MMA superstar Conor McGregor has launched into a social media rant after his ‘worst pitch ever’ at a baseball game, bizarrely taking aim at the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Roger Federer.
The Irishman has been the talk of the internet since his escapades at the iconic Wrigley Stadium.
Taking part in the ceremonial pitch before the first inning of a clash between the Chicago Cubs and the visiting Minnesota Twins, the former two-weight UFC champion sent his throw horribly wide of catcher Patrick Wisdom.
Immediately mocked online, there were also questions as to who threw out the worst pitch ever between Mystic Mac and rapper 50 Cent, who once embarrassed himself at a 2014 New York Mets vs Pittsburgh Pirates fixture at Citi Field in his home borough of Queens.
Most likely having his notifications ping all day long, McGregor caught wind of the comparison and took to Instagram to address the matter in a bizarre rant.
Sharing a photo of the pair lamely attempting to throw heat, McGregor started by blasting “the audacity to compare mine with this p*ss!”
“Picture to picture alone buries this,” he went on. “Mine, bar the accuracy, was the most powerful and fastest first pitch of any of these other athletes/ artists over the years. No comparison.”
“Smoke them up and down that Forbes I do,” he said, switching topics to his recent topping of the finance magazine’s Rich List for athletes.
“Put me in the Wrigley Hall of Fame for that rocket launch,” he demanded.
“Beside some of that nice red brick. Mahogany Oak Frame. Wimbledon lines in the grass. The great Wrigley Field reminds me of the grounds on my land in Ireland. Impeccable,” McGregor bragged.
“Venom. Composure. Balance! The gold bar of Patek almost came flying off me it was that fast and powerful,” he said of his watch, before outlining that he’d take the “rare” luxury item back for adjusting if it wasn’t “discontinued”.
“I bought [it] for 80k in Weir’s jeweler of Ireland, and today it is worth close to 500k. And going up. Fifty has a nice hublot too,” McGregor conceded, of Jackson’s own timepiece in the Mets shame still.
“Big Bang. Small bucks, 50cent. One has power. One is the director of media relations for some show called Power.
“You know what it is. The Mac in Chicago!” he signed off.
McGregor continued that last theme by sharing a short clip of him getting out of a vehicle in the Windy City and waving to a crowd.
“Wrigleyville, Chicago. Incredible,” he wrote, alongside a shamrock.
Over on Twitter, McGregor continued his rampage by attacking underground rapper and food travel show star Action Bronson.
Interviewed by pundit Ariel Helwani, the fight fan remarked, “He could probably throw the ball better than that. That’s f*cking staged,” which McGregor didn’t like at all.
.@ActionBronson gives his thoughts on Conor McGregor's disastrous first pitch at the Chicago Cubs game:
“He could probably throw the ball better than that. That's f*cking staged.”
French star Kylian Mbappe has been told to tone down his ego by a rival coach after the striker goaded Metz goalkeeper Alexandre Oukidja as Paris Saint-Germain snatched a late winner in their Ligue 1 clash.
PSG left it late at the Stade Municipal Saint-Symphorien on Wednesday night but maintained their 100% start to the Ligue 1 season thanks to a 95th-minute winner from Achraf Hakimi.
The goal was the summer signing’s second of the game, after he had given the visitors the lead in the fifth minute only for that to be cancelled out by Metz defender Boubakar Kouyate not long before half-time.
Metz saw Dylan Bronn sent off in injury time when he earned a second yellow card for timewasting, while manager Frederic Antonetti was also dismissed for protesting the decision.
Then came Hakimi’s late winner, which sparked more angry scenes when Mbappe approached Metz stopper Oukidja and appeared to taunt him before joining his teammates to celebrate.
Oukidja quickly scrambled to his feet to chase after the 22-year-old but was confronted by Neymar, who shoved him to the ground and later earned a yellow card.
Some fans were quick to pick up on Mbappe’s position behind his teammates as they formed a defensive wall around him, protecting the man who had initiated the ruckus.
“Yeah big brother, that’s the one who hit me,” one fan joked in French, sharing an image of a smiling Mbappe behind Neymar.
The Metz coach isn’t the first person to accuse World Cup wonderboy Mbappe of getting ahead of himself.
As France flopped at Euro 2020 in the summer – with Mbappe missing the decisive penalty in the shootout defeat to Switzerland – former Monaco and PSG star Jerome Rothen said the star had an “oversized ego.”
Elsewhere, French World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit claimed that Mbappe had become ‘Neymarised’ and was trying too hard to emulate the showboating Brazilian on the pitch.
The late drama on Wednesday night meant that Mauricio’s Pochettino’s team made it seven wins from seven league games this season – despite the absence on Wednesday night of the injured Lionel Messi.
