“Let’s give the fight fans what they want,” Fury bellowed after going 12 rounds in his latest comeback.

A long-awaited Fury-Joshua heavyweight showdown would be one of the biggest fights in British boxing history.

Joshua sat ringside and appeared to be using his phone to film portions of the fight at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He didn’t commit to anything when Fury yelled into the Netflix microphone: “Do you accept my challenge?”

Joshua said, “I’ll punch you up,” and “I’m the landlord. You work for me.”

As for Saturday’s fight, the self-described “Gypsy King” had a fairly slow start but otherwise dictated the pace with his left jab and in later rounds landed frequent lead uppercuts. Two judges scored it 120-108 and the other 119-109.

Joshua, a former world champion, later told Netflix in an interview: “Contracts will be sent over. You’ll probably see us in the ring.”

He noted he’s still “sorting some things out” following the death of two close friends in a fatal car accident in Nigeria. Joshua was a passenger in the vehicle.

The 37-year-old Fury, the former two-time heavyweight champion, called it quits shortly after losing to Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024 for a second time — his only two professional defeats.

At Fury’s request, his ring walk was preceded by a tribute to the late Ricky Hatton, the Manchester native and former world champion who died last year at age 46.

The message “RIP Ricky” was stitched on the back of Fury’s shorts.

Benn handles Prograis

Conor Benn earned a 10-round unanimous decision over Regis Prograis to bolster his case for a title shot against WBC welterweight champion Ryan Garcia.

Benn (24-5, 14 KOs) took command in the middle rounds with punishing body shots against 37-year-old Prograis (30-4, 24 KOs), a former two-time world champion at super lightweight (140 lbs).

Saturday’s bout was at a catchweight of 150 lbs.

All three judges scored it 98-92 for the 29-year-old Briton, who sustained cuts over both eyes from head clashes.

But until referee Thomas Taylor stopped the bout at 1:17 of the sixth round on Saturday night, there was little evidence that Fundora was in danger of relinquishing his WBC super welterweight belt.

The six-foot-five Fundora (24-1-1, 16 knockouts) used his nine-inch height and reach advantage to pepper Thurman (31-2, 23 KOs) with a series of hard lefts and combinations. Thurman managed to get in the occasional blow, but had to pick his spots.

There just wasn’t enough of an opportunity for him against the man called The Towering Inferno. Fundora landed 96 shots to 28 for Thurman, according to Compubox, and 64 power punches to 25.

“I was a little nervous today because Thurman is such a big name,” Fundora said. “But once we got in that ring, I said, ‘This is my world.’”

He made that clear early in the fight, and by the fifth round, Fundora was in complete control, delivering blow after blow with Thurman against the ropes. A knockout seemed like a matter of time, and it nearly came in the closing seconds of that round before the bell rang.

The moment, instead, occurred early in the sixth.

Thurman, holding ice to the left side of his battered and bruised face, was upset about the ref’s decision to step in, arguing he hadn’t been knocked down and was on the verge of giving his opponent a true challenge.

“The fight was getting really good,” Thurman said. “The fans were loving the action and the referee stopped the fight too early. They don’t have the guts to let the fights go on like (in past years). He talked to me and said if I was moving my feet he wouldn’t stop the fight. I wasn’t on the ropes taking shots. It was very unfortunate to not give the fans a better show. Win, lose, or draw, I thought it was a little bit premature. I had more in me.”

Fundora, a 28-year-old from Coachella, California, was a significant favourite entering the bout, listed at -325 at BetMGM Sportsbook.

“We’ve been working very hard for this fight,” Fundora said. “I told him that I’ve always looked up to him. He’s a Hall of Famer for sure.”

Thurman, a Clearwater, Florida resident, looked all of his 37 years old, and perhaps after this night, he could have some big decisions to make about his future. But Thurman said he has more left in him, especially the way this fight ended.

He once ruled the welterweight division, his only loss before Saturday occurring July 20, 2019, in a split-decision loss to Manny Pacquiao.

“Sebastian definitely came in shape,” Thurman said. “He throws a lot of punches. The uppercut that caught me and cut me was an awkward punch that I’ve never been hit with before. The man brings it. He’s a tremendous champion, and I can lift my head up high knowing I was defeated by a great young fighter.”

Fundora said he is willing to take on anyone who’s willing to step into the ring with him in the 154-pound division. 

If he continues to have nights like this one, Fundora could find himself in position to be the unified title holder. It would hard to argue against that Saturday night.

