UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis has no doubt he can match Khamzat Chimaev’s physical prowess.

Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) turned his attention to Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) after the unbeaten contender ran through Robert Whittaker for a first-round submission this past Saturday at UFC 308. Chimaev’s strength and grappling proved to be too much once again, but Du Plessis says “Borz” won’t be able to impose his will on him.

“When I fight, I don’t know how to back up,” Du Plessis told TMZ. “I’m going to go out there and fight you. We’ve seen this with Khamzat, slowing down after the first round, round-and-a-half, and I think that is because he uses so much power.

“He has the wrestling technique, of course, but he uses his strength as a weapon. In this case, he has a gun, and I have a tank when it comes to the strength. There’s not a middleweight that’s going to overpower me. It’s not going to happen.”

In the UFC 308 post-fight news conference, Chimaev was asked by MMA Junkie about Du Plessis’ grappling, which he immediately dismissed – but the champion issued him a warning.

“If it’s Khamzat, you think you’re strong, you think you’re powerful, you have not felt anything,” Du Plessis said. “And I can’t wait until I see it on his face because I see it on every single person I fight’s face. When they realize, ‘Oh sh*t.’ That’s the message.”

Du Plessis also explained his decision of pivoting to Chimaev over a Sean Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) rematch. Du Plessis claimed the middleweight title by edging out Strickland at UFC 297, a fight Strickland believes he won.

“I completely welcome the Strickland rematch. I’d love to get that finish because for Sean, he needs a win back, I need a finish,” Du Plessis said. “He doesn’t mind to fight boring fights like most of his fights. That’s why he has seven or eight split decision wins. For me, I want to fight a guy like Khamzat to throw down. Not say that he’s going to then jab for five rounds. Myself and Sean, it was a close fight, but there was no doubt in my mind that I won that fight. … Strickland just beat Paulo Costa in a very boring fight once again, right after our fight.

“Whether it was close or not, it’s still a loss. Khamzat, they’ve hyped up this guy for so long, but he hasn’t come to fruition. He hasn’t lost, but the fight cancellations and him being sick. Sometimes that’s out of our control. But he was the first guy to ever submit Rob, and he did it in the first round, and that warrants him jumping the gun on Sean Strickland for me. If you ask me personally, that’s a fight I would rather want because that’s a fight the people want. It’s a fight more fans want, and I believe Khamzat is the next best guy.”

Formula 1 teams and tyre supplier Pirelli have arrived at this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix braced for a more unpredictable weekend than normal.

While the track layout itself is unchanged from previous years, what is different is the asphalt – which has been completely resurfaced since last year’s event.

Newly laid tracks add a huge degree of uncertainty at grands prix, as teams are never sure about the impact it can have on grip levels.

At some venues in the past – perhaps most famously Turkey in 2020 – if the track has not been treated properly then it can trigger a massive drop in grip and cause huge headaches for drivers and teams.

At the other end of the spectrum, a new surface that offers some decent grip but has not been rubbered in can result in cars sliding a bit more, which has a negative impact on tyre degradation.

What Brazil will deliver is hard to be sure of right now, with the final answer only coming from the first practice session when drivers get to run out on track for the first time.

As Alpine‘s Esteban Ocon said: “This weekend there’s new challenges ahead, a lot of unknowns for everyone, looking at how the tarmac is and the degradation. How it can be and the grip level? We don’t know.”

Sets of Medium and Hard Pirelli tyres used by McLaren

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

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What the first data says

There are some early signs though of what to expect – and it points towards an especially exciting F1 weekend.

Early analysis from Pirelli’s engineers of the Brazil surface shows that there are no major alarm bells ringing over the grip on offer.

Motorsport.com has learned that the micro-roughness of the Interlagos surface shows a 46% drop compared to last year, with macro roughness indicating a 30% drop.

That would point towards the track in theory offering less grip than last year, which could result in more sliding and therefore higher tyre temperatures and more degradation.

But a deeper dive into the overall grip levels, based on the chemical adhesion interaction of the track/tyre, has shown that the situation is not actually too different to previous years.

Brazil has traditionally not been a venue that offers a lot of grip, and some of the data collected ahead of the weekend suggests that some corners may actually be an improvement on before.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR23

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

The darker surface

This first snapshot of data points then towards the new surface maybe not leading to a dramatically different weekend.

However, there is another interesting element that has popped up and could actually have the biggest impact on how things turn out – and that is the colour of the new asphalt.

The new surface is very black, and that means that it will absorb the sun’s temperature much more than the old washed-out grey surface that was used up until last year.

Pirelli’s first analysis of the variation in temperature of the track surface has already pointed to things being quite dramatic – and the early afternoon on Thursday had already registered it nudging towards 60C.

Higher track temps have a direct impact on tyres temperatures, and can help amplify any thermal degradation – which is always a factor around the Interlagos track because of its layout.

The higher temps could then force teams to shift towards the harder compounds for both the sprint and the grand prix, but this choice is slightly complicated by the selections on offer this weekend.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14, leads Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo C43

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

First of all, Pirelli has opted to shift its compounds one step softer than last year, so the 2023 soft is the 2024 medium.

Then secondly, with Brazil being a sprint weekend, the tyre allocation is different – with two sets of hards, four sets of mediums and six sets of softs available.

The likelihood is that the 2024 soft is not going to be a suitable race tyre – so is only really good for qualifying.

That then means teams are going to have to manage very carefully how they distribute their tyres across the sprint and the main grand prix – knowing full well that they cannot compromise what they need for Sunday.

