Sports round-up
All the latest sport By Tony Matthews
Gypsy king of the ring
Last Saturday, watched by 94,000 fans inside Wembley Stadium and millions staring at their television sets, WBC champion Tyson Fury produced a stunning right hand uppercut in the sixth round to beat fellow Brit Dillian Whyte... and immediately said that he wants to become only the second heavyweight boxer in history, after Rocky Marciano, to retire undefeated.
Fury, aged 33, also retained his ‘Ring Magazine’ belt. He is now unbeaten in 33 bouts (32 wins, one draw and 23 knockouts) while Whyte suffered his third loss in 31 fights.
However, if Fury does quit he’ll miss the opportunity to fight for the undisputed world heavyweight crown - a fight which could potentially be staged later this year - and a chance to cement his status as Britain's greatest ever heavyweight. And for the record, he’s earned at least €70 million in the last two years.
Record partnership
Last weekend batters Liam Dawson (171) and Ben Brown (157) put on a county record 273-run fifth-wicket stand for Hampshire in a resounding innings victory over Kent at Canterbury. Elsewhere in First Division championship matches, there were also wins in Division One for Warwickshire (v Essex), Nottinghamshire (v Durham), Lancashire (v Gloucestershire) and Surrey (v Somerset) and also for Derbyshire (v Leicestershire) in Division 2.
Football diary
With only five matches remaining Manchester City lead Liverpool by one point at the top of the Premiership, while Everton, after losing the latest Merseyside derby, now find themselves facing a battle against relegation. Celtic lead the SPL by six points from Rangers; Paris St Germain have won the French Ligue title for the 109th time; last Sunday Barcelona suffered their third successive home defeat, going down 1-0 to Rayo Vallecano and with games fast running out, AC Milan are now on top of Italy’s Serie ‘A’.
Congratulations to Forest Green Rovers, a league club for just five years, who will be playing in Football League 1 next season after clinching promotion last Saturday with a point against Bristol Rovers. Exeter City will also go up with Rovers. And at the end of the season, Peterborough, Barnsley and Derby County will all be relegated from the Championship, but Oldham will drop out of the Football League for the first time since entering the competition in 1907. Unfortunately the Latics’ 2-1 home defeat by Salford last Saturday (which sealed their fate) was marred by angry scenes as fans stormed onto the pitch to protest against the club’s owners. After a delay of nearly two hours, the final 10 minutes were completed.
Manchester City lead Real Madrid 4-3 and Liverpool are 2-0 up on Villarreal after the first legs of the two Champions League semi-finals. The return games take place this coming week.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 100th Premiership goal for Manchester United in last Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Arsenal. He struck his first for the Reds against Portsmouth back in 2003 and has now netted 829 times in 1,152 club and internationals during his career.
A record crowd for a women’s football match, 91,648, saw Barcelona Femenino beat Wolfsburg Ladies 5-1 in a recent Champions League semi-final at the Camp Nou Camp.
Defender Antonio Rüdiger will leave Chelsea at the end of this season and looks set to join Real Madrid.
And former Scottish international goalkeeper and cricketer, Andy Goram, aged 58, who made over 650 club and international appearances while serving with 12 different clubs including, Rangers, Hibs, Manchester United, Coventry and Sheffield United between 1981 and 2004, is being treated for cancer.
Laura Kenny
GB Olympic and world cycling champion Laura Kenny, who has over 40 individual medals to her name, has admitted she suffered a miscarriage when nine weeks pregnant, and in January 2022, underwent surgery due to ectopic pregnancy. Married to fellow cyclist Jason Kenny, she is now recovering at their Knutsford home.
Formula 1
Last Sunday’s Italian F1 Grand Prix at Imola was won by reigning champion Max Verstappen with Sergio Pérez second, Lando Norris third and George Russell fourth. Charles Leclerc had a late ‘spin’ and finished sixth while Lewis Hamilton rolled home in 13th place, saying afterward with tongue in cheek: “My car wouldn’t win a dodgem race at the fair.” Leclerc currently leads the driver’s championship by 27 points (86-59) from Verstappen, with Pérez third (54). The next race takes place in Miami, Florida a week on Sunday (May 8).
Meanwhile, Spanish driver Carlos Sainz junior has signed a new two-year contract with Ferrari.
On your bike
Reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo put his early-season issues behind him with a comfortable win in last weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix. The Yamaha rider finished more than five seconds ahead of fellow Frenchman Johann Zarco of DucatiPramac.
Selby framed!
Earlier this week, defending champion Mark Selby was knocked out of the World Snooker Championship by China’s Yan Bingtao after the longest frame in Crucible history. An epic slugfest ensued in the 22nd frame, lasting 85 minutes and 22 seconds, beating the previous longest by almost six minutes. Trailing 1210 at the time, Selby lost the marathon frame 63-49 as Yan made a superb 112 to win 13-10. Meanwhile, six-time winner of the tournament Ronnie O’Sullivan registered a recordbreaking 71st championship win in the first round and was going along very well this time around. The final takes place on Monday.
Hatton back
Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton is returning to the boxing ring at the age of 43. He will fight Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera (48) in an eight-round exhibition bout in Manchester on July 2 10 years after retiring.