1st ever person to do something’ these days..this is really cool.”

No woman had appeared in an SEC football game or for any Power Five team. Liz Heaston became the first woman to score with two extra points for Willamette in NAIA on Oct. 18, 1997.

Katie Hnida was the first woman to score at the Football Bowl Subdivision level with two extra points for New Mexico on Aug. 30, 2003.

April Goss was the second, with an extra point for Kent State in 2015. Tonya Butler was the first woman to kick a field goal in an NCAA game for Division II West Alabama on Sept. 13, 2003. New Mexico congratulated Fuller on Twitter for joining Hnida and Goss for kicking in an FBS game.

“Welcome to the club, (at)April_Goss and I are waiting with snacks!” Hnida wrote on Twitter on Friday.

___

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2020-11-28 18:50:26Z
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