Michael

The Crawford v Spence fight should be a great fight at the end of this month. It will finally happen and it will pit two of the best fighters in their weight division. I have to say I am going with Crawford to win though. He is one of the most complete boxers out there.

I am waiting for the women's semi-finals today. How ironic would it be if Svitolina of Ukraine meets Sabalenka of Belarus in the final? In context with what is going on in Ukraine, but also because Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarussian players from competing at Wimbledon last year because of their countries involvement in the war in Ukraine.

Haters gonna hate!

He was playing excellently against Medvedev, but eventually ran out of steam, as his performance in the last set demonstrated. Eubanks also went a tiring 5 sets in his previous match against Tsitsipas. There is only so much top level tennis that you can keep up consistently after that and at this level. We can't take anything away from Medvedev either, he played some superb tennis as well. His return game is what he is really good at, but he was also serving brilliantly against Eubanks for a lot of the match. Medvedev hit 28 aces in the match against Eubanks, which is very impressive.

It was great to see Ukraine's Svitolina defeat the favourite Swiatek yesterday. It was a hard fought win for Svitolina, but she eventually managed to defeat the Pole and advance to the semi-finals. The Ukrainians have done well this year in the women's singles event at Wimbledon. Kostyuk reached the 3rd round, Tsurenko made it to the 4th round and now Svitolina is in the semi-finals where she will play Vondrousova of the Czech Republic.

In other real upcoming heavyweight boxing fights, the undefeated Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk will be fighting Daniel Dubois of the UK. Dubois who only has one loss in his heavyweight career to Joe Joyce, is in for the test of his life against Usyk. I can see Usyk winning this fight easily and maybe even getting the knockout. Usyk is as big as he has even been and has reportedly been punching as hard as anything. One question mark I have about this fight though, is why they chose Wroclaw in Poland to be the venue for the Usyk v Dubois fight? Actually I do know the main reasons why, it's mainly because there are a huge number of Ukrainians living in Poland, between 1 to 2 million as the reports claim. While there are only a fraction of that number of Ukrainians in the UK, nonetheless, I still think that having the fight in England would have been a better choice. Many of the Ukrainians in England would turn up for this fight if it was hosted at Wembley or the O2 Arena or anywhere else in the country. Plus there would clearly be loads of British fans who would have turned up either to support Dubois or to watch Usyk, such is his class in the boxing ring. Either way, anything other than an Usyk win against Dubois would be a big shock. Anthony Joshua will also fight Dilian Whyte for a second time. Joshua beat Whyte the first time much earlier in his career, about seven and a half years ago, in an entertaining contest that finished with a TKO. It should be much more of a challenge for Joshua this time around, as Whyte has improved a lot. Nonetheless, Joshua will want to beat Whyte convincingly, to prove to everyone that he is still a real deal among the top boxers of the heavyweight division. Another interesting heavyweight fight will see Joe Joyce have his rematch at Wembley with China's Zhilei Zhang. This will be another real test for Joyce against the tough Zhang. However, I see Joyce just about scraping the win against Zhang in the rematch. In any case, these heavyweight fights involving British boxers should all be entertaining.

Frank Warren is clearly not a fan of Mickey Mouse I am not buying this fight, you might as well get William Buick fight Tyson Fury. This fight that Warren has set-up is just another cash grab event. I watched the Mayweather v McGregor fight when it happened a few years ago and that was another joke of a fight. Fury is clearly going to comfortably beat Ngannou in a boxing fight.

Yes, his court coverage is incredible. He hasn't got the biggest of serves compared to several of the other top players, but his effort and the shots he pulls off are very impressive. Rune is similar, but not quite on Alcaraz's level, at least not yet. I think that Dimitrov's backhand really let him down today. But well done to Rune for his performance against him.

Alcaraz is getting the better of the big server Berrettini so far, he is leading by 2 sets to 1. We are half-way through the 4th set. Alcaraz has been excellent so far at Wimbledon.

I think that the acquisition of Naby Keita on a free transfer from Liverpool is an excellent signing by Werder Bremen. If he manages to avoid injuries, he could become a key player for the club. He didn't have the best time at Liverpool last season, mainly due to injuries and the clubs poor form. But he played an important role in the 2021/22 season, where he played in around 40 games for them in all competitions and helped Liverpool finish 2nd in the league. Injuries have been a real issue with Keita throughout his career, but if they can keep him fit, Keita could be a real force to be reconned with. The Bundesliga should suit his style of play as well and despite spending 5 seasons at Liverpool, he is still only 28 years of age. His footballing ability and experience, should prove to be key in helping improve Werder's performances in the upcoming years.

Yes and you can imagine the unrest in the Kremlin right now after recent events.

Two top keepers, if they can sign either one, they will have done a great job.

Indeed, Prigozhin and his Wagner Group forces have taken control of Rostov on Don and they are marching towards Moscow. He has complained for ages now about how a lot of the Russian soldiers in Ukraine have been ill-equipped and about the number of casualties that they have had. Prigozhin estimates that Russia loses 1,000 soldiers a day in Ukraine. It will be interesting to see what happens once Prigozhin and his mercenaries reach Moscow.

The fighting is extremely brutal on the front lines. Both sides have incurred a lot of losses, but by most accounts throughout this war, it has been reported that the Russians have incurred the most losses. As for the current counter-offensive, it would be good if you could post a link from the Washington Post claiming that the Ukrainians have lost 3,700 soldiers in this particular counter-offensive. The only person who I can find making the claim that 3,700 Ukrainian soldiers have died in this counter-offensive is Shoigu and his stooges.

Yeah, sure, lets believe whatever Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu says, I mean why on earth would he lie or spread Russian propaganda? Surely he would never inflate the number of Ukrainians killed in this counter-offensive? I mean 3,700 Ukrainian soldiers killed and only 52 Russians killed makes perfect sense to me. It's the Russians who have the most sophisticated modern weapons, not the Ukrainians with their old rusting Soviet era military vehicles and weapons.

Just wait for the counter-offensive, it's on its way.

Anyone else watch the Haney v Lomachenko fight a couple of weeks ago? I thought that it was pretty clear that Lomachenko should have won, but the judges unanimously gave the decision to Haney. Most people thought that Lomachenko should had been awarded the win, even the likes of Jorge Linares and Shakur Stevenson thought so. Had the fight not been held in the USA, perhaps Lomachenko would have been given a more fair result.

I think that Schmadtke will do a good job as sporting director of Liverpool. He's done very well for himself since his playing days and he is a very good friend of Klopp. So it suggests to me that Klopp will be at Liverpool for a few years yet.

Rune beat Ruud in the end, 6-7 6-4 6-2 to reach the ATP Rome final. Rune will play Medvedev or Tsitsipas in the final.

Watching the Rune v Ruud tennis match, absolutely high level stuff. Lots of mind games going on. Ruud won the 1st set on a tie break. Then Ruud broke Rune in the 2nd set, but Rune then called on the physio, then eventually broke back and then broke again to win the set. Ruud then took a break in the toilet after he lost the 2nd set and now we are into the 3rd set.

Chelsea have been in terrible form, losing their last 6 matches in all competitions. However, they are a side full of talent and all I think that they need is a manager who is proven at Premier League level, a manager who can get them playing close to their potential. Lampard is clearly out of his depth, but I believe that Pochettino will do a good job at the club if he is hired next season.

Brecel looks like he will win this.

It's now 17-15 to Brecel.