It’s certainly been a lively time of late in the heavyweight boxing division. That’s a very welcome statement to be able to make following on from the seemingly endless boreathon that was the Klitschko brothers years. Over the past couple of months we’ve seen Deontay Wilder retain his undefeated record against Dominic Breazeale, Anthony Joshua come a cropper in shocking fashion against ambitious Medican-American outsider Andy Ruiz jnr, and now Tyson Fury make very fast work on previously undefeated (yet clearly several leagues below) German fighter, Tom Schwarz this past weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tyson Fury appears to have really been working on his fitness and movement, and indeed despite his fast reflexes here, he actually gained a few pounds for the fight (weighing in at 263lbs). Still, it’s a world away from 2 years ago when he was unfit, approaching 400lbs and in a bad place mentally. It also makes you consider how well a fully fit Fury would do against Wilder, should their much anticipated rematch take place (even a trilogy of fights has been raised as a consideration). Fury certainly impressed in their previous bout, but at the same time he likely still had a degree of ring rust.
Of course boxing is a sport full of surprises and so it’s best not to absolutely count on a bout taking place to begin with. Boxing politics aside, Fury still has to take out another opponent later this year (likely in September 2019, with Jarrell Miller, who was supposed to fight Anthony Joshua before testing positive for a doping agent, a possibility), and Wilder looks set to once again face Luis Ortiz, a fighter he previously experienced some difficulty against. If the stars align though, we may well find ourselves in a long awaited Golden Era of boxing. It sure has been a while. Bring it on!
For now, enjoy this clip of Tyson Fury’s Matrix-like moving and telling strength in his fight against Tom Schwarz:
Tyson Fury vs Tom Schwarz #FurySchwarz pic.twitter.com/i8NBVwKQgs
— ZombieProphet (@GIFsZP) June 16, 2019
I’ve continued to enjoy the 2019 Women’s World Cup, and it already looks like the competition is set to be the most successful Women’s World Cup so far. One person not particularly over the moon about it though is a member of the Cameroon Women’s National Football team.
In their 15th June game against the Netherlands, Cameroon’s Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene was the first 2019 scorer for her country, which of course is great news. She also displayed a more irate side of her character though, when one of the Dutch players, Desiree van Lunteren, refused to allow her to drink from her bottle. The refusal did seem a little unusual, either rude or a case of ‘crossed wires’.
Another Dutch player, Merel van Dongen, witnessed this unfold and was kind enough to get up from the bench to offer the Cameroon player a water bottle. Clearly at this point though, Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene was already seeing red and instead decided to launch the bottle into the air, much to the amusement and/or annoyance of those around her. Cameroon went on to lose the game 3-1 to the Netherlands side. This follows their 1-0 loss to Canada. Their final group game is on Thursday against New Zealand. The Netherlands have now won both of their opening games and so are through to the knockout stage.
Check out footage of the incident below:
International football action is coming thick and fast right now. Fresh off the back of the brand new UEFA Men’s Nations League competition, we now have the excitement of the 2019 Women’s World Cup to enjoy. The women’s game is going from strength to strength nowadays, and a case in point has to be the peak audience of 6.3 million viewers for the England vs Scotland game, here in the UK. A game England edged 2 goals to 1.
While there’s been a few exciting games so far in the tournament, a handful have certainly been a little lacking on the goals front. That situation was certainly turned on its head today in impressive fashion though, when the USA, taking on Thailand, beat the World Record for the most goals ever scored in a Women’s World Cup game. The goals started at 12 minutes (courtesy of Alex Morgan, who went on to score 5 goals in total) and just didn’t stop coming. In total the USA had 40 shots (20 of which were on target against a diminutive Thai goalkeeper) vs 2 shots from the Thai side.
The US has featured in the semi finals or better of every single one of the seven Women’s World Cups held so far, winning three of them including the 2015 tournament, but still, such a relentlessly brutal one way traffic victory is quite something to behold. On the flipside, it’s of course gutting for their Thai opponents, some of whom left the pitch in tears. Thailand are relative newbies to theWomen’s World Cup tournament, only featuring once before in the Group rounds. They just didn’t have the ability or physical stature to compete with such a seasoned American side.
All of the USA goals:
The goals and scorers during the game are as follows:
- Morgan (12′ minutes, 53′ minutes, 74′ minutes, 81′ minutes, 87′ minutes),
- Lavelle (20′ minutes, 56′ minutes),
- Horan (32′ minutes),
- Mewis (50′ minutes, 54′ minutes),
- Rapinoe (79′ minutes),
- Pugh (84′ minutes),
- Lloyd (90’+2 minutes)
At the weekend, Anthony Joshua’s experienced his first defeat, at the hands of Mexican-American fighter, Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden, New York. It was Joshua’s first fight stateside and he was looking to impress against the 25-1 outsider. Instead, in what is likely to be seen as one of the biggest shocks in heavyweight boxing history, he was systematically outboxed over the seven round fight, after initially putting down Ruiz in the 3rd round. His desire to end the fight there and then, resulted in him getting caught himself, and hitting the deck twice that same round. He went on to get put down twice more in the 7th round before the referee put an end to the bout.
Some have posited that he may have been concussed and didn’t ever recover from the 3rd round knock downs. Other say he underestimated the abilities Ruiz, or could not get motivated for the fight with so many other big name bouts to look to down the line (Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder) . It’s of course perfectly possibly that Andy Ruiz Jr is actually much better than people realise, and will go on to achieve further success. While he certainly doesn’t look the part, his shape belies his speed, and he has a tidy defense too. Joshua on the other hand, has never come across as someone built for endurance, and just couldn’t seem to get to Ruiz without being on the end of a flurry of counter punches. He didn’t appear to be able to adjust to what was in front of him.
Along with his unbeaten record Anthony Joshua has lost his impressive collection of belts: International Boxing Federation World Heavyweight Title, International Boxing Organization World Heavyweight Title, World Boxing Association Super World Heavyweight Title and World Boxing Organisation World Heavyweight Title. There is thought to be a rematch clause and so hopefully he’ll get a chance to bounce back, but for now some pundits are re-evaluating his place in the heavyweight division. Ruiz becomes Mexico’s first Heavyweight Champion.
Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr Fight Highlights:
