Reigning MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia cut Jorge Martin’s championship lead to 17 points with two races of the season remaining thanks to victory in the Thailand Grand Prix.

Italian Bagnaia, riding for Ducati, claimed his ninth win of the season in wet conditions at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram.

Pramac Racing’s Martin finished second and fellow Spaniard Pedro Acosta third for Tech 3.

Bagnaia, who slipped from pole to third at the start, regained the lead from Martin on lap five before the race developed into a duel between Bagnaia and six-time champion Marc Marquez.

But Gresini’s Marquez slid off on the 14th of 26 laps and Bagnaia held off Martin to win by almost three seconds. Marquez remounted to finish 12th.

Martin and Bagnaia were second and third respectively in Saturday’s sprint race, which was won by Ducati’s Enea Bastianini.

The Malaysian GP takes place from 1-3 November and the Valencia GP from 15-17 November.

Rafael dos Anjos turned 40 this past Saturday, but a knee injury suffered during his UFC 308 welterweight bout with Geoff Neal cut his celebration short in Abu Dhabi.

On a three-fight losing skid now and winless for almost two years, the former UFC lightweight champion laments the fact he could have to go under the knife and delay his return to the cage, although he’s still unsure of what was the injury suffered at UFC 308.

“I think it was on my second kick thrown, me and Neal kicked at the same time and I felt a big snap, a big pop behind my knee,” dos Anjos said in a video posted on his social media. “Throughout my whole UFC career, it’s my second time being hospitalized after the fight and it makes me realize how blessed I am. It’s a very tough sport, and going to the hospital only twice in your whole career is a good number.”

Dos Anjos had to undergo post-fight surgery back in August of 2010, when he tapped against Clay Guida after fracturing his jaw. The Brazilian veteran, now 21-15 under the UFC banner and 7-9 since losing his title in 2016, said he’s not ending his career just yet.

“Definitely it was not how I want to celebrate my 40th birthday, it was a tough loss,” dos Anjos wrote on a separate post. “Time to heal up, enjoy the family. I’m not done yet, I’ll be back soon. God bless you all.”

Neal rebounded from back-to-back defeats to Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry with his win over dos Anjos, boosting his octagon record to 8-4 with key stoppage victories over Vicente Luque, Mike Perry and Niko Price. He also owns a decision win over current champion Belal Muhammad from when the two fought in 2019.

Brentford manager Thomas Frank says he is ‘irritated’ with his side’s performance despite a 96th minute winner from Bryan Mbuemo helping his side claim a 4-3 win over struggling Ipswich.

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Christopher Bell is the only Cup driver to make the Championship 4 in the first two seasons of the Next Gen era, and he is on the cusp of doing it for a third consecutive year. Despite his strong position, he only felt frustration after a dominant showing last weekend as he watched Joey Logano stretch the fuel and steal the win out from under him.

But the disappointing runner-up finish at Vegas still netted Bell a bucket of points — enough to put him ahead of the seven title contenders still fighting over the three remaining spots in the final four. That’s critically important as no matter what happens over the next two weeks, the driver with the most points (and no win in the Round of 8) will also have a clear pathway to Phoenix.

Bell’s true battle isn’t with the bottom four

He is 42 points above the cut-line, but the fight Bell really needs to pay attention to is the one to remain atop the points pile. Kyle Larson is just seven points behind him and William Byron is 25 points back. The top points-scorer is guaranteed one of those coveted four spots, no matter what. That fact certainly isn’t lost on the quietly clever driver of the No. 20 Toyota.

“Yeah, I think that’s what we’re planning on (gaining max points),” said Bell during media availability at Homestead. “You know, that’s why you’re in the Round of 8, trying to transfer to the Championship 4. You’re never really safe. The three of us William [Byron], Kyle [Larson] and myself have kind of, the way that the cards fell, we’re kind of essentially point racing each other, and the guys below that are far enough below, they’re basically out of the points and essentially racing for wins.