What teams will need to understand quickly from practice is if the medium is going to hold on enough for the 24 laps of the sprint. Last year that tyre (which was the soft in 2023) did cope – but if degradation is worse this time around it could make things difficult. 

If the medium isn’t good enough, then that could make life extremely complicated for the race that is normally a two-stopper.

If teams need to run the hard in the sprint, then that would leave them short for the grand prix – so Saturday could be especially intriguing.

What this all means is an especially complicated race weekend and one where rain could yet throw extra uncertainty into the mix.

Female footballers around the world were fighting many battles for recognition and facing significant resistance from those inside and outside the game, epitomised by the lack of support from the sport’s own world governing body.

At the start of the 1970s, the Football Association in England had ended a five-decade ban on women’s football.

The first unofficial Women’s World Cup was held in 1970 in Italy and a year later another unofficial global tournament was held in Mexico, attracting crowds of more than 100,000, but neither of those competitions was supported by Fifa.

Wille, who was herself an amateur footballer, had joined the NFF in 1976 – the same year it had given its approval to women’s football in the country – and she was not prepared to accept the status quo.

“I said ‘we must have a World Championship for women and we have to be a participant in the Olympic Games’,” she explained.

Her colleagues at the NFF decided she should go to Fifa’s congress which was being held that year in Mexico City – incidentally the same city that hosted the unofficial 1971 global tournament – and make a speech about women’s football.

“They thought it would mean more if a woman did it and not a man,” Wille said. She did not hesitate.

But come the morning of the speech, the nerves had set in.

“When I came to the place where it would happen, there were only men, apart from female translators,” she said.

To make a speech, you had to raise a card and wait to be selected. No woman had ever spoken at a Fifa congress before.

Wille, standing at 4ft 10in tall, was called to the stage, but it got off to an inauspicious start when she was too short to be able to reach the microphone.

“So someone had to come and help me with it, and then I started to talk.”

Payton Talbott takes a big step up in his next fight as he seeks to keep his perfect record intact.

The blue-chip bantamweight prospect faces 23-fight veteran Raoni Barcelos at UFC’s first pay-per-view show of 2025 on Jan. 18, multiple people with knowledge of the booking told MMA Fighting.

UFC 311 is rumored to take place in Los Angeles, but an official location is yet to be announced.

Talbott, 9-0 in just three years as a professional fighter, has made a major impact so far in the 135-pound division with a trio of UFC wins, capped off by back-to-back bonus-winning stoppages of Cameron Saaiman and Yanis Ghemmouri in 2024. Those fights took Talbott a combined 40 seconds to finish.

Barcelos (18-5) tapped Cristian Quinonez in his most recent appearance this past February to rebound from defeats to Umar Nurmagomedov and Kyler Phillips. The former RFA champion holds a UFC record of 7-4, with three finishes to his credit.

UFC 311 so far features four Brazilian talents, with Jailton Almeida battling Serghei Spivac at heavyweight, top-ranked light heavyweight Johnny Walker facing Bogdan Guskov, and Karol Rosa taking on rising bantamweight Ailin Perez.

Mike Heck contributed to this report.

Blackpool boss Steve Bruce said he has been “touched” by the tributes he has received following the death of his baby grandson.

Four-month-old Madison, the child of Bruce’s son-in-law and former Leeds United, Fulham and Millwall striker Matt Smith, died earlier in October.

Bruce has spent time away from football following his grandson’s passing but will return to the dugout for Saturday’s FA Cup first-round fixture at Gillingham.

“I’d like to take this opportunity on behalf of all the family to thank everyone for the tributes and messages from inside and outside the footballing world. It has touched us all,” he said in a statement, external.

“I’d also like to thank [sporting director] David [Downes], [chief executive officer] Julian [Winter], and the owner Simon [Sadler] for their understanding and support.

“I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday at Gillingham, and back at Bloomfield Road.”

AN INTERNATIONAL tennis tournament had to be cancelled after players fell victim to ‘virtual’ kidnapping.

The Mexican Tennis Federation were due to stage a Juniors 30 event in Guanajuato in the centre of the country.

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However, they were forced to pull the plug on the tournament after the shocking fraud.

According to reports, ten young stars and one coach were scammed out of money in the shocking scheme.

The Secretary of Security and Peace for the state of Guanajuato said that an adult, six girls, and four boys, all members of a tennis team, were found in a hotel in Irapuato.

In this incident, it is understood the victims were ordered to go to the specific location and turn off their mobile phones.

The players and coach caught up in the ordeal were all from the neighbouring state of Queretaro and have all returned to their homes.

The motive behind targeting the tennis stars for the attempted extortion remains unclear.

Virtual kidnapping is where criminals trick victims into believing a family member has been abducted.

They then threaten violence or even death until a ransom fee is paid.

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That is despite no actual abduction taking place as they con their targets.

Some virtual kidnappers operate from inside prisons.

The Junior 30 events are the lowest-ranked tournaments within the ITF’s youth calendar.

The virtual kidnapping comes just weeks after a tennis venue in Mexico was damaged during September’s Hurricane John.

Winds up to 120mph ripped through the Arena GNP Seguros in Acapulco, which hosts the ATP 500 event.

The tennis complex only opened in 2022 but was ravaged by flooding from Hurricane Otis 12 months ago.

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Tennis stars following in parents’ footsteps

TALK about pressure…

These rising stars are all making their way in tennis.

But they have got something in common – they’ve got a famous parent who also made their name in the sport.

So who are the players hoping to follow in the footsteps of their tennis mums and dads?

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