SPORTS
24 | Thursday, August 22, 2019 CHINA DAILY
Digest
Gonzalez on Tuesday ordered the
closure of Melreese golf course,
Miami’s only city-owned course.BASKETBALL
Lakers taking time to
fill Cousins’ shoes
DeMarcus Cousins likely will miss
the 2019-20 season with a torn ACL,
leaving the Lakers with a big hole to
fill alongside Anthony Davis and
LeBron James.
ESPN reported on Tuesday that
Los Angeles is kicking the tires on
several veteran centers, including
Dwight Howard, Joakim Noah and
Marreese Speights.
Howard, under contract with the
Memphis Grizzlies, has permission
to communicate with the Lakers.
ESPN reported the Lakers will hold
individual workouts and interviews
with each player and also consider
Marcin Gortat. The 35-year-old Gor-
tat last played for the LA Clippers and
is planning to play internationally
this season.
Howard, who turns 34 in Decem-
ber and would be set for a second
tour with the Lakers, is a candidate
for a buyout with the Griz.ICE HOCKEY
Leafs’ leading scorer
might skate with Zurich
Mitch Marner is exploring the pos-
sibility of training in Switzerland if
he remains without a contract from
the Toronto Maple Leafs.
A European representative of the
restricted free agent on Tuesday
asked Swiss National League club
Zurich if the forward can practice
there.
“Whether and when the player will
train with Zurich is not decided yet,”
the team said.
Zurich has started its preseason
schedule and begins its regular sea-
son on Sept 13, the same day Toronto
opens its training camp in St. John’s,
Newfoundland.
The No 4 pick by Toronto in the
2015 NHL Draft, Marner led the
Maple Leafs with a career-high 94
points (26 goals, 68 assists) in 82
games last season.
Marner, who has 224 points in 241
games, is one of several high-profile
restricted free agents who remain
without a contract, including Patrik
Laine (Winnipeg Jets) and Mikko
Rantanen (Colorado Avalanche).SOCCER
Ronaldo reveals ‘hurt’
over rape allegations
Cristiano Ronal-
do told Portuguese
television on Tues-
day that “2018 was
the most difficult
year on a personal
level”.
Ronaldo had to
deal with rape alle-
gations last year after former model
Kathryn Mayorga filed a complaint
in September alleging she was sexu-
ally assaulted by the player in a Las
Vegas hotel room in 2009.
The case was dismissed in a Neva-
da court in June, though the filing
did not say if Ronaldo had agreed a
settlement.
He denies the accusation,
although he has reportedly acknowl-
edged that he paid Mayorga in an
earlier settlement.
“When people question your hon-
or, it hurts,” he said on Tuesday. “It
hurts a lot mainly because I have a
big family, a wife and an intelligent
child who understands a lot of
things.”
Cristiano
Ronaldo“This is a case I’m not comfortable
expressing myself on. But once
again, my innocence has been prov-
en. It makes me proud,” he said.Beckham’s MLS bid
takes a toxic turn
David Beckham’s
Major League Soc-
cer club in Miami
may have hit a new
stumbling block
after an environ-
mental report
showed unexpect-
ed levels of con-
tamination at a proposed stadium
site, the Miami Herald reported.
The newspaper reported on
Monday that the analysis found
arsenic contamination at more
than twice the legal limit as well as
hazardous debris in surface-level
soil at Melreese Country Club.
The 131-acre site near Miami air-
port has been put forward as Inter
Miami’s permanent home, with a
sprawling $1 billion complex
planned.
The report was alarming enough
that Miami City Manager EmilioDavid
BeckhamSWIMMING
CAS grants Sun public
hearing in doping case
The Court of
Arbitration for
Sport (CAS)
announced on
Tuesday it will hold
its hearing into
China’s Olympic
champion Sun
Yang in public.
CAS said in a
statement that it is “conducting an
appeal arbitration procedure
brought by the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) against Chinese
swimmer Sun Yang and FINA in
relation to a decision issued by the
FINA doping panel dated 3 January
2019 whereby Sun Yang was found
not to have committed an anti-dop-
ing rule violation following an out-
of-competition doping control”.
Sun has requested to make the
hearing public, and CAS said on its
release: “At the parties’ request, the
hearing, which will likely take place
in Switzerland, will be open to the
public (including the media).”Sun YangAMERICAN FOOTBALL
Smith saddles up with
Cowboys in $64m deal
The Dallas Cow-
boys have reached
a long-term agree-
ment with line-
backer Jaylon
Smith, the team
announced on
Tuesday.
