Former WEC title challenger Hiromitsu Miura has died. He was 43.

In a statement shared on social media, Miura’s family announced Tuesday that he “passed away suddenly” on Oct. 26 after battling acute leukemia since mid-September.

Miura doubled as both a professional mixed martial artist and boxer, competing mostly in his native Japan.

American fans may remember Miura (13-8) from his five appearances in WEC during the late 2000s. That included a fourth-round TKO loss to then-welterweight champion Carlos Condit on Aug. 3, 2008 at WEC 35. Widely considered one of the best fights in WEC history, Miura gave Condit a run for his money in an all-action affair before he was eventually stopped with punches.

#OTD in 2008

Carlos Condit vs. Hiromitsu Miura – WEC 35 pic.twitter.com/RsE8psHYqc

— Neo Vale Tudo (@NeoValeTudo) August 3, 2022

After the loss to Condit, Miura made one more WEC appearance before putting his MMA career on hold to pursue boxing, where he posted a 9-1 record. Miura returned to MMA in November 2015 and one year later captured the Pancrase welterweight championship by winning a unanimous decision against Akihiro Murayama.

The Detroit Lions, coming off a 24-14 road win against the Green Bay Packers, made a big move ahead of the trade deadline. On Tuesday morning, Detroit reportedly acquired veteran defensive end Za’Darius Smith and a 2026 seventh-round pick from the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 sixth-round pick.

It hasn’t been much of a secret that the Lions, who sit atop the NFC at 7-1, have been looking to bolster their pass rush as they aim to make a Super Bowl run. Last week, head coach Dan Campbell even hinted that Detroit could be close to swinging a deal. 

Not only did the Lions lose star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson for the season, but Marcus Davenport, John Cominsky and Derrick Barnes are on injured reserve as well. Hutchinson, who hasn’t played since Week 6, still leads the team in sacks with 7.5. 

The 32-year-old Smith could change that. This season, he’s started every game for the Browns, who fell to 2-7 on Sunday, and recorded five sacks and six tackles for loss. 

In his 10 seasons in the NFL, Smith has totaled double-digit sacks three times, most recently in 2022 with the Minnesota Vikings. This will be his third stop in the NFC North, after he spent three seasons with the Packers and one with the Vikings. 

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Nate Diaz gave a fan a pair of autographed gloves and also threw in a few hands and a takedown for good measure.

A brief spar went down between Diaz and a fan after the UFC star was stopped in the street and asked to sign some gloves. Diaz agreed, but only if the fan agreed to meet him in honorable combat.

See video below, courtesy of Championship Rounds (originally posted to Diaz’s Instagram Stories).

The fan appeared to be inspired by Shara Magomedov’s recent double backfist knockout as he attempted the maneuver twice in the clip, much to Diaz’s amusement. Diaz is all smiles as he playfully swipes at the fan before later taking the fight to the ground.

Diaz is then seen mimicking some vicious ground-and-pound before helping the fan up and presumably accommodating his autograph request.

In other words: Just another day in the life of the Diaz brothers.

Shavkat Rakhmonov is willing to save UFC 310, preferably by fighting for the interim welterweight title.

Rakhmonov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) was scheduled to challenge champion Belal Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) in the Dec. 7 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but Muhammad was forced out due to a bone infection in his foot.

Having not competed since submitting Stephen Thompson this past December at UFC 296, undefeated Rakhmonov is eager for his title opportunity. He suggested an interim welterweight title fight vs. former champ Kamaru Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC).

“I believe there are worthy opponents available,” Rakhmonov said through an interpreter on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I’m ready to save the card too if it’s for the interim belt. I believe Usman is a worthy opponent who’s going to be ready to jump in to face me.”

Rakhmonov’s manager, Sayat Abdrakhmanov, revealed that the UFC is currently working on finding him an opponent for UFC 310.

“Right now, negotiations are going on,” Abdrakhmanov said. “Obviously there’s talking. I don’t know if they are talking to someone else, but I’m sure they offered it to Kamaru, too.”

Muhammad dismissed the idea of an interim title, claiming that he only needs six weeks to heal. Rakhmonov expects Muhammad to be out for longer than that and thinks winning the interim belt would only make their fight bigger.

“We don’t know when Belal is going to be back,” Rakhmonov said. “These kind of injuries, infections, they might say it’s six weeks, but look at JDM (Jack Della Maddalena). It took him a lot longer. It’s good for Belal, too, because it’s going to make the fight bigger. It’s going to be champ vs. champ, so whenever Belal is ready, after I secure the interim title, I’m going to fight him.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.

