Tyson Fury has been told by a fellow heavyweight contender that he could encounter a tougher-than-expected night’s work against Arslanbek Makhmudov.
The pair will square off at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 11, with Fury entering his first outing since suffering back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk in 2024.
Their first encounter saw Fury get off to a strong start, only to find himself on the brink of a ninth-round stoppage before ultimately losing a split decision.
After that, it came as a mini surprise when Fury announced his retirement the following month, only to declare at the beginning of this year that he will return to a professional ring.
Indeed, the 37-year-old is now gearing up to face Makhmudov, whose only two defeats came via stoppages against Agit Kabayel and Guido Vianello.
The 36-year-old heavyweight is, however, coming off a dominant display against Dave Allen, who he comfortably outpointed by unanimous decision last October.
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It is Makhmudov’s 6ft 6in frame, though, that has inspired American heavyweight star Jarrell Miller to assess the Russian’s chances against Fury in an interview with NewBettingOffers.
“Anybody who’s a little taller for Tyson gives him a little problem, if you watch history. The thing is, will Makhmudov’s chin hold up, and will he be a little aggressive?
“If Makhmudov can be aggressive, use a little head movement, and come forward, I think he can give Tyson a lot of problems. I think Tyson still pulls through, but I don’t think it’s an easy fight like everybody thinks it is.
“The guy can crack and he does have some meanness in him. Let’s see how long he stands up.”
Makhmudov boasts a similar height to the likes of Wladimir Klitschko, who Fury convincingly outpointed in 2015, and Deontay Wilder, who floored the Brit four times but never defeated him across their three encounters.
Reverend and the Makers frontman Jon McClure has quickly tempered expectations of a Wrexham-style transformation after becoming chairman of Sheffield FC, the world’s oldest football club.
McClure is spearheading a consortium that has secured a “significant minority” stake in the ninth-tier club, established in 1857.
He is joined by renowned music executive David Bianchi, who manages artists such as Tom Grennan and Charli XCX.
Despite the Hollywood-backed success of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in elevating Wrexham from non-league obscurity to a global phenomenon, McClure stated that such a journey is an “unlikely path” for his new club.
“I’m not Ryan Reynolds, and I’m not anywhere near that famous, right?” he said. “I’m well known nationally in the music world.
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“The Wrexham thing is not how it’s really going to work. I think it’s a slightly different model. And also Wrexham is not the first club in the world. The club, in some ways, is the superstar.
“You see people bandying ideas about like we’re going to build a 15,000-seater stadium or we’re going to do a Wrexham and that suggests to me that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
“That’s not what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to do something a little bit different, number one, and secondly, there is a limit to how big you can grow its fan base.
“I think it should live within its means and be sustainable, where it becomes a second club for everyone in the South Yorkshire region, firstly, then maybe nationally.
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McClure stated that Wrexham’s journey is an “unlikely path” for his new club (Martin Rickett/PA Wire)
“And one day, who knows? But right about now, I think there’s a limit, and that’s good.
“Non-league, it’s difficult when you’re at this level. And so that’s why I assembled a team of people who could help me do it, because I am conscious of the fact that ‘rock star comes in and does football club’ could be conceived as a car crash waiting to happen.”
The ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’ singer and his consortium will initially try to drive the commercial side of the club, focusing on Esports and hosting a football festival.
They will grow the women’s team but accept there is a ceiling on the men’s team’s growth, considering they are in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division and competing with Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United.
That is why McClure will not be following in the footsteps of YouTuber KSI, who made big promises when investing in Dagenham last week.
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“We’re saying, these are our aims and ambitions, and we’re tempered with the reality that there is a ceiling, especially for the men’s team.
“There’s a limit to what can be achieved. And I think whilst we’re all mindful of that, we can’t go too far wrong.
“I’ve seen KSI be like ‘Premier League in five years’ and all this. What if you don’t do it, you’re going to look like a right wally, aren’t you?
“So I think just be realistic and be humble, right? Because we’re Sheffield people, Yorkshire people. Be humble.”
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McClure’s next musical adventure is a collaboration with Robbie Williams.
“Rob lives in Miami, right? And he’s a very, very famous lad,” McClure added. “He is very busy, and does he want to get involved in Sheffield FC? I don’t know. I’ve never asked him.
“I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do. I don’t know. Will I bring him here? 100 per cent yes, and if he likes it, let’s see.”
Dave Tippett and Todd McLellan both had it. Jay Woodcroft did his best to recover from it.
