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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News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: Pakistan limited overs captain Babar Azam is tired of his constant comparisons with India skipper Virat Kohli and says he would rather be compared to the greats at home.

Babar, six years younger to Kohli, has a long way to go in getting close to Kohli's staggering numbers across formats. The India skipper has 70 hundreds to his name and averages more than 50 in all three formats.

"I would be more happy if you compare to me say a Javed Miandad, Muhammad Yousuf or Younis Khan. Why compare me to Kohli or any Indian player?" asked the 25-year-old, who is in England with the national team, said in an online media interaction on Thursday.

Babar has scored 16 international hundreds and averages more than 50 in ODIs and T20s. In 26 Tests, he has scored 1850 runs at 45.12.

He also said that he is not targeting any English bowler for the series next month.

"I don’t see who the bowler is or his reputation. I just try to play each ball on merit. England no doubt has a top bowling attack and they have advantage of playing at home but this is a challenge I want to score runs in," he said.

Before the squad’s departure for England, Pakistan batting coach Younis Khan said that pacer Joffra Archer will be a handful for the Pakistani batsmen.

Babar said that he would try to play every English bowler on merit but conceded that after getting runs in Australia last year, he was keen to leave his footprint in the coming Test and T20 series in England.

Reminded that some former Test players had already written off Pakistan for the England series, Babar said they were entitled to their opinion.

"But we don’t have a bad team and already we have been enjoying our training. It is good to be back on the field after such a long lay-off. I think we have the bowlers to trouble them like Abbas, Naseem, Shaheen and others while we have some experience in our batting line-up."

Babar said he would love to get a triple century in a Test match.

"When you score a century, you naturally want to go on and convert that into a double or a triple century. This is something I would like to do during the Test series.

"I like to play my natural game but my selection of shots depends on the conditions and bowlers."

Babar also ruled out any problems in the Pakistan dressing room due to the presence of former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was sacked last year.

But he said that since Muhammad Rizwan had been playing in all formats for Pakistan in recent times, he would be the starting keeper in the Test series ahead of Sarfaraz.

"I think we first have to give Rizwan a proper chance and Sarfaraz is there as back up."

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 6: 'The Irishman,' and 'Two Popes' were shut out from the winners list despite getting multiple nominations, the movies didn't win a single award at the Golden Globes Award held on Sunday (local time). Other movies in the list include 'Bombshell,' 'Dolemite Is My Name,' 'Harriet,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Knives Out' and 'Little Women.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Irishman' may have gone into the 2020 Golden Globes with the second-highest number of film nominations, tied with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' with five nods, but Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated mob epic for Netflix was completely shut out at the award ceremony.

Netflix landed the most film nominations of any company with 17 mentions, but it won only one award which is the best-supporting actress for 'Marriage Story's' Laura Dern. Netflix's nominated films 'Dolemite Is My Name' and 'The Two Popes' was tied with 'Joker' with four mentions each and failed to grab any awards.

'Dolemite Is My Name' star Eddie Murphy was expected by a number of pundits to win for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy.

'Bombshell', 'Harriet',' Frozen 2', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Knives Out', 'The Lion King', 'Little Women' and 'Pain and Glory' are among the other films that received multiple nominations but didn't win a single award.

On the TV side, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' tied in the race to most small-screen nominations with 'Chernobyl' and 'The Crown' with four nominations, and 'The Crown' won only one award, for star Olivia Colman.

The three-time nominees 'Barry', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Kominsky Method' and 'The Morning Show' also didn't grab any award. 'Catch-22', 'Killing Eve', 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'The Politician' who were two-time nominees that were also iced out.

'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez failed to take home the best-supporting actress award as she was predicted to win the award by a number of pundits. Billy porter also failed to make history with the best drama actor win for his role on 'Pose,' if he would've won the award, he reportedly would have been the first openly gay African-American to win that award.

'Chernobyl' won two of its four nominations. Despite that, star Jared Harris didn't win the best actor in a limited series Globe which was predicted by many prognosticators. The award was bagged by Russell Crowe for his portrayal of Roger Ailes in 'The Loudest Voice.' But the star was absent from the ceremony.

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Agencies
April 12,2020

London, Apr 12: Former Formula 1 legendary driver Stirling Moss died at the age of 90 on Sunday.

"All at F1 send our heartfelt condolences to Lady Susie and Sir Stirling's family and friends," Formula 1 said in a statement.

Often referred to as the greatest driver never to win the world championship, Moss contested 66 Grands Prix from 1951 to 1961, driving for the likes of Vanwall, Maserati and Mercedes, where he famously formed a contented and ruthlessly effective partnership with lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

In his 10-year-long stint at the tracks, Moss took 16 wins, some of which rank among the truly iconic drives in the sport's history - his 1961 victories in Monaco and Germany in particular often held up as all-time classics.

Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia on public roads for Mercedes at an average speed of close to 100mph, while he also competed in rallies and land-speed attempts.

Following an enforced retirement from racing (barring a brief comeback in saloon cars in the 1980s) after a major crash at Goodwood in 1962, Moss maintained a presence in Formula 1 as both a sports correspondent and an interested observer, before retiring from public life in January of 2018.

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