RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – As far as Donn Davis is concerned, talk about the world’s top heavyweight should be focused on Saudi Arabia on Saturday, not New York in November.

Put simpler, the promotion’s co-owner thinks the PFL will have the best heavyweight in MMA after Saturday, not the UFC. And further, Davis implied that disputing that claim would take a cross-promotion of some kind with the UFC – an idea CEO Dana White essentially never has been keen to.

At PFL: Battle of the Giants (DAZN/ESPN+) at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou (17-3) takes on Renan Ferreira (13-3) in a PFL heavyweight superfight title bout. Ngannou has boxed twice since he left the UFC, but hasn’t fought an MMA bout since January 2021 before he left the UFC for the PFL after a contract dispute.

At UFC 309, which takes place Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden, Jon Jones (27-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) is a massive favorite upwards of 7-1 against former champ Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC). Jones won the UFC heavyweight title after Ngannou vacated it.

And naturally, depending on which side is asked, the other side is ducking – either Jones or Ngannou.

“Our focus is on this Saturday,” Davis said after a Thursday news conference in Saudi Arabia for the pay-per-view. “This is the biggest fight in MMA in heavyweight this year. Francis, when he left the UFC, he was the pound-for-pound No. 1 and the heavyweight champion. And then Ferreira is the biggest rising star … This is the fight everybody wants to see. Whoever comes out of this fight is the No. 1 in the world. Whoever wants to claim the No. 1 spot goes through the winner of this fight, not through the UFC – this fight. Whoever wants to claim that position better be calling us after Saturday, not calling them.”

Jones has suggested his fight with Miocic might be his swan song. Ngannou is in his late 30s, as well. Absent cross-promotion, and reasonably soon, it seems like a Jones-Ngannou fight is a longshot at best.

But Davis implied it could happen if White wanted it to.

“We’ve said at the PFL we want to give the fans what they want, and that’s the best fights in the world,” Davis said. “Francis Ngannou? He said he’ll take on all comers. I think Jon Jones wants to cement his legacy. There’s only one obstacle to that fight, and we know who that is.”

After the UFC 309 heavyweight title fight between Jones and Miocic, the UFC has interim champ Tom Aspinall waiting in the wings, as well.

For more on the cards, visit MMA Junkie’s event hubs for PFL: Battle of the Giants and UFC 309.

The Larne boss adds that the quick turnaround of games they are facing is “not something they are complaining about” but it does present challenges in terms of preparation.

“Our boys haven’t been wired to play the amount of games that have been asked of them. You’re now in a situation where the final whistle is blown and two days later you have another game.

“The preparation time has been very different because we’ve found ourselves having to do a lot of the preparation off the pitch, whereas we were normally able to do all our preparations on the pitch.

“That’s been very different for us so we’ve had to look at ways and means of getting our message across, getting our gameplan across, maybe giving them a little bit more analysis to understand their role and responsibility.”

After Saturday’s top-flight game against Crusaders at Inver Park, Lynch’s team will face League of Ireland champions Shamrock Rovers in their next European game at Windsor Park on Thursday before travelling to Portadown for another Premiership match on Sunday 27 October.

“Obviously they are very different games – playing domestic football and the European stage – so there have been lots of learning curves in there, lots of things we’ve had to tweak from an off-field perspective, both for the players and the staff.

“Domestically, there are so many new faces in the league, so many new managers, you are being challenged all the time now. I watched the Crusaders team for the first time last week, their style is very different, the personnel is very different, so there are challenges in that.

“Then the next day you get to watch Rovers, how they set up, how they play, the talent they have in their team, for a manager or anyone involved in football, that’s what you want.”

Francis Ngannou’s MMA return happens this Saturday as the PFL returns to pay-per-view for Battle of the Giants in Saudi Arabia. With the PFL needing to badly get some buzz, does Ngannou have to beat Renan Ferreira — not just for himself, but for the PFL as a whole?

On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Saturday’s big fight card, how important it is that the card delivers as a whole, and what happens based on the result of the main event. Additionally, topics include Dana White once again ripping the UFC rankings panel after UFC 307, the promotion returning to the APEX this Saturday for UFC Vegas 99 headlined by Anthony Hernandez vs. Michel Pereira, Donald Cerrone announcing he’s ending his retirement with hopes of two more UFC bouts, UFC 310 fight announcements including Belal Muhammad vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov for the welterweight title, and more.

Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and UFC lightweight Grant Dawson.

Watch the show live at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT in the video above.

If you missed the show live, you can still watch above, or listen to the podcast version, which can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods.

As the Circuit of The Americas prepares to host the US Grand Prix for a 12th time, a trio of Formula One teams have made their way to the Lone Star State with fresh liveries.

