Canelo Alvarez has delivered his verdict ahead of Oleksandr Usyk‘s clash with Rico Verhoeven.

The Ukrainian defends his WBC heavyweight title against kickboxing legend Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza tomorrow night, in a bout that has caused controversy due to the perceived mismatch that many fans are expecting.

While he may be one of the best to ever compete in kickboxing, Verhoeven has fought as a professional boxer just once, coming way back in April 2014 when he defeated Janos Finfera.

Usyk on the other hand is one of the greatest heavyweights of recent times, having beaten Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois all on two occasions each, establishing himself as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

Another man who knows what it is like to be seen as one of the pound-for-pound best is Canelo, who will be sat ringside on Saturday to witness the clash between Usyk and Verhoeven.

Speaking to DAZN, the Mexican superstar revealed he is expecting an easy night’s work for the Ukrainian.

“Usyk is going to win for sure. Knockout, maybe four or five rounds.”

Canelo then explained just why he he is such a big fan of Usyk.

“I love Usyk. I think he’s one of the greats. He’s a good guy and I always enjoy the time when I have the opportunity to see him. I don’t show myself to many events but when I see him it’s a really good time. I admire him. He’s very disciplined and I’m glad to know him.”

An expected win for Usyk could lead to a future clash against the likes of Agit Kabayel or Moses Itauma next, while Canelo is set to return to action in September when he challenges Christian Mbilli for the WBC super-middleweight title.

A simmering dispute between players and the Grand Slams ​over revenue sharing intensified at the French Open on Friday, with Novak Djokovic warning the sport risked further fragmentation as leading players pressed for a greater voice in shaping its future.

Several players were expected to limit their appearances at Friday’s traditional pre-tournament media day to 15 minutes and without conducting any additional multi-media interviews.

The tensions have been building for weeks but the ​rhetoric sharpened in Paris, ‌where players such as Taylor Fritz insisted that their grievances were not just about “wanting more money”.

“It’s about just wanting what’s fair,” the American ⁠added.

“As the tournaments make more money, we obviously want to see the revenue shared back to the players reflect that.”

Players have pointed to pensions, tournament expansion, scheduling and late-night finishes among the issues fuelling frustration, alongside what several described as a persistent lack ‌of dialogue from organisers.

Russian Andrey Rublev painted a picture of widening disconnect between players and the sport’s leadership.

“When you try to communicate for ⁠so many years… they don’t hear you. They don’t answer,” Rublev said.

“When you send the mail in, no one responds to official mail for months.” Rublev said the issue was not simply financial but structural. “It’s more about are we together, and we try to do something together to grow the sport,” he said.

Read moreSabalenka poised to ‘go for it’ at Roland Garros

World ​number one Aryna Sabalenka cast the debate as a struggle on behalf of the sport’s lesser lights rather than its leading stars.

“It’s not ‌about me. It’s about the players who’s lower in the ranking, who is suffering,” she said.

“But as the world number one, I feel like I have to stand up and to fight for those players.”

‘B’-word?

Even so, players adopted a more cautious tone over the prospect of a boycott after Sabalenka raised the possibility earlier this month in Rome.

“I don’t know if I want to start ‌throwing around the ‘B’ word,” Fritz said. “It’s a really big deal, and I don’t think we as players should really make big threats like that unless we’re fully ready to do it.”

Six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek also stopped short of endorsing drastic action.

“I ​don’t think doing something that is not constructive will make sense,” the four-time French Open winner said. “But we want to push a bit more to get what we need.”

Djokovic said he was not personally involved in the planned 15-minute media action but aligned himself with many of the players’ broader concerns while warning against further division in ​the sport.

“I have always been on the players’ side and tried to advocate for players’ rights and better future for players, but not only top players,” the 24-time Grand Slam ​champion said.

“We tend to forget how little is the number of people that live from this sport.”

Djokovic said the lower ​tiers of professional tennis were essential to the game’s long-term health and called for greater unity between governing bodies, tournaments and players.

“Grand Slams, governing bodies, the governing tours, everyone. We are very fragmented,” he said. “So the further fragmentation is really hurting me personally. I ​really don’t like to see that.”

The Serbian also pointed to golf and the divisions caused by the emergence of LIV Golf as a warning for tennis.

Watch moreAlcaraz retains French Open title after all-time classic final against Sinner

“Let’s learn from that. Let’s try to be a bit more united and have a unifying voice into finding better structure and better future for our sport,” he said.

