Category Sports News

After a “pretty special” run in the heats, Great Britain’s Adam Burgess won the C1 World Cup for the first time since 2019.

Olympic champion Nicolas Gestin, 32, defeated Slovenia’s Luka Bozic to finish second.

In the heats in north-east Spain, Burgess ran a stunning run to take the lead.

The Stoke-born paddler, who was last in the finals, ran an emphatic run to start the season without penalty.

After agonizingly slipping by 0.16 seconds in Tokyo in 2020, Burgess won Olympic silver in the individual canoe at the Paris Games.

“I’m always there or thereabouts, and we’ve done a lot of work to try to get those runs in the final, and I’m guessing that the final was my worst run today,” Burgess said.

Kayla Harrison put in a dominant performance as she submitted Julianna Pena to win the bantamweight title at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey.

Harrison out-grappled fellow American Pena and controlled the action throughout before finishing the fight with a kimura at the end of the second round.

Victory adds a first UFC championship to her two Olympic judo gold medals and PFL world titles.

In her post-fight interview, Harrison said she almost quit on Thursday after struggling during her weight cut.

The 34-year-old’s two PFL titles, in 2021 and 2022, were won at 155lb (11st 1lb) but she has fought at 135lb (9st 9lb) since joining the UFC last year.

“This is for anyone who’s ever felt hopeless, who’s wanted to quit, who’s wanted to give up. On Thursday I wanted to quit, I wanted to give up,” said Harrison.

After the bout Harrison faced-off with former double champion Amanda Nunes, who confirmed she would be coming out of retirement to challenge for the belt.

The 37-year-old Brazilian, who retired in 2023, is a former training partner of Harrison and is widely considered the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time.

She is the only woman to become a two-division UFC champion and exited the sport with 23 wins from 28 bouts.

UFC commentator Joe Rogan described a potential match-up with Harrison as “the biggest women’s title bout in UFC history”.

Harrison said before the bout she was ready to become the “face of women’s MMA” and came into the bout with Pena as a big favourite with oddsmakers.

Pena, meanwhile, was making the first defence of her second bantamweight title after beating Raquel Pennington by split decision in October.

Harrison’s world-class judo background has been the foundation to her success since transitioning to MMA in 2018 and it was on display as she took Pena down in both rounds.

Harrison controlled the action on the ground in the latter half of the first, Pena being deducted a point for two illegal up-kicks, before securing another takedown in the second.

Following victory, Harrison dropped to her knees in tears in the centre of the octagon before sharing a prayer with Pena and paying tribute to single mothers.

In 2020, Harrison adopted her niece and nephew when her stepdad, who was looking after the children at the time, died suddenly.

“This is for my family, my two beautiful children I love you unconditionally,” said Harrison.

In the main event, Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili submitted American Sean O’Malley in the third round to retain his bantamweight title.

Dvalishvili beat O’Malley for the belt last year with a typically relentless display of grappling and mirrored the performance in the rematch.

Although O’Malley defended well in the second round, he was taken down early in the third and Dvalishvili never looked back, controlling the action on the ground before securing a north-south choke.

Victory was Dvalishvili’s second defence of his belt and extended his winning streak to 13, the second-longest in the UFC among active fighters.

Russia’s Islam Makhachev holds the longest with 15.

“I’m on top of the world. I came from nothing, I’m so grateful to inspire so many generations. It doesn’t matter what you have if you know where you’re going and you have a goal,” said Dvalishvili.

On the undercard, former Bellator bantamweight champion Patchy Mix suffered a unanimous decision defeat on his UFC debut by fellow American Mario Bautista.

Fabio Wardley put himself into contention for a world heavyweight title bout following a knockout victory over Justis Huni at Ipswich’s Portman Road.

The win puts Wardley in position to call out the winner of the bout between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois, who are set to contest all four world titles next month at Wembley Stadium.

Will Wardley face Usyk or Dubois? What does the overall heavyweight picture look like at present? And will we finally get Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua?

As far as the heavyweight division is concerned, all the talk is of the rematch between Usyk and Dubois, taking place on 19 July.

Great Britain’s Dubois goes into that bout with the IBF world heavyweight belt, while Ukrainian Usyk holds the WBA (Super), WBO and WBC titles.

Elsewhere, Dillian Whyte is in line for a big fight on 16 August in Riyadh. There has been talk of it being against Lawrence Okolie, but Ring Magazine reported on Saturday that Moses Itauma could be the opponent.

Two-time world heavyweight champion Joshua had elbow surgery in May and has not fought since losing to Dubois at Wembley in September 2024.

Joshua is not expected to return to action until December at the earliest.

Talks are ongoing over a potential three-fight deal under the Riyadh Season banner, meaning a comeback is likely to happen in Saudi Arabia.

The overall landscape of the heavyweight scene largely depends on the result of Usyk v Dubois next month.

Queensberry promoter Frank Warren has confirmed that Wardley is in the picture for a title shot but said the division as a whole will become clearer after Usyk’s unification fight with Dubois.

“After that fight, it will settle the heavyweight division now to know who will be the mandatories,” Warren told DAZN after Wardley’s win over Huni.

“[Wardley] is there. He’s going to take a bit of time out now. Let the dust settle. He’s in the position and he’s done that through sheer grit, sheer heart.”

Wardley is the number one contender in the WBA rankings and holds their interim title but it is Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev who holds the regular belt, which would usually make him next in line.

As things stand, Tyson Fury remains retired. The ‘Gypsy King’ announced his retirement in January after losing his rematch against Usyk a month earlier.

Fury has teased on social media a potential return to the ring and is currently filming the second series of his Netflix documentary At Home With The Furys.

Team Fury have told BBC Sport that at present, there have been no talks of an imminent comeback.

In Barnsley, the super-middleweight champion Callum Simpson picked himself up off the canvas twice to defeat Ivan Zucco in a stunning stoppage victory.

Simpson, 28, won the first European championship at Barnsley FC’s Oakwell Stadium by stopping Italy’s Zucco in the 10th round. He made history by maintaining his unbeaten record (18-0).

The Englishman hailed his sister, Lily-Rae Simpson, who passed away last year in a car accident in Greece at the age of 19, as the winner.

In those final few rounds, let’s be honest, I began thinking about my little sister Lily, Simpson said.

I just wanted to push for her and everyone else, to be honest. Lily was seated up here this year to cheer me on, and she was there tonight to support me when times were difficult.

I pondered this throughout round eight, “I have to dig deep, I have to keep pushing, I have to do it for her.” Tonight, she was with me.

With the victory, Simpson is in good position to advance to the next level by the end of the year.

With only eight seconds left in the opening round, Zucco downed Simpson with a hard left hand, making the raucous Oakwell crowd apprehensive.

Simpson was not let down by the 23 000 people who watched him play football on the field, and he kept on moving forward while taking numerous chances.

Simpson launched a stunning left uppercut on Zucco’s chin before falling to his knees before winning the 10-count match with a sense of opening in the opening.

British heavyweight Fabio Wardley delivered a stunning, one-punch 10th-round knockout to stop Justis Huni and claim the vacant interim WBA title.

The dramatic, unforgettable finish sent a rain-soaked Portman Road crowd into raptures.

Backed by a vocal home crowd of around 20,000 at Ipswich Town’s ground, an outboxed Wardley struggled to find his rhythm and pin down the slicker, sharper Huni.

Behind on the scorecards and facing defeat by the Australian, all it took was a single punch to turn things around for the 30-year-old.

“Eat your heart out Deontay Wilder, that was a Deontay Wilder moment,” Wardley’s promoter Frank Warren said afterwards.

The victory marked Wardley’s 18th knockout in 19 professional wins and moved him one step closer to a world title shot.

“I don’t profess to being any [Oleksandr] Usyk or Justis Huni who has all the skills, but I know how to win fights and that’s one thing I knew I had to do tonight,” said Wardley.

“Justis Huni is a great operator. We’d drilled everything over and over again. I should’ve performed better in some of those rounds.

With champions Usyk and Daniel Dubois set to meet for the undisputed title in July, Wardley – now ranked number one by the WBA – is well-positioned for a shot at global honours.

Huni, who replaced American Jarrell Miller on short notice, suffered his first professional defeat after 12 consecutive wins.

An outdoor fight in the United Kingdom is never without its risks. Fans wore ponchos and reporters scrambled for shelter as heavy rain fell throughout the evening.

The downpour eased when Brisbane native Huni made his ring walk to a predictably hostile reception, before the mood shifted as a steely-faced and focused Wardley emerged.

Bathed in the golden glow of the floodlight, the Ipswich-born boxer soaked in the moment he had been dreaming of since turning professional.

The opening rounds saw both fighters cautiously size each other up.

Huni – well-schooled and boasting serious amateur pedigree – landed a thudding left hook followed by a sharp right in the third.

Wardley, who only took up boxing at 19 and turned pro after just four white-collar bouts, was known for his raw power and ability to dig deep.

But it was Huni landing the cleaner shots, especially with that left hook.

With only two contests beyond six rounds in his career, Wardley began to feel the pace. His timing was off and a grimace in the seventh said it all after Huni whipped in a punishing right hook.

Just when it seemed the homecoming would turn into a nightmare, Wardley achieved one of the biggest turnarounds in recent times to send the crowd into a frenzy.

Wardley’s meteoric rise is nothing short of remarkable, especially for someone who only laced up the gloves a decade ago.

That said, there is room for caution. He struggled for large parts of the fight, raising the question of whether he is ready to mix it with Usyk, Dubois or Joseph Parker – three of the division’s most in-form fighters.

Still, Wardley has cleared every hurdle put in front of him in the pro ranks. He stopped domestic rival David Adeleye, beat Olympic medallist Frazer Clarke in a thriller, and has now added a respected international name in Huni with a dramatic, highlight-reel ending.

And when he has that sort of equaliser in his locker, he is a dangerous proposition for any heavyweight rival.