With welterweight champion Belal Muhammad sidelined by a foot infection, the UFC is scrambling to find a new main event for the final pay-per-view of 2024. Top-ranked contender Shavkat Rakhmonov is calling for an interim title fight and naming Kamaru Usman as a perfect opponent for the Dec. 10 card.

While the fight itself makes sense based on availability, and the resumes for the two fighters involved, Muhammad immediately pushed back about the interim title considering he just won the belt in July, and he’s only expected to be out of action for approximately six weeks while receiving treatment on his foot. Veteran UFC welterweight Matt Brown understands the necessity to fill the void left by Muhammad’s absence at UFC 310, but as much as he enjoys the potential Rakhmonov vs. Usman fight, he just doesn’t see a need for an interim title.

“I think we all know at least it’s not a title,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Belal has the f*cking title. He’ll be back soon. He’s going to fight the winner. This is a title contender match. Great.

“It’s a great fight. I’m stoked to see the fight. I’m just as stoked to see Shavkat and Usman as I would be for Shavkat and Belal, except it would be for the actual title with Belal.”

In recent years, the UFC has started introducing interim titles more often out of necessity to build up a pay-per-view than because a reigning champion isn’t able to defend the real belt for a significant amount of time.

In 2023, Jon Jones suffered a torn pectoral muscle that cancelled his fight against Stipe Miocic, and in his absence, the UFC booked an interim title bout between Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich instead. Aspinall won, but he won’t get the chance to unify the belts, because the UFC moved forward with rebooking Jones against Miocic.

Just months after Francis Ngannou won the heavyweight title, the UFC needed to find a main event for a card slated in August, but with the champion unable to make a quick turnaround, the promotion introduced an interim title for the fight between Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis.

Brown understands that the UFC must have some sort of internal research that shows fans are more apt to buy a pay-per-view card headlined by a title fight, but that doesn’t change the fact that more often than not, crowning an interim champion just isn’t necessary.

“They usually do that because they need to sell the pay-per-view and put a title on it, right?” Brown said. “I feel Usman would be selling PPV’s. We all know who Usman is. We all want to watch Usman fight. I don’t think putting a title in front of that fight really changes the dynamic of that fight. I get why they would do it, and I understand the logic behind it and maybe it makes it a bigger fight, but I don’t see why you can’t keep it five rounds and just say it’s not for the title.

“Unfortunately, it kind of diminishes what an interim title is. This is probably a stronger case for that than we’ve even seen in the past. We’ve had our own qualms for what they’ve done with these interim titles, but this one’s probably got to be one of the worst instances we’ve seen, right?”

It remains to be seen if the UFC pulls the trigger on an interim title, but Brown admits that’s really the risk you take when a promotion yields this much power.

On one side, the UFC has the ability to book the biggest and best fights available — an issue that has plagued a sport like boxing for decades — but that can also result in decisions like this really coming down to dollars rather than making the most sense.

“The blessings and the curses of having one company rule everything,” Brown said about the UFC. “We talk about Dana [White] taking over boxing, and we know the messes that you have in boxing all the time, but there’s sort of the blessing and the curse. They can just do that. It’s their company. They can do whatever the f*ck they want.

“The problem is there’s just no set rule set. There’s no guidelines. Like if you’re out for six months, we’re doing an interim title. There’s nothing like that for the rankings like the No. 1 guy’s going to get the next shot. If there was a set guideline, I think that would fix a lot of things.”

Like it or not, Brown says the UFC needs to sell pay-per-views, and if Rakhmonov vs. Usman with an interim title up for grabs gets a few more buys, then that’s almost certainly what’s going to happen.

“That’s the blessing and the curse of it being a business and being that it’s a private business, they’re out there to try to make money,” Brown said. “The curse is they do whatever the hell they want. You get these different interim titles.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

The Southern League Premier Central club have never faced an English Football League (EFL) side in a competitive match.

They beat fellow non-league team Tonbridge Angels 4-1 on Saturday in the Bees’ first appearance in the FA Cup first round.

Post-match celebrations in Kent were euphoric on Saturday, and those scenes were matched a day later at the Bees’ clubhouse in Market Harborough when players, staff and supporters watched live as they were drawn against Reading.

“It was bouncing in there – we are all over the moon. What a draw. It’s special,” Daire told BBC Radio Leicester.

“When Reading came out, it was just joy. And now, you can tell with my voice, I’m like a kid at Christmas, I’m so excited.”

“We have done what we needed to around the local leagues, and we wanted the big test against a League One team where we can go out there and test ourselves and enjoy it.”

The FA Cup second round will be played between Friday, 29 November and Monday, 2 December 2024.