Ill-advised Benn-Eubank Jr rematch another example of boxing’s cynicism

Boxing has always been a deeply cynical business. The overwhelming objective for most promoters, and many fighters, is to rake in as much money as quickly as possible without any undue concern about looking crass or desperate.Anyone who has spent just a little time in the company of boxers will understand that they deserve whatever cash they can make out of such a hard and dangerous activity. But promoters have ransacked the pockets of boxing fans through the decades while peddling anything and everything from Joe Louis’s “Bum of the Month” club to this week’s proposal that Anthony Joshua may make tens of millions of dollars if he steps into the ring to face Jake Paul, the former YouTuber, next month.Saturday night’s rematch between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr is a little different

Who is your favourite cricketer in the history of the men’s Ashes?

It had to be one or the other: the man who has scored the most runs in Ashes history or the man who has taken the most wickets. In the end, Shane Warne’s 195 wickets beat Don Bradman’s 5,028 runs. But, Warne is about more than numbers. His style, humour and charisma made him the kind of player you rooted for even when he lined up against your team. He was a joy to watch

Ford and George urge England to make their mark by beating New Zealand

Maro Itoje’s England have been urged to cement their place in sporting legend by becoming only the nation’s ninth side to defeat the All Blacks.England head into Saturday’s crunch encounter as marginal favourites, aiming for a first Twickenham win over New Zealand for 13 years, and George Ford has revealed that the former captain Jamie George has issued a call to arms, imploring his teammates to carve themselves a slice of history.Steve Borthwick’s side are on a nine-match winning run but England’s men have lost their past three Tests against New Zealand and have not beaten them since the 2019 World Cup semi-final. The last time they defeated the All Blacks at Twickenham was in 2012, when Manu Tuilagi ran riot.Saturday’s match is the 47th meeting between the sides and England have triumphed on eight occasions in the fixture’s 120-year history but Borthwick’s troops sense their opportunity to make a name for themselves

Joe Root splutters but Ollie Pope prospers in England’s Ashes warm-up

Joe Root’s attempt to lay to rest the ghost of Australian failures past started with the addition of a fresh one, as his fourth Ashes tour started in brief and inglorious style. The world’s No 1 Test batter, the subject of much pre-series chatter because of his poor average on previous such trips, was the most notable failure as many of his teammates inflated their confidence along with their scores across another day of breezy cricket and indeed weather against the Lions at Lilac Hill, which the senior side ended, having been bowled out moments before the close, with 426, a lead of 51.Zak Crawley described it as “a flat wicket for sure” and with the atmosphere provided by the few dozen spectators similar, but with intense heat expected from the stands and pitch when the real action starts next Friday, it is not clear to what extent anyone is markedly more prepared now than they were a couple of days ago.“Cricket’s cricket, it’s time in the middle,” Crawley said. “We’re doing everything we can with what we’ve got and we feel like we’re going to be ready

Numbers crunched: how the votes were cast in the Guardian’s men’s Ashes top 100

More than 800 men have played in an Ashes Test. England picked most of them in the summer of 1989. But the process of selecting the Guardian’s Ashes Top 100 required something more scientific than that infamous shemozzle.Let’s start with the small print. We asked 51 judges to select their top 50 men’s Ashes cricketers, from which we calculated a top 100: 50 points for No 1, 49 for No 2 and so on

From conscience to platforming Trump: inside the slow death of ‘woke’ ESPN

“What happened to the Redskins, by the way?” Donald Trump asked in an interview on the Pat McAfee Show that notably did not stick to sports. His call-in appearance on Tuesday’s program to mark Veterans Day was meant to be a major coup for ESPN, the first time Trump had been interviewed on the network as a sitting president. But viewers could have just as easily been mistaken into believing they were watching Fox News.Trump took his usual shots at Joe Biden, claimed credit for the Department for Veteran Affairs’ high approval ratings and declared victory over the Democrats in a government shut down that dragged on for a depressing 43 days. Rather than push back against the political self-promotion, McAfee cheered Trump on before opening the floor to his lackeys to ask him which NFL coach would make a great president