Boxing
South Africa’s Ali Funeka, the top-ranked contender and mandatory challenger, will face International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Nate Campbell next February 14, promoters said Tuesday.
Funeka, 30-1 with two drawn and 25 knockouts, will face US veteran Campbell, 32-5 with one draw, at a US venue that was not announced.
Funeka, who suffered his only loss 6 1/2 years ago, has won 16 fights in a row, the most recent over American Zahir Raheem last July in South Africa to book his title opportunity.
Football
Asian Football Federation Presid bin Hammam yesterday slammed former top official Peter Velappan, accusing the influential Malaysian of conspiring against him.
The two have fallen out over Bin Hammam’s proposal to move AFC House out of Malaysia, which has hosted the governing body since 1965.
In a letter to the AFC Executive Committee meeting yesterday, Velappan, who served as AFC secretary-general for 30 years, claimed the governing body was becoming increasingly ‘authoritarian’.
Golf
Police stepped up security at a golf course in Japan yesterday after a bomb exploded at its clubhouse and an anonymous caller claimed to have buried landmines there ahead of a major tournament this week.
But the organisers of the US$1.4 million Casio World Open in Kochi, southern Japan, said they would go ahead with the four-day men’s event by fielding 114 security guards daily, one-and-a-half times the normal level.
Basketball
New York fans cheered LeBron James during pre-game introductions Tuesday before he sparked Cleveland past their Knicks, hopeful they will see the superstar in a Knicks uniform in two years.
James scored 26 points, hitting 7-of-14 shots and grabbing four rebounds in 30 minutes, while Delonte West added 16 points and Wally Szczerbiak contributed 15 as Cleveland ripped New York 119-101. The Cavaliers improved to 11-3, their best start since 1988.
Rugby
Graham Henry has insisted the decision by the New Zealand Rugby Union to retain him as All Black coach following the team’s World Cup flop last year has been proved right by their results in 2008. Fans in rugby-mad New Zealand rarely take kindly to coaches who fail to deliver the World Cup even though the All Blacks have won the trophy just once, as hosts, in the inaugural tournament in 1987.
– Nampa-Reuters
