Terence Crawford dethroned over $300k fee, handing Britain’s Sheeraz title shot

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Terence Crawford has been stripped of his World Boxing Council super-middleweight world title after a dispute over unpaid sanctioning fees, a decision that puts Britain’s Hamzah Sheeraz in line to fight for the vacant belt,The WBC announced on Wednesday that it had removed the American star as its champion, three months after he shocked Canelo Álvarez in Las Vegas to become undisputed at 168lb,The organization said Crawford had not paid its required fees from that victory or from his previous bout in 2024, despite “multiple” attempts to contact him and his team,With the title now vacant, the WBC has ordered its interim champion Christian Mbilli to face Sheeraz for the belt,The 26-year-old from Ilford made an explosive arrival to the division in July when he demolished local favorite Edgar Berlanga at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.

A win over Mbilli would make Sheeraz Britain’s newest world champion in one of boxing’s glamour divisions.Crawford’s situation reflects a familiar tension in the sport.Sanctioning bodies such as the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO all charge fighters a percentage of their purse – typically around 3% – to compete for their belts.The fees have long been controversial, with critics arguing that the organizations wield significant power while operating with minimal oversight.In Crawford’s case, the WBC says it lowered the fee for his fight against Álvarez from 3% to 0.

6% because of his reported $50m (£37.6m) purse – an amount believed to be roughly $300,000 – and planned to send most of that money to a charity fund that supports retired fighters.Still, the 38-year-old Nebraskan reportedly did not respond to any communication regarding the payments.“It’s very unfortunate,” WBC president Mauricio Sulaimán said as he announced the ruling at the governing body’s annual convention in Bangkok.He described the lack of reply as “a slap in the face”, though Crawford has not commented publicly and it remains unclear whether the missed payments were a deliberate choice or simply a case of a superstar with other priorities.

What is clear is that his reign as undisputed champion has ended almost as quickly as it began.Crawford still holds the WBO, IBF and WBA belts, but has hinted he may drop back down to middleweight for future fights.For Sheeraz, the backroom politics matter far less than the opportunity that has materialized before him.Mbilli, a French-Cameroonian based in Montreal who is unbeaten in 30 bouts, is a high-pressure, high-volume fighter, while the 6ft 3in Sheeraz brings physical advantages of 6½in in height and 3in in reach.Their meeting, yet to be formally scheduled, promises to be one of the most significant British fights of the first half of next year.

Already the first man of the four-belt era to fully unify the titles in two different divisions, Crawford did it in a third when scaled two weight classes and won a dominant 12-round unanimous decision over Álvarez before a record crowd of 70,482 at Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium, an achievement without precedent in modern boxing.The 168lb title made him a five-weight champion, having previously captured belts from 135lb through 154lb.Two weeks after the career-defining win, Crawford was involved in a contentious police stop in his hometown.Hours after Omaha held a parade in his honor, officers ordered him out of his car at gunpoint during a late-night traffic stop for alleged reckless driving.Video of the incident circulated widely and prompted the police chief to open an internal investigation.

Crawford’s security chief said he feared for their safety, while the mayor called for a full review and stressed the importance of maintaining trust between police and the community.No arrests were made.
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Labour proposed in opposition how to introduce assisted dying via private member’s bill

Labour proposed while in opposition how to introduce assisted dying via a private member’s bill, suggesting that would still allow “heavy influence” for the government in the process, a leaked document has revealed.The document, seen by the Guardian, proposed a change strikingly similar to the private member’s bill put forward eventually by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater – to limit the change in the law to those who are “mentally competent, terminally ill and have a prognosis of less than six months left to live”.The leak will raise fresh questions over how much government control there has been behind Leadbeater’s bill and comes ahead of a major battle in the House of Lords continuing this Friday, where many opposing peers have tabled hundreds of amendments for debate, which has been seen by some as an effort to filibuster the bill.Because of the number of amendments, ten more sitting days have been assigned to debate but those on the pro-side still fear it will run out of time in the parliamentary session and have been holding private talks in an effort to persuade peers not to tie up the bill using parliamentary tactics.A Labour source opposed to the bill said the leak exposed “a shadow policymaking process, outside of the Labour manifesto, and with no consultation with MPs, unions or members, that sought to evade scrutiny on an issue of huge importance”

