Sports Then and Now

Anthony Joshua is looking to be the fifth boxer to win the prestigious SPOTY Award.

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) Award is always a cherished honor and according to Betway Insider the favorite to claim the 2017 award is boxing champion Anthony Joshua.

Heading into his upcoming fight with Carlos Takam, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion has already had a good 2017 with his title unifying victory in April over former champion Wladimir Klitschko.

That victory in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium followed up three victories in 2016. Joshua first claimed the WBC International Heavyweight title in 2014 and then won the British Heavyweight title with a December 2015 victory over Dillian Whyte.

Joshua claimed the IBF (International Boxing Federation) title with a knockout of Charles Martin in April 2016. He twice retained his titles in 2016 with wins over Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina.

The 2012 Olympic Super Heavyweight Gold Medalist, Joshua enters the Takam fight undefeated with a 19-0 career professional record, including five knockouts.

He was originally scheduled to face Kubrat Pulev, but Pulev suffered an injury in early October and was replaced just 12 days before the scheduled fight by the 36-year old Takem. Read the rest of this entry →

Conor McGregor took most of the big hits during his battle with Floyd Mayweather.

Las Vegas’ T-Mobile arena saw Floyd Mayweather surpass Conor McGregor with a tenth round stoppage on Saturday, and win the money spinning super fight, alongside clinching the 50^th straight victory of his extraordinary career.

Mayweather Took His Time on Saturday

Mayweather, as a former welterweight boxing champion, emerged from a retirement spanning two years to face the Irish MMA superstar, and took his own sweet time to get the fight started. After the fourth round began, however, his domination was complete.

The end of the fight saw an exhausted McGregor doubled over the ropes and Mayweather landing two hard left hooks, an action which prompted ref Robert Byrd’s intervention, and his call of a technical knockout.

Mayweather Remains Complimentary about McGregor

Mayweather stated that McGregor impressed him, and that the Irishman was far better than he had imagined he would be. He went on to say, however, that although McGregor was a tough competitor, he had been the better man that night.

The Slow Going a Deliberate Move

Mayweather said that he had purposefully taken his time as the match began, since he knew that this would allow him to take full advantage of the fatigue he predicted McGregor would be battling.

In accordance with many of the punters that partook of the online betting NZ and the rest of the world provided, Mayweather was certain that McGregor would be unable to go the distance, and he was proven correct, as the tenth round revealed. Read the rest of this entry →

The hype is in full swing for the Floyd Mayweather fight against Conor McGregor.

Michael Page, the British fighter, has stated the obvious: if Conor McGregor wins the upcoming August fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. it will be the biggest upset in the history of sport. He went on to say that the last time the world experienced anything like this win would be was when Leicester won the Premier League, and that McGregor winning would overshadow that, in just one boxing match, in the unlikely event that he managed to best Mayweather.

Mayweather Lets McGregor Fight with Gloves He’s Used to

Mayweather has been keeping his mouth shut, relatively speaking, in the build-up to the Vegas showdown, but he has recently dropped a bombshell: he has told McGregor to forget about the ten ounce gloves he should wear for the fight, and stick to the eight ounce ones he’s more used to instead!

The Buzz of the Press Conference Showdowns

McGregor has claimed that he emerged the winner in each round of his promotional tour alongside the undefeated Mayweather, but one of the biggest criticisms he has had to contend with were allegations of racism due to more-insensitive-than-usual comments he made. Australian sports betting sites and those around the world have been lapping up every minute of the sensational exchanges, but there are many people that feel that McGregor went too far a number of times.

The claims arose after McGregor told Mayweather to dance for him, calling him boy, as well, a moniker with severe racial overtones. His attempts to diffuse the furore that resulted only added gasoline to the fire, with a further uproar resulting from McGregor’s statement that he was half-black, below the waist. He also referred to black people as dancing monkeys when discussing the third instalment of the Rocky films on a chat show.

