TEMPLEGATE tackles a classy Sunday of action looking to keep his good run of form going.

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NO HUBS NO HOOBS (3.15 Wincanton, nap)

He finished last season with three wins in a row with this sort of marathon trip right up his street. He keeps it simple from the front and will be hard to beat on comeback with more improvement likely.

TAKT DE TOUQUES (3.00 Aintree, nb)

He won all three bumpers last season without hitting top gear. Those efforts were all over two miles but this longer trip should be fine and he has more to come now he’s jumping hurdles.

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SKYJACK HIJACK (12.40 Aintree, treble)

He’s gunning for a hat-trick of wins after lagging in at Perth last time by 12 lengths. He has really improved since facing a test of stamina like this and he still looks ahead of the handicapper.

Templegate’s tips

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Dana White promises that Francis Ngannou is the last thing on his mind.

Despite not working together for nearly two years, the UFC CEO and the former heavyweight champion rarely escape questions about each other. The latest fracas started after White revealed that he wanted to cut Ngannou after he suffered back-to-back losses in the UFC in 2018.

That earned a response from Ngannou, who called his former boss a “bully” and added that White is probably “praying for my downfall” while also claiming that the UFC actually owes money that was promised to him after wins over Ciryl Gane and Stipe Miocic.

“When have you ever heard a story in all the years we’ve been in business, even when it was upside down, where we owed somebody money? Never happened,” White said about Ngannou’s claims at the UFC 308 post-fight press conference. “So he’s full of shit there.

“Then, I lost? I didn’t lose anything. I was done with Francis after the [Derrick Lewis fight]. Actually, he owes me money because we had to watch that fight with him and ‘The Black Beast.’ He should actually pay me back for that fight and all of you. Me praying [for his downfall] — trust me, I don’t think about Francis that much. You guys ask me the question about the PFL and I responded. Other than that, the only one who’s praying for his demise is probably the PFL because they signed a shitty contract with a guy that doesn’t deliver any numbers and ticket sales or pay-per-views. They’ve got to keep paying this guy for however long and good for him. Not good for them.”

As much as White maintained that he absolutely wanted to release Ngannou from the UFC roster, there’s no denying that he bounced back from those losses and eventually won the heavyweight title. Ngannou’s run with the UFC ended after six straight wins including victories over four ex-champions.

But White says the issues he had with Ngannou had nothing to do with his talent as a fighter but rather personal problems between them that spiraled out of control. While he didn’t reveal the nature of their fallout, White explained that his relationship with Ngannou was never the same again.

“Someday, I’ll tell you the story. I was all about Francis in the beginning and then I found out who Francis was,” White said. “I told the two guys who asked me not to cut Francis when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. Believe me, I have no sleepless nights over Francis leaving.

“I didn’t like Francis as a person. It wasn’t a guy I wanted to do business with. My boys were telling me he’s misunderstood. I told them when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. It wasn’t about him becoming heavyweight champion of the world. Francis isn’t a good guy. He plays the good guy. ‘I don’t understand the language’ so he seems like he’s a nice guy. He’s not, and he’s just not a guy I wanted to be in business with, period. End of story. Whether he became the champion or not.”

Ngannou obviously left in free agency before booking a pair of boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua before finally making his PFL debut with a win over Renan Ferreira.

He remains under contract with the PFL but has also hinted at a potential return to boxing in the future.

No matter where he goes next, White promises there’s no word where he ever gets back in business with Ngannou again.

“We won’t be. We’ll never be in business together,” White said. “You can tell. We don’t like each other. This goes back to before the first Stipe fight. He pulled some shit before the first Stipe fight, and I said I’m done with this guy and then Stipe beat the shit out of him. Great night. We never had a relationship after that.”

It’s safe to say that White won’t be bending over backwards to present Ngannou with any opportunities and that includes a potential fight against UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

While that’s a matchup that White desperately wanted to see once upon a time, that’s no longer and option and if Jones is going to fight anybody after he faces Miocic at UFC 309, it certainly won’t be Ngannou.

“He didn’t want that fight,” White said about Ngannou facing Jones. “He could have stayed and took that fight. He didn’t want that fight. Tom Aspinall deserves that fight.”