“Certainly, we’ll know more once we get through Homestead on Sunday night, but, right now, we’re planning on there being three winners and the three of us – William, Kyle and myself – are racing for that last points spot. There’s a good chance William, Kyle or myself could win this weekend and it could change. But + 42 (points) sounds great until you realize every time someone wins, that cutline shrinks more, more and more, or that gap to the cutline. You’re never safe and it’s going to be a battle.”

The lack of a safety net in this round makes it unique to the two that precede it where ‘okay’ runs are normally enough to skate through. But in this penultimate round, the entire dynamic changes and nothing short of a victory feels secure. Perhaps that’s why Bell was unusually animated on the radio when he lost the Vegas race to Logano’s fuel gamble.

Points vs. wins: A recent history

But is it really wise to prioritize points over race wins in this round? Taking a short walk back through recent history gives us some good insight into the answer.

Last year, Byron (+20 over nearest competition) was the driver who left Homestead with the most points of the non-winners. In 2022, it was Ross Chastain (+8 on nearest competition). Both drivers did end up making the Championship 4. However, it was a nail-biter for Byron who narrowly moved forward by a margin of just eight points. And Chastain? I think we all remember what he had to do, driving his car full-throttle into the wall and achieving what was once thought impossible in a daredevil move for the ages.

But the most interesting statistic here is that neither of those drivers went on to win the title while both of the NASCAR’s most recent champions [Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano] won their way into the finale. In fact, that trend continues back before the introduction of the Next Gen car with Larson in 2021 and Chase Elliott in 2020.

The last champion to actually point their way into the finale was Kyle Busch five years ago. In fact, it’s only happened three times in ten seasons with this current format. Bell is of the belief that winning in the Round of 8 — specifically the opening race as Logano just did — gives any driver a certain edge over the other contenders. 

“The Phoenix car is a special car and if you’re in the final four, it deserves to have more time and effort put into it,” explained Bell, who has only ever made the final four by winning Ro8 races. “So, winning that first race is huge and yeah, it’s an advantage. And I noticed that from winning Homestead last year, having that extra week to prepare.”

CRISTIANO RONALDO could protest being snubbed by Ballon d’Or chiefs by refusing to attend Monday’s ceremony.

The Portuguese legend, 39, is a five-time winner of the prestigious award – claiming the honour in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.

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But in 2023 he failed to make the 30-player shortlist for the first time in 20 years.

And the Al-Nassr forward also missed out this time around – making it the first time in more than decades that neither Ronaldo or Lionel Messi were among the nominations.

Ronaldo has still received an invite to the ceremony in Paris on Monday as all previous winners are permitted to attend.

However, France Football editor Vincent Garcia has hinted Ronaldo may opt to stay at home.

Speaking to The Times, he said: “Winners have the right to come back to all future ceremonies but they don’t all come, some are very upset with us.

“I don’t know for certain Cristiano is. I don’t talk to him directly, but I know for example that former winners vote for the Kopa Trophy – for the best young player – and Cristiano didn’t vote last year and he didn’t vote this year.”

Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior is the favourite to win this year’s Ballon d’Or ahead of Manchester City midfielder Rodri.

The Brazilian scored 24 goals and assisted 11 last season as Carlo Ancelotti’s men lifted the LaLiga title and Champions League.

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He also already has 15 goal contributions in as many games for Real Madrid this season.

Vinicius would become just the third player outside of Messi and Ronaldo to win the award since 2008.

Luka Modric won it in 2018, while Karim Benzema picked it up in 2022.

ABU DHABI – The old adage about three sides to every divorce – each side, plus the truth – no doubt comes in to play in MMA on the regular.

That likely is the case in the ongoing war of words between former UFC heavyweight champion and current PFL heavyweight superfights champ Francis Ngannou and his ex-promoter, UFC CEO Dana White, who Saturday brought his latest salvo when he told MMA Junkie he has a personal dislike for Ngannou that goes back years, prior to when he became the UFC heavyweight champion.

But recency bias and revisionist history also seem to come into play in MMA on the regular, and though he touted Ngannou as the proverbial “baddest man on the planet” while he was his heavyweight titleholder – and even famously said Jon Jones should reconsider moving to heavyweight, where Ngannou would be waiting, and should drop to middleweight, instead – White now says Ngannou ran from Jones, and then White got what he wanted, which was Ngannou out of the company.