Trash Talk Started Early On

McGregor had previously laid into Mayweather about reports over the latter’s unpaid taxes, with the IRS claiming that the boxer owes them more than US$20 million in unpaid taxes from 2015. This was the year that Mayweather enjoyed his biggest payday to date thanks to the blockbuster bout against Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather’s rather tame response was that his domain was intact, but this affected McGregor’s taunting not a jot, and he continued to tease the champion about the money he allegedly owes the US government. McGregor even commented on what Mayweather was wearing, saying that the boxer could obviously not afford a suit, and that the money he owed was the reason behind the fact that he was dressed in just a tracksuit. Read the rest of this entry →

Conor McGregor will have to keep his feet on the ground during his battle with Floyd Mayweather.

Conor Anthony McGregor was born on the 14^th of July in 1998, and is an Irish pro MMA fighter who is currently signed to the UFC. He is the reigning champion for the Lightweight division of the UFC, and a former champion of the Featherweight division as well. Over the course of his fighting career, McGregor has taken part in fights for three divisions:

1. Featherweight
2. Lightweight
3. Welterweight

McGregor’s Early Life in Dublin

McGregor was born to Tony and Margaret McGregor in Crumlin, Dublin, and was raised in that town, attending Gaelscoil and Gaelcholáiste in primary school and Coláiste de hÍde in Tallaght in secondary. He developed his passion for athletics at this time, playing association football for the Lourdes Celtic Football Club. He took up boxing at the town’s boxing club at 12-years of age as well.

The McGregors moved to Lucan in Dublin in 2006, and Conor started attending Gaelcholáiste Coláiste Cois Life at this point. After this he began a plumbing apprenticeship, but, luckily for fighting fans the world around, he met up with future fighter for the UFC Tom Egan at this point, and together they started training for the MMA.

A Two-Division Champion in 2016

On the 27^th of September 2016, there was an official announcement that McGregor would be facing Eddie Alvarez for the Lightweight UFC Championship, UFC 205, set to take place on the 12^th of November. McGregor triumphed with a second-round TKO and won the fight. Read the rest of this entry →

Floyd Mayweather enters the Conor McGregor fight with a 49-0 professional career record.

It is either the match of the millennium or one of the biggest money-spinners in history, but the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is confirmed. The formerly-retired, unsurpassed boxer Floyd Mayweather will be taking on the biggest star of the UFC, Conor McGregor, in Las Vegas.

There has been years of speculation about whether or not this would ever take place, and both athletes have been exchanging insults for ages now, but they have also confirmed that it will be happening. A boxer with a record of 49 for 0 will meet a man who has never taken part in any kind of pro boxing match in the ring in August of this year.

A Closer Look at Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather is an American boxer born in Michigan’s Grand Rapids on the 24^th of February 1977. He won a bronze medal in the Olympics and 3 national Golden Gloves before turning pro in 1996. Mayweather took his first championship title in 1988 as a super featherweight, and went on to gain titles in 4 different weight classes while keeping an undefeated record.

 A Complicated Family Life

Mayweather’s domestic life was a complex one: the senior Mayweather had a fierce temper, and drifted in and out of serious danger whilst working as a drug dealer. He got shot in the leg in 1978, whilst his son was in his arms, and in 1993 the law finally caught up with him and he got sent to jail for trafficking cocaine. Deborah, Mayweather’s mother, also battled with issues around substance abuse. Read the rest of this entry →

Sport has the compelling power of bringing together millions of people, irrespective of their gender, color, nationality, age or religion. USA, being one of the most culturally diverse countries has historically embraced people from all ethnic and demographic background in its truly inclusive society. But, owing to the present-day scenario, will it be possible for a Muslim to become a sports legend, for example, someone like Muhammad Ali? With the prejudice against Muslims in American society will they be presented with an equal opportunity to excel in any field, let alone a competitive one as sports? Mr. Bader Radwan, Aldoury.com analyst, has explored the current trends in the USA to identify what chances the Muslims have here to create a place for themselves:

Will the USA administration provide the support to exceptionally talented Muslim sports person seeking asylum from Muslim countries for taking their career forward? Also, will the same kind of support be provided to American-Muslim children showing talent in any specific field? Will it be possible for another Muhammad Ali to come up as an American sports legend or inspirational hero? According to Radwan, it would be interesting to observe in coming few years if administrative, infrastructure and economic support would be provided by the Government to attract American-Muslims to be the part of a cohesive society. Read the rest of this entry →