THE BBC has turned down the chance to show what could be a historic sailing competition this week.

That is despite the fact that the Beeb were reportedly offered the chance to show footage of the America’s Cup match between Great Britain and New Zealand for FREE.

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The national broadcaster could yet strike a deal for the latter part of the series if Ineos Britannia are doing well.

The action is due to start on Saturday with two races, but the BBC has declined to commit to live coverage or highlights this weekend.

The Telegraph reports that the broadcaster failed to reach an agreement with the America’s Cup organisers.

And there were allegedly issues with branding on the world feed. 

The racing will be shown live on TNT Sports, as well as on YouTube and on the America’s Cup website, as it has been throughout the challenger series.

Five-time Team GB Olympic medallist Sir Ben Ainslie’s team made history last week.

Ainsile’s team defeated Italians Luna Rossa to become the first British team for 60 years to qualify for the final of sport’s oldest international competition.

They now face defenders Emirates Team New Zealand in another first-to-seven series for the chance to lift the “Auld Mug”, which begins on October 12.

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The opponents are due to face each other in a press conference on Friday morning where it is understood a haka will be performed on stage.

BBC Sport have said that they will be covering the event through news and digital reporting.

The inaugural Women’s America’s Cup continued on Thursday but teams were frustrated by a lack of wind in Barcelona.

Only one of the four scheduled races in Group A, which features Britain’s Athena Pathway, could be completed. 

Hannah Mills’ team finished second behind Switzerland in that race to move joint top of the group alongside Italy.

Fleet racing will continue on Friday with the top three in each group qualifying for the semi-finals later in the day.

LAS VEGAS – Islam Dulatov had an easy career posing for high fashion magazines, but the modeling life didn’t bring him the same joy as fighting inside a cage.

Dulatov (11-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is one of the latest UFC newcomers after impressing UFC CEO Dana White and the matchmakers with a spectacular first-round finish at Dana White’s Contender Series 75. Now, the former model is a UFC fighter.

From modeling for Versace, Hugo Boss, and many others, Dulatov has now fully traded in his fancy clothes for a Venum fight kit, and it’s precisely where he wants to be.

“(I worked for) every brand which is like a big name,” Dulatov said at a post-fight news conference when asked about his modeling career. “I did a lot of fashion weeks and all that stuff, but to be honest, I prefer fighting more than modeling.”

Even as an up-and-comer on the regional scene, Dulatov passed up bigger paychecks to be in front of the camera to fight, which he admits was not the best financial decision at the time.

“I canceled a lot of shootings when I was younger,” Dulatov said. “We had some problems with money and everything. This time, modeling was really helping me with my situation. I remember when I canceled a shooting for $5,000. At this time, that was a lot of money for me.

“The fight, which was the same day, was for like 200 euros or something like that. … At the end of the moment, the fight was canceled too because my opponent had an injury. I had these situations like 10 times, with even more money and everything. But to be honest, I love to be a fighter and that’s what I do.”

Being a fighter and a model comes with the obvious risk of messing up the money-maker. Dulatov, 26, is a fast finisher who has ended 10 of his 11 pro fights in the first round. He only recalled one particular instance where he showed up to a shoot after a fight with a bruised eye.

“I had a shooting for GQ, and when I go to the shoot casting, they go, ‘What is this? Blue eye?’” Dulatov said. “I go, ‘Yeah.’ They say, ‘Oh, it’s cool. It’s more authentic. It shows what you really are.’ Because in the model business, the people already all know me, they know that I do fighting.

“My agency, at the beginning, they was hating it, but with time they saw, ‘OK, this guy will never stop fighting, so we have to accept it.’”

The Chechnya-born fighter has put modeling on the back burner for now. He will still perform in front of the camera, but as a new UFC welterweight with vicious finishing skills.

Cain Velasquez would have liked his chances vs. both Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.

Velasquez was widely regarded as the best heavyweight when he won the UFC title twice and tore through the majority of the top contenders. However, injuries helped put a close to Velasquez’s MMA career, and many wondered what might have been if he was able to remain healthy. He retired in late 2019.