Undefeated WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has admitted his reluctance at taking a second Covid-19 immunization jab until after he fights Deontay Wilder on October 9, amid fears that it could distract from his preparations.
Fury and Wilder will throw down for a third time next month in a fight in which much of the boxing fraternity sees as Fury’s final hurdle before securing a the biggest heavyweight unification title fight in a generation against fellow Brit Anthony Joshua.
But ahead of the contest, Wilder’s infamous right hand isn’t the only shot that ‘The Gypsy King’ is wary of as he prepares for the defense of his WBC crown.
Speaking to BoxingScene, Fury said that he had concerns as to how his body might react to a second Covid jab so close to the pivotal bout with Wilder – despite the fight already having been postponed due to a Covid-19 outbreak within Fury’s camp, including the fighter himself testing positive.
“You never can tell,” said Fury of his concerns. “There’s so much bullsh*t with all this, stories that go around, you never know what’s the truth and what’s not. So, I’m not in the risk-taking game. I’m in a serious, life-threatening job, where you can get your lights knocked out with one punch.
“And if [a second shot] was to affect me in any way, then I’d never live with me self before a big fight. But when the fight’s over, and it haven’t affected me, I’ll have time to recover from it all. But I wouldn’t go now and have me injection, not knowing what’s gonna happen next week, because I’ve got much business on.
“And it not only would affect my career, but affect my family’s future earnings and taking food out of me family’s mouth. So, when the boxing’s over in the minute, I can go and get me vaccine, second shot, and we’ll see how we go from there. But yeah, for now, I’m just gonna stick with one until after the fight.”
Fury also stated that the Covid diagnosis he received which temporarily derailed his third fight with the hard-hitting American was his SECOND infection with the potentially deadly virus, and said that his 2020 battle with Covid was worse than his more recent one.
That said, Fury said that he does intend to receive his second shot to protect him from the virus once his business with Wilder in Las Vegas is tended to.
“It’s killed a lot of people in the world,” said Fury of Covid-19. “And if the vaccine helps, then get it done, you know? I had me first vaccine back in I think July or June in Miami. And I was supposed to go back and have another one after the Wilder fight. But I ended up getting Covid and flew back home [to England] after 10 days. And I’ll be having my vaccine, the second shot, after the Wilder fight.”
As for Wilder, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ says that both he and his team have been fully vaccinated for some time, and stated that he saw it as a necessary step towards safeguarding the fight – but he admitted that each person must make their own decisions.
“Well, you can’t tell grown people what to do,” Wilder said of the vaccine push. “You know, it’s hard to try to. I can only say that what’s going in the world and what we’re going through with it, it’s something new to us all, all around the world. And a lot of people are frightened [of] what they have heard, or what’s been going on.
“So, you know, for me, we thought it would a great idea for us, my whole team, just to get vaccinated, just in case. You know, it’s always a just-in-case factor. As you can see, my fight was already postponed once again due to, you know, the claims of this situation. But we just thought it would be a great idea.
“So, you know, for me, my advice to all other fighters, if you’re comfortable with it, go do it. Get it done, you know? And if you’re not, then, you know, you take your own, your judgments on that.“
Football fans have reacted with outrage to the state of the modern game after Lyon star Lucas Paqueta received a yellow card after showboating when attempting a harmless rainbow flick in Ligue 1 on Wednesday night.
The incident occurred during Olympique Lyonnais’ 3-1 win over Troyes.
After Paqueta scored in the 87th minute, the tie was done and dusted deep into stoppage time.
Attempting to kill it off near the corner flag, the Brazil international attempted a rainbow flick which didn’t quite come off, instead hitting a Troyes man who squared up to the 24-year-old.
Lucas Paquetá booked for attempting a rainbow flick.
Claiming handball and trotting away unfazed, Paqueta got into position to receive the resulting throw in.
Referee Stephanie Frappart strolled over to him uttered some words at the Flamengo academy product, who then headed closer to the touchline into space.
Huddled with some Troyes players, Frappart then got out her yellow card and showed it to the perplexed number 10, who shrugged the disciplinary action off in disbelief.
On social media, Brazilian football fans lamented the caution, claiming their players’ creative instincts were being ‘suppressed’.
“European clubs have suppressed our players’ style and identity for years. Now even the refs are doing it,” remarked one well-followed account that shared footage now seen by over a million people.
“This is stupid, what is the offence?” someone else asked.
They received the explanation that Paqueta had ignored the referee when she tried talking to him, which perhaps facilitated the yellow card, but a separate party noted that Selecao colleague Neymar was also reprimanded for a similar exhibition of skill when starring for PSG against Montpellier in the French top flight.
