The New England Patriots were ready to turn the page on their first joint practice with the Philadelphia Eagles almost immediately, but Mike Vrabel nonetheless made sure to hammer the point home. And not just that.

The second-year head coach actively challenged the team, and especially its defense, to come back stronger after what had been an uneven outing on Wednesday. Whatever buttons he managed to push by doing so, it worked: New England‘s defense had a solid outing on Thursday.

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For linebacker K.J. Britt, it all started with Vrabel’s messaging and how it energized that side of the ball.

“We had energy today. It didn’t matter who we played against today on defense,” Britt explained. “We can win a lot of games with the energy we played [with] today. That started from Vrabel just challenging us earlier this morning, challenging us last night. Just the culture here, how everybody wants to play football. It’s a football team.”

How exactly Vrabel challenged his team, Britt was not willing to share.

“I’d rather keep it in-house,” he added. “But Vrabel, he does a good job just keeping us on our toes, making sure that we get the best out of us. And we’ve got a defense that wants to respond to it. We’re not going to take it. We just want to build off of it and have fun with it. At the end of the day, we just want to have fun with it.”

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Fun was indeed being had by the Patriots defense on Thursday. Besides adding two more interceptions to bring the tally to seven over two days of work, the unit also showed some improvement rushing the passer and particularly stopping the run; after the Eagles had found success on Wednesday especially when stressing the edge, New England was markedly more sound against Saquon Barkley and company.

The Patriots will still be first to tell you that they have considerable room for improvement, but Thursday was still a step in the right direction. A step prompted by their head coach’s challenge.

“Once you come out here, your competitive nature is going to take over. And once your competitive nature takes over, you just play your game,” Britt said. “We got our eyes in the right spots today, and made sure that we were able to fly around and play ball.”

Teofimo Lopez challenges for Rolando Romero’s WBA welterweight title this weekend, and ahead of the action, two-time welterweight world champion Shawn Porter has revealed his fight prediction. 

Lopez famously dethroned Vasyl Lomachenko to capture the unified lightweight world titles in a shocking upset win back in 2020, but lost the belts to George Kambosos Jr in the outing that followed, prompting a move up to super-lightweight.

There, Lopez handed Josh Taylor a first career defeat and claim the WBO super-lightweight crown, managing three title defences before losing his strap to Shakur Stevenson at the beginning of the year and moving up once more.

Now, on his welterweight debut, Lopez attempts to put an early end to ‘Rolly’ Romero’s reign and tee up a unification showdown with Ryan Garcia, who hopes to defend his WBC title for the first time when he faces Conor Benn next month.

Speaking on ‘The Porter Way Podcast’, ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter declared that he is expecting a statement performance from Lopez, forecasting that ‘The Takeover’ will win on the cards.

“There is an expectation for him [Lopez] in this fight, to really show up – and I think that he is going to show up and that we are going to get one of those Josh Taylor, we didn’t see this coming-type of performances. 

“I think that is the version that we get, I think that he forces Rolly to fight back, but I think this fight goes the distance.”

Romero-Lopez takes place on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Colin Keane and Juddmonte maintained their excellent form at the Sky Bet Ebor meeting at York, as Kalpana won Thursday’s highlight, the Group 1 Legends Global Yorkshire Oaks.

It was a second Group 1 victory in two days for Keane and Juddmonte, having won the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes with Item yesterday.

The Andrew Balding-trained Kalpana, winner of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on her most recent racecourse appearance, started today’s contest as the 10/11 favourite in the nine-runner field.

Her opposition included the winner of this race last year, Minnie Hauk (4/1), and the recent Group 1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks winner, Johanna Walsh (5/1), the mount of Dylan Browne McMonagle.

Sugar Island, the stable mate of the betting market’s second choice, Minnie Hauk, set a strong pace under Ronan Whelan, and the pair found themselves about 20 lengths ahead as they headed for the home bend.

The daughter of Dubawi found for Whelan in the straight and made the remainder of the field work to close the gap, before she was finally headed at the one-furlong pole.

As Kalpana and Keane took the lead at that stage, Jim Bolger’s Sparán Nua (25/1), with Rossa Ryan in the saddle, went second, while Minnie Hauk and Ryan Moore were third.

