Dana White is all for Amanda Nunes returning to the UFC.

This past weekend, Julianna Peña reclaimed the women’s bantamweight title with a split decision victory over Raquel Pennington at UFC 307. Following her win, instead of calling out her most likely next opponent, two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison, Peña instead called for Nunes to return from retirement for a trilogy fight.

Peña and Nunes have a longstanding rivalry, with Peña scoring one of the biggest upsets in MMA history by beating Nunes at UFC 269, before promptly losing the title to her in their rematch seven months later. And given their history, on Monday, Nunes appeared to respond to Peña’s callout with a social media post telling Dana White to call her.

And for White, that’s good news.

“She looks good,” White told reporters following Tuesday’s episode of Contender Series. “She looks great. Looks like she’s still in shape. So you know where her head is at, and I love that about here. There’s a lot of things I love about her, I love that about her. She’s keeping an eye on who wins the title next and I think she’s teasing that she might be interested in coming back.”

Whether or not Nunes is actually interested in returning remains to be seen. “The Lioness” retired from MMA last year after avenging her loss to Peña and then defeating Irene Aldana at UFC 289.

Of course, Nunes may not be teasing a return for Peña. Prior to her shocking upset defeat to Peña at UFC 269, there were rumors that Peña and Harrison — teammates at American Top Team — were circling a fight with each other. This was back when Harrison was negotiating with PFL, and Harrison was actually in attendance for the bout.

But whoever she might be coming back for, if she actually is at all, Dana White is here for it.

“I love Amanda Nunes,” White said. “I have an incredible relationship with her. I would absolutely love to see her come back.”

JACK GREALISH is on a mission to prove a point with England after his Euro 2024 “devastation”.

The Manchester City winger felt Gareth Southgate was wrong to leave him out for the tournament in Germany.

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Interim boss Lee Carsley recalled Grealish last month and started the £100million man – who has just announced he has had a baby girl with partner Sasha Attwood – in wins over Republic of Ireland and Finland.

Asked about his Euros axe, Grealish said: “I will be honest with you – I didn’t really agree with it.

“You can imagine how I was absolutely devastated. It was one of the most difficult periods of life in terms of football.

“It was difficult to just watch the games, especially for someone like me who watches so much football.

“I have won a lot of stuff now so, you asked me should I have gone, yes, I still think I should have, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be.

“I felt like I didn’t have the best season. If you look at some players in my position, for example Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen, they scored a lot of goals.

“But I know that my game is not just about goals. I give so much more to the team than goals.

“You need a bit of a balance in every position on the pitch and I class myself as quite an experienced player now.

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“I’ve played in a lot of big games — Champions League finals and FA Cup finals.”

Grealish, 29, scored in the 2-0 win over Ireland in Dublin and hopes to feature against Greece in the Nations League at Wembley on Thursday.

The three-time Premier League winner is feeling “a lot of love” playing for Carsley — a fellow Brummie.

And Grealish believes the former Three Lions Under-21s boss has all the qualities to land his new job on a permanent basis.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “He played me in both games and hopefully I repaid him by scoring in Dublin. It was nice to play in the No10 role.

“I wanted to come here and train well and play well. I thank the manager, Lee Carsley, for giving me that chance and having that trust in me. It’s really meant a lot.

“Throughout my career, when I’ve played under managers that have shown a trust in me and communicated with me the way he has in the past two camps, it has really helped me.

“I’ve felt a lot of love from the manager.

“It makes me feel that the manager really does rate me and I can’t speak highly enough of him since I’ve been here.

“He gets across to us how he wants us to play and how he wants me to play personally. The younger lads with him at the Under-21s said he is like a proper father figure.”

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Football agent Kia Joorabchian splashed out more than £8m on three new signings – at racehorse sales in Newmarket.

He secured the trio, all offspring of the legendary Frankel, for his Amo Racing team.

Joorabchian paid 4.4m guineas (£4.6m) – the second most expensive purchase of a yearling at public auction in Europe – at Tattersalls Book 1 Sale.

He also snapped up a filly who is a full sister to Alpinista, winner of the 2022 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, for 2.5m guineas (£2.6m).

And Joorabchian, whose football clients have included ex-Argentina forward Carlos Tevez and former Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho, bought a son of Atone for 1.1m guineas (£1.15m).

“It is very difficult to buy such mares because the likes of Juddmonte, Coolmore, Shadwell, all the big guys own all the big mares,” Joorabchian said.

“So we have to come out here and hope that what we are buying in terms of pedigrees will make us competitive.

“It is very hard to buy [such pedigrees] after the yearling stage – once a filly has won a Group One you are in very high prices, so you have got to try to get them earlier and hope that they go on well.”

He was accompanied by bloodstock agent Alex Elliott and Nottingham Forest FC owner Evangelos Marinakis.

“All the teams select the best horse and it is who blinks first, and fair play to Kia he certainly did not blink,” said Elliott.

“Kia is ready for the operation to prove itself at the next echelon and that is where we are trying to get to and that is why we need to get into these families.

