Reiseberichte » White and the UFC in 2012, and those bouts aired on Sh

Allan Borders 1989 Ashes tour was my first major assignment as a journalist. On the first day of the fifth Test at Trent Bridge, as Mark Taylor and Geoff Marsh were batting out the whole day on the way to an opening stand of 329, a colleague and I, with our deadlines passed, decided to have a well-earned pint. As we chatted in the Members pavilion, I looked up at the row of old bats screwed onto the panelling above the bar. There, in the centre, was a dark brown one with a metal plaque under it which said it was Victor Trumpers bat from his legendary 1902 tour to England.On that tour Trumper made 11 first-class centuries, one of them in a session in the Old Trafford Test. Admittedly the rest were made against the counties but, as ever with Trumper, it was the style of those innings that became part of the legend. Trumper entertained the English crowds and, as he always did, he won their hearts. He scored quickly and with great flair, prompting Wisden Cricketers Almanack to describe him as the best batsman in the world.Id always been intrigued by the legend of the tall, dashing batsman who played with carefree grace. In the history books I read as a boy that he was described as Australias greatest batsman before Don Bradman. But it was legend of the man himself that made him special. Bradmans legend was based on unbelievably phenomenal statistics. He was the run machine par excellence. Trumper was the artist, the genius who cared more for his team-mates and his fans than for his place in the record books. Trumpers status could easily be missed by a look through the statistics, but to read a biography was, and still is, to be entranced by a man as charming off the field as he was on it.Trumper was generous to a fault, casual in his dress, kind to children, and greatly loved by opponents and team-mates. Truly, a romantic figure. Trumper ran a sports store in Sydney but was no great success as a businessman. He was not hard enough, giving free equipment or discounts to people short of funds. During his career, there was a stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground called the Penny Stand - because it cost a penny to get in. Legend has it that Trumper would always arrive early enough, and with pockets full of enough loose change, to walk over to the side of the ground opposite the dressing rooms to hand out pennies to poor boys hoping to get in. They came to expect Vic to give them a day at the famous ground to see their heroes in action.Steve Waughs love of his battered old baggy green cap was inspired by Trumpers attitude to his Australian skull cap. He cherished it and never wanted a new one. To him, the first was so precious that a replacement would not do. He was also celebrated for his casual approach to his playing clothes. Not for him the adage that if you cant be a cricketer you should at least look like one. After a days play Trumper would roll up his cream trousers and drop them in his kitbag. The next morning he would simply unfurl them, put them on and head out for the days play. He was obviously interested in substance rather than appearance, and I loved him for it. One of the reasons Trumpers Test average ended below 40 was that he never sought easy runs. If the weather was fine and the pitch flat he usually threw his wicket away to give his team-mates a chance to make runs. But when the pitch was wet and treacherous, Trumper, as the senior batsman, would take full responsibility. This was not merely a whim. It is said that at New South Wales practice sessions he would slip the groundsman a shilling or two to prepare one wet wicket at the far end of the table. After a net on a good pitch, he would go up to the end and practise on a sticky. I remember going to the same nets for a state squad practice session and looking up to the far end and wondering if that was the strip the great Trumper used for his wet-weather practice.Years earlier I was a teenager playing lower grades in Sydney club cricket. One day we played at Redfern Oval, a summer dustbowl of a ground ravaged by a winter of rugby league. Before play, as we inspected the unwelcoming pitch, a team-mate pointed out to me a window on the second storey of a building across the road, behind the sightscreen. He said it was the window Trumper broke with a straight drive about 60 years before. It was a big, big hit. The window had been left broken for years, in tribute to the great batsman. It had been repaired by the time I saw it. I think the building is sill there but the state government has major plans to develop the area and who knows what fate awaits it.I once saw some action footage of Trumper batting. Hes wearing a large white hat, looks tall and elegant - more the shape of Rahul Dravid than Sachin Tendulkar. Hes facing a fast bowler and late-cuts him with aplomb, a classy, clever shot and exactly what youd expect from a batsman said to have had three shots for every ball. The only other footage Ive seen of Trumper is that of his funeral at Waverley cemetery in the eastern suburb of Sydney in 1915. Like so many romantic heroes, Trumper died young, at 37, after a few years of sad, public decline. It was a heros funeral, the horse-drawn hearse followed by dignitaries and the parade watched by thousands of the fans who loved their Vic more than any other player.If the mature Bradman stands for the ruthless pursuit of success that typifies modern Australian cricket, Trumper stands for the spirit of an earlier age, for a more carefree approach that put style and entertainment above results.And yes, my colleague and I had a ritual pint under that bat every afternoon of that Test back in 1989. Lakers Jerseys 2020 . Jay Feely kicked a 41-yard field goal in overtime, and the Cardinals edged the Tennessee Titans 37-34 in overtime after blowing a 17-point lead late in the fourth quarter. Custom Los Angeles Lakers Jerseys . -- Ryan Blaney provided more evidence that Penske Racings No. https://www.lakersjerseycheap.com/ . -- Jonathan Drouin gave Halifax the boost it needed to edge host Sherbrooke Phoenix 3-2 in a shootout in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Fake Lakers Jerseys . LOUIS -- Cardinals cleanup hitter Allen Craig says hes recovered from a foot injury and ready to be put on St. Stitched Lakers Jerseys . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. Womens boxing has long lived in the shadows of the sport.Its a cycle that begins and ends with television networks, a cycle that stems from a perception that the quality of female talent is thin. Yet, without the ability to sell womens fights on televised cards, the signing and developing of female fighters is rendered an unprofitable business for promoters. The opportunity for women to make a living fighting thus becomes virtually impossible ... and the cycle continues.Im a little embarrassed we havent gotten to it sooner, said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, about the networks plans to put womens fights back on its air. We aim to rectify that very quickly -- and not on a one-off basis but on a meaningful regular basis as well.While Showtime still hasnt promoted a fight since 2001, it plans to do so, and womens boxing will be televised Saturday, when Claressa Shields makes her professional debut on Saturday in a four-round super middleweight bout against Franchon Crews. It will air on ESPN3 on the freeview undercard of Sergey Kovalev and Andre Wards pay-per-view fight on HBO.Coupled with the previous strides made in 2016, it appears that a new era of womens boxing is dawning.Claressa Shields has dubbed this era as the reintroduction to womens boxing. The era took a giant step forward on Aug. 21 when Shields became the first American fighter, male or female, to defend an Olympic gold medal. That same day, Heather Hardy and Shelly Vincent became the first women to be featured on a Premier Boxing Champions?nationally televised undercard.Now, that era is primed to move ahead even further.Well aware of her role in what could be the surge needed to finally carry womens boxing from out of the shadows, Shields is preparing to make her professional debut on Saturday.Shields chose to begin her professional career rather than stay an amateur (and have the guarantee of eligibility to return to the Olympics in 2020) in part because of the potential the timing presented. At 21 years old, amid what already feels like a revolution in womens boxing, Shields is primed to take up the baton and carry the sport over the line it has come so close to crossing so many times.I dont want to let this flame burn out that we have right now, Shields said. You have to seize the moment and take advantage of it.Im not doing it for the money. Im doing it for womens boxing.Shields has marinated on this concept of being the change for some time. It was a primary reason behind her decision and a seed that was planted before she won her second gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, when she had a conversation with Hardy about the two fighters mutual hope for the future of their sport and the respect it deserves.The way Hardy understood it, Shields turning pro would send a message: This is what women do. Women fight. Women box.We werent just thinking about each other making millions of dollars; we were thinking about the other women coming up behind us, Shields said.This is a new era, and thats no disrespect to Christy Martin or Lucia Rijker or Laila [Ali]. But the women of this generation are just different. And me? Im one-of-a-kind. You only get one of me every century.New York-born and bred, Hardy used to dream about becoming a Yankee. As a child she would even envision herself running out of the bullpen at Yankee Stadium. She watched every game. She knew every stat. But little girls didnt play baseball.I remember feeling like I was sorry I liked it, she said. I was sorry I was a girl.Later in life, Hardy adopted a new dream: becoming a professional boxer. But as she transitioned out of the amateurs, she was confronted with a harsh reality: Women dont make much money fighting.A bunch of the girls who are pro [told me], Just know this isnt a life for you; this is a hobby because youll never make any money off of it, Hardy said.And 20 years later, I have that same feeling. Im sorry Im a girl.Hardy was the first woman to be signed to a long-term promotional contract with Lou DiBellas company, DiBella Entertainment. DiBella, one of New Yorks premier boxing promoters, has been one of the main actors at the forefront of the current revolution. In addition to Hardy, DiBella has signed deals with other prominent women fighters, including WBO featherweight champion Amanda Serrano and Hardys last opponent, Vincent.While DiBella said he doesnt make money off their fights, the fact that he puts on shows in New York and throughout New England means Hardy and the other female fighters in his stable who are from the area sell enough tickets to cover a good portion of the costs of their bouts. DiBella, who