China’s Ding Junhui beat Englishman Chris Wakelin in the final of the International Championship to claim his first ranking title in five years.

The vocal home crowd roared on Ding as he came from behind to win 10-7 in Janjing, China.

It was his first title since winning a third UK Championship crown in 2019 and followed defeats in his past three finals.

Wakelin opened up a 4-1 lead courtesy of breaks of 63, 92, 85 and 64, but Ding won the next six frames, the last of those after Wakelin missed a red along the cushion when he had a chance to clear up.

Wakelin, whose only previous ranking title came in the Shoot Out in 2023, made an 85 and 82 to cut the deficit to 7-6 before Ding responded with a 98.

Wakelin took a scrappy 15th frame but Ding won the next three to wrap up victory.

LAS VEGAS – Gillian Robertson expected more from herself against Luana Pinheiro at UFC Fight Night 247.

Robertson (15-8 MMA, 12-6 UFC) extended her winning streak to three fights and won for the fourth time in five appearances since dropping to strawweight courtesy of a unanimous decision triumph over Pinheiro (11-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) on Saturday at the UFC Apex.

Given she has the second-most finishes of any female in UFC history, Robertson sets high standards for herself with every trip to the octagon. Any time she goes to the judges is a disappointment, so she struggles to feel very good about her result against Pinheiro.

“Not my best,” Robertson told MMA Junkie of her performance post-fight at UFC Fight Night 247. “I don’t feel like that was my best performance, so I guess I’m not on top of the world about this win. But it does feel good to get another win. It’s the first time in the UFC I’ve ever got three wins in a row, so I guess I’m happy about that.”

Robertson admits there were moments throughout the 15-minute affair that she could’ve done more to accomplish her goal of a stoppage. It didn’t happen, but it also took her a few minutes to know the areas where she had the opportunity to push harder for a submission or TKO.

“I just wish I stayed on her more – stayed on her face,” Robertson said. “I don’t think I was active enough in the second round – or even the first round, I think I played it a little too safe, I feel like. I held on too long, and could’ve opened up a little bit more.”

Although Robertson failed to meet her lofty self-expectations, she ultimately did come out with her hand raised and continues to find success since dropping to 115 pounds. At 29, Robertson has already competed 18 times under the UFC banner and has shown evolution and growth all along the way.

Winning a UFC championship is the major target for Robertson in her career, and she said she will continue to take a slow and steady approach until she gets there.

“Right now, I’m kind of on a six-month routine, and I feel like that’s perfect for me, honestly, just with weight cuts and everything,” Robertson said. “I feel like six months between fights is ideal. (I will fight) anyone above me. Maybe not one above – that’s what I said last time, I was like, ‘Anybody above me.’ Then they gave me the person one above me. So maybe if we can climb like two or three, that would be nice.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 247.

When Stipe Miocic suffered a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 back in 2021, he thought a trilogy fight was inevitable.

Considering Miocic manhandled Ngannou in their first encounter three years earlier, it wasn’t a shocking request that he would get the rubber match to settle the trilogy. Unfortunately for Miocic, Ngannou ended up facing Ciryl Gane instead nine months later, aggravated a knee injury in the process and then sat out to recover from surgery before entering free agency.

In the end, Ngannou surrendered the UFC heavyweight title and opted to sign with the PFL while also crossing over to boxing for a pair of fights against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

“I was trying. I was trying to get the rematch,” Miocic said about pursuing the Ngannou trilogy when speaking to MMA Fighting. “Then he left and it didn’t happen unfortunately.

“Listen, I’m a fighter. I don’t work for the UFC internally and [figuring] out matchmaking. It’s what they wanted to do and it’s what they did.”

As much as Miocic wanted that third fight against Ngannou, he can’t fault the former UFC heavyweight champion for opting to take a deal that would allow him to live out his dream in the boxing ring and get paid a whole lot of money to do it.

“Yeah of course [I was bummed] because I wanted the rubber match,” Miocic said. “But also at the same point, he’s doing better for himself and his family. I’m not mad at him. He’s doing great.”

In his two fights crossing over to boxing, Ngannou took Fury to a razor-close decision loss after scoring a shocking knockdown on the former heavyweight champion. Things didn’t go as well against Joshua after Ngannou suffered a pair of knockdowns before being finished with a vicious punch in the second round.