And now, Kris Knoblauch has perhaps graduated to a new stage of rehab, having played Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl together for just 22 seconds at five-on-five during Sunday’s 4-2 win at Vegas. He’s still afflicted, but trying to kick the habit one … day … at … a … time.
The drug? It has been dubbed “The Nuclear Option.”
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How do you know a coach is on it? Well, Jon Cooper succumbed to it in Milan — a propensity to over-use Connor McDavid, the best player on the planet.
And if even Cooper could not abstain, perhaps it’s impossible.
32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
“You media guys think you’re so smart, with your ‘Don’t put them out together’ bull—-,’” a former Oilers coach said to me recently, only half-joking. “If you were behind the bench you’d be throwing those two out there before the 10-minute mark.”
From what we’ve seen, and what players have told us on and off the record, I’m not so sure we would.
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Here’s how it works: The moment a game appears to be slipping away — the second a 2-1 game goes to 3-1 — the lines are ripped up so that McDavid and Draisaitl can slide down the pole, don their silk capes, and save the day like Batman and Robin when the Bat-Signal illuminates.
It’s been an issue here for as long as the Oilers have contended, in equal parts helping them win and hindering their team-building. I found these quotes in a four year old column, penned after a well-rounded game that hinted at a total team effort back in February of 2022:
“It’s not like the NBA, where you can have two guys and you can win a championship,” Evander Kane instructed. “You see how hard it is to win, and the teams that win don’t always have the best players.”
“I don’t think in the game of hockey that you can win the Stanley Cup with two guys,” fourth-line centre Derek Ryan added that night. “That is the beautiful thing about hockey. You can’t just have the best player and win. You have to have the best team.
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“Those guys are amazing and we can speak to that all day. But we need to support them,” Ryan said. “We also needed the opportunity to do so.”
Somehow today it’s still a topic, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast this week.
Even general manager Stan Bowman appears to coaxing his coaching staff in that direction, with the acquisition of a quality third-line centre in Jason Dickinson and a rowdy fourth-liner in Colton Dach at the Trade Deadline.
Dickinson has “leader” written all over him, and is ready to take on the responsibility of dragging this Bottom 6 into the fight — if Knoblauch gives them the minutes to fight with.
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“I like going out there and making everybody feel comfortable,” Dickson told Sportsnet. “When I get out there it’s a sense of security that, OK, I can count on him. ‘If I pinch, he’s got my back. If there’s a bobbled puck, he’s got my back.’ To solidify a Bottom 6 is what I like to do.”
On Sunday, the Oilers got a welcome fourth-line goal from Trent Frederic, who was rewarded with 10:59 of ice time — decent fourth line minutes. But his linemates, Dach (5:05) and Josh Samanski (7:39) were not so fortunate.
Dickinson played 15:33 (12:34 at even strength), as Knoblauch begins to trust — for one game at least — a more traditional four-line system.
The irony for Dickinson lies in the fact that, while most players come to Edmonton gushing over the opportunity to play with 97 and 29, if he plays his cards right he won’t play with them at all.
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“Exactly,” he said. “My role is to make their jobs easier.
“Connor and Leon are special players, and me coming in is not going to change that,” he explained. “So what I want to do is give them better matchups. Take a little bit off their plate.
“I know Connor was killing penalties every now and then. (Dickinson wants to) take that off his plate, so he’s not wasting his energy out there on the kill. Better having him play five-on-five and on the power play with full energy, and (with Dickinson) being able to take some of the match-ups off his plate.”
McDavid took a regular turn killing penalties in Vegas, playing 1:56 shorthanded, but regular PK centreman Adam Henrique was not in the lineup. Only Dickinson played more among forwards than McDavid on the PK.
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We’re not sure why McDavid is killing penalties, an art that should increasingly include shot blocking as the playoffs approach. Many coaches use their PK unit to find ice time for depth forwards — to include them in the process — rather than going back to their star player on yet another occasion.
Then there’s the fact that this season, for some reason, McDavid and Draisaitl have not produced at five-on-five the way they have in past years.
“The (expected goals) stats are overwhelming. They’re about 70%, which is an unbelievable number,” Knoblauch said. “But they just haven’t been able to put the puck in the net.
“It hasn’t been the same this year.”
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We asked Draisaitl about it, and he was steadfast, despite the metrics:
“I’m pretty sure when you look at the chances created and the way the ice is tilted, it’s probably still in our favor,” he said. “I know how it feels when we’re out there together, and that the ice is tilted most of the night. Sometimes that’s just as important as actually scoring.
“Maybe the puck hasn’t gone in as much as we’d like, but I wouldn’t bet against us.”
