Archive July 31, 2025

Shields sets £4m benchmark in search for promoter

Promotions from Sabata

Claressa Shields, the undisputed heavyweight champion and arguably the world’s best female fighter, is a free agent boxer.

The 30-year-old has spent her professional career signed with Dmitriy Salita’s Promotions from Sabata but announced after her latest win on Saturday that the deal had finished.

Shields will be a highly attractive prospect for any promoter because he is a three-weight unbeaten champion who is unbeaten and one of the best talkers in the sport.

15, 000 people watched her recent fight against Lani Daniels at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Women made up 71% of the tickets purchased.

In 2022, Shields and bitter rival Savannah Marshall sold more than 15 000 tickets to London’s O2 Arena, drawing a maximum TV audience of 2 million.

The minimum purse requirement for MVP &amp is £3.8 million.

Despite some verbal altercations with Shields, Jake Paul’s MVP seems to fit the bill.

Shields objected to the MVP designation of Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 3 as the women’s pound-for-pound number one.

Shields asserts that position by remaining undefeated in 17 fights. With lightweight world champion Terri Harper joining the MVP with a number of the best fighters in the world, including many of Shields’ natural rivals,

Marshall of Hartlepool and Shadasia Green, the newly crowned unified super-middleweight champion, also share the title. Marshall has already defeated Shields, who was a former world champion at the weight. In 2012, Marshall is still the only woman to defeat Shields in the amateurs.

Shields claims she is ready to speak with all advertisers.

“I’ll leave if their vision and mine don’t align,” I said. On Ariel x Ade: The Boxing Show, Shields claimed that he had no cigarette ties to any of these individuals.

Shields’ promotional options in the United States may be limited despite being American.

Only two women are currently employed by Top Rank. Top Rank, the nation’s top boxing promoter, has no current TV contract since it ended its relationship with ESPN last Saturday.

There isn’t a single female fighter signed to Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).

In recent years, it is MVP who has provided the biggest platforms for female fighters in the US. Six million people tuned in to watch the all-female card on Netflix in July. According to reports, Taylor and Serrano reportedly paid $14 million for the event.

Shields herself claims to make at least £3.8 million per fight. That is a lot to start with, and most promoters around the world are probably not interested in that number.

The option for the UK

Claressa Shields points to the sky celebratingPromotions from Sabata

Despite Shields’ previous successes in the UK, this seems the least likely choice.

Matchroom is undoubtedly a significant player in women’s boxing.

Chantelle Cameron, Queensberry’s biggest star, was declared the company’s MVP earlier this year. Ellie Scotney, a long-time Matchroom star, also opted to become a member of MVP.

Shields attracts a lot of people in the UK when she and her dance partner are on the right side of the table. Boxxer, her previous promoter, has a difficult future.

What data are gathered from this quiz?

Shields might take on the opponent next.

JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.

There is always the option Shields re-signs with Promotions from Sabata. She could also take a leaf out of Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s books and look at short-term deals or fight-by-fight agreements.

She has been linked to fighting boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s daughter Laila Ali. Salita was the one who made it clear that Wynn Records had a £11 million offer on the table.

Ali retired in 2007, and the fight would be more circus-than-competitive at 47 years old. Boxing is no stranger to that, though.

Shields can continue to weigh herself or she could slam herself in the air. She has won four weight class world championships.

When she won her most recent fight, veteran and unified middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn was present and had anticipated a final-minute cancellation of the fight.

related subjects

  • Boxing

Which promoter could free agent Shields sign with?

Promotions from Sabata

Claressa Shields, the undisputed heavyweight champion and arguably the world’s best female fighter, is a free agent boxer.

The 30-year-old has spent her professional career signed with Dmitriy Salita’s Promotions from Sabata but announced after her latest win on Saturday that the deal had finished.

Shields will be a highly attractive prospect for any promoter because he is a three-weight unbeaten champion who is unbeaten and one of the best talkers in the sport.

15, 000 people watched her recent fight against Lani Daniels at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Women made up 71% of the tickets purchased.

