Gennady Golovkin stopped Willie Monroe Jr 45 seconds into the sixth round on Saturday night, retaining his middleweight titles with his 20th consecutive knockout victory.
Nicaragua’s Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez also defended his WBC flyweight title in style at the historic Forum with a furious second-round stoppage of Mexican veteran Edgar Sosa.
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Steve Bruce has laid his feelings bare over Jake Livermore’s positive test for cocaine, saying that the Hull City midfielder has tarnished himself and will have to live with the consequences. The Hull manager watched his team lose 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur to leave themselves in serious danger relegation from the Premier League, but the subject of Livermore dominated the post-match discussion.
Bruce said that Livermore was in a dark place and he described the conversation he had with him on Wednesday, when he broke the news of the failed test, as the most difficult he had ever had with a player. Livermore has been suspended by the Football Association and, in turn, by Hull and he faces a ban of up to two years.
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Wasps sealed a place in the European Champions Cup in this frantic end-of-season contest with London Irish, stuck down in 10th position in the Premiership table, playing a huge part.
Irish had nothing but pride at stake yet led 25-18 two minutes into the second half and surprised Wasps by their tenaciousdesire to end a campaign on a high.
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James DeGale has targeted a rematch with George Groves if he beats Andre Dirrell in their IBF super-middleweight title fight next Saturday.
DeGale, who made his name at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, is attempting to become the first man to win gold for Britain and go on to claim a world title. Dirrell has lost only one of his 25 bouts – against Carl Froch in 2009 – but DeGale is confident of overcoming the American and has already begun considering future opponents.
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The modern cathedral glistened in the sunshine to be admired by the New Zealand tourists and a fair crowd searching for a little sun trap. At last there was not a glimmer of scaffolding visible to mar the architecture. Yes, the Premier Inn, the haven for the modern man, looks to be up and running on the boundary’s edge at Worcester. Pull back the curtains and it was possible for guests to spot the batsmen struggling for runs in the morning against a variety of young Kiwi bowlers.
There was a pleasing urgency to the cricket even though this is not a first class-match. Instead it is a contest between approximately 14 men of New Zealand and about 15 of Worcestershire. The result does not really matter but there is a Test match on Thursday and the highest-rated New Zealand side to arrive on these shores (except that four of them have not made it yet) sense their chance not just because the Kiwis currently stand third in the ICC Test rankings, two places above England.
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The glowering thunderstorm let loose over Pimlico racetrack proved a suitably dramatic backdrop to American Pharoah’s victory under jockey Victor Espinoza in the 140th running of the $1.5m Preakness Stakes, for the portents seem ominous that the Triple Crown hex that has lasted 37 years might finally be washed out to sea.
Bob Baffert’s 4-5 favorite won easily from trainer Dallas Stewart’s Tale of Verve, who rallied to second. Divining Rod finished third in the one-mile-and three-sixteenths race. Dortmund, Baffert’s second string, finished a tired fourth.
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Rory McIlroy shot a stunning 11-under-par round of 61 to storm to the top of the leaderboard at the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina.
The world No1 started the weekend three shots off top spot but he produced a record-breaking display in his third round to overhaul all his rivals.
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Louis van Gaal’s mission this close season for Manchester United could be termed as “Get Pogba, keep De Gea”. Acquiring a dynamic midfielder of the quality of Juventus’s Paul Pogba and retaining one of the world’s best goalkeepers in David de Gea, who is yet to sign a new contract, are key to United becoming serious contenders next year.
With up to £150m available, which would take the manager’s spending to £300m in 12 months, the Dutchman has the finance to meet Juve’s €100m (£71.5m) valuation of Pogba, hand De Gea a lucrative fresh deal north of £150,000 a week and bolster other areas of the squad. Despite the £50m loss of revenue from not being in the Champions League, the world record £750m, 10-year kit deal with Adidas starts on 1 August, so money will not be hard to come by.
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Sheffield United have suspended the midfielder Jose Baxter after traces of a banned substance were found in his sample following a routine drugs test.
Baxter, 23, who began his career at Everton, is protesting his innocence, the South Yorkshire club said.
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Bath and Leicester, two sides that have been knocking lumps off each other since well before the dawn of professional rugby, meet in next Saturday’s play-off after Bath ended their regular season with a frolic against another side who once caused them troubles.
Playing the kind of rugby that will not be on show next week, Bath ran in seven tries but also conceded four to a team that included eight players from the Gloucester academy in their match-day 23.
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Andrew Strauss, the newly appointed director of England cricket, knows the clock is ticking in his search to fill the vacant position of head coach but insists only those candidates aligned with his stance towards Kevin Pietersen, with the batsman ruled out of this summer’s plans, will be considered.
When asked on Tuesday at Lord’s whether English cricket’s relationship with the 34-year-old could ever be rebuilt, Strauss replied “absolutely” and claimed both parties “should look at ways and methods of trying to make that happen”. Those words felt optimistic at the time and since then the mud-slinging has continued, with Colin Graves, the new chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, the last to stick his head above the parapet.
