Sean O’Malley’s rapid rise up the rankings culminated in a one-punch KO of Aljamain Sterling on Saturday, as “Sugar Sean” took the bantamweight title at UFC 292. O’Malley’s crisp and flashy striking has seen him become a fan favourite with crossover potential in recent years, and that potential was realised when he dropped Sterling with a picture-perfect right hand in Boston, setting up a TKO finish. American O’Malley, 28, arrived in the main event without having taken on many top contenders – with the exception of former champion Petr Yan, whom he beat via a controversial decision – and he was similarly able to avoid significant danger in Round 1 against Sterling. The Jamaican-American, 34, was put on the back foot and unable to utilise his standout grappling skills, though O’Malley offered little output despite his forward pressure in a cagey opening frame. And the fight was over before it got going, as Sterling rushed onto a short, clean right cross from O’Malley early in Round 2, a shot that dropped “Funkmaster” at once. O’Malley then finished Sterling on the canvas with a series of punches and hammer fists, as the TD Garden in Boston was flooded with cheers. “It feels right, baby, it feels right,” O’Malley said in the ring. “Honestly, this was the most nervous I’ve been for a fight. In my eyes, Aljamain Sterling is the greatest bantamweight of all time, but I never lost the confidence – because I know what I possess in this f***ing right hand, baby! It only takes one mistake against me. I don’t even know if that was a mistake, I’m just that f***ing good!” Meanwhile, Sterling was gracious as fans booed the now-former champion, who entered UFC 292 on a 10-fight win streak and with three successful title defences to his name – all against ex-champions. “Sean is a lot better than I thought, man,” Sterling said. “He did a really good job. He was elusive, stayed on the outside. This was nothing but respect at the end of the day. [We’re] chasing the dream, something everyone in the crowd should be trying to do every day of your life.” In the co-main event, Zhang Weili dominated Amanda Lemos to win a lopsided decision (50-43, 50-44, 49-45) and retain the strawweight title. Full UFC 292 results Main card Sean O’Malley def. Aljamain Sterling via second-round TKO (punches, 0:51) Zhang Weili def. Amanda Lemos via unanimous decision (50-43, 50-44, 49-45) Ian Machado Garry def. Neil Magny via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-24) Mario Bautista def. Da’mon Blackshear via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) Marlon Vera def. Pedro Munhoz via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) Prelims Brad Tavares def. Chris Weidman via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) Gregory Rodrigues def. Denis Tiuliulin via first-round knockout (elbows, 1:43) Kurt Holobaugh def. Austin Hubbard via second-round submission (triangle choke, 2:39) Brad Katona def. Cody Gibson via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) Early prelims Andre Petroski def. Gerald Meerschaert via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28) Natalia Silva def. Andrea Lee via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) Karine Silva def. Maryna Moroz via first-round submission (guillotine choke, 4:59) Read More UFC schedule 2023: Every major fight happening this year Michael Chandler gives Conor McGregor ‘huge props’ for one aspect of UFC star’s game Carl Froch tears apart Anthony Joshua’s ‘beginner’ performance against Robert Helenius UFC 292 LIVE: Sean O’Malley stuns Aljamain Sterling with picture-perfect KO Michael Chandler gives Conor McGregor ‘huge props’ for one aspect of UFC star’s game Conor McGregor ‘training’ Dillon Danis for Logan Paul fight

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If you’ve grown up in France, Bernard Tapie is one of those people you’ve always been aware of, without being able to remember when you first heard about them, or what they’re currently famous for. In Tapie’s case, the answer varied throughout the years: at times, he was famous for his career as a businessman; at others, for his career in the world of sports. There was also politics, show business, and legal scandals, depending on when you asked. Only one constant remained: from his rise to fame in the 1980s to his death in 2021, Tapie was notorious. A new Netflix series dramatizes 30 years of his life, charting his humble beginnings, his not-so-humble early successes, and the biggest legal controversy of his life—for fixing a soccer game in favour of Olympique de Marseille, Marseille’s soccer team, which he then owned. In France, the show is simply called Tapie—a name known to virtually anyone. In the US, it’s titled Class Act, an apparent wordplay to nod both to Tapie’s exceptional destiny and to his status as what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called a “transfuge de classe”—someone who moves from one social milieu to another. The show, comprising seven episodes, is a fascinating examination not just of the man himself, but of the country that allowed his ascent. It casts an eye back on the lionized men of the 1980s and asks: at what cost did we create them? And what are we meant to do with them now? “In the same way that there was Trump in the US, Berlusconi in Italy, there was Tapie in France,” Tristan Séguéla, who directed and co-wrote the series, tells The Independent in a video call. “The 1980s had a strong mythology around these characters who could embody everything, and who were very rich, very famous, and very powerful all at