Sports

Joshua didn’t want to fight me – Wilder

Published

1 year ago

September 1, 2022

Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder has said that Anthony Joshua avoided fighting him years ago when he tried to make a unification bout happen.

ESNEWS met up with Wilder at a celebrity golf event and asked him about his thoughts on the rematch between Joshua and heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, and the potential Tyson Fury vs. Usyk unification bout for the undisputed title.

“Of course I watched it (Joshua vs. Usyk),” Wilder told ESNEWS. “I mean Joshua did exactly what we expected him to do, to be cautious and run out of gas. He has a serious stamina problem, a serious stamina problem. We knew that he would be very cautious because of what happened before. As you see he was very cautious of throwing punches and different things like that. That best man (Usyk) won that night.

“I think Fury is too big for him. One thing he got going for him is just his size. I look at that fight like a Cunningham, somebody that dominates him, but then when he gets tired he looks to lean on him. Anything’s possible, you can’t look past Usyk, his skill and ability to manoeuvre around the ring as well so anything can happen. Anything can happen in the business of boxing.”

Wilder also revealed that Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn toyed with him for six months when he was ready to go to England to fight the Briton for a unification bout several years ago.

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Wilder and Joshua were both undefeated at the time, and it was the biggest fight to make in boxing, but it never came to fruition. Wilder was doing everything he could to try and make the fight but he said Joshua’s team avoided it.

After Joshua lost to Andy Ruiz by stoppage and was outboxed by Oleksandr Usyk twice, Wilder sees why they avoided him.

“That’s why they didn’t make the fight before,” Wilder said. “I mean that is the reason they took me on a six-month rollercoaster because they did everything to avoid the fight. They did not want to fight me and these are the results and the reason, we are seeing it fast forward years later. I hate talking about those guys. These promoters, managers, they put a bad taste in my mouth every time because they get in the way of big fights from happening.”

Wilder returns to the ring against Robert Helenius on October 15, with talks of Joshua potentially facing him as he looks to rebuild his boxing career after his back-to-back losses to Usyk.

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Sports

2024 WAFCON qualifier: Super Falcons arrive Praia for Cape Verde clash

Published

17 hours ago

December 4, 2023

Seun Okerayi

Ahead of Tuesday’s second leg of the 2024 Women’s African Cup of Nations qualifier, Nigeria’s Super Falcons have landed in Praia for the game.

The Nigerian side dominated and won the first leg 5-0 at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja on Thursday and the result gave them hope to scaling the hurdle to the competition.

Super Falcons departed the shore of the country on Saturday and safely arrived at the Praia, the capital city of Cape Verde in the early hours of Sunday.

Falcons are willing to qualify and do better in the competition next year after they finished in the 4th position in the last edition that was held in Morocco.

The game against the Blue Shark of Cape Verde is scheduled to take place on Tuesday with the winner over the two legs reaching the competition slated for Morocco.

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Sports

Osimhen won’t renew Napoli contract

Published

4 days ago

December 1, 2023

Seun Okerayi

Nigeria international Victor Osimhen’s departure from Napoli is almost looking certain after Italian football transfer expert Fabrizio Romano said the striker was unlikely to renew his contract with the Italian champions,

Osimhen has been linked with several European clubs with English Premier League duo, Chelsea and Arsenal, leading the race for the Nigerians.

Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, had on several occasions said that the club’s most prized asset would not be sold this summer even if their valuation of €200m was met.

“Osimhen will stay here. He won’t leave,” he told Sky in August.

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Sports

Super Eagles drop two places in latest FIFA rankings

Published

5 days ago

November 30, 2023

Seun Okerayi

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have dropped by two spots in the latest FIFA ranking to place 42nd in the world.

In the ranking table on the website of the world football governing body, on Thursday, the Eagles dropped 16.04 points to rank 1474.44 points as against 1490.48 in October.

However, the drop did not affect the team’s placement on the continent, as it still remained the 6th team on the continent, behind Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, respectively.

The drop in ranking comes after the Super Eagles were held to a 1-1 draw in their two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against Lesotho on Nov. 16 and Zimbabwe on Nov. 19.

Although Argentina (1st) still leads the way ahead of France (2nd), England (3rd, up 1) is now in the trio of teams at the front of the pack, followed by Belgium (4th, up 1), who have also climbed one place.

Although Brazil (5th, down 2) have lost ground following back-to-back defeats by Colombia and Argentina, they have clung on to their place in the top 5.

The Netherlands (6th, up 1) and Portugal (7th, down 1) have traded places in the top 10, which is once again completed by Spain (8th), Italy (9th) and Croatia (10th).

Uruguay (11th, up 4) have made solid progress, but they have to be content with a place just outside the top 10.

The Comoros Islands (119th, up 9), meanwhile, enjoyed an even better month with wins against the Central African Republic and Ghana, and have two reasons to celebrate as they are now in 119th place, their highest-ever position.

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Kosovo (101st, up 4) may not have climbed as many positions as the Comorans, but the Kosovans are also now higher in the ranking than ever before.

Guinea-Bissau (103rd, up 7), Azerbaijan (114th, up 6), Libya (120th, up 6), Malaysia (130th, up 7) and Rwanda (133rd, up 7) are the other big movers in the November ranking.

The ranking also had the re-entry of Samoa (187th), American Samoa (188th) and Tonga (196th), who were all playing international football again following months of inactivity.

The ranking took into consideration FIFA World Cup qualifiers that took place in African countries as well as in Asia and South America.

The other confederations’ schedules considered included UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying matches, Concacaf Nations League 2023-24 encounters and the Pacific Games 2023.

These matches all had a significant effect on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, including on the make-up of the podium.