List of All Articles with Tag 'sports'

Liverpool have sent Calvin Ramsay on loan to EFL Championship club Preston North End next season. The Scotland right-back made only two appearances in an injury-hit first year at Anfield after his 2022 move from Aberdeen and is yet to make his Premier League debut. Now Jurgen Klopp has decided to let him get first-team football with Preston next season rather than using the 19-year-old as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deputy. Ramsay, who is still undergoing rehabilitation after surgery, will stay with Liverpool for the start of pre-season before going to Deepdale in mid-July. His only start for Liverpool came against League One Derby in the Carabao Cup last November, but Ramsay remains part of Klopp’s long-term plans. The manager name-checked another young right-back in Conor Bradley just before the end of the 22/23 campaign, noting that he would be involved in pre-season with the Reds after a year impressing on loan at Bolton. Bradley has won 12 senior caps for Northern Ireland, while Ramsay made his senior Scotland international bow in November last year. Read More Who is Gabri Veiga? Starlet with links to Liverpool and Chelsea Ben Foster stays at Wrexham for one more year – Friday’s sporting social Liverpool begin midfield overhaul by completing Alexis Mac Allister signing

There will be a new banner over Miami’s home floor next season

There is another international trophy to win in Europe this weekend and players from Manchester City and Inter Milan will be available at the four-team Nations League Finals in the Netherlands

Germany’s uninspired showing in a 3-3 draw with Ukraine is just the latest example of the team’s struggles

Manchester United Plc shares surged in premarket trading after a tweet from a Qatari newspaper spurred speculation that

Welcome to Social Buzz, a daily column looking at what’s trending on social media platforms. I’m Caitlin Fichtel,

For someone who is such a monolith of a man, there are a surprising number of layers to Joe Joyce. At certain points during our half-hour conversation, Joe Joyce the heavyweight boxer is speaking; at others, it’s Joe Joyce the fine-art student, the swimming instructor, the cheerleader, or the trumpet player. “When I was a swimming and diving teacher, it was a really great feeling to have someone who was really afraid of the water and to get their head under the water – or have them swimming three, four strokes by the end,” the Londoner tells The Independent. “To have people who have spent their life not being able to swim, and to get them to even put their head under the water in their late sixties and seventies, that’s something I found really rewarding. “I also played trumpet for quite a few years, I was in the choir at school. I could do a little bit of percussion; I used to go on music holidays. My little brother is the more musical one; he’s at uni doing something musical and was in the Brit School; he was also in Thriller Live. My dad’s an art teacher, he restores antique mirror frames, and my mum was into pottery; she does a series of African-esque heads. Growing up, music and sport was encouraged, as was art. I did my first oil painting when I was seven years old. “It would be nice to make more art and create more things, be more creative than the destructive boxing side.” These other sides to Joyce are all “authentic” elements of the 37-year-old, as he puts it. “I wake up Joe Joyce, I go to sleep Joe Joyce. I’d like to inspire the next generation coming up and teach them, lead by example. It’s good to give back. I’d like to lead a movement, like how Muhammad Ali transcended boxing and is one of these pivotal names in history – like Bruce Lee, Bob Marley, Michael Jordan. That’s the kind of thing I’d like to leave behind, or at least something close to that.” They are huge aspirations for a man who comes across so humbly, but while there is some way for Joyce to go in achieving such status, his profile swelled significantly in the aftermath of his knockout of Joseph Parker in September 2022. “Overnight I saw the change, where people were kind of putting me in the top five [at heavyweight] and were interested and excited about certain match-ups with these top fighters,” he says. Joyce, who claimed silver for Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, hammered Parker to the canvas with a left hook in the 11th round in Manchester to become interim WBO champion. “When I was in there, I couldn’t remember what shot I stopped him with; it wasn’t until I got back to the changing room and they showed me the clip of it. I was like, ‘Woah!’” The final shot capped off an indefatigable performance from Joyce, who marched down the New Zealander relentlessly and was unperturbed by Parker’s best strikes. “He did his best, he put his best effort in, and it wasn’t enough,” Joyce says matter-of-factly, before morphing his voice into a fine impression of a 1970s professional wrestler: “And it’s gonna take a wrecking ball to take me down, I’ll tell you that much!” he bellows, making a whipping motion with his index finger, before his voice cracks into a laugh. Unfortunately for the Briton, Zhilei Zhang became that wrecking ball in April. While the Chinese heavyweight did not quite take down Joyce, he battered the “Juggernaut”’s right eye to the point of closure, forcing the referee to wave off the bout in Round 6. With the result, Joyce lost the WBO Interim belt and saw his professional record fall to 15-1 (with 14 of his wins having come via knockout). The clashes with Parker and Zhang, similar to Joyce’s bout with rising heavyweight Daniel Dubois in 2020, were risky affairs on paper. But in a business in which the best rarely do battle with one another, Joyce has shown no trepidation in confronting tough combatants. At 37, he cannot afford to waste time on tune-up fights or meaningless match-ups. “I’m not out here just to earn money or be heavyweight champion of the world,” he insists. “It’s about taking them challenges on and overcoming them. I think some of that can be lost in the sport. It’d be good to bring back those good times of everybody fighting everybody. People don’t wanna lose their ‘0’. I don’t know where that mentality came from... Maybe from Floyd Mayweather? That’s why a lot of the [big] fights don’t happen.” It is a trend that is at odds with what fans want – one that goes against basic fighting instinct, Joyce argues. “There’s that excitement when you’re at school, and someone in the playground shouts, ‘Fight!’ It kicks off, and the whole school gathers around... It’s that primordial excitement that people get, it’s that kind of raw entertainment. When I was in primary school, I had quite a few fights – two on one, or they’d start the fight and I’d finish it. I was always a head taller than everyone. Early days of rugby, there’d be five or six guys hanging on to me, trying to slow me down.” Ironically, a criticism of Joyce has been his perceived lack of speed, but if that is a valid critique then it has not prevented the Juggernaut from building momentum in fights through his pressure and the volume of his output. Before Joyce’s meeting with Zhang, there was a clamour for the Briton to face the likes of Tyson Fury and fellow Olympian Anthony Joshua. The visual of Joyce being scaled by school students on the rugby pitch, coupled with discussions around Fury and Joshua, leads us naturally onto whether Joyce would rather fight five smaller Furys or one gargantuan Joshua. “Five little Furys would be a pain in the ass, wouldn’t it?” he laughs. “That’d be so annoying, being surrounded by them! They’d be coming from all angles, you can’t hit them, the head movement... But imagine the punch on a massive-sized Joshua... ” Before long, Joyce might not even have to imagine the punch on a life-sized Joshua, who – as the 37-year-old acknowledges – is an intriguing enough proposition as is. Joyce’s eagerness to embrace such challenges is an endearing element of his personality – and of his approach to his profession. That dichotomy, between the gentle Juggernaut’s personality and profession, will only make his journey all the more enthralling. Read More Joe Joyce arrives at boxing’s top table with brutal knockout of Joseph Parker Tyson Fury: Joe Joyce ‘couldn’t lace my boots’ but beats Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk Tyson Fury to record ‘Sweet Caroline’ cover for mental health charity Jake Paul agrees to new stipulation in Nate Diaz fight Josh Taylor says move up to welterweight is ‘imminent’ after first career defeat Teofimo Lopez and his father share emotional exchange during Josh Taylor fight