once.” Bernard Tapie was born in 1943 in Paris. His father was a laborer, his mother a nurse’s aide. He first sought fame as a performer, then in business. In the 1960s, he won a televised singing contest under the name Bernard Tapy—a much more American-seeming spelling of his last name. But that success was short-lived, and Tapie soon transitioned to selling televisions for a living. In the late 1970s and through the 1980s, he became known for purchasing companies on the verge of bankruptcy and reselling them for considerable profit. In the 1990s, he entered politics, as a member of President François Mitterrand’s government and as a Congressman. That same decade, he bought and sold the athletic apparel brand Adidas. The 1990s also saw Tapie’s biggest legal controversy: in 1995, Tapie was sentenced to eight months in prison for bribing members of the opposite team to ensure Marseille’s victory in a final match against Valenciennes. (Tapie had become the president of the Marseille team in 1986.) All of those events are depicted in Tapie. In real life, the story goes on, with more legal troubles (Tapie was sentenced to six months in prison for tax fraud in 1996) and more reinventions. To go through Tapie’s biography is to go through the story of a man who never retreated into anonymity and never stopped believing that the system would, in one way or another, bail him out. In the late 1990s and 2000s, he turned to acting and TV host gigs. In the 2010s, he became the owner of a media company. Tapie was diagnosed with stomach and esophagus cancer in 2017. He died of the disease in October 2021, aged 78. The actor Laurent Lafitte, who brilliantly portrays Tapie in the Netflix series and developed it with Séguéla, has spent time pondering Tapie’s story and what it represents. Tapie, he says in a phone call, was “a kid from the suburbs” raised in part by a Communist father. He views Tapie in that way in opposition to Trump, who long claimed to have received a “small” $1m loan from his father, “as if that were $10”, Lafitte says. Not only that, but that number is substantially false; Fred Trump’s financial support of his sum extended far beyond that sum. Tapie “did not have the same starting point as Trump at all”, Lafitte says, which, in his view, renders Tapie’s boundless ambition more palatable. But he is clear about Tapie’s “ultra liberalism”, and the way capitalism enabled his ascent: Tapie “bought failing companies and brought them back to financial health without concerning himself for the employees’ social wellbeing,” he says. Back in the 1980s, Tapie’s open ambition was considered “novel in France, where we have a rather discreet, reserved rapport with success, and especially with money.” In Tapie, Lafitte says, “we had someone who brandished material success as an absolute accomplishment.” The French language sometimes borrows words from English wholesale, not bothering to come up with a translation. “Fun”, for example, does not have a French equivalent. French people simply say “fun” with a French accent and carry on as usual. “Weekend” is another example. The words used to describe Tapie at various points in his career, Lafitte points out, do not have equivalents in French—there is no French word for “tycoon”, “self-made man”, or even “success story” (if one chooses to see Tapie that way). “These are English words that represent a kind of ultra liberal success that wouldn’t have been shocking for Americans, nor perhaps for some British people, back in the days,” Lafitte says. “But in France, it was really new.” Each episode of Tapie, the series, opens with a disclaimer that states the show is “inspired by real facts”, namely the big parts of Tapie’s life that were already known to the public. The show then takes liberties, imagining various scenes, giving viewers an interpretation of Tapie’s life rather than a date-by-date account. “Fiction worked [in the show] in the service of reality,” says screenwrite Olivier Demangel in a video call. He cites the German philosopher Theodor W Adorno, who, in reference to the works of Honoré de Balzac, wrote about “realism by way of losing reality.” “To me, that’s exactly it,” Demangel says. “[Adorno] was talking about Balzac, but we’ve always thought that Tapie had something of a Balzac character.” Not that the show is entirely disconnected from reality. To research the show, the team read around 40 books, Demangel says, and dug into television archives. “We really worked on the idea that Tapie was kind of the embodiment of television,” Demangel says. “Like a TV salesman who wanted to get inside the machine, and who sort of became television. We realized that he went through every television format, and that he had his downfall at the same time the world moved on to the internet. It’s as though the internet killed the world and Tapie.” Séguéla brought another real-world perspective: his father, Jacques Séguéla, was a prominent French publicist, and a friend of Tapie’s. The younger Séguéla has childhood memories of Tapie spending part of his vacations at the Séguélas’ house. “I remember someone who attracted attention,” he says. “And [Tapie] had one quality—I think it’s the same way with the friends of everyone’s parents: There are those who pay attention to kids, and those who don’t notice them. [Tapie] treated everyone equally, adults and children. I liked that, especially since he was already a media monster by the time he came by. I’d see him on TV, and then I’d see him make paella for everyone. And sometimes, we’d quarrel, too. He would argue with me about