admits he was once hardened to the idea of women in the ring when he was an HBO executive, has said that promoting his female fighters has become a cause for him.I admire their dedication. I admire their spirit to want to bring about change, DiBella said. Id say a number of these women right now are not only out there as fighters; theyre out there as trailblazers, as advocates. Theyre trying to change the status quo, to be agents of change, so that other women coming fforward in the sport in the future have an easier road and an opportunity to make a living the same way men do.dddddddddddd.The difference between the money that male and female fighters can make fighting doesnt necessarily stem from a gap in fight purses -- in fact, according to DiBella, male and female fighters on the same card will generally make similar money for the same level of fight. The difference, then, is the fact that televised fights come with much bigger purses, and without opportunities to fight on televised cards, women simply dont have the option for bigger paydays. As DiBella put it, its a wage ceiling.While male fighters are going after that $100,000 payday -- the $50,000, $150,000 or $1 million payday -- those paydays dont exist for women because television has been closed to them, DiBella said.Female fighters with untelevised bouts thus become more reliant on whatever percentage of ticket sales they get, which can often mean more aggressive promotion of their own fights, spreading the word and hanging up posters to try to sell tickets.Hardy, a single mother, has considered taking MMA fights to help pay the bills, a proposition that recently became even more real when DiBella had to cancel the cards he had scheduled in New York through the end of the year because of a new provision that requires promoters in the state to secure $1 million of insurance per fighter in the event one suffers a traumatic brain injury. Unfortunately for Hardy, one of those events DiBella had to cancel was a show at Barclays Center on Dec. 16 that Hardy was supposed to fight on.As much as Id like to discourage her as a promoter from [moving to MMA], Im not going to because she has to do what she has to do to maximize her revenue streams, to take advantage of her popularity and to try to make a living for her and her daughter, DiBella said. I cant fault her for needing a supplemental income.Its worth noting that while DiBella has signed some of the best female talent in the United States, his stable is missing the biggest star in Shields, who told ESPN in September before announcing her pro debut that the only company she wanted to sign with was Oscar De La Hoyas Golden Boy Promotions. However, Shields agent said she has yet to make any decisions regarding a promoter as of this week.DiBellas investment could turn out to be a gamble that pays off if the status quo changes.The current pool of female talent is ripe for a chance at the big time, with fighters on the rise from coast to coast. Even across the pond, where womens boxing is already more prominently televised, 13-year Irish amateur and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Katie Taylor has too decided to turn professional.The skill level and talent base is all there, Espinoza said. Its just a matter of providing the opportunity.Espinoza wants Showtime to provide that opportunity. The five-year executive said that putting female fights back on the networks airwaves has been on its to-do list for some time, and that he hopes to get one on a card in the first quarter of 2017.Espinoza and DiBella have elevated conversations even further, with pretty extensive discussions about the prospect of an all-female card sometime next year. DiBella said that that type of card would ideally feature a Hardy-Vincent rematch, possibly even for a world title, if Hardy ends up fighting for one in March, as DiBella suggested she might.An all-womens card is certainly an ambitious goal, considering it likely would require the cooperation of various promoters, but Espinoza doesnt consider it insurmountable.If we can be the unifying force to bring this aboard, wed be happy to, he saidThe concept of elevating womens presence in combat sports by making opportunities possible isnt new for Showtime. Ronda Rousey fought her final three Strikeforce fights before signing with Dana White and the UFC in 2012, and those bouts aired on Showtime. Other female mixed martial arts stars such as Gina Carano, Cris Cyborg Justino and Miesha Tate also came up through Strikeforce before making the same jump.When you look at the business opportunity, which has been demonstrated in MMA, you cant really argue that the market isnt ready or the audience isnt ready, Espinoza said.The momentum that peaked in August, with Shields Olympic win and Hardy and Vincents televised bout, is palpable and has continued to pick up steam. For women in the sport, its a fight for their livelihood and for equality in the ring, present and future.If my daughter wanted to box, I would never be like, Yeah, you should work for that, Vincent said. Before I wouldve said, No, youre never going to get anywhere. Theyre never going to accept you. Youre never going to make any money.But now I would say there is hope, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.That light is primed to grow brighter again on Saturday, when Shields steps into the ring at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.Just tell everybody this is the reintroduction to womens boxing, Shields said. Thank me later. ' ' '