maninblack

Maybe Froch's felt guilty about it all this time, hence him coming clean about it. Or he needed an interesting story to fill the pages of his book.

Carl Froch admits prolonging title fight

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-17088977

The former WBC Super Middleweight champion Carl Froch has admitted prolonging a title fight to enable members of his family to benefit financially.

Speaking on BBC Radio Nottingham, he expanded on comments made in his autobiography, published last year.

He said he could have finished his 2005 Commonwealth title defence against Ruben Groenewald earlier than he did.

The British Boxing Board of Control said it would now speak to Froch.

'Not illegal'

The Nottingham boxer said he could have finished the fight in the fourth round but deliberately avoided doing so because of bets made on it finishing in the fifth.

Carl Froch said what he did was not illegal.

He said: "I've done it more than one occasion and it was round five but that's not illegal.

"I can say, 'right, I'll stop this kid in round five'. If I'm good enough to do that then fair enough.

"I don't gamble but my brothers and my friends, they did quite well off it," he said.

"I can openly say that because if I'm good enough to step on the gas in round five and force the stoppage then that's my privilege, and that's what I did in this particular fight at the Arena for the Commonwealth title defence.

"But the problem with that is I held him up in round four.

"He was there for the taking and I held him up, I got him with a shot, I could have ended up getting done myself in round four."

There may be more to it, but if Froch wasn't asked to throw the fight, the only problem I'd have is he was given a title challenger who had no chance to beat him.

I hope the F1 Honda he bought includes a lot of free spare parts.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali says he is very sad Formula 1 will have no Italian drivers on the grid in 2012.

It probably made for some good press back in Italy, but if Ferrari themselves aren't making any priorities about a driver's nationality, there's no reason why the other teams should do the same.

Fellow veteran Rubens Barrichello, also without a drive for 2012 after nearly 20 years in the sport, lamented Trulli's situation too.

"Sad to see that Trulli won't be on the 2012 grid...Money is dominating everything," he wrote on Twitter.

As if money was never the key factor in F1.

I think turnovers are looked at wrongly. Ricky Rubio also looks turnover prone if you just look at the stat lines. But I think you need to look at the turnover, they can be through poor ball-control, bad passes, a steal or they can be a pass that is picked off that if made would have been an automatic two points. What I'm trying to say is, to me a turnover isn't always a turnover. I really think they need to split them like in tennis with forced and unforced errors. Plus Lin and Rubio have both shown that as PGs they can spark a run. I'd much rather have a player with 6 turnovers who also lead a 16-4 run than one with no turnovers who couldn't impact the game in any way.

Oh absolutely. Rubio, Rondo, Nash, Deron and Kobe have higher turnover averages than Lin this season, but they make up for that with all the positive contributions to their game. The turnovers, as well as any other bad stats, are excuseable so long as they win more than they lose.

And the Knicks' winning streak ends at home vs New Orleans.

Was hoping that, when the streak ended, it would've been against a better team. Hopefully New York is better prepared for Dalls.

The Knicks played this game like they were exhausted. They really did an awful job. Then at the end of the game, every call was in favor of New Orleans.

They played great against Dallas after the day off, which was great. That was a really solid game by both teams.

D'Antoni's known for only using 7 or 8 players at any given game. Even when Carmelo and Baron are ready to play, it's unlikely he'll go 9 or 10 deep to spread out the workload.

And the Knicks' winning streak ends at home vs New Orleans.

Was hoping that, when the streak ended, it would've been against a better team. Hopefully New York is better prepared for Dalls.

Lin has had 45 turnovers in 7 games. That's a bit of an understated issue by everyone. Without a doubt his 9 turnovers cost them the game last night.

The turnovers (and their bad free throw shooting) nearly sunk the Knicks again vs the Mavs.

That being said, right now those Knick turnovers are the price for their improved better ball distribution + winning 7 of 8 games with Lin directing traffic. The turnover numbers should go down as Lin gets more experience.

There was a big fallout at ESPN over the headline "Chink in the armor" after Lin had a subpar game against the Hornets. As someone who actually saw the headline I never thought twice about it until the big apology so thanks ESPN for pointing out a racist joke, I had a good laugh.

Speaking only for myself as an Oriental, I didn't see that copy as being racist either.

Props to the Klitschkos for keeping their cool.

Part of me wants both brothers to retire as champions.

And the Knicks' winning streak ends at home vs New Orleans.

Was hoping that, when the streak ended, it would've been against a better team. Hopefully New York is better prepared for Dalls.

Incredible clutch hit by Lin.

And who knew the undrafted, twice-cut Harvard guy could turn the Air Canada Center into MSG Toronto? >.>

Jason "The Whole World Is Racist Except Me, I Just Keep It Real" Whitlock had himself a Linsanity moment, tweeting out "Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight," and it seems the world is taking it as a racist shot at Jeremy Lin.

Even Floyd Mayweather makes a comment about Jeremy Lin. Something about how he's only getting all this attention 'cause he's Chinese.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/7572690/floyd-mayweather-says-new-york-knicks-jeremy-lin-spotlight-race-not-play

He can go ahead and keep talking crap like that till June, when he has to serve prison time.

I honestly think the best thing for the Knicks would be to unload Carmelo Anthony.

Jeremy Lin is obviously on the high side of what he is capable of right now, but 17-8 with 48% shooting shouldn't be out of the question. He's an excellent pick and roll guard, and well, Amare Stoudemire is one of the best pick and roll power forwards. Trading Anthony would probably net the best return, getting back perhaps a good defensive SF, another good big and a pick or two from somewhere. I'd have to mess with the ESPN trade machine to see.

The best thing for the Knicks is trading Stoudemire. Carmelo would get more in return, but A'mare's knees will not survive this contract. Lose him, retool with the money they could free up (or a guy like Howard) and they're in better shape in the long run since 'Melo can get his offense with or without a pick and roll PG. Stoudemire is too dependent on others to get his numbers, and I just don't trust that his body will hold up playing D'Antoni minutes.

There's a lot of optimism on the Knicks forums I go to, and honestly their fans should be optimistic about things finally getting better. I think it is unlikely they'll trade Stoudemeire at this point. Lin seems to be the point guard needed for Amar'e to work his offense.

I do agree that Stoudemeire's health issues seem to be overlooked right now with all the Linsanity going on.

Geez, Raikkonen isn't even in F1 anymore. What did he do to get JV all riled up?

Meh, makes sense for Domenicali to talk up Alonso more than Schumacher.

Fan heckles Contador for his doping.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/post/Video-Three-time-Tour-champion-punches-fan-duri?urn=top-wp213

Just as well they didn't really though, because they ended up some sixteen minutes back - and if they saw the severity of the crash I doubt there would have been any worry in their mind as to whether to carry on.

Is there no way, in that situation, a car/bike can't pass on a message to them or is that forbidden or whatever unless they dropped off the back of the peloton? Just it seems daft if they are considering waiting because they didn't realise Hoogerland's nads were ensnared in barbed wire.

According to Wikipedia, they're phasing out the use of team radios in top-level cycling competition. I do not know if the ban is in effect for this season's tours though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_bicycle_racing#Teams

The Beckham's have had their first daughter safely delivered this morning in LA. Good for them.

They've named her Harper Seven Beckham.

How...sci-fi.

He's been sacked.

Good.

That being said, I wonder if they actually added these sort of hazards (bystanders, media vehicles, the occasional stray animal) in the official Tour de France videogame.

I wonder if criminal or civil charges can be filed against that media car driver.

I feel bad to see Yao hang it up. The guy sacrificed so much to make it, let alone stay competitive, in the NBA. The government didn't give him time off to preserve his body, and even made him give up part of his salary as part of the deal for him to play abroad.

Heck, I think they even pushed him to become owner of his old Shanghai ballclub, to keep it from folding.

It also kinda peeves me that Menk Batere has a ring for padding out the Spurs' championship roster, while Yao doesn't.

I'd hate to see Sonnen win vs Stann. But yeah, good matchmaking choice here.

Just saw the big crashes on the news. That newsman's motorcycle shouldn't have been that close to the riders.

lol technical difficulties.

Good job, Djokovic!

I miss the days when the winner would run into the crowd and celebrate with their loved ones.

And the guy putting the winner's name on the list of champions has got to be the coolest extra in this year's finals.

This makes Tsonga...only the third man to beat both Federer and Nadal in a Grand Slam? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Djokovic and Soderling.

...go Murray!

Tsonga's gonna KO Federer

EDIT: Dang.

If it's any consolation for Trulli, F1 haven't figured out a way to fully control the weather yet.