Velasquez (14-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) was asked how a prime version of himself would have matched up against heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), and Velasquez admits even the best version of him wouldn’t have ran through someone like “Bones.”

“Jon Jones, prime Cain – OK, that would be a tough fight, man. Always, that would’ve been tough,” Velasquez said on the “Basement Talk” podcast. “You know, with that dude, he is (the boogeyman). But I think that would’ve been the best matchup because I think I would’ve had something for him. I could go there where he would’ve wanted to go.”

Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) is the interim heavyweight champion, and his lone octagon loss came in a 15-second TKO loss due to injury against Curtis Blaydes. He was able to avenge that loss in his most recent outing when he stopped Blaydes by first-round TKO to retain his interim title at UFC 304 in July.

Although Aspinall’s grappling is highly touted, Velasquez is confident he would have been able to get him to the ground.

“Aspinall, as well, especially with the wrestling, I just know when I get onto somebody’s legs I’m taking him down,” Velasquez said. “(He’s) very dangerous with his hands, has a lot of power. Wat he does, he kind of lunges forward and punches – takes a big step and lunges forward, closes that distance really well. But when somebody is wrestling, you’re going to be coming into my takedowns.”

Jones defends his title vs. former champion Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the UFC 309 main event Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

AS MESSAGES go, it was pretty clear.

None of those subtle mind games journalists must turn to when they have failed to shoehorn a line out of some dullard manager who has said nothing in a press conference.

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But then Enzo Maresca doesn’t do dodging and weaving in the public eye. He says it how it is in a calm, clipped manner.

And it’s straight to the point.

Like his curt and curious response to one innocent questioner asking whether Chelsea is his chance to forge a reputation for himself as a Premier League manager.

Neither Maresca’s tone nor his expression wavered as he replied: “I have a wife, four kids and a  mum and dad. I have a reputation already.”

Blunt if a little weird, right?

So when Chelsea’s fifth manager in 2½ years declared his steadily rejuvenating team are nowhere near as good as Manchester City or Arsenal because they have stuck by their respective managers, he was simply talking sense.

He was also telling his bosses at Stamford Bridge in no uncertain terms the sackings must stop if they want to get the club back to where they enjoyed so many trophy-laden seasons.

Some of his predecessors said the same and everyone else in the room rolled their eyes.

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When Maresca declared just a couple of weeks into the job that “I call the shots”, we yawned.

Yet there is a growing sense Maresca might be the man to finally tame Chelsea’s Wild West owners — the American-led posse of investment specialists and financiers who think they know everything but know very little about actual football.

He is spot on that his team is a long way back from City and Arsenal.
Sunday’s scrambled 1-1 draw at home to ten-man Nottingham Forest confirms that.

Chelsea occupy fourth place in the Premier League mainly by default because Tottenham, Newcastle and particularly Manchester United, are so unpredictable.

Yet it doesn’t take 20-20 vision to catch a glimpse of Maresca’s hand at work as he backs up his strong words with deeds.

Nowhere is that more noticeable than in Mykhailo Mudryk’s plight.
The winger is expected to start Ukraine’s Nations League game with Georgia tonight.

Yet he has started only one Premier League game for Chelsea since the back end of August and is slowly but surely sliding down the ladder of importance under Maresca.

It happens to most players at some point.

Only Mudryk, 23, was a symbol of the new Chelsea — an expensive showpiece signing snared after a protracted chase at the behest of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, when they were feeling their way in the transfer market.

The cynical view is that the main attraction was purely that Arsenal wanted Mudryk too.

Thus starry-eyed Chelsea swooped simply to beat a rival, because that’s how they perceived business should be done.

Whatever the truth, it cost an upfront £62million, plus add-ons.

A new manager ditching a chairman’s marquee signing so unceremoniously takes balls.

But now Mudryk can’t get anywhere near the first team for ­Premier League games.

Ironically, he has played more minutes under Maresca than any other Chelsea boss . . . just not in the games that matter.

