22 Monday September 2, 2019
SPORTS
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[email protected] Ukrainian aims to hold all four major lightweight belts
Lomachenko adds WBC title in thriller
Vasyl Lomachenko, widely regarded
as the best pound-for-pound fighter in
the world, beat British challenger Luke
Campbell in a thrilling bout to win the
vacant WBC lightweight title in London
on Saturday.
The 31-year-old Ukrainian, who had
been world champion at three different
weights in only a 14-bout professional
career prior to the fight, won by a unani-
mous decision to add the WBC belt to
his WBA and WBO titles in the weight.
Lomachenko’s target is to have all
four major belts with Ghana’s Richard
Commey holding the IBF version.
Lomachenko, whose record reads 14
wins and one defeat, acknowledged the
toughness of the bout.
“Of course I’m happy,” he told Sky
Sports. “I want to thank everyone who
came to support this beautiful fight and
of course I’m happy this is my title.”
Campbell, who like Lomachenko won
Olympic gold in 2012 not far from the
O2 Arena where they fought on Satur-
day, insisted he can still win a world title.
“He’s a special fighter,” Campbell
told Sky Sports. “I trained to win but it
is hard to fight someone like that who
adapts so well. He is a special fighter.
“With the support I have had here
I can go on and achieve anything. My
time will come.”
Lomachenko began landing effective
punches from the third round, clearly
hurting Campbell when he connected
with his head in the third and one to the
body in the fourth.The punishment continued in the
fifth with Lomachenko pummelling
Campbell’s head, who nearly went to the
canvas but was saved by the bell as the
Ukrainian moved in to finish him off.
Campbell, though, displayed great
resilience and, having had a breather
between rounds, took the fight to Lom-
achenko, landing a decent uppercut.
Campbell maintained his momen-
tum in the seventh round and hurt Lo-
machenko with a powerful body punch
and one to the head, but just as the
British fans rose to their feet, the cham-
pion fought back and landed a flurry of
punches.
Both fighters showed no let up in
their work-rate through the next three
rounds, going toe to toe and keeping thespectators on the edge of their seats.
However, Lomachenko reacted to a
good punch from Campbell in the pen-
ultimate round by landing one which
forced the Briton to go down on a knee
and once up, he only just managed to
hold on to the bell.
Campbell landed a below-the-belt
blow in the final round but Lomachen-
ko brushed that aside and landed a few
legal blows of his own without putting
the challenger down – the two exhausted
men hugging each other at the end.
The other world title bout on the un-
dercard saw WBC flyweight titleholder
Charlie Edwards retain his belt after re-
plays declared it a no contest.AFPPhiladelphia rally to
beat Atlanta, seize
MLS East top spot
Australia slay Canada in World Cup’s ‘Group of Death’
SOCCER
The Philadelphia Union roared back with three
second-half goals on Saturday to beat reigning
champions Atlanta 3-1 in a battle for first place
in Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Eastern Confer-
ence.
Kacper Przybylko rifled in the go-ahead goal
in the 86th minute from a pass from second-half
substitute Sergio Santos.
Santos put it out of reach with a goal two min-
utes later.
Philadelphia had knotted the score at 1-1 in the
66th when 18-year-old Brenden Aaronson scored
his second goal in as many games.
Aaronson was set up by a ball from Haris
Medunjanin.
Atlanta, coming off a victory over Minnesota
United in the US Open Cup final on Tuesday, had
gained the upper hand in first-half injury time as
Josef Martinez scored – the Venezuelan stretch-
ing his record with a goal in a 13th straight MLS
contest.
Martinez missed an open net in the 80th min-
ute and gave Atlanta fans a scare when he crum-
pled to the pitch in pain. But he was up quickly
and back in the game.
With the victory, Philadelphia took sole posses-
sion of first place in the Eastern Conference with
51 points – three more than Atlanta.
Elsewhere in the East, Ola Kamara scored
twice in the first half to help DC United to a
needed 3-0 victory over the Montreal Impact.
Kamara now has three goals in three appear-
ances since returning from the Chinese Super
League to MLS at the close of the secondary trans-
fer window.
Paul Arriola also scored before halftime as DC
halted a three-match losing streak despite the
absence of suspended Wayne Rooney.
DC moved back in front of the New York Red
Bulls into fourth place in the East while Montreal
slipped out of the top-seven playoff positions.
AFP
BASKETBALL
Australia drew first blood in the so-
called Group of Death at the Basket-
ball World Cup with a nail-biting 108-
92 victory over Canada on Sunday in
China.
Cleveland Cavaliers’ Matthew
Dellavedova was key for the Boom-
ers, leading the way with 24 points
after Canada had battled back from a
12-point halftime deficit to lead going
into the fourth quarter.
Along with Serbia, Greece, Spain
and France, Australia have been men-
tioned as a threat to the USA’s long
dominance, but they will need to defy
history: The Boomers have never
gone beyond the quarterfinals in 11previous World Cup appearances.
With reigning two-time champi-
ons the USA playing later in the day,
Australia and Canada took center
stage in the 32-team tournament.
Australia began their title bid
in the southern Chinese city of
Dongguan against a Canada side led
by NBA champion coach Nick Nurse
but missing many of their biggest
names.
In a highly competitive Group H
also containing Lithuania and Sen-
egal, Australia led 52-40 at halftime
with Joe Ingles of NBA team the Utah
Jazz scoring 10 points and registering
three assists against Canada’s slack
defence. He finished with a match-
leading 10 assists.Veteran Andrew Bogut had been
a doubt going into the clash with
Nurse’s men, but Australia’s star
center played and had nine rebounds.
Canada came out for the third
period with serious intent, racking
up nine unanswered points to rattle
the stunned Australians and claw the
match back.
The lead changed hands several
times but Canada miraculously went
into the decisive fourth stanza 77-76
ahead.
Yet they appeared to have run
out of juice and a relentless Austra-
lia finally pulled away in the decisive
fourth quarter.AFPMatthew Dellavedova of Australia celebrates a point during the 2019 FIBA World Cup, first-round match between
Canada and Australia at Dongguan Basketball Center on Sunday in Dongguan, South China’s Guangdong Province.
Photo: VCG