TOP 100 SPORT SITES
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| Baseball, umpires reach 5-year deal Major League Baseball and its umpires have reached an agreement on a five-year labor contract running through December 2014. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Martin O’Neill looking for quick reaction with Liverpool latest challenge Perspective is a rare commodity in the Barclays Premier League, but Martin O’Neill, win or lose, manages better than most to take a calm overview in the final analysis. Aston Villa’s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, he believes, should be taken in the context of an excellent season at the Midlands club. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Kevin Mitchell: Are Khan and Hatton ready to fight? The two 'friends' have dabbled in classic boxing revisionism by saying they are now ready to punch it outIn the deep heart of winter, with little to write about in the way of actual ring activity, boxing ticks over with rumours – and this has been a vintage January for scuttlebutt and speculation.The latest conjecture comes from Amir Khan, who tells heraldscotland.com: "I would hate to get to the end of my career and look back at it and not have had the chance to fight Ricky Hatton. I still think Ricky has a bit left in him and I think he also has something he wants to prove to himself after the defeat by Manny Pacquiao."Against my few better instincts, I can see that happening, mainly because Ricky has encouraged the speculation himself. Watching the big-time shenanigans in America the past month will have done little to ease "the itch" he keeps going on about.But he's a businessman now, with his own promotional company, and looks every inch the fight-game fat cat, stretching the buttons on his three-piece suit all the way as he sits ringside at his own shows. I wish him all the best.Khan has to get past the Argentinian knockout artist Marcos Maidana first in a mandatory defence of his light-welter title before he contemplates Hatton.But, you know what, eight months ago, Khan and Hatton were adamant they would never fight each other. Before he left for Vegas to fight Pacquiao in May, Hatton told me: "Amir Khan is a good friend of mine, but, no, I can't see me fighting him."Khan went to Vegas to watch Hatton fight and said: "It will never happen. Ricky's my friend. I would rather be in his corner supporting him than across the ring from him."After Hatton was knocked out, Khan was even more convinced it was a bad idea. But after he knocked out Dmitriy Salita in a round last month, he said he'd now like to fight Ricky. "Business is business," as he put it.There is more revisionism in boxing than Joe Stalin ever managed in Russia 70 years ago. Believe nothing until you see one guy smiling and the other guy flat on his back.ARUM-SPEAKOf course the great revisionist of our time is Bob TWY ("that was yesterday") Arum. While he and Golden Boy Promotions were indulging themselves in the tortuous ego-war over the putative fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, Arum must have issued at least four "the fight is off" ultimatums.I wonder if the 78-year-old promoter knows there is a poisonous species of flower called Arum maculatum, which variously goes by the name of Wild Arum and Bobbins. "Bobbins", by the way, is Manchester slang for rubbish. Tenuous, granted – but it is January.For a grown-up, Wild Arum throws a lot of tantrums. Uncle Bob is smiling now, though. The deal for Pacquiao to fight Joshua Clottey in Texas was said to be "98 per cent" done at the weekend and Arum reckons he can drag 50,000 punters into the Cowboy Stadium in Dallas on 13 March.For Clottey's sake, I hope so. The tough, clever Ghanaian is an honest warrior who should have beaten Miguel Cotto and deserves any good pay day that comes his way. He's certainly more willing to share a ring with Pacquiao than Mayweather is.While we're on the rumour treadmill, a Las Vegas source tells me: "The word in town is Floyd doesn't want the fight because he's not ready. He's got bad hands and he just doesn't feel right at the moment." That's as sound as any theory I've heard this month.Teddy Atlas, meanwhile, thinks Clottey is a tougher fight for Pacquiao than Yuri Foreman, the other alternative Arum mentioned, and I agree. Foreman, although heavier at light-middle, can't punch. Pacquiao would walk through him.By the way, Clottey and Foreman fight for Arum. How cosy is that in these cold, hard times?As well as better instincts, I also have gambling ones – and I wouldn't yet rule out Pacquiao fighting Mayweather in the autumn, or even in May. It has got to happen, simply because there is $200m on the table. Also, I'm sure Mayweather regrets pushing the little guy so hard in talks over the past weeks: now he's got a lawsuit by Manny to deal with.Mayweather, who needs money like most people need air, has fewer big-cash options than Pacman. Paulie Malignaggi? Wake me up when it's over. Shane Mosley? Sugar has more reject letters from Floyd than your average bad poet gets from his publisher.Speaking of correspondence, Atlas, usually well-informed, reckons Pacquiao's people sent Mayweather's people an email in recent weeks enquiring what would happen if Manny took a drugs test and failed it.It is a story that also turned up in the New York Post recently. But think about it: under what circumstances would Pacquiao even hint he was on drugs – especially to the Mayweathers?I think someone set you up there, Teddy.A PROMOTER'S TAKEFrank Warren, who ought to know, claims in his latest Sun column: "There is a strong rumour one British fighter – and his trainer – have been taking it.""It" is human growth hormone, the drug de jour, according to the Mayweathers and all the other conspiracy theorists gathered on boxing's grassy knoll.Frank also claims: "I hear 31 May has been pencilled in for Ricky Hatton's comeback."Interesting. That's a Monday.RING THE BELLMichael Owen had four bouts as a junior – at the prompting of his father, who wanted to "toughen him up". And Wayne Rooney would have made a good boxer, according to his uncle, Richie, who runs Croxteth Amateur Boxing Club, as would his brother, Graham [who, on thin evidence, once claimed to have beaten Khan as a schoolboy].Like a lot of footballers, Owen and Rooney appreciate the benefits of a tough time in the ring. It sharpens up any athlete mentally and it does their footwork and balance no harm either.The latest to join the fight club are two