In 2022, Shields and bitter rival Savannah Marshall sold more than 15 000 tickets to London’s O2 Arena, drawing a maximum TV audience of 2 million.

The minimum purse requirement for MVP &amp is £3.8 million.

Despite some verbal altercations with Shields, Jake Paul’s MVP seems to fit the bill.

Shields objected to the MVP designation of Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 3 as the women’s pound-for-pound number one.

Shields asserts that position by remaining undefeated in 17 fights. With lightweight world champion Terri Harper joining the MVP with a number of the best fighters in the world, including many of Shields’ natural rivals,

Marshall of Hartlepool and Shadasia Green, the newly crowned unified super-middleweight champion, also share the title. Marshall has already defeated Shields, who was a former world champion at the weight. In 2012, Marshall is still the only woman to defeat Shields in the amateurs.

Shields claims she is ready to speak with all advertisers.

“I’ll leave if their vision and mine don’t align,” I said. On Ariel x Ade: The Boxing Show, Shields claimed that he had no cigarette ties to any of these individuals.

Shields’ promotional options in the United States may be limited despite being American.

Only two women are currently employed by Top Rank. Top Rank, the nation’s top boxing promoter, has no current TV contract since it ended its relationship with ESPN last Saturday.

There isn’t a single female fighter signed to Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).

In recent years, it is MVP who has provided the biggest platforms for female fighters in the US. Six million people tuned in to watch the all-female card on Netflix in July. According to reports, Taylor and Serrano reportedly paid $14 million for the event.

Shields herself claims to make at least £3.8 million per fight. That is a lot to start with, and most promoters around the world are probably not interested in that number.

The option for the UK

Claressa Shields points to the sky celebratingPromotions from Sabata

Despite Shields’ previous successes in the UK, this seems the least likely choice.

Matchroom is undoubtedly a significant player in women’s boxing.

Chantelle Cameron, Queensberry’s biggest star, was declared the company’s MVP earlier this year. Ellie Scotney, a long-time Matchroom star, also opted to become a member of MVP.

Shields attracts a lot of people in the UK when she and her dance partner are on the right side of the table. Boxxer, her previous promoter, has a difficult future.

What data are gathered from this quiz?

Shields might take on the opponent next.

JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.

There is always the option Shields re-signs with Promotions from Sabata. She could also take a leaf out of Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s books and look at short-term deals or fight-by-fight agreements.

She has been linked to fighting boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s daughter Laila Ali. Salita was the one who made it clear that Wynn Records had a £11 million offer on the table.

Ali retired in 2007, and the fight would be more circus-than-competitive at 47 years old. Boxing is no stranger to that, though.

Shields can continue to weigh herself or she could slam herself in the air. She has won four weight class world championships.

When she won her most recent fight, veteran and unified middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn was present and had anticipated a final-minute cancellation of the fight.

related subjects

  • Boxing

Barcelona agree shirt sponsorship deal with DR Congo

After the top Spanish football team and the central African nation agreed to a four-year deal with Barcelona, Barcelona players will now have the slogan “DR Congo – Heart of Africa” emblazoned on the back of their training shirts starting next year.

The Democratic Republic of Congo will reportedly spend 44 million euros on the partnership, including 50 million and 38 million, despite the club’s commitment to pay.

Some Congolese have criticized the arrangement because its domestic football league has endured years of chronic underfunding.

Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium will house what the club called an “immersive exhibition… to showcase the DR Congo’s cultural diversity and sporting tradition” as part of the deal.

The agreement includes a training camp for 50 newcomers to the Congolese football team, according to Didier Budimbu, the country’s sports minister, according to Didier Budimbu’s BBC Focus on Africa.

Barcelona says it will also offer kid’s basketball, handball, and roller hockey camps.

Similar agreements have been made with French side AS Monaco and Italian side AC Milan. As part of a plan to “reposition” DR Congo as a leader in tourism and investment opportunities, Budimbu described them last month.

Rwanda, the regional rival of DR Congo, has a sponsorship deal with English side Arsenal that advertises tourism there, and the player shirt sleeves read “Visit Rwanda.” Similar deals exist between the German side Bayern Munich and Paris St.Germain in France.