The 19th race in the 2024 F1 calendar and the second of three to be hosted by the US this season — following a trip to Miami in May — Austin will mark another opportunity for Haas F1 Team to impress their home fans some 1,200 miles away from the team’s base in North Carolina.

This time around, Haas has announced that Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen’s VF-24s will take to the 5.5-kilometer circuit sporting a unique take on their usual black, white, and red livery.

With stars and stripes across the front wing, hints of blue can also be seen throughout the design. Most notably, the fresh paintwork includes an eagle and star design on both side pods alongside the team’s logo.

The team revealed their bold new look on X, tweeting, “Made in America…Turning up to Texas with symbols of home.”

Aside from Haas, McLaren‘s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastriwill also take to the Texas tarmac donning striking new liveries.

McLaren United States GP livery

Photo by: McLaren

The Woking-based team is adding a mirror-esque finish to the MCL38, with chrome adorning much of the side pods and airbox cover in celebration of their ongoing partnership with Google. Chrome will also be present on both Norris and Piastri’s race suits in Austin.

This will mark the second time this livery has been run by McLaren after it made its debut at the 2023 British Grand Prix.

According to the team, the decision to bring back the chrome livery is a continuation of their “Chrome Shines Again” campaign, which they say acts as a nod to “the iconic chrome from McLaren race cars of seasons past.”

However, the star of the show in Austin will arguably be Alpine. The Enstone team has partnered with sponsors Xbox on a thoroughly unique design for the upcoming grand prix, celebrating the impending release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — which is slated for release in December.

Alpine F1 Team United States GP livery

Photo by: Alpine

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The A524’s bare carbon fiber heavy shell will be covered in torn sections of an aged map, reminiscent of those seen within the iconic movie franchise. The game’s logo also features just in front of the side pods, with the driver’s numbers written in the same unique font on the nose.

Alpine’s “sunset orange” scheme including a world map will also be used on Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon’s one-off racing suits, as per F1.

“Working with the Xbox team to bring alive the incredible Indiana Jones and the Great Circle livery for the United States Grand Prix has been fantastic,” Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes said. 

“The new look will be right at home in the Austin setting this weekend.”

Poulsen had coached Odense BK to the Danish championship in 1989 and the domestic cup in 1991 before being asked to step in and help Zambia.

“Approximately three weeks after the disaster, I got calls from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Football Association [to ask] if I could help over a period of six weeks in Denmark,” he told BBC Sport Africa last year, speaking to mark the 30th anniversary of the plane crash.

However, the scale of the task in front of him became apparent when the side arrived in Europe and started training.

“I could see this was going to be a big job,” said Poulsen.

“I felt the ability of the players was not really there, that they didn’t have any confidence. All quite understandable given they were in foreign country with strange food and accommodation, far away from families.

“The main thing is that the common language of football is so strong.”

Poulsen was asked to take charge of the 1994 World Cup qualifier against Morocco in Lusaka on 4 July 1993 as the Chipolopolo players took to the field for their first competitive encounter since the crash.

Kalusha Bwalya captained the side, having avoided the crash because he was due to make his own way to Senegal.

The 1988 African Footballer of the Year was on the scoresheet as Zambia came from behind to beat their North African opponents.

“That was fantastic, mission accomplished,” Poulsen said.

“The whole nation accepted our work. It took hours for us to leave the stadium as people ran alongside the bus, singing.

“After less than six weeks, a new national team was born.”

BARCELONA fell victim to a scam when completing Robert Lewandowski’s transfer.

The striker moved to the Nou Camp in the summer of 2022, joining from Bayern Munich.

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Lewandowski has been in fine form this season and has helped Barcelona to the top of LaLiga, but his signing got the club into difficulty.

That is because a fraudster posing as his agent Pini Zahavi demanded a payment be made of £830,000, according to reports in Spain.

In late July 2022 several club directors and executives received an email requesting the payment as commission for the deal being completed.

Barcelona paid the amount into an account number at the Bank of Cyprus – but to an account under the name of Michael Gerardus Hermanus Demon.

The bank blocked the transfer as it was considered high risk, due to the fact there were no previous transactions on the account nor any valid documents to justify the payment.

The scammer continued to put pressure on Barcelona by posing as Zahavi, and threatened to report the club to Uefa and block Lewandowski’s registration.

They also wrote to the Bank of Cyprus in a bid to get the transaction approved but were denied again.

That meant Barcelona were able to recover the £830,000 and have since reported the scammer to police after receiving two more emails demanding around £210,000.

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Lewandowski, 36, has been a success at Barcelona with 71 goals in 106 games, including 12 this term.

He signed from Bayern in a deal worth £42.5million.