The favourite soon began to drift as she battled for the line, with Sparán Nua, in the Newton Anner Stud colours, staying on strongly to challenge the eventual winner, as Minnie Hauk didn’t have the pace to live with either of the main protagonists.

As they hit the finishing line, Kalpana had an advantage of a half-length over Sparán Nua, while the Aidan O’Brien-trained Minnie Hauk was two-and-a-half lengths behind the runner-up.

Earth Shot (20/1), Tattycoram (25/1) and Johanna Walsh, who had all been prominent in the earlier stages of the race, faded to finish fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn go toe-to-toe for the WBC welterweight title in one of the highest profile bouts of the year next month, and esteemed British boxing trainer Peter Fury has offered his thoughts on the contest.

Garcia dethroned Mario Barrios at the beginning of the year to get his hands on the first world title of his career, with Benn installed as his mandatory challenger soon after despite the fact that ‘The Destroyer’ has not competed as a welterweight since April 2022.

Already, Benn has publicly announced that this contest will be his final bout as a welterweight, rumoured to be feeling the full effects of a brutal weight cut, having fought twice as a middleweight last year.

Speaking to Boxing Now, Peter Fury declared his belief that fight fans are wrong to overlook Benn’s chances in the fight.

“I think that they [the public] can underestimate Conor Benn to a degree. I think that he is very good, he is a good fighter and mentally, as well, very strong. He will totally believe in himself and I think that he has got a good chance of pulling it off.

“He is fighting an exceptional champion in Ryan Garcia and sometimes people can blow hot and cold, but I think that, with the Conor Benn scenario, Garcia will have the bit between his teeth as well. So, I think that you are going to see the best of both of them.”

Whilst refusing to forecast a winner, Fury predicted a ‘closely-contested war’, with Benn keen to prove his doubters wrong.

“Can Conor Benn do it? Of course he can, he can do it. Can Ryan Garcia do it? Yes, he can, it is one of them types of fights. I’m not sitting on the fence, I think that this is going to be a hard fight. Conor Benn is no walk in the park for anybody, so I see it being a closely-contested war, that is what I can see.”

Garcia-Benn takes place on Saturday, September 12, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Jai Opetaia set to collide with reigning WBC cruiserweight world champion, Noel Mikaelian, in the co-main event of the bill.

Real Madrid striker Endrick has turned down an opportunity to join Liverpool on loan this summer, as per reports. The Brazil international faces stern competition for places in the Los Blancos squad for the 2026-27 season, following the signings of two new attackers.

According to ESPN Brasil, Liverpool have indicated that they would be interested in signing Endrick on a temporary basis this summer. The 20-year-old has no interest in leaving the Bernabeu this summer, as he wishes to fight for his place at the club.

Real Madrid are blessed with a plethora of attacking options, particularly following the addition of Carlos Espi and Yan Diomande to their squad. This situation led Endrick to seek clarity about his immediate future in the squad, and Jose Mourinho assured him that he would get minutes to prove himself.

Endrick endured a similar situation last season, barely getting any minutes before he headed out on loan to Olympique Lyon in January. There, he scored eight goals and provided eight assists in half a season before returning to his parent club this summer.

Unlike the Spanish giants, Liverpool are struggling to find the attackers to fill up their squad this summer. They are without the injured Hugo Ekitike and lost Mohamed Salah, leading to their interest in Endrick, who can cover both positions. They will have to turn their attention elsewhere as they look to bring in reinforcements ahead of the transfer window’s closure.

Former Liverpool star unveiled officially as Real Madrid player

Former Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate has been officially unveiled as a new signing for Real Madrid after joining on a free transfer. The France international has played once for his new club since arriving for pre-season this summer, playing 45 minutes in their last friendly against Schalke 04.

Konate reached an agreement to join the Spanish giants after his contract with the Reds expired at the end of the 2025-26 season. He played 51 times for the club across all competitions in his final season, more than he played in any of his four previous campaigns for them. He represented the club on 187 occasions, winning every domestic honour available in England.

Ibrahima Konate has taken the number 16 shirt at the Bernabeu and has signed a four-year contract until 2030. He joins Dean Huijsen, Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger, and Raul Asencio as the senior centre-back options available for Jose Mourinho in the 2026-27 season.