While top ATP and WTA events redistribute around 22 percent of revenues to players, the Grand Slams are estimated to return closer to 15 percent, a gap that has become a central source of tension. French Open organisers have been arguing that tournament profits ⁠fund entire national tennis ecosystems, not just prize money. They are expected to meet player agents on Friday as discussions continue over revenue sharing and player representation.

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said she regretted the prospect of reduced media ⁠access at the start of the ​claycourt Grand Slam.

“It’s always regrettable because media day is an important moment for the tournament, for journalists who come from all over the world and also for the fans through the media coverage,” Mauresmo told reporters on Thursday.

“We understand that there are discussions and concerns from the players, but dialogue is always preferable.”

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

Pep Guardiola is to leave Manchester City at the end of the season after falling short in the Premier League title race to Arsenal and former assistant Mikel Arteta

Ruud Gullit has claimed Mikel Arteta “stole” Pep Guardiola’s system and thinks it is a crucial factor behind his achievements at Arsenal. The Gunners boss edged out his former Manchester City colleague to claim the Premier League title this season.

It has been confirmed that City manager Guardiola will depart the club at the end of the campaign following a trophy-laden decade in charge. The 55-year-old accumulated 17 major honours during his time at the helm, including six league titles.

Despite stepping away from the Premier League, his influence on the game will endure, with Chelsea legend Gullit asserting that numerous managers, including title-winning Arteta, have adopted Guardiola’s methods.

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Speaking to MrRaffle.com, Gullit said: “You have to give Pep credit. He created a whole new team and it went through ups and downs, but he’s still [been] competing for the title. He’s right there.

“He’s a fantastic coach. And the funniest thing is, everyone who stole Pep’s ideas is doing well. Mikel Arteta stole everything from him. He instilled that build-up-from-the-back philosophy; that’s how he won everything.

“But then people try to mimic it with players who can’t do it. How many defenders did Pep buy specifically to play that way? A lot. So if you don’t have those players, don’t do it.

“Every time I see clubs say, ‘This is our philosophy’ – no, this was Pep’s philosophy. And every time I see teams trying to play out from the back, at the most vital moments of the season, they’re losing points because of it.”

Speaking to Sky Sports back in 2023, Guardiola reflected on his tactical outlook, acknowledging that his methods stand the test of time. He said: “I am pretty sure what worked 20 or 30 years ago playing that way would work today.

“Not because Arsenal or Barcelona is doing that. Football is football since it was created. The lines are the same. The pitch is the same. It is not 14 against 14, it is 11 against 11. It is how well you read the situations.

“The passes are always possible to do, all the time. That is 100 per cent. Afterwards, it is the quality of the players that we have up front, many other aspects, but to play football like they played in the ’70s with Brazil, or in the ’80s or the ’90s, you can do it, of course.

“It depends on the feelings of the managers. The way your team want to play. It is as simple as that. In 20 years, if there are managers who like the way that Arsenal or Barcelona or Man City are playing, their team will play in that way.”

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

Whatever its legitimacy, the organizers of the Enhanced Games know how to grab attention. A launch on Wednesday was accompanied by a glossy one-hour film, a sales platform for prescription performance enhancers and the claim of a new 50-meters freestyle world record by Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev.

“He should be retired, but in fact, he’s swimming faster than any human being has ever done so. Why? Because he used technology and science to enhance his performance,” boasted founder Aron D’Souza.

“Once the world realizes that, I think everyone is going to want it. Every middle-aged guy who once played competitive sport and is now suffering from back pain is going to say, ‘What is he on and how do I get it?’”

Gkolomeev, who has failed to reach the podium in his four Olympic performances, will not be credited by any official body for a number of reasons; there is no independent adjudication, he was wearing an inline full-body open water suit that falls outside World Aquatics standards and, most pertinently, there was no doping control. In fact, performance-enhancing drugs are demanded by organizers who also claim Gkolomeev broke another world record in jammers, shorts which are allowed in the Olympics.

Has a world record really been broken?

Not in any meaningful sense. World Aquatics, who govern swimming, have been as dismissive of the Enhanced Games as most of their fellow sporting bodies.

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“The Enhanced Games are not a sporting competition built on universal values like honesty, fairness and equity: they are a circus, built on shortcuts,” read a statement from swimming’s global governing body.

While it’s apparent that Gkolomeev was doped, it is not clear what with. The Enhanced Games have not revealed what substances the 31-year-old took, citing personal confidentiality, despite consistently promising transparency.

What is the point of the Enhanced Games?