Miocic, a Golden Gloves boxer in his youth, admits he didn’t watch both of Ngannou’s fights, but he was still proud to see his former rival getting the chance to compete against two of the best heavyweights in the sport.

“I saw clips of it,” Miocic said about the boxing matches. “The first one he did well with Fury and unfortunately the second one didn’t go well with Joshua. But it happens. It’s fighting, anything can happen.

“Some people said he won [against Fury]. I didn’t see the whole fight but a lot of people said he won the fight. He put him down. He did a lot of things. Listen, he convinced that many people that he could [beat him]. Shows that we can hang.”

Ngannou returned to MMA this past October when he made short work of Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut. As of now, he’s undecided on what comes next.

With opportunities available in both boxing and MMA, Ngannou can essentially pick or choose whatever he wants to do, but it seems highly unlikely that a return to the UFC ever happens. Ngannou remains at odds with UFC CEO Dana White and appears happy controlling his own destiny.

That means there’s little to no chance that Miocic ever gets to settle the score. As much as he once wanted the trilogy, he’s resolved in knowing that his rivalry with Ngannou ends at one win apiece.

“Listen, I’m OK with letting go,” Miocic said. “I get it. As much as I would love to fight him, I wish him nothing but the best and it is what it is. We’re 1-1. That’s the way it will be. He got the last one unfortunately.”

Denny Hamlin admitted that his team’s future participation is ‘TBD’, noting that “there’s certain things that we’re going to have to navigate so I hope so.”

It’s a staggering admission following the recent court loss where the teams filed a preliminary injunction aiming to keep their charters while the antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR is ongoing. The injunction was denied and the teams will appeal, but now they’re facing the very real possibility of competing as ‘open’ teams in 2025. This comes with a significant loss of revenue, and none of their cars will be locked into any race. 

It’s a cloud over championship weekend where 23XI Racing is making its Championship 4 debut with Tyler Reddick. 

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, FedEx Toyota Camry

Photo by: Gavin Baker / NKP / Motorsport Images

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‘We just hope that this thing gets resolved…’

But it wouldn’t be the first time a team has won NASCAR’s biggest prize and then shut down.

“Furniture Row did it,” noted Hamlin, who won the title in 2017, and then closed their doors following the 2018 season where they were the championship runner-up. “They ceased to exist after a championship. I think that depending who you ask, I think on one side they [NASCAR] could care less whether you’re here or not and for us, we certainly have got a lot of people that have put their heart and souls into this team and want to see it succeed.

“And certainly, we’ve got an obligation to our team to try to do everything we can to have a fair system. So, we’re just one of the ones that got stuck on the front line and so it’s part of it. Trust me, there’s nothing more we want than to win this weekend. Certainly, there’s a lot of emphasis on trying to win this race and Tyler’s [Reddick] is going to give it his best go. This is a really, really new team and certainly it was an accomplishment to get to this point.”

It’s all unusual for Hamlin, whose appearance in court this week was his first since being 11 years old.

“Yeah, I mean, truthfully, I hadn’t been in a courtroom since maybe I was 11. I got sued. I was riding my bike as a kid and a car hit me and they ended up suing me. I know, they lost (laughter) […] It’s been a while. My adrenaline was pumping because obviously you hear the arguments and what not and of course we feel very adamant on our side of things.

“Certainly, when you wake up on Friday morning and you know something is coming, you’re nervous because obviously I’ve poured a lot into this sport in multiple ways, and certainly financially over the last four years. I’ve put back a lot of the money I got out of it back into it and certainly all could be wiped away pretty quickly.

“Certainly, it’s a nervous time for me and we just hope that this thing gets resolved in a peaceful manner or in a correct manner to fix it. I’m just – it’s got its ups and downs for sure, but it’s difficult because you can’t control it right? I can’t rely on my instincts or things like that to change the outcome or the results. It’s just the facts are the facts. I’ve just never been a part of anything like this, but certainly hate that we’re in the situation that we’re in after everything that we’ve put into the support over the last four years.”

Denny Hamlin starts the series finale in 14th position; his teammate Tyler Reddick starts 11th.