“People let this happen and yet wonder why modern football is so robotic.
“Sometimes I wonder how people enjoy football these days,” was another conclusion.
“European teams started to get scared of Brazil and its players. Hence carding players for dribbling. The only explanation I can give….embarrassing,” remarked a separate outraged party.
The same people will then complain that the Brazilian flair and feel for the fame “is gone”
“The same people will then complain that the Brazilian flair and feel for the fame ‘is gone’,” was another good point raised.
But Paqueta chose not to address the matter on Instagram or Twitter post-match.
On the latter format, he merely retweeted his impressive heat map during the win that one stats page produced, as well as an official club post of fans singing his name at the Groupama Stadium.
LUCAS PAQUETÁ, LUCAS PAQUETÁ, LUCAS PAQUETÁ, ALLEZ ALLEZ!
On Instagram, he shared a photo of him tucking his effort away and wrote, “One more goal. Glory to God for everything” alongside a closed hands praying emoji.
But even if Paqueta wouldn’t, Neymar took to the same platform later on Tuesday afternoon to voice his concern at the worrying development.
Neymar commented on Lucas Paquetá receiving a yellow card for trying to rainbow flick a player. This happened to Neymar himself in the 19/20 season.
Deontay Wilder says that he will debut another theatrical outfit for his ring-walk ahead of the trilogy fight with Tyson Fury despite blaming his defeat in their rematch last year on a similar outfit which he said weighed 40lbs.
Wilder, 35, has long been known for wearing extravagant costumes to the ring throughout his ascent to the top of the heavyweight rankings but ‘The Bronze Bomber’ admitted after their fight in February 2020 that the weighty costume he wore to the ring which painted him as a sort of apocalyptic warrior complete with a horned helmet, glowing red eyes and human skulls adorning his armor – but it didn’t quite have the desired impact.
In the bout, which was the first defeat of the American’s 44-fight career, Wilder struggled to contain an aggressive Fury en route to being finished in the seventh round when his ex-trainer Mark Breland threw in the towel.
But despite Breland being run out of the camp shortly afterwards for this perceived indiscretion, Wilder says that he will again be adorned with some theatrical garb as he looks to score a measure of revenge against his British rival.
“All of my fights have – well, since I became champion, you know, nobody has come out with a better dress, better uniform than I have,” Wilder said to BoxingScene.
“And we’re going to continue with that. We’ll just have to see what I put on. It’s going to be something special. It’s going to be something that I dedicate to my people, my tribe. So you can look forward to seeing it.”
Some, though, see this as an unnecessary tempting of fate – particularly after Wilder’s excuses for his below par performance in his second fight with Fury.
In the days after their rematch last year, Wilder spoke of how he felt the 40lb outfit he wore to the ring wore him out and that he “didn’t have no legs” once the first bell rang.
“I didn’t have no legs from the beginning of the fight. In the third round, my legs were just shot all the way through,” Wilder opined. “But I’m a warrior and people know that I’m a warrior. It could easily be told that I didn’t have legs or anything.
“When I first tried it on, I saw it had some type of weight to it, but during that time you get so excited and you want people to see it. But we immediately started feeling, ‘Alright, we’re going to have to put this uniform on a certain amount of time before we go out,’ even if we had to delay it a little bit, before putting it on,” he explained.
“But our timing wasn’t perfect. We still had the uniform on about 10 to 15 minutes before walking out. And I was walking around with it. I just didn’t have the helmet on.
“And when I put the helmet on and started walking out, it was a long ring walk. Due to the circumstances I was under, it immediately just drained my legs. And then you’re talking about walking up the stairs [to the ring] with it on.
“It was almost like a workout. I didn’t think it would affect me that much. But it affected me more than what I expected. Then, by him coming and leaning his body on me and pushing me down and putting me in headlocks, that played a part in affecting my legs as well.”
While there is as of yet no indication if Wilder’s ring-walk costume will be quite as weighty this time around, fight fans have hit out at his decision to embrace pageantry when they say his full focus should be on extracting revenge from the unbeaten Fury.
Apparently Deontay Wilder is planning to wear “something special” to the ring again when he fights Tyson Fury.
He's obviously forgotten about the litany of costume-related excuses he produced last time they fought.
“Apparently Deontay Wilder is planning to wear ‘something special’ to the ring again when he fights Tyson Fury. He’s obviously forgotten about the litany of costume-related excuses he produced last time they fought,” said one fan in response to the news.
“Just wear you pyjamas because you’ll be going to sleep in the ring,” advised another.
“Might wanna put a little more into his actual boxing skill than ring-entrance outfits,” said a third.