These issues have also been criticized, particularly recently when Rwanda has been accused of supporting rebels in the East African country during a devastating conflict.

Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the DR Congo’s foreign minister, wrote to the clubs in February to question the “morality” of the arrangement.

The Rwandan government referred to the accusations of “distraction” as “distractions.”

A peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo was signed in June to put an end to decades of the bloody conflict.

Following complaints from the general public, the South African tourism board reached an agreement with Tottenham Hotspur in 2023 that was never reached.

This arrangement has been successful despite similar noises in some DR Congo locations.

The nation’s national football league has struggled since Covid-19 began, primarily because of a lack of funding for travel across the vast nation.

Counties to receive Hundred money from Friday

Images courtesy of Getty

Starting on Friday, first-class counties will start receiving money from sales in The Hundred’s teams.

The proceeds from stakes sales in the Hundred teams they host will also start to appear in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Glamorgan, which are all 18 counties that will initially be due in excess of £400,000.

In the first half of this year, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) raised about £520 million to divide the game between the sale of stakes in all eight hundred and eight teams.

The ECB announced on Thursday that six of the eight deals have been completed, with the finalization of the Oval Invincibles and Trent Rockets acquisitions expected by the end of September.

The counties can choose to pay in full or choose a payment plan for the initial $ 400,000. They are free to use this sum of money as they please.

Later forecasts will be required for bigger windfalls. The seven counties that host Hundred teams, along with the Marylebone Cricket Club, will receive about £18 million, while the 11 non-hosts are in the running for more than £24 million.

County applications for the release of this money will have to be submitted by the ECB, and they will be subject to “guardrails” in terms of how it is spent.

A 51% stake in each of the eight hosts’ Hundred teams was available to all eight hosts to sell or keep.

Yorkshire sold all of its stakes in Northern Superchargers to Sunrisers Hyderabad’s owners, and Lancashire gave Lucknow Super Giants’ owners 70% of the team’s ownership, and Glamorgan signed a 50-share deal with Sanjay Govil, an American businessman.

In Yorkshire, the proceeds from the Superchargers’ £100 million valuation will begin to pay off a £20 million debt owed to Colin Graves, the club’s chairman, in the future.

The ECB has already received requests to change the Superchargers’ names.

The governing body would still have final say over any potential switch to 20 overs per side because it still has control over both the format of the competition and the window in which The Hundred is played.

According to Hundred managing director Vikram Banerjee, “that’s one of the things that will be discussed.”

“We need to examine what works here,” he said. T20 is popular elsewhere, but the format has produced some really intriguing content, particularly from a broadcasting perspective. Although it will likely be discussed, the 100-ball format is still in play for the time being.

Banerjee reiterated that a new broadcast deal would start in 2029, when there are no plans to add teams to The Hundred.

Beginning soon, discussions will be held about how players will be chosen for the upcoming season. Although The Hundred has primarily relied on a draft system, an auction might be a possibility.

Owners of four of the eight franchises who are connected to Indian Premier League (IPL) teams will have control over four of them. Pakistani players are prohibited from participating in the IPL because of the political unrest between India and Pakistan.

No Pakistan players are currently a part of Hundred this year. There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that some Pakistani players left the competition last year, making them unattractive to franchises, and that their players are currently not very sought-after in international competitions.

Additionally, ECB CEO Richard Gould vehemently opposed the inclusion of Pakistani players due to their nationality.

He stated, “I anticipate players from all countries being chosen for all teams.” There are no pressing issues at this point, according to the statement.

related subjects

  • County cricket
  • Franchise Cricket
  • The Hundred
  • Cricket

Jack and Kelly Osbourne’s united front for Sharon after overcoming teenage fights

The Osbourne family accompanied his coffin in a private procession while his funeral took place in his hometown of Birmingham.

The Osbourne’s lay flowers and viewed the heartfelt tributes left by fans(Image: PA)

The funeral of rock icon Ozzy Osbourne has taken place with his close-knit family stood by his side for one last time.

