Burke “BT” Toews is the newest coach of Gilas Pilipinas women’s program. –PHOTO VIA SBP FACEBOOK

MANILA, Philippines—The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has named Canadian mentor Burke “BT” Toews as the new coach of Gilas Pilipinas Women.

Toews takes over the national women’s program two months after the surprise exit of longtime coach Pat Aquino, who handled the team for 12 years.

“After months of searching across continents and with more than a dozen applicants, the SBP selected a Canadian coach based in Japan to lead the squad, which currently ranks 30th in the world according to FIBA,” wrote the SBP in a statement.

Gilas welcomes a decorated mentor who found success in the Women’s Japan B.League.

Most recently, he steered the Fujitsu Red Waves to back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025.

Most recently, Toews steered Fujitsu Red Wave to back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025.

The father of notable B.League talent Kai Toews also led Fujitsu to consecutive All-Japan Championship crowns in the same years.

For ten seasons, Toews powered Fujitsu to five Finals appearances. He also won Coach of the Year thrice.

Amir Khan retired in 2022 following defeat to Kell Brook, but the Bolton man has teased a comeback on a few occasions since.

British boxing’s youngest Olympic Medalist and a world champion at just 22, Khan took UK fans on a thrilling ride during his campaign. Big wins against the likes of Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah were tempered by stoppage losses against Terence Crawford, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and more. No matter the result, Khan’s fights were always thrilling, perhaps because of the jeopardy of defeat.

The former unified champion looked far from his peak against Brook, but has entertained a return in the years since against Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao.

Speaking to Boxing News ahead of the Paulie Malignaggi vs Rolando Dy super-welterweight BKB title fight, Khan said he knows the interest is there, but that he is currently happy in retirement.

“I know they’ve been saying I should give it a try. Look, I’ve never shied away from a fight; you can see from my career. Who knows? Let’s see what happens. You want to get in there sometimes, but let’s see how things go. At the moment, I’m just enjoying it.”

Malignaggi, a former opponent of Khan’s, would go on to be dropped and stopped by Dy in the second round of the contest. It could perhaps serve as a warning to the Brit of the brutality of this particular combat sport.

Malignaggi is just one of several former boxers to attempt to reignite their career on the bare knuckle scene, with Victor Ortiz, Lee Selby and Yuriorkis Gamboa also joining the BKB promotion.

In the age of NIL and revenue-sharing, athletic department revenue is a major indicator of current and future college sports success.

Football is invariably the biggest money-maker, but for some schools, men’s basketball is a major contributor as well.

The table below shows the total revenue for each of the top schools in the West, in millions of dollars, according to Mapping College Athletics.

In most cases, the data includes breakdowns by sport for football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball for the Fiscal Year 2024-25.

However, complete data is not available for all schools. None is available for Air Force, and only the total revenue is available for BYU, Cal, Stanford, and USC.

Moses Itauma is set to continue his pursuit of the heavyweight world title when he headlines the O2 Arena in August. Now, an opponent is close to being confirmed in a fight that promoter Frank Warren believes the youngster faces a ‘massive test’. 

Itauma has breezed through the opposition in all 14 of his professional bouts to date and is well placed for a world title challenge at just 21 years old, positioned as the WBO mandatory challenger and ranked number one with the WBA.

Following his latest win against Jermaine Franklin Jr in March, Itauma announced that he would have liked to face Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic next, seemingly disappointed that the Rio 2016 bronze medallist was scheduled to take on Dave Allen instead.

However, after stopping Allen with ease on Saturday inside just three rounds, Hrgovic shared his willingness for a quick turnaround and a clash with Itauma. Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, Warren confirmed his interest in that proposed contest.

“I would like to see that fight [between Itauma and Hrgovic] happen. There is negotiations going on and I would love to see that fight happen, it is a massive test for Moses and a massive fight.

“That has got fight written all over it, hasn’t it? It’d be an exciting fight, if we can make it happen.”

The comments echo those of Warren’s son, George, who said after the Allen fight that his immediate goal is to get the bout signed.

Itauma will headline the O2 Arena in London on Saturday, August 8, in what will be his second main event slot, as he looks to continue to build his profile. If the Hrgovic fight makes it over the line, assuming the cut suffered by the Croatian against Allen is healed in time, it will indeed be the most significant step up in Itauma’s career so far.

Joel Bagan has signed a new four-year contract to stay at League One promotion winners Cardiff City.

The Bluebirds academy graduate played a key role as Brian Barry-Murphy’s side returned to the Championship at the first attempt in 2025-26.

The 24-year-old full-back was one of a trio of senior players whose deals were set to expire this summer.

But Bagan is now tied to Cardiff until 2030.

“I’m delighted to be extending my stay at this club. I’ve been here since I was 16 and it feels like home,” said Bagan.

John Cena appeared at Backlash 2026 to make the announcement about the John Cena Classic. He only offered preliminary details about the tournament, and has now opened up about the way it came together.

The 17-time world champion recently spoke to Zack Heydorn of Sports Illustrated and revealed that it was a pitch he made that was eventually developed in coordination with the higher-ups in the company. Cena also revealed that the retirement tour was also his idea, which was pitched to Triple H and Nick Khan.

“Keep in mind, I approached them about the retirement tour. That was my idea. And so was the John Cena Classic. Now, the retirement tour took a year and a half for me to develop. It took a year and a half after I pitched and they accepted it for the WWE to curate and develop. That was a very long lead. The John Cena Classic took took four or five months for me to get a a proper situation where I could talk to Triple H and Nick Khan. And they digested the information. We’ve been working out the details for about two months now. And we’re we’re going forward. We’re going to give it a shot,” he said.

Advertisement

John Cena reveals the reason he retired from WWE

The Never Seen 17 bid an emotional farewell to his in-ring career at Saturday Night’s Main Event last year, losing to Gunther in his last match. In the same conversation, he revealed why he chose to retire:

“This new crop of extra talented superstars come up that are performing at a speed like the game just looks too fast for me… because it is. You’re right. I could change my style, but at the risk of ruining that energy that WWE invested in me. And that’s tough because from an ego standpoint, you got to step away from the audience. I love the audience. It’s great. But man, that’s not respectful to the fans and it’s not respectful to the company. It’s also not respectful to new talent trying to get an opportunity. Step aside. Let the young superstars come up.”

The John Cena Classic is in line with the legend’s vision of bringing forth new talent and leaving the business better than he found it, and it now remains to be seen how the tournament shapes up.

If you use the quotes from this article, please give an H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcription and credit Sports Illustrated.