I am ready to fight for Commonwealth, World title: Vijender

Agencies
December 24, 2017

Jaipur, Dec 24: Indian boxing's poster boy Vijender Singh now has his eyes trained on the Commonwealth and World Championship title, the hunger for success not quite satiated by his 10th straight win on the pro circuit.

The 32-year-old Vijender last night floored West African Boxing Union Middleweight champion Ernest Amuzu with an unanimous verdict to retain his WBO Oriental and Asia Pacific Super middleweight titles.

The Commonwealth Super Middleweight title is currently held by Great Britain's Luke Blackledge, a very talented 27- year-old boxer with 23 wins, including eight knockouts, from 30 fights.

While Blackledge could prove to be his toughest opponent so far, for the time being India's Olympic and World Championship bronze medallist was delighted to have signed off the year on a high.

"Happy to end this year on a winning note. Now I will look forward to play at least two titles next year -- Commonwealth and World title. I would like to thank the people of Jaipur for making this show a big success and thanks to all my fans across India for their support," Vijender said after his bout at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

He added, "I am really happy on winning this fight. I know he was a tough fighter and that is why the fight continued till 10 rounds, but yes, I was sticking to the strategy planned by my coaches, and that helped me in winning this fight."

Asked about Pakistani British boxer Amir Khan's challenge, Vijender said the time has come to settle the issue.

"He has boasted that he has two world titles, now I too have two world titles, so we should have a fight. Despite having different weight categories the bout can be arranged.

We have seen such bouts having boxers of different weight categories," said Vijender.

Coming back to his latest fight, he said there were a few anxious moments during the 10-round bout, and praised his Ghanian opponent.

"He is a tough guy, I kept searching for an opportunity to knock him down but somehow he survived. I have to admit that he is a durable boxer who can prolong a fight. After the initial rounds I realised this was going to be long battle."

He refuted the charge that the African was not a worthy opponent considering his low ranking.

"I know he is quite low in ranking as compared to me. But one blow can decide the fight. He posed a challenge in the first two rounds and when I started dominating all of a sudden I sustained a deep cut on my forehead and for a moment it appeared that all was finished.

"I was shaken but fortunately there came a break, giving me the time to recoup again."

Vijender's promoter, Neerav Tomar of IOS, too was hopeful of a bout with Amir.

"We have seen such fights before -- like between Mayweather and Pacquiao -- then why a fight between Vijender and Amir cannot be arranged. In fact, we are working on it, and hopefully it will take place.

"Amir is 72 (kg) and presently Vijender is 76.2 and if he has to come down it can be tough for him. His trainer's advice would be the deciding factor," Tomar said.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: Batting great Rahul Dravid has attributed Chennai Super Kings' consistent run in the IPL to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's instincts, game-smarts and the incredible amount of work that goes behind the scenes.

N Srinivasan, the former BCCI president and head of India Cements, which owns the CSK franchise, agreed that Dhoni is a man of instinct who doesn't believe in attending team meetings and going over data.

Both were speaking at a webinar organised by the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

"If you look at the success CSK has had, they've got really good access to data and they've got really good access to people behind the scenes and they've run cricket teams at the junior level," Dravid said at the webinar according to ESPNcricinfo.

The former India captain added, "They understand talent and they've obviously got a good scouting process in place. But, what they also have is a captain who really understands instincts.

"So, I mean, look, I know Dhoni quite well and I hope he hasn't changed, but I know Dhoni is probably not one to look at reams of data and statistics."

The Super Kings have won the lucrative tournament three times -- one less than Mumbai Indians -- and reached the knockouts in each of the 10 seasons they have been a part of.

Srinivasan also spoke about how Dhoni's instinct and judgement contributed to his team's success at a time when a lot of emphases is placed on data.

"We're awash with data just now. To give you an example, there are bowling coaches and in a T20 game, they play videos of every batsman whom they're going to come against and they see how he got out, what's his strength, what's his weakness etc.

"So, MS Dhoni doesn't attend this, he's a pure instinct man. The bowling coach, (head coach Stephen) Fleming will be there and everybody will be there, everyone is giving opinions, (but) he'll get up and go.

"In the context of instinct, he feels that okay he can assess a batsman or player on the field, that's his judgement. On the other hand, there is so much of data that is available to help a person also analyse. It's a very difficult line to draw (between data and instinct)."

Srinivasan also recalled how Dhoni once refused to take "one outstanding player" suggested by the franchise boss as that could have broken the team's cohesion.

"There was one outstanding player that we suggested to MS, he said: 'no sir, he will spoil the team'. The cohesion within the team is important and see in America, franchise-based sport has been there for such a long time," he said.

"In India, we're just starting and we're new to it. But we at India Cements have had a lot of experience running teams at junior levels."

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News Network
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Manchester United's Paul Pogba on Monday paid tribute to George Floyd, stressing that violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated and they have to stop.

Pogba took to Instagram to write: "During the past few days I have thought a lot about how to express my feelings about what happened in Minneapolis. I felt anger, pity, hatred, indignation, pain, sadness."

"Sadness for George and for all black people who suffer from racism Every day! Whether in football, at work, at school, Anywhere! This has to stop, once and for all! Not tomorrow or the next day, it has to end today! Violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated," he added.

Protests erupted in Minneapolis and other US cities on Tuesday after Floyd, an African-American man, died following his arrest by the four officers.

A viral video showed a police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinning 46-year-old Floyd to the ground with his knee on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Floyd died at a local hospital shortly thereafter.

The four police officers were fired. Chauvin was also charged with murder and manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

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zaki ahmed
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Jun 2020

This photograph in the above mentioned article is of Floyd Mayweather Jr , the world welterweight & super heavy weight champion & wrongly menitoned as Pogba .

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News Network
April 12,2020

Mumbai, Apr 12: Always eager to share his vast knowledge and experience, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has interacted with 12,000 doctors on sports injuries.

In his over two decade long illustrious career, Tendulkar suffered many health issues, the most prominent being the tennis elbow injury.

The veteran of 200 Tests and 463 ODIs, got to know through one Dr Sudhir Warrier, an orthopaedic surgeon, that several young doctors across the country were utilising the lockdown time to effectively gain knowledge on sports injuries through live webinars.

A session on sports injuries was held on Saturday and Tendulkar, knowing that his experiences will help these doctors, volunteered to be a part of it.

Tendulkar, accordingly, interacted with around 12,000 doctors, who attended the session.

It is reliably leanrt that the 46-year-old legend said he was grateful to the medical fraternity for their service.

During the session, the young orthopaedic doctors got to know how the requirements and treatment outcomes of athletes are different from regular patients, sources said.

Dr Warrier moderated the session with Dr Nitin Patel, physiotherapist, who has worked with Indian cricket team and IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.

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