Much of the promotion has been around two things – money and drugs. At Wednesday’s launch, D’Souza revealed that the first event would feature four swimming races, four athletics sprints and a weightlifting competition. Each event winner is to receive $500,000 (€440,000) with a $1 million bonus for world records in the 50-meters freestyle and 100-meter sprint and $250,000 for other world records.

Investors including Donald Trump Jr., Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, German tech investor Christian Angermayer and former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan will hope to profit from the organization’s “Telehealth Platform” it says will launch in August in a number of US states. The website currently offers “priority access” to a “fully tailored enhancement plan” for a fee of $99. The Enhanced Games say this is all legal with most banned substances in high-level sport available on prescription in the United States. They also insist they will go by the book.

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When will the Enhanced Games take place?

While the drug-selling aspect of the Enhanced Games will be operational soon, the actual event will not take place until next May 21-24 in Las Vegas. This will be less than a month before the United States co-hosts the football World Cup and two years before Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Olympics.

Only four athletes, all swimmers, have so far confirmed their participation. They are: Andriy Govorov, the Ukrainian 50-meters butterfly world record holder and bronze medallst at the 2017 World Championships, 21-year-old Bulgarian swimmer Josif Miladinov, a silver medalist at the 2019 European Championships and retired Australian world champion James Magnussen.

What do the critics say about the Enhanced Games?

The worlds of sports and medicine have been near-universal in their condemnation of the concept.

“Thinking that because you do medical checks on the spot is going to give you a good idea of the health risks of abuse of doping substances, again, is medical and scientific nonsense,” said World Anti-Doping Agency science director Olivier Rabin.

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“It’s like the Roman circus, you know, you sacrifice the lives of people purely for entertainment. What’s the value of this? I don’t think any responsible society should move in that direction.”

Speaking to DW earlier this year, Chris Raynor, a sports medicine doctor at Cornwall Community Hospital in Canada, told DW the dangers are dramatic.

“There are always effects associated with these medications. It can lead to cardiac arrhythmias, a heart attack, sudden cardiac death,” he explained .

Former US swimmer and Olympic medalist Allison Wagner, who was beaten at major events by many swimmers who were either proven or suspected dopers, said that sport itself is at stake.

“For me and for so many athletes, sport has been about learning and incorporating values such as integrity and fair play, and these Enhanced Games make a mockery of that.”

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What do the Enhanced Games athletes and organizers say?

D’Souza argues that doping in professional and amateur sport is inherent and his proposal is a safer method that “makes sport a fair, level, transparent field so that innovation can be illustrated in a very public way to support technological progress.”

Speaking to DW earlier this year, he added that “individuals should be able to take risks for themselves with free and informed consent.” 

Magnussen said the Enhanced Games have reinvigorated his passion for the sport but sees them as separate from clean competition. 

“I was waking up each day with an enthusiasm to train, to compete. I felt so healthy, so motivated. It’s honestly the happiest I’ve been in seven years,” he said.

“As athletes we have a greater risk appetite than the general population and see an event like the Enhanced Games as an opportunity.”

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Edited by: Chuck Penfold

All India Football Federation (AIFF) will seek to amend its constitution in line with the National Sports Governance Act and hold discussions on the new commercial partner of the Indian Super League during its Special General Body Meeting here on Saturday.

Each member association of the AIFF can send one representative. Members of the AIFF Executive Committee cannot vote and they cannot also represent the associations to which they belong.

“Amendment and adoption of AIFF Constitution in line with National Sports Governance Act 2025. Commercial partners for Indian Super League, Indian Women’s League and Super League (Cup),” said a few agenda items of the SGM in a notice issued on May 6.

AIFF’s executive committee member Valanka Alemao had objected to the SGM being convened, saying it could potentially flout its constitution, leading to contempt of the Supreme Court.

She urged that the AIFF should first constitute the associations for players, coaches and referees to elect their representatives who, in turn, would be members of the General Body as per provisions of the new constitution as approved by the Supreme Court.

“…the AIFF despite adopting the said Constitution as directed by Hon’ble Supreme Court … has called for a SGM without filling the vacancies for eminent sportspersons and thus is in violation both of its own Constitution and also in contempt of the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” she had said in a ‘legal notice’ sent to the AIFF.. 

“…the SGM cannot be held without completing the quorum of general body members as per Article 20 of the AIFF Constitution (as approved by the Hon’ble Supreme Court)….