Crowds of fans gathered in the streets of Birmingham, the rock star’s birthplace, to pay their respect. While the funeral service itself remained private today, fans were given the opportunity to show their love and admiration for Ozzy in a procession down Broad Street on Wednesday.

Ozzy, who was known by many as the Prince of Darkness, joined the procession in a car, as fans watched a heartbroken Sharon Osbourne conceal her face. Lovingly surrounding Sharon were the three children she shared with the singer—Aimee, Kelly, and Jack.

Ozzy funeral
The emotional moment took place at the Black Sabbath Bridge bench on Broad Street(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

In what was a tragic time for their family, they were all clearly distraught, doing everything they could to comfort their mother and each other. The words that Nicola Hickling believed were whispered between Jack and Kelly were revealed by librarian Nicola Hickling.

She claims Jack comforts his older sister by saying, “Come on, Dad, we wanted to celebrate his life,” in the emotional moment. The Osbournes, a reality TV program that aired on MTV in the early 2000s, featured Jack and Kelly prominently as teenagers.

Jack and Kelly Osbourne
The siblings comforted each other at the procession (Image: PA)

The scenes were unlike their chaotic MTV days, when the siblings battled like a cat and dog. When Jack and Christina Aguilera danced at a party and Kelly’s sworn enemy Christina Aguilera did it in spectacular fashion.

She raged before a full-on brawl broke out and Sharon had to intervene. “When you hate someone, I hate someone,” she said.

Due to Jack’s refusal to put up parties while their parents were away, things escalated violently. Once more, the staff eventually disassembled them.

Later, it became clear that the two were engaged in secret combat. Kelly had a painkiller addiction that she overcame by becoming aware of. While Jack was undergoing treatment for his OxyContin addiction in series two.

I want to have complete control over my life, he told the camera crew. I was overloaded, and I decided to go pack my bags, so I sat on my mother’s bed. I’m prepared to depart. I need to leave, and I want to. “

Jack did manage to purge, and he has celebrated milestones in sobriety. And he and his ex-wife Lisa Stelly have three children: Minnie Theodora, Andy Rose, and Pearl Clementine, who he is extremely close to Kelly, who helped him through his MS diagnosis in 2012 and who is proud to have adopted them.

Ozzy funeral
Fans turned up to pay their respects(Image: PA)

Just a few weeks after Ozzy’s final performance in Birmingham at the beginning of July, sadly, he passed away. The band’s final performance was referred to as the star’s final performance, and it marked the first time in 20 years that all members of Black Sabbath, including Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, and Geezer Butler, have performed on stage together.

Continue reading the article.

Reports suggested that Yungblud, James Hetfield, and the rest of the band’s members from Black Sabbath were also present at the funeral. According to legend, Elton John also claimed to have intended to travel to the service.

What legal tests are Donald Trump’s tariffs facing?

The aggressive tariff-imposing policy of US President Donald Trump has been closely watched by businesses, consumers, and nations.

In a high-stakes legal battle that will either endow a fundamental component of Trump’s economic policy or shut it off altogether, the courts will soon decide whether Trump has the authority to impose those tariffs.

According to the US Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the authority to impose tariffs. However, Congress has passed a number of laws over the years that have given the president some of that authority.

Trump cited the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows tariffs on all imports when there is an “unusual and extraordinary threat… to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.” This is one of Trump’s most important assertions about tariff power.

In the case VOS Selections v. Trump, small businesses raise two important points. They contend that the president is not specifically permitted to impose tariffs. And they contend that neither of the two Trump tariffs, which are levied against a wide range of trading partners to address US trade deficits, nor do they rise to the level of an “unusual and extraordinary” emergency.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear the case’s oral arguments on Thursday, one day before Trump’s deadline for a number of new tariffs to go into effect. The Court of International Trade’s first round ended with a victory for the Trump administration in May. (That decision did not have an impact on proposed tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, as well as tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars. Trump used other legal bodies to impose these.