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella reckons the team’s execution let it down in Mexico Grand Prix qualifying and felt pole was possible.

But Lando Norris, who was quickest in both Q1 and Q2, suggested he had hit the limit of potential in his car.

He was unable to hit the ground running at the start of Q3 and was only fifth fastest at the end of the opening runs before improving on his follow-up effort, which earned him third on the grid.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Stella felt that performance was ‘left behind’ in qualifying, also noting Oscar Piastri’s mistake at Turn 12 that consigned him to a surprising Q1 exit having headlined FP3 earlier on Saturday.

“Overall I would say the car during this qualifying session was competitive, and was in a condition to score the pole position, even though Carlos in the final session kind of raised the bar quite a bit,” said Stella.

“If we take the natural progression, then with Lando we might have been there. But we have to say that the two laps in Q3, they weren’t great.

“In the first one, there were a couple of mistakes – these overheated the tyres and then the tyres were going away from Lando.

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“In the second one, it wasn’t very clean, but it was important to make sure that it was decent enough to be there in the first or the second row.

“So we’re all encouraged that the car was performing well, but at the same time, from an execution point of view, we left a little bit of performance behind, especially with Oscar in Q1, where he had the lap time deleted and he missed it.

“We have quite a lot of work ahead of us to get back in the points.”

Norris did not necessarily agree with Stella’s assessment and explained: “I was at the limit.

“I couldn’t go any quicker, it’s more I think the others just didn’t get the most out of it. Pretty much every corner I was close to locking up and making mistakes, and I did that in my Q3 run one lap.

“But I definitely had nowhere near close to three-tenths left in the car. So it was more that they just went quicker.

“I got everything out of the car already in Q1 and Q2 and made us look like the ones to beat. But honestly, since FP1 Ferrari have been the guys to beat, and Carlos is on top today, so it’ll be challenging to beat them tomorrow.”

Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Speaking later to Sky, Norris explained that he had to drive with restraint to get a decent qualifying time out of the car in Q3, although he noted that this still wasn’t particularly clean.

He conceded that making a play for the lead into the first corner might be his best chance of beating the Ferraris on race pace on Sunday.

“I struggled to get much more out of the car in the final two laps. I tried in Q3, round one, but it clearly didn’t work. So I just had to drive much more under the limit in the second run.

“I’m happy. I think we just have not had the pace of the Ferrari all weekend. Maybe we could have had Max, but he did a good lap; mine was not as clean as maybe I would have liked. I just wanted to get a good-ish lap in.

“I think turn one, lap one will be our best opportunity [to win the race]. But Ferrari are just doing things well at the minute.”

ABU DHABI – How does the UFC say no to Alexander Volkanovski?

That’s the question Dana White posed to the media after the conclusion of UFC 308 on Saturday at Etihad Arena.

Of course, White is talking about the next title challenger for UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, who furthered his stardom with a massive knockout of Max Holloway in the card’s main event.

After the fight, Volkanovski (26-4 MMA, 13-3 UFC) was brought in the cage as UFC commentator Daniel Cormier interviewed Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC). The move isn’t always done by the promotion, but is usually indicative of its future plans when it does occur.

“Volkanovski’s one of those guys,” White told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “We’re not going to say no to Volkanovski.”

The two top featherweights collided back in February and Topuria won by knockout. Volkanovski has not fought since and is currently on a two-fight skid, given that he previously was knocked out in a lightweight title challenge vs. Islam Makhachev.

While other top contenders, such as UFC 308 backup fighter Diego Lopes, have emerged in the title conversation, White indicated Volkanovski’s past as a company man, willing to bail the promotion out of difficult situations has nudged the UFC in his favor.

“He’s been that guy for us any time we needed him,” White said. “He’s been on this run like (Israel) Adesanya and like Alex (Pereira) is on right now. When things don’t go our way and you’ve got to call a guy, Volkanovski has always been that guy. He really was. For him to ask for it, I don’t think anybody in this room is going, ‘Oh, this is ridiculous’ or crazy. Who wouldn’t want to see it again?”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.