List of All Articles with Tag 'ng'

The NBA offseason is fast approaching and three teams could be poised to make huge mistakes with their NBA free-agent signings.This offseason plenty of mistakes will be made by teams. These mistakes could derail rebuilds or set back teams approaching title contention. Sometimes a mistake is sign...

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Two Western Conference teams face off on Wednesday night with the Dallas Wings hosting the Phoenix Mercury.After a strong start, Dallas has dropped back-to-back games to fall to .500 on the season, but it is still ahead of the 1-3 Mercury in the standings.Phoenix has not played great, only b...

The New York Liberty split a home and home with the Chicago Sky over the weekend ahead of playing against the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday night.The Lynx are in a tough spot, starting this season just 1-6 with Natalie Achonwa and Diamond Miller out of the lineup due to injuries.The team is 11...

First, Chris Billam-Smith was raised aloft. As Shane McGuigan hauled his fighter’s hulking frame into the air, for the adoring mass of fans to see, the cruiserweight’s face vanished behind his gloves. Somewhere under the battered leather, his left eye – swollen half-shut – closed completely. So did the right, trying to trap the tears. Inevitably, the dam broke. The stream washed away his sweat, while his bawls were drowned out by the flood of noise around him. Then, the cruiserweight sank to his knees, all 6ft of him reduced to the stature of a boy who once dreamt of this very moment. Or rather, this meshing of moments. To a young Billam-Smith, fighting in front of a sold-out crowd at the home of his beloved AFC Bournemouth would have represented a dream fulfilled; so would winning a world title. Doing both on the same night? If that plays like a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster, then it is the kind of moment that one would deride for stretching our suspension of disbelief a fibre too far. Boxing is not Hollywood. Boxing does not provide fairytale endings. Boxing is unforgiving, and cruel. But if any boxer has earnt a mote of kindness from this sport, it is Billam-Smith. It was granted in the form of his decision win over former teammate Lawrence Okolie last month, but it should not be taken for granted. Nor could it have been when “112-112” was the first scorecard to boom over the PA at Dean Court. “I remember listening and thinking... like frowning,” Billam-Smith, 32, tells The Independent, with stitches still hovering over his left eye. “I wasn’t really listening to the [other] scores, but I just knew it was obviously a majority decision. If I had listened, I think I would have known [I’d won] because obviously one of them was a 107, and that couldn’t have been me because I had no points deducted and wasn’t knocked down or anything. Obviously I was just waiting for them to say ‘and new’. He said it, and a wave of emotion came over me. I was just thinking, ‘I’ve done it.’ I just couldn't believe it. It was such... it’s been such a long journey.” As Billam-Smith knelt in the ring, his face soaked in tears, his mother came to his mind. Dedicating his victory to her, Billam-Smith revealed in the ring that she is battling cancer. “Obviously at the moment, with my mum being unwell and stuff,” he tells The Independent, “for it to be all worth it and worth all the hard graft put in over the years, the years of not earning any money as an amateur and even early on as a pro – not earning a huge amount of money and scraping by at times... To finally to do it and achieve my ultimate dream of winning a world title at the stadium, it was just... You can’t really put it into words to be honest with you. “I had so many reasons to win; I had 15,000 people there that I couldn’t let down, my mum, my wife, my son. I was never going in there without giving it 100 per cent, because of all those reasons. And obviously for myself as well, with the growth through the years. Yeah, my mum obviously was a huge part of that as well.” So was Billam-Smith’s son, Frank, as he says. “Having to miss my son’s first birthday the day before the fight, that’s a completely different emotion. It’s weird; he has no idea what’s going on, doesn’t know that I missed his birthday – thankfully – to stand half-naked in front of loads of people at Bournemouth pier. You know, it’d be amazing for him to grow up and hopefully be proud of his dad.” These various factors, and the emotional weight loaded into each of them, had to be put aside for the sake of performance; so did the sense of occasion around fighting at Dean Court. “On the Friday, I went and sat in my old season-ticket seat and just looked at the set-up,” says Billam-Smith. “I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ The ring-walk rehearsal was very important for me to visualise how everything was going to be, so it wasn’t overwhelming and I wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, this is actually happening.’ [During the actual ring walk], there’s a point where I sort of look around and just nod to myself. Like, I’m still very much in the zone and focused and staying calm, but I thought: ‘This is awesome.’ “[In the fight], I very much had blinkers on. All the visualisation helped. I was very calm in the ring and the whole time in the build-up, just thinking about those 12 rounds and how I was going to react – making sure I reacted logically to every situation.” Billam-Smith did just that, capping off an eclectic trilogy of fights across the last 11 months. First, there was his war with Isaac Chamberlain, which ended as a points victory in Billam-Smith’s favour, then his knockout-of-the-year candidate against Armend Xhoxhaj in December, before this often-bitty bout with Okolie. The 12 rounds against Okolie will not be what fans remember from this particular night, however. They will remember the aftermath – the stirring scenes of a dream being realised in real time. “Now it’s about creating another dream,” says Billam-Smith, looking ahead to the future. “You know, I’d love to fight in Las Vegas, but most importantly I need to secure my family’s future financially. And I’m not the finished article as a boxer. “In any sport I’ve ever played, I’ve always just wanted to give it 100 per cent and improve. That’s still the same me now.” Lorton Entertainment’s“STABLE”, a four-part documentary series covering Shane McGuigan’s work with his fighters, will be released this Autumn. Read More Leigh Wood and Chris Billam-Smith win world titles with victories over familiar foes How a unique night of action could lay groundwork for future super-fight ‘I could kill a guy and get away with it’: Teofimo Lopez is treading a disturbing path through boxing How unique night of action could lay groundwork for future super-fight Leigh Wood and Chris Billam-Smith win world titles with victories over familiar foes Boxxer’s Ben Shalom: ‘I sacrificed my twenties, I sacrificed absolutely everything’

Real Madrid have cooled their pursuit of Kai Havertz after learning of Chelsea's asking price. The 23-year-old German joined the club in 2020 but could be on the move as Bayern Munich consider reuniting him with former boss Thomas Tuchel.

Dodger Stadium plans to reinforce its right field fence and add padding after New York Yankees star Aaron Judge injured his toe after crashing into it.The New York Yankees have not had superstar outfielder Aaron Judge since their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers this past Saturday. During th...

Rangers ace and prized offseason signing Jacob deGrom will undergo Tommy John surgery and the pitcher was emotional in his first time addressing the injury.On Tuesday, news broke that Jacob deGrom, who signed a monster five-year, $185 million contract with the Texas Rangers this offseason, would...

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp praised rookie quarterback Stetson Bennett IV while throwing shade at Matthew Stafford.The Los Angeles Rams had the worst Super Bowl title defense in NFL history. After bringing home their second Lombardi Trophy, they went 5-12 in 2022. During that year...

Arch Manning is one of the most-hyped freshmen in college football history, but Texas football has more newcomers who will be huge for the Longhorns.The Texas Longhorns spring game solidified what a lot of people around the program already knew: This is Quinn Ewers' team going into the 2023...

We're back with another installment of trade fits, with FanSided's MLB Insider Robert Murray discussing fits for Aaron Nola, Aroldis Chapman and Jonathan India.The MLB trade deadline is rapidly approaching, and there is increased buzz that the trade market is starting to heat up.Wh...

Starting pitcher Jacob deGrom is prepared to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. The Texas Rangers are protected in his contract.The Texas Rangers received the worst possible news on Tuesday. After undergoing an MRI to check on progress from right elbow inflammation, it was determined that...