Boxers eye another bout
The fight was so close at the final bell that no one in the arena – including Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez – knew who would leave the ring in Las Vegas with the middleweight title belts.
It was Alvarez, though by the slimmest of margins. He won the last round on two scorecards Saturday night on the Las Vegas Strip to hand Golovkin the first loss of his career in a fight that more than lived up to its advance billing.
To settle who is really the best, though, they may just have to do it a third time. And that’s fine with both fighters, who have now gone 24 rounds together with little but a few points on the scorecards to separate them.
“If the people want us to do it again, let’s do it again,” Alvarez said.
“It would be great to have a third fight,” Golovkin said.
A third fight will almost certainly happen, and for that fight fans have to be grateful. Alvarez and Golovkin showcased their skills – and their sport – at the highest level in a fight that one judge scored a draw and two others had Alvarez by a narrow 115-113 score.
NBA
Retirement can wait at least one more year for Dwyane Wade.
The former Marquette star is coming back to the Miami Heat, announcing Sunday that he’s returning for a 16th and final NBA season. He basically spent the entirety of the last four months weighing his options, and retirement was an extremely real possibility in his mind.
Instead, he’ll be back in Miami, as the Heat desperately hoped. He’s expected to sign a $2.4 million, one-year deal later this week.
“I’ve always did things my way,” Wade said in an emotional social-media video that he taped Sunday afternoon and released in the evening. “Whether they’ve been good or whether they’ve been bad, I got here because I’ve done things the way I feel is right for me and right for my family. And what I feel is right … I feel it’s right to ask you guys to join me for one last dance, for one last season.
“This is it. I’ve given this game everything that I have, and I’m happy about that, and I’m going to give it for one last season.”
Wade is Miami’s career leader in points, assists, steals and games played. His status was a question mark this summer, especially now with the team a week away from training camp.
TRACK AND FIELD
On a spectacular day for track and field fans, Kevin Mayer of France set a decathlon world record in front of a home crowd in Paris, just hours after Eliud Kipchoge smashed the marathon world record in Berlin.
Competing at the Decastar event in Talence, southwestern France, world champion Mayer finished with a total of 9,126 points, improving on the previous record of 9,045 set by American athlete Ashton Eaton at the 2015 world championships in Beijing.
Earlier, Kipchoge clocked 2 hours, 1 minute, 39 seconds at the Berlin Marathon.
The 33-year-old overturned the previous world record set in Berlin by fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto in 2014 by 1 minute, 18 seconds.
Kipchoge became the first person to finish a marathon in less than 2 hours and 2 minutes. TENNIS
First it was the World Cup soccer final. Now it’s the Davis Cup.
Croatia will meet France again to decide tennis’ premier team event.
After eight hours of tennis, Borna Coric ended a sustained comeback bid from the United States by rallying from two sets to one down to beat Frances Tiafoe, 6-7 (0), 6-1, 6-7 (11), 6-1, 6-3, in the fifth and decisive match of a topsy-turvy semifinal in Zadar, Croatia.
Defending champion France will host the Nov. 23-25 final.
COLLEGE SOCCER
Former Waukesha West star Dani Rhodes scored in the 103rd minute as the University of Wisconsin women’s team beat Illinois, 1-0, at the McClimon Complex in Madison.
Jordan McNeese got the assist for the No. 22 Badgers (7-1-1).
Indiana 3, UW men 1: Patrick Yim scored his first collegiate goal but the Badgers (2-4-1) fell to the No. 2 Hoosiers (6-1) in the teams’ Big Ten opener in Madison.