Boxing: Carl Frampton will defend his WBA world featherweight title against Leo Santa Cruz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on January 28 next year. The two-weight world champion had announced the rematch for his WBA world featherweight strap with Santa Cruz last week, but did not reveal the details of the fight in terms of date or venue. Frampton, 29, defeated Santa Cruz on a majority decision at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in July. The fight was Frampton’s first at featherweight.
Rugby: Alisports, the sports arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is to invest $100 million in Chinese rugby over the next 10 years as part of an initiative to make the world’s most populous nation a force in the game, World Rugby said yesterday. The initiative aims to establish professional men’s and women’s leagues, a national sevens programme as well as attract and retain a million new players over the next five years through World Rugby’s “Get Into Rugby” project. The target is to run the “Get Into Rugby” programme at 10,000 universities and schools in 20 provinces, World Rugby said.
Snooker: Former world champions Ronnie O’Sullivan and Neil Robertson both crashed out of the International Championship in China as they made third-round exits. O’Sullivan saw his hopes of reaching the quarter-finals in Daqing dashed by fellow Englishman Michael Holt 6-4. Holt was never behind in the match as he booked a quarter-final clash today against Stuart Bingham, who was a 6-1 conqueror of Ali Carter. Australian Roberston, meanwhile, went down 6-2 against Joe Perry, with Perry next facing reigning world champion Mark Selby.
Basket, NBA: The NBA’s 2016-17 season got under way this week with a record 113 international players from 41 countries and territories on opening night rosters. The previous records for international players (101) and countries and territories (39) were set at the start of the 2014-15 and 2013-14 seasons, respectively. For the third straight year Canada tops the list providing teams with 11 players, the NBA said in a statement. France (10), Brazil (9), Australia (8) and Croatia (5) rounded out the top five.
Rugby Union: Coach Eddie Jones has recalled Tom Wood (picture) to cover his back-row crisis and named six uncapped players in England’s 33-man squad for the autumn internationals. Wood, the 29-year-old flanker who was told by Jones last December that he was ‘distinctly average’, was drafted in following a series of injuries that has ruled out 10 players, including five flankers. Although Wood’s return is a surprise, Jones will be looking to his experience, particularly in the lineout where England are missing George Kruis.