“The AIFF through its Constitution expressly mandates that the Eminent Player representatives should be elected from the National Players Association constituted as per Schedule IV. Furthermore, Coaches’ and Referees’ Representatives are required to be elected through a procedure governed by the AIFF Election Committee..

Under the AIFF constitution, the General Body shall comprise of one representative from every member association, 15 eminent players out of which minimum five to be women, three club representatives, one each from ISL, I-League and Indian Women’s League, two representatives from referees (one male and one female) and two representatives from coaches (one male and one female)..

Regarding the commercial partner of the ISL, Genius Sports had emerged as the highest bidder in March, promising Rs 2129 crore annually for the next 15+5 years..

But the ISL clubs have proposed a different model. They want the highest bidders (Genius Sports) to stay as the league’s data and technology partner only..

The clubs want to keep 90% of the “economic interest in the league structure” and AIFF the rest.

Meanwhile, the top officials of the AIFF are expected to meet the owners and representatives of the ISL clubs on Friday, though the details are not yet known.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi played a scintillating knock against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in game 64 of IPL 2026 at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Tuesday, May 19. The 15-year-old hammered 93 off just 38 as RR kept their playoff hopes intact with a seven-wicket victory.

Chasing a target of 221, RR got over the line in 19.1 overs as Sooryavanshi struck seven fours and 10 sixes. The left-handed batter added 75 runs for the first wicket with Yashasvi Jaiswal (43 off 23) in 39 balls and 105 for the second wicket with Dhruv Jurel (53* off 38) in 45 deliveries.

Sooryavanshi has opened the innings in 20 IPL matches so far. In this feature, we compare his stats with those of Aussie white-ball legend David Warner after the latter had also opened the innings in the same number of IPL matches.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi vs David Warner – Who has a better average and strike rate after 20 IPL matches as opener?

In 20 IPL games as opener, Sooryavanshi has totaled 831 runs at an average of 41.55 and a sensational strike rate of 226.43. In three innings against Gujarat Titans (GT), he has notched up 168 runs, averaging 56 at a strike rate of 233.33. Also, in three innings against LSG, he has scored 135 runs at an average of 45 and a strike rate of 195.65.

After 20 IPL games as opener, Warner had scored exactly 500 runs at an average of 26.31 and a strike rate of 135.13 – all of them for Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils). In four innings against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), he had 179 runs at an average of 59.66 and a strike rate of 149.16. Also, in two innings against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), he had 66 runs at a strike rate of 183.33.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi vs David Warner – Who has more 50-plus scores after 20 IPL matches as opener?

Having played 20 IPL matches as opener, Sooryavanshi has smashed two centuries and four fifties. He clubbed 103 off 37 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Jaipur in the ongoing edition, striking five fours and 12 sixes. He also whacked 101 off 38 balls against GT in Jaipur last season. The innings included seven fours and 11 sixes.

After 20 IPL matches as opener, Warner had one hundred and three half-centuries to his name. His best at that stage was 107*, which came off 69 balls against KKR in Delhi in IPL 2010. The knock featured nine fours and five sixes. Warner had also smacked 54 off 44 against RR in Jaipur in IPL 2011. The innings included six fours and a six.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi vs David Warner – Who has more fours and sixes after 20 IPL matches as opener?

In 20 IPL games as opener, Sooryavanshi has hit 68 fours and 77 sixes. The southpaw has struck 15 fours and 15 sixes in three innings against GT and eight fours and nine sixes in two innings against RCB. Also, he has five fours and 12 sixes in two innings against SRH and 11 fours and 13 sixes in three innings against LSG.

(Sooryavanshi vs Warner – Batting stats comparison after 20 IPL matches as opener)

After 20 IPL matches as opener, Warner had hit 49 fours and 20 sixes. He had 19 fours and seven sixes against KKR and six fours and four sixes against RCB. Also, Warner struck six fours and three sixes against MI and six fours and one six against CSK.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi vs David Warner – Who has a better record in wins after 20 IPL matches as opener?

In nine wins, Sooryavanshi has scored 502 runs at an average of 55.77 and a strike rate of 237.91, with one ton and four fifties. In 11 losses, he has 329 runs at an average of 29.90 and a strike rate of 210.89. The southpaw’s 103 against SRH came in a losing cause.

(Sooryavanshi vs Warner – Batting stats comparison in wins after 20 IPL matches as opener)

In 10 wins, Warner had 289 runs at an average of 32.11 and a strike rate of 140.29, with one century. In 10 losses, he had 211 runs at an average of 21.10 and a strike rate of 128.65, with three half-centuries.