“There’s all kinds of big names,” Fundora said. “One-fifty-four is the best division right now. Whoever wants it next can get it.”

And it might not even be at the Sphere, the immersive arena near the Strip that has attracted people from all over the world because of its massive high-resolution video backdrop.

“As of right now, we don’t know exactly where the fight is going to be at,” Mayweather said Saturday in a video captured by Vegas Sports Today in an interview session with select media. “The Sphere is one of the places that they’ve talked about, so we don’t know if it’s 100% going to be there.”

Wherever the location, this fight comes 11 years after their first meeting, which didn’t live up to the enormous hype between the two most notable boxers of that time. Both were past their prime when Mayweather beat Pacquiao by decision in what promoters said was the most profitable fight in history and set pay-per-view records.

The 49-year-old Mayweather downplayed the significance of his rematch with the 47-year-old Pacquiao being an exhibition and not a bout that will count on the two boxers’ record. Mayweather pointed out he also has an exhibition with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson coming up and one in Greece against kickboxer Mike Zambidis.

“If I’m just sitting at home and I’m working out every day and spending time with my grandson and spending time with my children, I said why not go out and have little fun and entertain the public with some exhibitions?” Mayweather said.

That was the conclusion of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission’s final report released Tuesday.

The Canadian sport system is broken, fragmented and unsustainable, said Lise Maisonneuve, a former chief justice of the Ontario court of justice, who headed the commission.

The report issued 98 calls to action for phased-in change over five years, but starting immediately.

“There’s no doubt that the federal government must be the leader,” Maisonneuve said. “They must be the champion in order to protect Canadians and to develop a sports system that is safe, inclusive, fun and produces one of national pride and that produces elite athletes that we can all cheer on when they are on the international stage. 

“The other champions are the Canadian public. There’s a duty on all of us to keep asking questions of the federal government as to what they will do with these calls to action and to ensure that they are implemented and that they are followed.”

Announced in December 2023 by former federal sports minister Carla Qualtrough, the commission was among various federal government responses to a tsunami of maltreatment and abuse reports, both current and historical, that surfaced after the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

The commission’s mandate was to make the Canadian sport system better and safer.

“As we discovered in our work, these two matters are deeply interconnected,” Maisonneuve said.

The commission held cross-country consultations, conducted a public survey, held a summit and issued two public reports over nearly two years.

Maisonneuve said the commission heard submissions from over 1,000 individuals, including 175 survivors of abuse and maltreatment.

She spoke of widespread and ongoing abuse at all levels of sport, fragmented and confusing complaint mechanisms, power imbalances creating a culture of silence and chronic underfunding. 

“An underfunded sports system is an unsafe sports system,” she said.

Sport overall has become too expensive, inaccessible and exclusive for broad participation, Maisonneuve added.

Among the calls to action is the need for a single federal minister responsible for sport with a dedicated department. Sport currently falls under both the Heritage and Health portfolios.

The report also states there should be a centralized sport entity overseeing sport as a Crown corporation, which is structured like a private corporation, but under government control.

There have been eight changes in the federal leadership of sport over 15 years of Liberal government. Adam van Koeverden was appointed Secretary of State for Sport last year.

“I want Canadians to know, you can count on me,” he said Tuesday in Ottawa. “We have a document which lays out the future of sport in Canada.

“This is the most important document potentially ever in Canadian sport. I welcome the findings and look forward to doing the work.

“I want to acknowledge that it was the voices of survivors that broke the culture of silence in Canada. It is their bravery and courage that have created a pathway forward for a better Canada through sport.”

Olympic moguls skier Philippe Marquis, who now coaches Freestyle Canada’s young talent, took a wait-and-see approach to the final report. He lauded the commission for its work.

“The one thing that keeps my optimism alive is the fact that we have a bit of this perfect storm right now,” said the 36-year-old from Quebec City.

“The recipe, the elements are here at this specific time to be transformational, so I am optimistic because of that. If we speak in three months, six months and nothing has moved and there’s no light in sight, I think there will be a wave of discouragement across the system.

“The report is great. It’s based on fact. It’s concrete. It’s real. We’ve never had such a good portrait of the whole Canadian sports system.”

Funding was a common thread in the report. The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees have asked on behalf of national sport organizations in two successive federal budgets for an increase in core funding, which they say has been stagnant since 2005.