Jake Paul has agreed to extend his fight with Nate Diaz to 10 rounds, as he prepares to test the UFC veteran’s ‘cardio’. YouTuber star Paul is due to box the mixed martial arts icon in Dallas on 5 August, with their bout originally scheduled for eight rounds. However, Paul, 26, has now agreed to a stipulation of 10 rounds against his fellow American, 38. “Nate Diaz wants 10 rounds,” Paul tweeted on Tuesday (13 June). “I guess he has good cardio. “Ok Nathan, 10 rounds it is.” Diaz, who left the UFC in September after submitting Tony Ferguson, will be making his professional boxing debut when he faces Paul. The YouTuber, meanwhile, is 6-1 as a pro boxer, having beaten former UFC champions Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva, among others. Paul outpointed Woodley in their first clash before knocking him out in a rematch, and the 26-year-old dropped Silva en route to a points victory over the MMA legend. He also holds a first-round knockout win over ex-UFC star and former ONE champion Ben Askren. Most recently, Paul boxed Tommy Fury – half-brother of heavyweight boxing champion Tyson – in February, losing on points. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More MMA great Amanda Nunes retires after win over Irene Aldana at UFC 289 Amanda Nunes took ‘coward’s way out’ by retiring at UFC 289, says Julianna Pena Meet Charles Oliveira, the UFC’s miracle man Jake Paul makes startling Conor McGregor claim in intense rant at UFC star Josh Taylor says move up to welterweight is ‘imminent’ after first career defeat Teofimo Lopez and his father share emotional exchange during Josh Taylor fight

Police say nine people were wounded in a mass shooting in Denver in an area where basketball fans had been celebrating the Nuggets first NBA title win

FIFA and UK broadcasters BBC and ITV Plc are inching closer to a deal that would see them

Bruce Cassidy is on the verge of winning the Stanley Cup as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights

Berry Henson is a part-time Uber driver who has traveled the world to get to the U.S. Open