60 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015
How Mayweather won T
HE Fight of the Century will not even be the Fight of the Year. Neither Floyd Mayweather nor Manny Pacquiao came close to the knockout which the Money Man desired so desperately and the PacMan ended up needing so badly. The bright start ebbed into a game of cat and mouse, Mayweather dodging and countering, Pacquiao charging and probably missing too often. The richest fight of all time will be remembered for the mega-millions, the gigantic hype, the hordes on the Strip, the most manic media coverage of all time… and a physical chess match between two old masters. Mayweather proved himself once again the grand master of the noble art of self defence. It was enough to settle the argument as to which of them is the greatest boxer of his generation. The man who is unbeaten in his 48 fights as a professional. The judges may have done Pacquiao less than justice with scores of 118-110 and 116-112 twice. But although I had it a draw there can be no complaint. Pacquiao protested: ‘I thought I won the fight. I hit him more times than he hit me. I hurt him more than he hurt me.’ But in reality so many of the rounds were so close that a preference for a style of boxing would have been enough to sway the outcome. Floyd is a clever chap, Manny a fun fellow. Pacquiao expressed surprise at the width of the decision but in truth he left himself at the mercy of the judges by not throwing his usual volume of punches. Had he done so it might have been different. So in the end it came down to who connected with the more of the few meaningful punches thrown. The score cards and the punch statistics gave that advantage to Mayweather and although I thought it more marginal than they did there is no whiff of scandal or controversy. Mayweather did what he does best and he will head to his next and last fight, back here in September, with his legacy as an all-time great secured. C M Y K
World Relays: Okagbare powers Nigeria to gold By Ben Efe
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GOLDEN JUBILEE... Regina George, Dominic Duncan, Navy Comodore Omotseye Nesiama, Blessing Okagbare and Christy Udoh celebrating Nigerian's victory at IAAF World Relay. Pacquiao will go back to helping the people of the Philippines regretting that he did not do more in the ring. The original PacMan would have blitzed Mayweather with relentless combinations. Trainer Freddie Roach admitted: ‘I asked him to give me a few more combinations but I still thought we pulled it out.’ The judges disagreed
and theirs was an honourable opinion. There will be no clamour for a rematch. Whatever our view of the result, there was none of the drama, excitement or thunderous exchanges which would encourage the pay-TV networks, the sponsors, the advertisers, the rest of the corporate juggernaut or the public to commit another half a billion pounds.
Woods, Vonn call it quits
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LYMPIC skier Lindsey Vonn and golfing beau Tiger Woods have played their final round. She announced their breakup Sunday, citing the “hectic lives” that keep them apart for long stretches of time.
“After nearly three years together, Tiger and I have mutually decided to end our relationship,” Vonn told fans on Facebook. “I will always cherish the memories that we’ve created together. Unfortunately, we both
The 16,507 crowd in the MGM Grand Garden Arena went home booing. Most of them unhappy with the result. Some of them disappointed with the spectacle. They will come out for Mayweather one last time in September and the man himself confirmed that will be that: ‘It’s time to hang them up. I’m almost 40. I’ve been doing this for 18 years.’ lead incredibly hectic lives that force us to spend a majority of our time apart.” She put the best spin possible on the breakup: “I will always admire and respect Tiger. He and his beautiful family will always hold a special place in my heart.”
IGERIA’s fortunes at the IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas took an up swing with the women 4x200m snatching the gold in a dramatic final, staged in the early hours of Sunday. Okagbare started for the Nigerian quartet, she did well to stay close to the event’s defending champions, the USA who took a commanding lead from the start. They were on course for another win, but disaster overwhelmed the American ladies at the final changeover. Janeba Tarmon and Allyson Felix failed to reach an understanding, it ended with Felix crashing to the floor. Regina Geroge, Dominique Duncan and Christy Udoh made no such mistake, they coasted home to victory at 1.30.52 seconds to win
Chelsea clinch title with three games left
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DEN HAZARD ensured Chelsea won their first Premier League title since 2010 with victory over Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge. The PFA Player of the Year headed home on the stroke of half-time after Julian Speroni saved his initial penalty.
Lay a new foundation for sports development — Opara tells Yakmut By Jude Opara, Abuja
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S more Nigerians continue to react to the appointment of Mallam Alhassan Yakmut as the acting Director General of the National Sports Commission, a former African champion in the 200 metres race, Christy Opara has advised him to lay a solid foundation for the true development of sports from the grassroots. She spoke to Sports Vanguard in an exclusive chat. Opara who is currently managing a sports development outfit known as SOHO 24 in Abuja decried what she termed the consistent dwindling fortunes of the country in sports especially athletics blaming it on the failure of successive
administrations to pay adequate attention to the identification and development of the young athletes. Using athletics as an example, Opara who was also a Commonwealth Games winner noted that the only name that is making Nigeria proud today is Blessing Okagbare as against the situation in her time where there were a lot of quality athletes both male
and female that always represented the country. “Let us use my own area athletics as an example, in my time there was Mary Onyeali, Beatrice Utondu, Falilat Ogunkoya, the Ezinwa brothers; Davidson and Osmond, Deji Aliu, Innocent Egbunike, Yusuf Ali to mention but a few, but today it is only Blessing Okagbare that we hear her name all the time, as a nation we are
the 50,000 dollars at stake also set a new national record. Jamaica finished a distant second in 1:31.73, one-and-ahalf seconds slower than their time from last year, but one place higher on the podium. Germany were third in 1:33.61 while China set an Asian record of 1:34.89 in fourth. “I am very delighted with the performance of our Women winning the 4x200m relay in a World leading time of 1:30.52s ahead of all the leading nations - USA, Jamaica, Bahamas, France, Germany, China and Ireland. I had said it before now that we can rely on these women to showcase our prowess in the Relays and they have not disappointed us,” Athletics Federation of Nigeria technical director Navy Commodore Omatseye Nesiama stated.
•Yakmut supposed to have a pull of grade ‘A’ athletes so that when some retire, there will be others to immediately take their place.
The Belgian had been brought down in the box by James McArthur but his tame effort from 12 yards was easily kept out by the Palace keeper. The Blues had several chances to put the game beyond doubt and settle the nerves of the Stamford Bridge faithful but were unable to find the back of the net. Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azplicueta both fired over the bar while Didier Drogba and Willian had shots fly inches wide. Crystal Palace pressed late on with Thibaut Courtois saving well from Wilfried Zaha after the former Manchester United winger latched onto Glenn Murray ’s knockdown. But the Blues, who have topped the table since the opening weekend of the season, were able to hang on to secure the double and Jose Mourinho’s third Premier League title.
Obis celebrate Mikel’s second EPL crown IKEL Obi’s family Crystal Palace at the 2010 season and has now and friends at their home M in Jos, Nigeria, Stamford Bridge. won his second this after the game. celebrated their son’s Mikel played 45 minutes season. “We were all glued to the
achievement after he won his second English Premier League title with Chelsea on Sunday following a 1-0 win over
as Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 1-0 when he came on for Juan Cuadrado. Mikel won his first EPL title with Chelsea in 2009/
Mikel’s older brother, Tony Obi, said that they are very happy with Mikel’s achievement and they hosted family members
TV screen few minutes before the game started to watch the game and see Mikel winning the title,” he said.