cricketers, Ian Bell and Brad Haddin. Bell, who looks like he has been lifted from a kid's cartoon but obviously has discovered his inner steel, says sparring gave him renewed focus – and it has paid a dividend for England in the last two Tests against South Africa.Haddin, who kept brilliantly for Australia against Pakistan at the SCG last week, trains in the one-time working- class Sydney suburb of Five Dock at a place called the Thump Gym, which is fairly unambiguous.He came home early from the Ashes series last summer with an injured finger and figured something wasn't quite right. So he traded keepers' gloves for boxing mitts."As much as it was disappointing to be on the outer through injury," he tells the Sydney Morning Herald, "missing that three months gave me the rare opportunity to get my body back into shape."If Haddin takes a catch to win the Ashes back for Australia later this year, blame it on boxing. It gets the rap for everything else.BoxingRicky HattonAmir KhanKevin Mitchellguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Marina Hyde: Time to blow Tom Hicks Jr's trumpet The former Liverpool executive's earthy catchphrase could open up several new careers for himIs there a more covetable free agent than Tom Hicks Jr, Liverpool's smutty Marie Antoinette, whose "let them eat cock" email surely marks him out as this transfer window's breakout star? Strictly speaking, of course, Tom Jr was not placing himself in the shop window when he penned his Algonquin-inspired rejoinder to the Liverpool supporter, but now that he has experienced a sudden freeing up of time, there must be a rush to secure his services.There may be those among you scratching your head at this juncture, wondering what sort of work Tom is possibly equipped for, bar moonlighting as an Austin Reed mannequin (it's something about the hair, the way he drapes the scarf, and his easy way with outerwear). That dismissive attitude is a failure of imagination on your part.Within the world of leveraged buyouts Tom's daddy has made his speciality, a key text is the business manual Who Moved My Cheese? For the uninitiated, Who Moved My Cheese? is essentially a parable of how to cope with a major change in your work life – ie getting sacked – and in corporate America it is often distributed thoughtfully to employees during periods of structural reorganisation – ie minutes before they are informed their desk is in the lift. In accordance with its teachings, Tom Jr should not see his downsizing as a setback. Rather, he should judge it an opportunity to adapt his … talents, I suppose you'd call them, to any number of current openings for which his vogueish "blow me, fuck face" catchphrase would equip him.American Idol will soon be in need of a new judge, certainly, while it has been far too long since anyone left the sort of obscene message on Andrew Sachs's answerphone that could galvanise Britain to shake off snow-paralysis and get back to doing what it does best: calling complaints hotlines. Failing that, it was only last week that we were examining plans to increase police powers for the London Olympics, and there seems no reason that Tom Jr should not serve as the prototype for a new, futuristic robot force to police the games. In a simplification of Robocop's four directives, the Hicks-inspired 2012 justice units would simply dispense a mechanical BMFF before dispatching non-cheerleaders.For all the obvious benefits to humanity of the above, though, it would be the most shameful waste were any new employment direction to lead Tom Jr away from the arena he knows best: football. The good news is that the Premier League appears to seek a diplomat with special responsibility for Africa. With so many unofficial authorities on the continent emerging in the wake of the attack on the Togo team in Angola – couldn't Phil Brown have gone the whole hog and deployed the styling "the dark continent"? – the search is on for someone who could distil the nuanced judgment of the Hull manager and others into a foreign policy position that will see the league not simply through the rest of the Cup of Nations, but the World Cup too. Justifying any comment by an unapologetically protectionist consortium of commercial interests about "naive" security arrangements – or, come to that, about "naive defending" – is this not a job for Hicks and the trusty BMFF?Failing that, Old Trafford seeks a lightning rod. Recent revelations from Manchester United may well have left the piggy-bank-raiding Glazer progeny looking for something to throw them into sympathetic relief, and who better than the scion of another football-crazy American family? At present, Tom Jr would simply be charged with responding to the Glazers' postbag, though if the feared sale of the Carrington training complex to a holding company went through, allowing it to be leased back to the club, he would already be in place to respond to any complaints United's chief executive, David Gill, might have about rental costs with an even better-honed BMFF.Then again, the post of Fratton Park cashier might tempt. Having failed three times this season to meet deadlines to pay their players, most recently last week, Portsmouth executives must be tiring of having to placate concerned employees, a burden that could be eliminated by simply installing Tom Jr in the club's accounts office behind a sign reading "You don't have to BMFF to work here – but it helps!"If none of those grabs, you can be sure that other opportunities will present themselves to our alluring free agent. Tom Jr's is the skillset most suited to these uncertain times in football and elsewhere, and by now you should realise that your failure to accept that will only earn you that least enticing of invitations.Premier LeagueLiverpoolMarina Hydeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
England’s extra cover Andrew Strauss’s absence from next month’s tour of Bangladesh gives Michael Carberry the chance to complete a remarkable, and welcome, rise to the top of English cricket. At 29, the Hampshire player would be the oldest specialist batsmen to make his debut for England this century and the country’s first new cap of West Indian heritage since 1998 when Alex Tudor, whom Carberry describes as a “big brother”, played against Australia at Perth. Carberry’s emergence could play a vital part in arresting a decline in Afro-Caribbean cricket in England that reflects the sport’s fragile footing in inner-city areas. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |