WEEKEND TAKEAWAYS
ANOTHER HIT TO BOXING’S REP
PROFESSIONAL boxing was in the dock again after the much-anticipated World Middleweight fight between Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin and Mexican Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez went the distance in Las Vegas.
Experts declared it a cracker and Golovkin (‘GGG’) retained his three titles after it was ruled a draw, but the judging caused a furore. Two judges called it 115-114 (to Golovkin) and 114-114, but the third, Adalaide Byrd, called it 118-110 – to Alvarez! The consensus, among boxers and spectators, was Golovkin had won.
Michael Conlan’s rant about judges at Rio 2016 proved to be a seminal moment in amateur boxing and his reaction to the GGG/Canelo result was typically pithy, tweeting: ‘Was this your work @ AIBA_Boxing???’
But Conlan’s Rio fury was outdone by US boxing coach/analyst Teddy Atlas, who went into meltdown on ESPN. Anyone who saw Atlas and an equally belligerent ESPN analyst, Stephen A Smith, duking it out verbally after the Mayweather/McGregor fight won’t have been surprised to see them go at it again.
Atlas let fly, alleging corruption in the pro game through careful selection of judges by certain promoters. Smith agreed GGG should have won, but said the decision of one bad judge couldn’t be used to condemn the whole sport as corrupt.
A bizarre screaming match ensued and as pro boxing’s reputation took another battering, the biggest winner was probably ESPN’s ratings.
PARITY MATTERS FOR GREAT DANES
DENMARK’S men’s soccer team, in an unprecedented show of solidarity, have offered some of their international pay to their female colleagues.
The Danish women, who were beaten European finalists by the Netherlands this summer, have gone on strike over a labour dispute.
They refused to play a friendly against the Dutch on Friday and unless there is a breakthrough today, tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier against Hungary won’t go ahead either. They get match fees and bonuses from their federation (DBU), but are not classed officially as ‘employees’ and are lobbying to be recognised as such.
One of the Danish PFA’s two suggested solutions included an offer by the Danish men’s side to give up over €68,000 to help fund the women’s programme, but this has been rejected.
A statement from the Danish men said: “Women must not have inferior rights than us because they are women. Therefore, we offer to deduct 500,000 DKK a year of our money requiring DBU to give the women’s team players the same rights as us.”
It’s an impressive show of solidarity.
KERRY MINORS IN SAFE HANDS
KERRY’S four in-a-row minor win yesterday and the 4-4 tally from their superstar captain, David Clifford, made lots of history, but their team also contained another piece of GAA history in the shape of winning goalkeeper, Deividas Uosis.
Deividas is surely the first player of Lithuanian heritage to win an All-Ireland and it was actually his second medal this season, and both were won in different positions.
The young Dingle star first came to prominence as a soccer goalkeeper playing for Camp and Dingle Bay Rovers before getting his chance with the Kingdom’s minors this year. He made some vital stops en route to yesterday’s glory.
But he also plays outfield in Gaelic football, where his free-taking is a great asset. He actually lined out at wing-forward when Pobalscoil Corcha Dhuibne won the All-Ireland schools Junior A title in March.
That, coincidentally, also came at the expense of a Derry side in St Pat’s Maghera. To give some context to Kerry’s achievement, the statistics bear out the notion that consistency is very difficult to find at the minor grade.
Before Kerry, the last minor team to even achieve two in a row was the much-vaunted Laois team of 1996-97 (who also lost the ‘98 final) and only Cork (1967-69), Dublin (195456) and Kerry (1931-33) have ever won three minor football championships in a row.
CYCLING’S DIET OF CHAMPIONS
WHATEVER you think about the ‘cleanliness’ of professional cycling, you’d be hard pressed to imagine it is remotely healthy, given Chris Froome’s latest revelations.
The London Times have a ‘Sporting Body’ feature every Saturday, which sees athletes posing naked and quizzed on their training and nutrition.
”I can recognise the proportions are ridiculous,” Froome said of his skeletallooking torso, which made it hard to credit that his body fat is as high as the 9.8% he declared.
Froome’s description of what he eats during races was even more eye-popping.
“I start off on plain rice cakes every 20-30 minutes and three gels an hour towards the end. Plenty of riders get teeth problems from constant gels and drinks, I’ve had my fair share of fillings.”
He said, on the big grand classification days, an hour or so from the end,he has a double espresso “with a few sugars in it”, which he keeps in a mini-shampoo bottle.
He said he also enjoys a piece or two of nougat – “egg whites and a lot of sugar” – towards the end of a stage. “On the last day at Los Machucos when I lost time, I didn’t get my nougat... it went missing. I wasn’t happy because when you’re on the limit, you need that boost.”
With so much talk of science in pro cycling, who’d have thought that coffee, sugar and rotting teeth could be the source of all those ‘marginal gains’?