Oleksandr Usyk is taking Rico Verhoeven seriously, perhaps because he is looking ahead to a bigger challenge afterwards.
The elite southpaw faces kickboxing icon Verhoeven in Egypt on May 23 in a fight that focuses on spectacle after years of hard-fought wins on the road. Despite straying away from his usual matchmaking, Usyk has now assured fans that they can expect a return to top level championship boxing thereafter.
Speaking on DAZN’s Inside the Ring show, Usyk revealed that he will target becoming undisputed champion in the heavyweight division for a third time after the fight, his sights set firmly on either Daniel Dubois or Fabio Wardley.
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“For me, it’s a real fight. Yes, Rico is not a good boxer, okay fun fight, no problem, but I want my next fight [against the] winner of Daniel Dubois and Wardley.”
Wardley was promoted from interim to full WBO champion when the Ukrainian vacated the belt rather than face him as mandatory challenger. His first defence against Dubois, set for May 9 in Manchester, is a dangerous one.
It is a legacy-driven strategy Usyk has employed in the past, dropping the IBF belt to allow Dubois to be elevated, defend against Anthony Joshua, and then face him to regain the strap. Should ‘DDD’ beat Wardley, he could be looking at a trilogy, but fan interest may dwindle given how the first two fights played out.
The head of anti-discrimination body Kick It Out says that initial proposals by English football’s independent regulator “put equality, diversity and inclusion on the subs bench”.
The watchdog for the top five tiers of the men’s game is devising a new code of governance, with clubs having to show what they are doing to tackle under-representation of minorities in order to be granted a licence.
In correspondence sent to the independent football regulator (IFR) as part of a consultation process – and seen by BBC Sport – Kick It Out claims that the proposed measures are “inadequate”.
“[It] doesn’t go far enough in addressing the stubborn challenges that the game currently sees,” said Kick It Out chief executive Samuel Okafor.
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“We’ve been really clear with the regulator in terms of the gap that currently exists. And the gap is significant.
“We’re really concerned that what we’ve seen in the first proposal, in essence, puts EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] on the subs bench, [and] maintains the status quo.
“It’s really important that the regulator uses the powers that it has to drive the change that we all want to see.”
Among a series of recommendations, Kick It Out says it wants annual publication of clubs’ workforce diversity data, and every club to have board-level accountability for EDI.
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Last month, police confirmed they were investigating after four Premier League players experienced online racial abuse over the course of one weekend, and Okafor said the spate of incidents showed why change was required.
“It should send a message to the regulators [over] the importance of why EDI really matters, why they need to prioritise it, why they need to take it seriously,” he said.
In response, an IFR spokesperson said that it will shortly be launching a second consultation on its licensing policy, “and so it is premature to assert deficiencies in our approach to EDI”.
Former South Africa opener Gary Kirsten has been appointed as the new head coach of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, with Sri Lanka Cricket confirming that he will officially assume the role from April 15, 2026.Kirsten has signed a two-year contract and succeeds former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya, who stepped down from the position following Sri Lanka’s Super Eight exit at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. During the same tournament, Kirsten had been working with the Namibia national cricket team in a consultancy role.
Ahmedabad erupts as Team India arrive at hotel after T20 World Cup win
The 56-year-old brings extensive international experience to the job. As a player, Kirsten represented South Africa national cricket team in 101 Tests and 185 One-Day Internationals. His coaching credentials are equally impressive, most notably leading the India national cricket team to victory in the 2011 Cricket World Cup and guiding the side to the top of the ICC Test rankings during his tenure.After his successful stint with India, Kirsten went on to coach South Africa for two years. In April 2024, he was appointed as the white-ball head coach of the Pakistan national cricket team, although that partnership ended early when he resigned due to differences with the board and players.Kirsten has also been actively involved in franchise cricket. He worked with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and later with Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League, serving as batting coach when the Titans secured the title in their debut season in 2022.A key assignment during his tenure with Sri Lanka will be the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup scheduled to take place next year in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Sri Lanka will aim to secure direct qualification for the global event.Kirsten’s appointment follows another recent coaching announcement by SLC, which named Jamie Siddons as the head coach of the Sri Lanka women’s national team earlier this week.
Watch highlights as West Ham reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 10 years by defeating London rivals Brentford 5-3 on penalties.
Australia has granted asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s football team who were visiting the country for a tournament when the Iran war began, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Tuesday. The women were transported from their hotel in Gold Coast, Australia “to a safe location” by Australian federal police officers in the early hours of Tuesday morning local time. There, they met with Burke and the processing of their humanitarian visas was finalized, the minister told reporters in Brisbane hours later.