The Supreme Court will only consider the appeals court before the Supreme Court will likely consider the case.

How might this case impact Trump’s tariff policies, in essence:

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act permits tariffs, right?

The administration may have to prove whether the law permits the enactment of tariffs.

According to Meredith Kolsky Lewis, a law professor at the University at Buffalo, the law “authorises the president to take various actions,” without making any mention of “tariffs,” “dutys,” “&nbsp,” “levies,” “taxes,” “imposts,” or any other similar wording. Before Trump, “no president has attempted to impose tariffs in accordance with the law.”

The administration’s strongest argument may be that, unlike the law, it doesn’t specifically authorise tariff measures, according to Rice University fellow in trade and international economics David A. Gantz. Some people have questioned whether the president was intended to veto the most fundamental Commerce Clause, but it seems like the statute has never been seriously challenged by repeal.

Does the situation right now qualify as emergency?

Are trade deficits a security threat, Trump might find more difficult to resolve?

Trump argued that “large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the country’s security and economy.”

Kent Jones, an economist at Babson College, had reservations. He claimed that “people who have knowledge of trade economics scoff at the notion that a trade deficit is a national emergency.” Without a single instance of an economic emergency that can be systematically linked to the deficits, the US has consistently experienced trade deficits for the past four decades.

According to Lewis, the tariffs are being imposed on dozens of nations that ship more goods to the US than they import, which “suggests a lack of an ‘unusual’ threat.” This is commonplace, to put it another way.

Ross Burkhart, a political scientist with a focus on trade at Boise State University, said using fentanyl trafficking and trade deficits as examples of emergencies is novel.

The precedent set by previous administrations is not to invoke a national emergency based on day-to-day trade flows, according to Burkhart, despite the law’s “does not delineate what a national emergency is.”

In Brazil, there is an even more agressive argument.

According to legal experts, Trump’s threat of 50% levies on Brazil may have a thinner legal base.

Trump argued in a letter to Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, that the new tariffs would be “due in part” to Brazil’s prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro and its treatment of US social media companies. A “very unfair trade relationship” between Brazil and was also mentioned in the letter.

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A 40% tariff was imposed after a week of effectiveness on Wednesday, as a result of Trump’s declaration of an emergency based in part on the Bolsonaro case.

According to experts, Trump’s justifications legally fall under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The case being litigated on Thursday doesn’t address the Brazil policy, but at least one lawsuit has already been brought against it.

Experts expressed doubts that a court case involving the Bolsonaro case would survive judicial scrutiny. After Lula won the 2022 election, Bolsonaro unsuccessfully sought to maintain control of the country, which sparked years of investigations and allegations that he might face prison sentences.

According to Gantz, “I and many others would concur that the Bolsonaro trial would not even be close to meeting” the international emergency economic powers act’s standard, even if it were questionable and it isn’t.

Trump’s letter undermines a significant aspect of US-Brazil trade: In 2024, the US had a $ 6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil, as well as earlier surpluses.

Some US industries, including social media and electronic payment systems, may have a resemblance to Brazil’s trade policy. Even so, according to Gantz, “all of these grievances seem to me insufficient for action under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.”

What follows?

The appeals court would have ample cause to follow the Court of International Trade’s lead and uphold Trump’s authority, according to the majority of the legal experts we spoke to. According to law professor Julian Arato, a University of Michigan law professor, “I’m quite confident that the law doesn’t grant the president unrestricted authority by using some magic words.”

The US Supreme Court will ultimately have the final say, so that outcome is a certainty. The administration should have a friendlier experience at the conservative-majority court.

The Supreme Court will likely do so, according to Gantz, if the appeals court doesn’t reverse the Court of International Trade’s decision.

And even if Trump were to appeal, other laws allowed him to impose tariffs.

He could rely on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows tariffs when the president believes a foreign country “burdens or restrains American commerce” as a result of a trade agreement violation. Presidents have repeatedly cited this authority.

Or he could rely on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which enables the president to impose tariffs when national security is threatened. Since then, Trump and former president Joe Biden have based their steel and aluminum tariffs on this.