Manchester United to offer Kobbie Mainoo new deal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris St-Germain consider Viktor Gyokeres and Liverpool target Virgil van Dijk replacement.

Manchester United are set to offer English midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 19, a bumper new contract to reflect his status as a first-team star. (Fabrizio Romano on YouTube), external

Manchester United could move for Bayern Munich’s German midfielder Leon Goretzka, 29, with the futures of Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen, 32, and Brazilian 32-year-old Casemiro still in doubt. (Manchester Evening News), external

Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris St-Germain are leading the race to sign Sweden forward Viktor Gyokeres, 26, from Portuguese giants Sporting. (Caught Offside), external

Liverpool are considering Juventus and Brazil centre-back Gleison Bremer, 27, as their ideal replacement for Dutchman Virgil van Dijk, 33. (Teamtalk), external

Newcastle are monitoring 18-year-old Norwegian forward Sindre Walle Egeli, dubbed the next Erling Haaland, with West Ham, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Brentford also interested in the £25m-rated teenager. (Daily Mail), external

Bayer Leverkusen’s Dutch wing-back Jeremie Frimpong, 23, is on Chelsea’s five-man shortlist to replace English full-back Reece James, 24. (TBR Football), external

But Chelsea will not to loan out Brazilian 17-year-old winger Estevao Willian when he joins the club from Palmeiras next summer. (Goal), external

Cris Cyborg, the featherweight world champion,  is admired around the world for her fearlessness as a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, but the 35-year-old has fears about how body-image pressures affect young women. 

The Brazilian is preparing to defend her Bellator title against Australian Arlene Blencowe on Thursday night at the Mohegan Sun Resort in Connecticut. 

“You see a lot of girls who are not eating, [who] feel like they must be skinny,” she told Telegraph Sport. “The media, Instagram — none of it is real. They photoshop everything. You have to be happy with who you are, not with what others want you to be. I’ve had problems in my life when I was younger but I love who I am now. I take care of my body and I’m healthy.”

After 15 years in the sport, Cyborg says it is only recently that her profession is not given a second glance. “I’ve been happy with my body, but people would look at you weird. This is ten years ago. Especially when you’d say you’re a fighter, it was always a response of ‘what?’ But now fighters are commonplace.

“When I told my mum I wanted to be a fighter she thought I would end up on the street. It was a different time. My mum didn’t like it in the beginning, but once she saw it was a real sport she now likes it.”

Cyborg was the first woman in the sport to claim the “grand slam” of titles in Bellator, Strikeforce, the UFC, and Invicta, the all-female fight league. She has often blitzed through opponents, with 18 knockouts in her 22 victories. Her standing and maturity is reflected in the way she carries herself, and her work away from the cage with charities and children in Africa.

There is an aura about her. Not just of destruction, but as an ambassador for the sport.

“I think you have a lot of different types of guys and girls and they decided for themselves which body they like. I’ve always had this body, I started training when I was 12 years old,” she explained. “I think the most important thing is to feel great.

“If you carry a little more weight and feel great then that’s you. Make yourself happy. If you’re happy with yourself then it doesn’t matter what people say.

“I think women in this sport have an athletic body. I like that look and I think all the girls do. You’re in shape. I don’t think there’s difference between our bodies and other athletes’.”

Women’s MMA has exploded in recent years and Cyborg is surfing the crest of a wave which she helped to create.

“I feel so blessed to be fighting at this moment. When I started my career there were no fighters, no events. I always believed in it, though, that it would grow. Now you can see people love women’s MMA. I know it’ll grow and grow and I’m really happy to be part of this story. Yes, I believe we get respect. It grows. Once we had the opportunity we showed up.”

By dint of her success, Cyborg has become a target for every rising star, with Bellator having grown its 145lb roster into a powerful line-up. It only makes Cyborg more ambitious, more determined.

There has even been talk of an attempt to become a women’s boxing world champion. Katie Taylor, the Irish fighter who is undisputed lightweight champion, has been touted as one possible opponent. It would be a seismic match-up.

“It would be another thing for my legacy to be a world champion in boxing and MMA,” Cyborg said. “I want to show everyone you can achieve anything with hard work. You have to trust and have faith. For now, I’m not thinking about Katie Taylor. I’m not focusing on it.”

Have there been discussions with Eddie Hearn, Taylor’s promoter ?

“We didn’t talk to him but maybe Scott Coker did. I’ll let Audi Attar [her manager] decide what’s next. For sure, it’s my dream to do boxing. Katie Taylor next would be great, but I have my fight on Thursday.”

“But everyone knows boxing is a dream for me.”

Bellator 249 is live on Sky Sports Main Event from 3am on Friday morning.

If Jake Paul needs a debut opponent in mixed martial arts, a familiar foe is willing to step up.