“The fact that these horses are staying here is huge for British racing and we should all be huge cheerleaders for it.”

Al Naamah fetched the highest price of 5m guineas in 2013 at the Tattersalls auction, which is Europe’s leading sale of yearlings – horses aged between one and two years who are too young to race.

Racehorse prices are still listed in the old currency of guineas – which equates to £1.05 for every guinea.

Artem Vakhitov hasn’t even had a UFC fight yet, and the promotional wheels are already turning for an Alex Pereira showdown.

Two days after his UFC 307 title defense, Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) boarded a plane from Connecticut to Las Vegas to witness in person Vakhitov (3-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) earn a UFC deal at Dana White’s Contender Series 75.

Vakhitov was patient as he waited for his moment to significantly attack French heavyweight Islem Masraf (3-1) with a flurry for a TKO stoppage at 4:23 of Round 1.

After the fight, UFC CEO Dana White said he debated what he should do with Vakhitov but consulted Pereira, who gave a resounding “absolutely, positively.”

THE RIGHT HAND FROM ARTEM VAKHITOV 💥 #DWCS pic.twitter.com/9f379qJMX0

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 9, 2024

Vakhitov, 33, is a two-time Glory light heavyweight champion, who defended the title five times. He is the last man to defeat Pereira in kickboxing.

The two fighters are tied 1-1 in their lifetime series. Pereira won the first fight by split decision and Vakhitov won the second by majority decision.

Vakhitov told MMA Junkie prior to the bout that while he really wants to fight Pereira again, the two are friendly and respectful without bad blood.

He transitioned to MMA in June 2023 and suffered an injury in the bout. After back-to-back finishes, he earned his DWCS shot and maintained his 100 percent finishing rate.

Dana White said that Alex Pereira told him to sign Artem Vakhitov after his knockout win on #DWCS 👀 pic.twitter.com/ByV4mdcJIS

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 9, 2024

Up-to-the-minute DWCS 75 results include:

Phillips represented nine clubs during his 20-year playing career, including Watford, Sunderland, Southampton, West Brom, Aston Villa and Birmingham.

He scored a total of 287 goals, won eight caps for England and in 2000 became the first English player to win Europe’s Golden Shoe award. Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane became the second English winner last season.

Since retiring in 2014, he has held coaching roles with Leicester City, Derby County and Stoke City before a 15-month stint at South Shields, who he led to promotion into the National League North in his second season in charge in 2022-23.

Phillips had expected to remain at Hartlepool this season but claimed the club had withdrawn a contract offer in order to appoint former Woking boss Darren Sarll instead.

Phillips will be assisted by Wess Brown, who he worked with at South Shields.

LEVI COLWILL turned his back on one of England’s most exclusive neighbourhoods to move back with his family.

The Three Lions defender had been living next to Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham, Surrey — a magnet for stars at London’s Premier League clubs.

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While some of the nation’s richest people who work in the capital also have multi-million-pound pads in the area.

Yet for Chelsea centre-back Colwill, there is no place like home.

Hoping to earn his fourth England cap against Greece at Wembley on Thursday, the 21-year-old has moved back down the M3 to Eastleigh to be near his family as well as his close pals, who all have normal jobs.

Colwill, who played for Southampton’s City Central Youth while also featuring throughout the age groups at Chelsea, has played every minute in the Premier League this season.

He said: “I’ve moved back into my family home and I travel every day.

“No matter how long a day I’ve had, when I get back and see my dog, my mum, dad and little brother, it means the world.

“Being connected with them again is what life is about. Growing up as a player at Southampton City Central, with my mates, was the best time of my life.

“I’m happy I’ve gone back, seeing my friends and family so much more. That’s been reflected with my performances.

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“Being in the bubble when you’re at your club is great — but when you come home it’s more of a peaceful, normal life.

“I’m with people who work 9-5 every day. To be around them shows you their side of life and makes you appreciate yours so much more.”

Asked about his pals, Colwill said: “All my mates do different things. They do different trades which helps me a lot with the house!”

Colwill featured in both of Lee Carsley’s opening wins as interim boss against Ireland and Finland last month.

And he enjoys a close relationship with Carsley as he led the Blues defender to Under-21s Euros glory last year.

Colwill said: “He’s a calm person and he brings that to the team. He’s an amazing person and a strong-minded manager.

“He has a bit of arrogance about the team and himself, he says ‘We’ve got the best players in the world’ and we all believe that we can take that next step to win a huge competition.

“I’ve not got a bad word to say about him because he’s won me an U21 Euros. The lads really like him.”

Lee Carsley praise

Colwill has played for Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton and now Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge and he believes Carsley has the same outlook.

He added: “They all like to think more about how their teams are going to play.

“Cars is exactly the same, focusing on how we are going to hurt teams.

“When you’ve got amazing players, you can believe you are going to have most of the possession and you’re going to create most of the chances.

“We are a huge nation, with amazing players so it’s good to have that mindset.”