Instead it has been the Conference League and a starring role against Barrow in the Carabao Cup.

For a new manager to ditch a chairman’s marquee signing so unceremoniously takes balls.

Not only that, he brought in Jadon Sancho to play in Mudryk’s position.

A one-two combo Sugar Ray Robinson would have been proud of.
No subtle psychology either. Mudryk’s out and my man’s in — so Behdad and Boehly must suck it up.

And they seem to be.

Maresca has since gone on to surgically dissect his entire squad — one for the Premier League and one for everything else.

It’s up to those in the cup squad to impress their way on to Maresca’s A-list and for those in it to do enough to stay there. Simple and effective.

Common sense at Chelsea? It will never catch on.

It’s a win-win

WE have finally reached a point in football where both sides claim to have won.

The hubris-driven reactions of Manchester City and the Premier League to their latest courtroom battle over dodgy dealings added to the confusion for many.

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Yet it may well have inadvertently opened up a whole new approach to the beautiful game in  a world where winning means big-time wonga.

Imagine a sport where nobody loses? Where the result doesn’t matter because you can simply say ‘I won’ and everybody else is so bloody confused that they can’t be a***d to argue.

Sounds ludicrous. But a few years ago we’d have said that about VAR, a Champions League where you don’t have to be a champion to play in it, the 39th game, kick-offs at 8pm on a Saturday, £100 a ticket, cup competitions loaded to favour the big teams, players on £500k a week and half- and-half scarves.

Oh, and £25 for a bobble hat in some club shops, which I saw a few weeks back. Still only one winner there.

Judges out in a blazer glory

WIMBLEDON dole office will be busier than usual in July when queues of redundant line judges start signing on.

The All England Club’s switch over to automated, eagle-eyed, infallible technology to spot whether a ball is in or out means it’s curtains for around 300 of them.

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Wimbledon say they are behind the times when it comes to moving over to AI instead of actual humans to make the big calls and stress they will do their best to find the officials alternative employment.

Even so, look out next summer for a Centre Court full of second-hand £900 Ralph Lauren official Wimbo blazers being offered for sale on Vinted.

Pore decision

I’M all for revolting fans — but the daftest demo  must go to the Spanish couple who got themselves in bother in Singapore for having a pop at Valencia owner Peter Lim by holding up a ‘Lim Go Home’ banner outside his house. Er . . .

   No-one else up to scratch

IT’S farewell to Rafa Nadal, the man who made wedgie-wiggling a sport in its own right.

The Spaniard retires next month after 22 Slam wins.

When we’re no longer able to focus on his bizarre habit of sticking his fingers into his backside and his nose-pulling and ear-scratching routine, we’ll just have to watch the tennis. Grim.

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Give credit where credit is due. Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya paid his respect to both Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree following their recent clash.

This past Saturday, Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) and Rountree (13-6 MMA, 9-6 UFC) gave fans one of the best championship fights of the year, going toe to toe for almost 20 minutes in the main event of UFC 307 in Salt Lake City.

Although the result was maybe expected, many were taken away by Rountree’s toughness and competitiveness, while also admiring Pereira’s comeback ability and skill. Adesanya was one of them.

“He lasted longer than I thought he would,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “At least someone else took him to the fourth round. It shows how good Khalil is. Again he’s (Pereira) got some hard fights in front of him, but he is that guy right now, he’s on.

“Honestly, I called it, but I thought it was going to be earlier. Shout out to Khalil because fighting with a broken nose and the intelligence not to blow his nose in the fight, respect. His stock goes up after this. What a moment.”

With the victory, Pereira is now on a five-fight winning streak since moving up to 205 pounds and has three title defenses. He won the light heavyweight title by stopping former champ Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 last November, and went on to pick up his first title defense in April at UFC 300 by finishing Jamahal Hill. “Poatan” then returned on short notice at UFC 303 in June, where he defeated Prochazka in a rematch.

On the other hand, Rountree saw his five-fight winning streak come to an end. This was his first UFC title opportunity in the eight years he’s been in the promotion.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.