a bit of the Tour de France, or soccer teams. I liked that too.” Despite this personal connection, Tapie, before his death, had voiced his opposition to the series. More recently, his family voiced their objections, too. But that was never a problem for Séguéla, nor Lafitte, nor Demangel. They were determined to write the show, and they didn’t particularly want Tapie or his relatives to contribute to the writing. Years ago, Séguéla made it clear to Tapie that he wasn’t seeking his permission to go ahead, Tapie “left him alone” and let him work in peace, Séguéla says. “It would have annoyed me if he’d felt hurt by the show, if he’d found it insulting or defamatory,” Lafitte says. “But I was comforted by the fact that our work was mainly impartial.” Despite the differences between Trump and Tapie, the team too had Trump on the mind while crafting the show. “I would even say that Tapie must have had Trump on his mind during his own rise to fame,” Séguéla says. Tapie, Séguéla points out, published a nonfiction book called Gagner (“to win”), a cross between a memoir and a book of business tips. Tapie’s book came out in 1986. Trump’s own book, The Art of the Deal, came out in 1987—three years after Trump appeared on the cover of GQ. The 1984 cover story was titled: “Success: How Sweet It Is. Men Who Take Risks and Make Millions.” Now, Lafitte struggles to imagine France’s other wealthy men, such as businessmen François-Henri Pinault or Bernard Arnault sing on TV or host a show—both things Tapie did. Still, Tapie’s story as told in the Netflix series seems inseparable from France itself. In Tapie’s tale, Lafitte sees “all the contradictions” of the country’s attitudes to success. “In France, we always tend to be wary of people who succeed materially,” he says. “[Tapie’s story] is the story of a time when the line became a bit more blurry, between [the traditional French mindset] and a more American mindset. He understood that very quickly.” Read More Like Harry, they wrote brutally honest memoirs about their families. What happened next? 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Birmingham chief executive Garry Cook has blamed “misalignment” for the circumstances that led to John Eustace’s sacking but vowed to make the club “a football powerhouse” amid reports Wayne Rooney is set to take charge as boss. Eustace’s departure from St Andrew’s on Monday morning further stoked rumours that former England captain Rooney is due to be appointed as manager following his DC United exit on Sunday. While an update on the new boss is expected in “the coming days”, Cook explained the timing of Eustace’s exit was driven by facilitating the best possible circumstances for his successor. It became clear that there was a misalignment with the leadership of the club. Birmingham City CEO Garry Cook In a statement posted to the club’s official website, Cook wrote: “John had clear ambitions and goals for the season. Unfortunately, following a series of meetings over a number of months, it became clear that there was a misalignment with the leadership of the club. When this happens, the best thing to do is to part company. “The timing of the decision allows the incoming manager sufficient time to evaluate the playing staff ahead of the January and summer transfer windows. “In a short period, the owners, board members and club leadership have overseen the start of a transformation that not even the most optimistic Blues fan would have considered possible. And this is just the beginning.” Birmingham, who sit sixth in the Championship, have made a solid start to the season with five wins, three draws and three losses, including a come-from-behind 3-1 derby win over West Brom on Friday. Eustace led Birmingham to safety last season, a feat Cook acknowledged in a meeting on Monday morning in which he “shared the reasons for the decision to part company”. Cook did not directly discuss the recruitment process for a new boss in his statement, but hinted at ambitions to attract top talent. He added: “The owners and board members are ambitious. They are driven to help make Birmingham City a football powerhouse. It will not happen overnight. It is a step-by-step approach. “We are well aware of what has happened at Blues over the past decade. We believe we have moved on from those dark days giving hope and aspiration to existing and new fans. Our intent is to be judged over what we do in the years to come and be ambitious with the new story that we are writing. “Creating a winning culture in an organisation that has been on its back foot for a number of years is not easy. My executive team are aware that we are aspiring to be world class, but it takes more than words. “Birmingham City Football Club needs world-class professionals across every department, to enhance our performance on and off the pitch. Experienced people who know how to be successful and are driven by winning. We are not going to stop identifying and adding such talent to help us realise our ambition.” Read More Catalans win in Grand Final would ‘make huge noise around the world’ – McNamara A closer look at the UK and Ireland’s host venues for Euro 2028 A closer look at the UK and Ireland’s host venues for Euro 2028 James Ryan and Mack Hansen injury doubts for Ireland against New Zealand Dawid Malan hits superb hundred as England post 364 for nine against Bangladesh Anna Shackley looks forward after ‘a really nice last couple of months’

BRIGHTON, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 5, 2023--

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