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Scott Galloway on the masculinity crisis: ‘I worry we are evolving a new breed of asexual, asocial males’

When his book Notes on Being a Man was released last month, it raced to the top of the bestseller lists. The US author, tech entrepreneur and podcaster explains his theories on dating, crying – and the rise of Donald TrumpIt takes balls to title your book Notes on Being a Man. And, superficially, Scott Galloway could easily be lumped in with a dozen other manosphere-friendly alpha-bros promising to teach young men how to find their inner wolf. He is, after all, a wealthy, healthy, white, heterosexual, shaven-headed, 61-year-old Californian who made his name and fortune as a successful investor and podcaster.But in reality, he is almost the opposite: liberal, left-leaning and surprisingly sensitive

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Quality of migraine care dependent on ethnicity, UK survey finds

People from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to experience worse migraine care and to fear discrimination because of their condition, a survey by a leading UK charity has found.Migraines are characterised by a severe headache, alongside other symptoms including dizziness, numbness and vision problems. About one in seven people in the UK are affected by the condition.The representative survey of 2,200 people by the Migraine Trust found that 23% of mixed-ethnicity, 19% of Asian, and 16% of black respondents said their ethnicity had negatively affected their care – citing poorer treatment and even racism – compared with only 7% of white respondents.Black people were also more likely to fear discrimination or a negative effect on their career owing to migraines, at 37%, compared with just over a quarter (26%) of white respondents

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Two in five teenagers in England and Wales ‘abused’ in intimate relationships

Two in five teenagers in intimate relationships say they have experienced emotional or physical abuse, including control, pressure or violence, according to a survey in England and Wales.“Teenage years are often when children first begin to explore romantic relationships,” the report says. “At their best, these can bring joy and companionship and teach important lessons about trust.“But for too many, they are marked instead by control, pressure or violence – experiences that can undermine a young person’s safety and affect their daily life.”The online poll, which asked 11,000 13- to 17-year-olds about their experience of violence in teen relationships, was carried out by Savanta on behalf of the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), a government-backed charity that works to prevent children from becoming involved in violence

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Numbers leaving A&E without treatment triples in six years

The number of people in England walking out of A&E without treatment has tripled in the past six years, new figures show.Analysis of NHS data by the Royal College of Nursing shows that a rise in demand for urgent hospital care and long waits has led to what it describes as a “shocking” rise in the number of patients leaving emergency departments untreated.Between July and September 2025, more than 320,000 people left A&E without being treated – a more than threefold increase from the same period in 2019, when just under 100,000 people walked out untreated.Most left in frustration at waiting so long. The RCN’s analysis also found that over the same period, there was a 90-fold increase in the number of patients waiting in excess of 12 hours, from 1,281 in 2019 to 116,141 in 2025

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Rape victims in England and Wales to be protected from ‘serial liar’ trope in legal shake-up

Rape victims will no longer be depicted as serial liars in courtrooms in England and Wales as part of the biggest shake-up “in a generation”, the Guardian can reveal.New measures will stop the “profound injustice” of victims being questioned, sometimes without warning, about past rapes that they have reported to the police, said David Lammy, the justice secretary.Lammy, who on Tuesday announced jury trials would be scrapped for cases where sentences are likely to be less than three years, said too many rape victims left the criminal justice system feeling like they had been put on trial, with defence barristers using sensitive details of past relationships and abuse to discredit them.He said: “That is a profound injustice, and it has driven far too many women and girls out of the justice system altogether. This must stop, and our new reforms will ensure that survivors are not demonised for the abuse they have suffered