BOXING
Taiwan league to hold bouts
Taiwan’s first professional boxing league is to hold matches in Taipei’s Xinyi District on Friday, the Carry Fighting Championship (CFC) announced on Monday. To mark the inaugural season, the league is to stage 10 fights at Legacy Max on the sixth floor of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi’s A11 store, including three exhibition bouts featuring six of its contracted boxers and a single-loss elimination competition featuring eight non-contracted fighters in the 75kg weight class. The 60kg and 67kg weight fights are to be held on Saturday.
CRICKET
Afghan series scrapped
Australia yesterday scrapped a T20 men’s series against Afghanistan later this year, saying the situation for women in the Taliban-ruled country was deteriorating. Cricket Australia said it had received advice “that conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan are getting worse” and so had postponed the three-match series scheduled for August at a neutral venue. It is the third time since 2021 that Australia has refused to play Afghanistan outside of international tournaments.
SOCCER
Fans can get Messi refund
Fans who bought tickets to watch Lionel Messi in Hong Kong, only for him to sit out the friendly, are to receive a 50 percent refund — as long as they do not launch legal action, organizer Tatler Asia said on Monday. A sellout crowd paid from HK$880 (US$112.50) to see the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner play on Feb. 4 in an Inter Miami tour match against a Hong Kong select XI. However, the 36-year-old Argentine remained glued to the bench with an injury, drawing boos from the crowd — and then a furor in China, which saw his absence as a political snub.
ATHLETICS
Olympian opposes tournament
Olympic gold medalist and Australian Sports Commission CEO Kieren Perkins yesterday said that “someone will die” if a multisport event that he called “borderline criminal” and which allows banned performance-enhancing substances goes ahead. The Enhanced Games have been proposed by Australian entrepreneur Aron D’Souza, with Australian world champion swimmer James Magnussen the first athlete to publicly pledge to compete at the event. D’Souza has promised the retired Magnussen US$1 million if he can break the world 50m freestyle record after taking performance-enhancing substances. “Someone will die if we allow that sort of environment to continue to foster and flourish,” Perkins told a news conference, adding that “there’s plenty of historical examples of athletes that don’t survive through their 40s because of taking drugs.”
SOCCER
Acerbi leaves national camp
Italy’s Inter defender Francesco Acerbi has left the national team camp ahead of this month’s friendlies after being accused of using a racist expression by Napoli’s Juan Jesus in a Serie A game, the Italian Football Federation said. The alleged incident occurred during Sunday’s 1-1 draw between Serie A leaders Inter and seventh-placed Napoli, with defender Jesus later saying Acerbi had apologized. The federation said that although it agreed that Acerbi did not have racist intent, it was agreed he should be left out of Friday’s friendlies in the US “to let things settle for the national team.”
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is considering reducing its pitch clock by two seconds to help players better adjust to the rules applied at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The proposal aims to shorten the pitch timer from 25 seconds to 23 seconds with the bases empty, and from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base. Currently, the WBC mandates that pitchers deliver a pitch every 18 seconds with the bases empty and 15 seconds with runners on base. The issue was raised during a pre-season CPBL managers’ meeting on Tuesday by Rakuten Monkeys bench and batting
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
‘SETTING THE TONE’: Donovan Mitchell said that their determination to dominate had nothing to do with past results, but was about a potential post-season clash The Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday boosted their NBA-best record with a 142-105 romp past the New York Knicks, tightening their grip on the Eastern Conference lead with an all-around dominant display. Donovan Mitchell scored 27 points to lead six Cavs players to score in double figures, connecting on five of seven three-pointers as Cleveland drilled 19 from beyond the arc. “I think the biggest thing was just try to set the tone early,” Mitchell said, adding that the determination to dominate had nothing to do with the Knicks’ first-round playoff win over the Cavs two seasons ago and everything to do with
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