The most recent ask was for a $144-million increase in core funding, which is annual money NSOs count on to fund operations, athletes, coaches and support staff. One of the commission’s calls to action is for every sport organization that receives federal funding to have a safe sport officer on staff.

“There are several aspects of the report’s findings, and its 98 calls to action that speak to me, especially the ones that are labelled most urgent,” said COC chief executive officer David Shoemaker.

“There’s an urgent need to create the safest possible sport system in this country, which we always regarded as a non-negotiable and invested tens of millions of dollars in doing.

“The commissioner identified an urgent need to increase core funding to national sport organizations, which we’ve long identified as something that needs to occur, and is quite frankly linked with a safe-sport system. And she identified as an urgent priority compensation for athletes and their own situations in becoming high-performance athletes.”

The commission’s report also addressed the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in sport, and emphasized investment in Indigenous-led sport.

Canadian Paralympic Committee chief executive officer Karen O’Neill said para sport shouldn’t be treated as an add-on in the sport system.

“Equity requires attention and intentional investment,” she said. “Investment in terms of dollars, investment in terms of strategy and policy.

“Leadership in Canadian sport right now means building equity into the system from the start and not adding it as an afterthought. That means reconstructing, rethinking how we set up programs.”

The federal government spends over $250 million annually on sports. A 2023-24 report put the figure at $266.8 million for high-performance sport, hosting international events, increasing participation and improving safe sport practices.

Shiffrin placed 23rd in the race won by 35-year-old Elena Curtoni, who would have set a series of World Cup age records for women but for the recent comeback of 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn.

A stellar race for the home Italian team also saw unheralded 29-year-old Asja Zenere take a shocking third place wearing the low-ranked start bib No. 33.

In just her second start in a super-G in more than two years, Shiffrin wore the No. 31 bib starting a half-hour after Aicher surprisingly skied out in the middle of a fast run that was set to take the lead.

Shiffrin earned just eight World Cup points though extended her lead over Aicher to 125 with six races left this season, including two in the slalom discipline she has dominated. Shiffrin is also the Olympic champion in slalom.

Aicher is an all-event racer, which is unusual in modern Alpine skiing, though she rarely scores top-10 results in giant slalom.

Curtoni completed an unexpected sweep of the three-race weekend for the home team in the sun-splashed Dolomites mountains. Laura Pirovano won both downhills by the minimum margin of 0.01 seconds and looked a little fatigued Sunday when placing eighth, 0.46 back.

“Seeing Laura being at the top the last two days, it was charging me,” said Curtoni, who has been waiting since 2022 to get a fourth career World Cup win. “It was a roller coaster, I knew I was not done.”

At 35, Curtoni is now the oldest winner of a women’s super-G in the World Cup, and only Vonn was older when winning any World Cup race. Vonn’s last victory was a downhill in January.

Curtoni was 0.26 faster than runner-up Kajsa Vickhoff Lie and Zenere pushed Romane Miradoli, the Olympic silver medalist last month, and Alice Robinson into a tie for fourth.

Zenere had never been better than ninth before her 50th career World Cup start Sunday.

Goggia’s lead cut

Robinson closed the gap on Sofia Goggia, leader in the season-long super-G standings, ahead of a duel between them at the final race March 22 at Kvitfjell, Norway. Aicher can no longer top the discipline standings.

Goggia, a four-time winner of the season-long downhill standings, would have sealed her first career super-G title with victory Sunday but was 0.64 back in ninth.

The Italian veteran’s lead over Robinson was cut to 63 points with 100 on offer for the race winner in Norway.

Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) hasn’t fought since a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in London in July.

The May 23 bout, dubbed “Glory in Giza,” will be the first title fight held in Egypt, according to The Ring magazine.

Verhoeven is 66-10 with 21 KOs as a kickboxer, but has not competed as a boxer since 2014.

“I truly respect people who reach the very top in their sport,” Usyk said in a statement. “Rico is one of them — a powerful athlete and a great champion. He’s truly the king of kickboxing. Being a champion isn’t just about belts.

“I’m ready and looking forward to meeting him in the ring. It’s going to be a unique experience for both of us, a big night is coming.”

Usyk has won six fights in four years, with two wins each over Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Dubois.

“I spent twelve years as the undisputed heavyweight kickboxing champion and accomplished everything I set out to accomplish,” Verhoeven said. “But staying at the top for that long didn’t take away from the hunger, it strengthened it.

“Usyk is the undisputed in boxing. That’s the kind of challenge that motivated me. Undisputed versus undisputed. The best versus the best.”

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