The five-year
deal is worth $64
million with $35.5 million guaran-
teed, executive vice-president Ste-
phen Jones said during a media
conference.
“I wanted to be a part of the most
prestigious brand in the world,”
Smith said. “Eventually, I’m going to
be a captain for the Dallas Cowboys.”
The contract extension is the lat-
est success for Smith, who was draft-
ed by the Cowboys in the 2016
second round after he suffered a
devastating knee injury, including
ligament tears and nerve damage, in
a college bowl game while at Notre
Dame.XINHUA — AGENCIESJaylon
SmithBy MURRAY GREIG
[email protected]
It’s roughly 7,500 miles from Chi-
na to Namibia in southwest Africa,
but for Qingdao welterweight Dong
Youli, the intercontinental journey
could end up being a shortcut to
global boxing glory.
On Saturday, in his first fight out-
side China, the 24-year-old Dong
(13-1-1, 9 KOs), ranked No 15 by the
World Boxing Organization, is chal-
lenging No 5-ranked WBO Africa
champion Mikka Shonena (14-0, 3
KOs) in the northern Namibian city
of Ongwediva, with the winner in
line for a shot at the world champi-
onship next year.
With just three stoppages on his
record, Shonena — aka ‘The Silent
Assassin’ — isn’t known as a big
puncher, but the 31-year-old has
been very vocal in telling anyone
who will listen that Dong will be
“ironed out” if the Chinese challen-
ger chooses to turn their bout into a
slugfest.
“I know that Dong is strong and
world rated, but I have a perfect
record and will have the home
crowd advantage. I promise to give
the fans the best performance of my
career so far in order to remain
undefeated,” Shonena told The
Namibia Sun last week.
“When I promise to give the fans
my best, it means I’m promising to
iron out that Chinese boy. I think it
will be easy work, and I will make
them proud.”
Saturday’s bout will be Dong’s
first since he captured the vacant
WBO Asia Pacific title with an
eighth-round TKO of India’s Par-
deep Kharera in Chongqing last
December, but the long layoff
doesn’t faze him.
“I am going to Namibia to win. I
know I will be fighting far away
from home, but I also know that my
Chinese brothers and sisters will
come out in their numbers to sup-
port me,” Dong said earlier this
month.
“I am super prepared for this fight
and I’m looking forward to taking a
big step upwards in the world rank-
ings.”
While Dong hovers on the periph-
ery of world title contention, anoth-
er Chinese boxer is bracing to battle
for a unified version of the world
light heavyweight championship in
the coming months.
No 1-ranked contender Meng Fan-long, a 31-year-old from Inner Mon-
golia who represented China at the
2012 London Olympics, has been
named mandatory challenger for
the winner of an Oct 18 title unifica-
tion bout in Philadelphia between
WBC champ Oleksandr Gvozdyk
(17-0, 14 KOs) of Ukraine and IBF
titleholder Artur Beterbiev (14-0, 14
KOs) of Russia.
After Meng (15-0, 9 KOs) became
the IBF’s top contender by beating
Germany’s Adam Deines in an elim-
inator on June 1 in Macao, Beterbiev
opted for the unification bout rather
than face the 6-foot-3 ChineseBOXING
Qingdao welterweight Dong Youli slams a right to the jaw of India’s Pardeep Kharera en route to a TKO victory in Chongqing last December.
Dong will square off with world No 5 contender Mikka Shonena in Namibia on Saturday, with the winner in line for a world title shot.XINHUA
southpaw, who packs a KO wallop
with both fists.
“I respect Beterbiev’s choice,”
Meng told boxingscene.com. “I
would have done the same if I was
him. The best deserves to fight the
best in this sport. My dream has
always been to challenge for the
world title, but the rule allows the
unification fight to take place
first.
“I will get to fight the winner to
fulfill my mandatory obligation, and
I’m excited about that opportunity.”
Meng’s promoter, Roc Nation’s
Dino Duva, wasn’t quite so accom-
modating.
“It was disappointing to get
word of the Beterbiev–Gvozdyk
match because Fanlong has
worked so hard to earn his shot,”
said Duva.
“We were in negotiations with
Top Rank for Beterbiev and they
said he had no problem fighting
Fanlong, but then they decided to
make a unification match. We will
respect the unification concept, but
only for this match.