“I say to the other members of the team the same opportunity is there,” Burke said. “Australia has taken the Iranian women’s soccer team into our hearts.”
Local news outlets reported that the squad numbered about 20 women. Burke didn’t detail what threats the players faced if they returned to Iran, but the asylum bids followed urging by Iranian groups in Australia and by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Australian government to offer help to the woman.
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The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup last month, before the Iran war began. The team was knocked out of the tournament over the weekend and was facing the prospect of returning to a country under bombardment. Iran’s head coach Marziyeh Jafari on Sunday said the players “want to come back to Iran as soon as we can,” according to Australia’s national news agency, AAP.
During the tournament, the players have mostly declined to comment on the situation at home, although Iran forward Sara Didar choked back tears in a news conference on Wednesday as she shared their concerns for their families, friends and all Iranians during the conflict.
The team’s silence during the anthem before an opening loss to South Korea last week was viewed by some as an act of resistance and others as a show of mourning. The team hasn’t clarified. They later sang and saluted during the anthem before their remaining two matches.
“These women are tremendously popular in Australia, but we realize they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they’re making,” Burke said. “The opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to.”
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Burke’s announcement came after Trump on Monday in Washington called on Australia to grant asylum to any team member who wanted it. Earlier that day, Trump had blasted Australia on social media, saying Australia was “making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the … team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.” Trump called on Australia to grant the team asylum, adding: “The U.S. will take them if you won’t.”
Less than two hours later, in another social media post, Trump praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, saying, “He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.”
Trump also said that some players “feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.”
Trump’s offer of asylum represented something of a change for the president, whose administration has sought to limit the number of immigrants who can receive asylum for political purposes
My season prep with Maja Stark started a little later this year. And while we made some solid gains and good adjustments, there was still one shot that bothered her with the scoring irons: a kind of high, floaty shot that leaked a bit to the right. It lacked authority, and made setting up birdies consistently a challenge.
When I watched her warm up in Orlando during the week of the LPGA Tournament of Champions, something caught my eye. She kept fiddling with her left-hand grip, trying to get it comfortable on the club. Obviously, that affects everything — the takeaway started to feel wonky and impact wasn’t what she wanted on a consistent basis. When those pieces aren’t right, her confidence starts to dip.
Between shots, Maja would chat and casually make some half-swings with her left hand only on the club. And every time she did, the grip looked perfect. So I kept watching, and it kept happening. (I might’ve even stretched out our conversations a bit to catch her in those moments when the grip went on just right.)
After a while, Maja asked if I had ever heard of the interlocking grip. I told her some guy named Jack Nicklaus did pretty well with it.
She smiled and said, “I’m going to try a couple shots with that.”
From the very first swing, her left-hand grip was fixed. I watched her left hand settle onto the club properly — turned slightly to the right of center, with the butt end of the club under the heel pad of her left hand, not off to the side of it. As she started hitting shots, I knew we’d solved that pesky floaty right miss.
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In Maja’s words: “The takeaway felt so much simpler. Impact was solid, and the clubface felt way more under control.”
Of course, there was a quick conversation about whether this was really the right time in the season to make a grip change, but Maja said yes. And once I saw her left hand going on the club properly and consistently, without all the angst and adjustments, I became a believer.
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Funny enough, a grip change is usually reserved as a last resort for pros. But in this case, it was exactly what the doctor ordered. It allowed Maja to get the left hand on the club properly with little to no fuss. Sometimes the simplest change makes the biggest difference.
Even when it comes to the swing of a major champion.
Manchester City will find out their FA Cup quarter final opponents in Monday night’s draw with Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea among the potential opponents
Former FC Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández has revealed why Lionel Messi did not return to the Spanish club, saying club president Joan Laporta blocked the move despite an agreement.
In an interview with La Vanguardia, Xavi claimed that plans were already in place for Messi to rejoin Barcelona after the forward won the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina national football team.
According to Xavi, he began discussions with Messi in January 2023 and the player was excited about the idea of returning to the club where he became a legend.
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“We talked for months and everything was ready. I saw it as a good move from a football perspective,” Xavi said.
However, the former midfielder alleged that Laporta later stopped the deal. Xavi claimed the Barcelona president told him that allowing Messi to return could create serious problems at the club.
Xavi also accused the club leadership of launching a media campaign against him before his exit and claimed that people within the club spoke to players suggesting he wanted to sell them.
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The Barcelona legend, who has already declared support for presidential candidate Víctor Font ahead of the club’s upcoming elections, said he does not expect to return to Barcelona again after serving the club as both a player and coach.
;)