“(Ngannou) didn’t want that fight (with Jones),” White told MMA Junkie after UFC 308 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. “He could have stayed and took that fight. He didn’t want that fight. Tom Aspinall deserves that fight.”

Former light heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), who won the vacant belt against Ciryl Gane after Ngannou left the UFC for the PFL, is set to fight former champ Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in three weeks in the UFC 309 main event at Madison Square Garden. Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) currently holds the interim heavyweight title and presumably will fight the Jones-Miocic winner.

Ngannou (17-3) maintains he left in a contract dispute, and this past week said he suspects White has been hoping for him to fail outside the UFC. Since he left, Ngannou lost two boxing matches to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, then made his PFL debut with a quick first-round finish of 2023 champ Renan Ferreira in the PFL: Battle of the Giants pay-per-view headliner eight days ago in Saudi Arabia.

Instead, White pointed to Ngannou’s fight against Derrick Lewis at UFC 226, one fight after he lost a title shot to Miocic in January 2018. That bout, which Lewis won by decision, has been widely panned as one of the worst heavyweight fights in the promotion’s history – at least relative to the expectations on paper going into it.

“When have you ever heard a story in all the years (about us owing a fighter money)? We’ve been a business, even when it was upside down, where we owed somebody money – never happened. So he’s full of sh*t there. Then (he says) I lost? I didn’t lose anything. I was done with Francis after the – he actually 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. And me praying for (him to fail) – trust me: I don’t think about Francis that much.

“You guys asked me the question about the PFL (last week), and I responded. Other than that, the only one who’s praying for his demise is probably the PFL, because they signed a sh*tty contract with a guy that doesn’t deliver any numbers and ticket sales or pay-per-views, and they’ve got to keep paying this guy for however long. Good for him – not good for them.”

In recent months, White has maintained a stance that Jones is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, despite the fact he has fought just twice in the past five years. But he said in spite of that, his personal thoughts on Ngannou go back a lot farther than his contract dispute.

White implied that in his opinion, the quality of Ngannou’s character was not in line with the kind of fighter he wants to have part of the promotion, but did not explicitly detail reasons why.

“Let me tell you what: There were two guys here. I wanted to cut him. Some day, I’ll tell you the story,” White said. “I was all about Francis in the beginning, and then I found out who Francis was. 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 – wasn’t a guy I wanted to do business with. I didn’t like Francis. My boys were telling me he’s misunderstood, and I told them when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. It wasn’t about him becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. Francis isn’t a good guy. He plays the good guy – ‘I don’t understand the (English) language’ – so he seems like he’s a nice guy. He’s not. He’s just not a guy that I wanted to be in business with, period, end of story, whether he became the champion or not.”

As for the chances of White figuring out a way to have Jones and Ngannou fight each other, don’t count on it as long as Jones is in the UFC and White calls the shots.

Although the MMA world at large only really heard rumblings of a soured White-Ngannou working relationship in the months leading up to his departure from the UFC, White told MMA Junkie the bad vibes go back at least around seven years.

“We’ll never be in business together (again). I mean, you can tell: We don’t like each other,” White said. “And this goes way back. This goes back to before the first Stipe fight (at UFC 220 in Jaunary 2018). He pulled some sh*t before the first Stipe fight, and I said, ‘I’m done with this guy.’ And then Stipe beat the sh*t out of him – great night – and we never had a relationship after that.”

After his loss to Miocic, Ngannou lost to Lewis in mid-2018. White was publicly critical of him during the period of those two losses and said his ego got the best of him.

Later that year, Ngannou knocked out Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds and won a bonus. He put away former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in 26 seconds. He stopped former champ Junior dos Santos in 71 seconds. He knocked out Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 20 seconds to get a title shot with Miocic.

After he finished Miocic in the second round, he defended his title against Gane in Jaunary 2022, then left the promotion after his contract was up.

Ngannou’s backstory of his rise from poverty in Africa to to homeless on the streets of Paris before he discovered MMA is a famous part of MMA lore. In April, the 38-year-old suffered the tragic death of his 15-month-old son Kobe.

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