“One thing I can assure you — we
will fight to enforce Meng Fanlong’s
rights against the winner. Hopefully,
whoever wins the fight on Oct 18
will have the courage to put both
titles on the line against Fanlong,
which will make the wait even
sweeter.”Road warrior Dong facing
world-class test in Africa
Qingdao welterweight, ranked No 15 by
WBO, could vault into title contention
I am going to
Namibia to win. I
know I will be
fighting far away
from home, but I also
know that my
Chinese brothers and
sisters will come out
in their numbers to
support me.”
Dong Youli, on Saturday’s WBO
elimination bout
The ESPN website
lists more than 100
worldwide professional
boxing cards for the
remainder of 2019,
including events in
Dirriyah, Saudi Arabia
and Chelyabinsk, Rus-
sia; Tweed Heads, Aus-
tralia and Saitama,
Japan. There’s even a punch-for-
pay show coming up in Broken
Arrow, Oklahoma.
But not a single one in China.
With the likes of WBA feather-
weight champion Xu Can and No
1-ranked light heavyweight con-
tender Meng Fanlong topping an
impressive list of domestic fight-
ers, why are managers and pro-
moters so reticent about taking
the lead in showing them off?
In May, after Xu made his first
title defense by stopping former
WBA super bantamweight champ
Shun Kubo in Fuzhou, Jiangxi
province, Max Power Promotions
CEO Lu Xiaolong hailed it as “a
big step forward for Chinese box-
ing, which needs fighters like Xu
who put on a great show”.
Roberto Diaz, head matchmak-
er for Oscar De La Hoya’s Las
Vegas-based Golden Boy Promo-
tions, agreed, adding: “We saw a
champion being born when Xu
won the title in Texas in January,
but we saw a star being born in
Fuzhou. He showed that he
belongs in the class of the best
fighters in the world.”
Xu, 24, is only the third Chinese
boxer — after retired Xiong Cha-
ozhong (WBC strawweight) and
two-time Olympic gold medalist
Zou Shiming (WBO flyweight) —
to win a major world title, but he
remains largely unknown here.
It’s the same story for Meng —
aka ‘Cold Blood’ — the 6-foot-3
southpaw brawler from Chifeng,
Inner Mongolia, who became the
mandatory challenger for the IBF
world title by defeating previously
unbeaten Adam Deines in their
June 1 slugfest in Macao.
While both Xu (Golden Boy)
and Meng (Roc Nation) have
agreements with US-based pro-
moters that play a role in deter-
mining where and when they
fight, the vast majority of China’s
pro boxers are solely reliant on
managers to advance their
careers, and that’s where it getstricky. If the managers
can’t hook up with pro-
moters who are willing to
take risks, there are no
cards — and promising
careers are either put on
hold or simply evaporate.
Remember Lyu Bin?
Thirteen months ago, on
the undercard of Manny
Pacquiao’s welterweight title
fight in Kuala Lumpur, the
24-year-old featherweight from
Yongkang, Zhejiang province,
won a legion of fans with his
gutsy attempt to become the first
male boxer to capture a major
world championship in just his
second pro fight.
Lyu was stopped in the dying
seconds of the final round by Ven-
ezuelan champ Carlos Canizales,
but the courageous performance
made him a worldwide sensation
— everywhere but China.
IBF Asia lightweight champ
Sun Xiangxiang, flashy world-
ranked female featherweight Hu
Die from Zhuzhou, Hunan prov-
ince, and even unbeaten heavy-
weight and 2008 Olympic silver
medalist Zhang Zhilei have like-
wise fallen off the national radar,
largely because Chinese promot-
ers are hesitant about stepping up
to showcase homegrown talent.
Of pro boxing’s four global
sanctioning bodies, only the IBF
has made promotional inroads
here, staging shows in 10 Chinese
cities after initiating the IBF Chi-
na professional tournament in
2015 and the IBF Silk Road Cham-
pions tournament in 2017.
“It’s both an anniversary and a
new declaration of setting sail
again,” IBF China president Rui-
hang Wang said after the organi-
zation’s 100th event last fall.
“We are laying a solid founda-
tion for professional boxing in
China, but its ultimate success lies
with our homegrown fighters,
managers and promoters.”
That’s exactly right.
Until the managers and pro-
moters of China’s growing crop of
world-class fighters show greater
willingness to push the envelope
in putting that talent on display,
relevant pro boxing is at serious
risk of being TKO’d here.Contact the writer at: murray-
[email protected]China’s promoters,
managers need to
be more proactive
Murray GreigMeng Fanlong, a southpaw light heavyweight from Inner Mongo-
lia, is one of China’s most exciting fighters and is ranked No 1 in
the world by the IBF. XINHUA