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Daryl Powell accused Castleford of lacking maturity after last season’s beaten finalists were dumped out of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup at the sixth-round stage by Hull FC.
The Tigers started the tie at the KC Stadium poorly and fell away badly to slump to a 40-14 defeat, a scoreline that appeared unlikely with only two points in it after an hour.
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Glasgow secured top spot in the Guinness Pro12 table and home advantage for next week’s play-offs with a stirring second half against Ulster in a 32-10 victory.
The visitors were good value for their 10-6 half-time lead but two tries from Finn Russell and one each by Stuart Hogg and Richie Vernon sealed an impressive comeback. With both sides having already qualified for the play-offs, the outcome means the two teams meet again in Scotland.
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For three years, Charlotte Brown has been chasing a medal by trying to jump over a bar she couldn’t see.
On Saturday she earned a third-place finish at the Texas state high school championships. And proudly joining her on the podium as the bronze medal was draped around her neck – her service dog Vador.
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Dean Richards paid tribute to Mike Blair after the former Scotland international captained Newcastle to victory over Harlequins in his final game for the club.
Blair left the field to a standing ovation from the 7,014 crowd shortly after scoring a crucial third try for Newcastle, who went on to add two more for a bonus point.
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• James Haskell calls on more high-profile players to speak out
• Football fan groups urge authorities to do more to combat problem
• UK stadiums a haunt for homophobia – on the pitch and in the stands
World Rugby, the international governing body, has vowed to take a lead on stamping out homophobia in sport in the wake of a major study that showed the extent to which gay athletes and spectators risk abuse and discrimination.
World Rugby’s chairman, Bernard Lapasset, has reiterated its stance in the buildup to this autumn’s World Cup, while Wasps and England’s James Haskell has called on more high-profile players to speak out against homophobia. Meanwhile, a new alliance of LGBT football fan groups in England has called on authorities to do more to combat the problem of homophobia within stadiums.
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With a place in the play-offs for the winners and an immediate end to the season for the losers, Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs in a high-stakes encounter, scoring 199-6 before restricting KKR to 190 in their 20 overs.
That Knight Riders got even that close was down in large part to some terrible bowling from the Royals, who gave away 26 runs in extras and bowled a succession of hittable deliveries, targeting Yusuf Pathan with medium-pace short balls that were repeatedly despatched to the boundary.
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With one of their London Welsh jokers still to play, Saracens were always likely to take the fourth play-off spot, and that they duly did. Four tries in nine minutes at the start of the final quarter, three of them by Chris Ashton in the space of five minutes, were enough to make the situation safe, even allowing for Exeter’s own surge of late points at home to Sale. Final-round rugby often has a touch of the surreal about it – see this season’s Six Nations – and so it was here.
Except there’s nothing very surreal about a London Welsh hiding – indeed, the 21-17 scoreline after half-an-hour was the surreal one. Ten minutes into the second half it was still touch and go, even though Saracens were nurturing a 16-point lead. But the second-half score ended up being 42-0, as Welsh cruised towards a final tally of 1,021 points conceded this season, surpassing West Hartlepool’s record in 1999, which was gathered over four more games. Remarkable, then, that for so long in this game the destiny of that fourth spot was a live issue.
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That is the trouble with a meticulously prepared send-off; there’s always an uninvited guest who spoils it. Steven Gerrard’s farewell to Anfield ended emotionally and in defeat as Crystal Palace produced an exemplary away display to ruin the Liverpool captain’s 354th and final outing on home soil. It was Jeremy Goss ruining the Spion Kop’s last stand in 1994 all over again.
Gerrard rallied late on as he tried to rescue Liverpool one last time but to no avail. The 34-year-old’s shots sailed high and wide, prompting mocking tribute from the Kop, whereas Jason Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha and Glenn Murray found the target to remind all that they should never have been overlooked in the build-up to this fixture. Murray put the game beyond Brendan Rodgers’ team in the 90th minute, scoring from the rebound of his own penalty kick after Lucas Leiva was adjudged to have fouled Zaha.
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Leicester 22-14 Northampton
It was a taxing season for Leicester even before the taxi exploits of Manu Tuilagi, but the Tigers are, as usual, in the play-offs – if for once grateful to their east Midlands rivals Northampton who, having already ensured they would finish first in the table and enjoy home advantage on Saturday, sent a weakened, rather than weak, team to the Tigers’ lair.
The scoreline was closer than the contest, Northampton fading in the second half as the referee took issue with their scrummaging. They have led the table for the whole season, but, in a virtual reserve side, their props were Alex Corbisiero and Salesi Ma’afu, who were very much first choice at the start of the campaign. It showed how the scrum has become an issue for the Saints to the point where it seems to be the greatest barrier between the club and a second successive Premiership title.
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