Paul intends to make his MMA debut after partnering with PFL. CEO Peter Murray expects “The Problem Child” to enter the cage in 2025.

Paul’s lone loss in boxing came by split decision to Tommy Fury in February 2023. Fury spent some time training MMA with UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and would love nothing more than to beat Paul in MMA, too.

“Jake Paul’s in the PFL, isn’t he? I’m going to smash his face in when I get good at MMA,” Fury said on his YouTube channel. “I’ll beat him in boxing and the cage. Big useless prick. I reckon a year-and-a-half to two years of training until I’ll beat him in a fight, no problem, in the cage.

“He’s got the funds, he’s got the best trainers in the world, he’s got the best sparring in the world. So he’s doing all right. But no match for me. I swear to you, next time I fight him, I’ll knock him out. In MMA, I just want to give him a big fat (knee). All elbows, no fists.”

Since losing to Fury in the ring, Paul (10-1) rebounded with four consecutive wins, most recently a TKO of Mike Perry in July. He takes on 58-year-old boxing legend Mike Tyson (50-6-2) on Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

Brilliant Brazilian mixed martial artist Cris Cyborg proved once more why she is a one-off, wrecking-ball fighter as she tore through the challenge of opponent Arlene Blencowe to retain her Bellator women’s featherweight title inside two rounds at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

With another dominant display, the champion in every major organisation continues the legacy created over the last fifteen years with this victory. Cyborg’s most renowned moments against now WWE star Shayna Baszler on CBS and her battle 14 years ago against now Hollywood action star Gina Carano on Showtime – current Bellator president Scott Coker made that fight – are there in glorious technicolour in a career of pioneering the women’s side of this sport.

Cyborg’s only high profile defeat was a stand-and-bang brawl with current UFC champion Amanda Nunes – a fight which could have gone either way as they let their hands go, and there will likely be a huge rematch of the two hardest hitters ever in women’s MMA down the line.

But for now, Cyborg simply seems to be getting better and at 35, she is showing no signs of slowing. Here, against Blencowe, a former boxing world champion, the opposition was blown away, dominated and submitted by the champion. It is hard to see who will be a genuine pretender to the throne that the Brazilian inhabits.

Cyborg registered the first submission of her career – 21 victories and two defeats in a sport where unblemished records at the elite end are virtually impossible – after dominating the exchanges in the stand-up. She first attacked her challenger with leg kicks. Then, with educated counter-striking, Cyborg pushed Blencowe back towards the cage wall, marshalling her foe away from the centre circle, before overpowering her and bludgeoning her on the ground. Blencowe barely survived the first round, the fight statistics showing the utter dominance of the champion.

The second stanza was simply more of the same. In spite of Blencowe trying as she might to get into the fight to gain a foothold, the pattern was set and Cyborg took control again, before taking the fight to the canvas like a giant anaconda, pressing her Australian rival flat, bloodying her and submitting her foe.

Coach Tim Welch has received plenty of criticism for how he handled Sean O’Malley’s corner at UFC 306.

O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) lost his bantamweight title by unanimous decision to Merab Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) in this past Saturday’s main event at Sphere in Las Vegas. Dvalishvili’s coach, UFC Hall of Famer Matt Serra, thinks Welch showed no sense of urgency with his fighter being down big in the final five minutes of the fight. Welch addressed the backlash and clarified what he meant when he was heard telling O’Malley “we are almost done with this” in the fifth round.

“It came out the wrong way. I meant to say ‘we’re almost done with this,’ like ‘you’re going to clip him at any time,’” Welch told ESPN. “But also, I’ve known Sean for 12 years. I know what’s going through his mind and keeping him confident. I always forget those cameras are rolling on my mic and stuff. I want to keep his head in it. It sounded way worse than it actually was. I just meant to say, ‘This fight is almost over. We’re almost done with this, you can clip him at any point.’ But it came out the wrong way and sounded stupid.”

O’Malley is set to undergo surgery Oct. 3 to repair a torn labrum in his left hip, which he suffered 10 weeks prior to his fight with Dvalishvili. Welch expects a motivated O’Malley in his return and doesn’t think they’re short of big opportunities.

“It’s just a perfect time to practice what we preach all the time,” Welch said. “I’ve been around fighting a long time. I know eventually you’re probably going to lose. If you keep fighting the best people on planet Earth in your weight class, eventually you’re going to lose.

“I just think every fight for Sean is going to be a big fight. The build-up is going to be big, he’s just such a showman, and I think it’ll be similar to, like every fight Nate Diaz is in is a big fight. Every fight Jorge Masvidal is in is a big fight. So, I think it’ll be similar for Sean, and I think right now it’s really going to light a fire under him.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.