Valentina Shevchenko has quoted iconic Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky while reiterating her defense of the UFC’s ring girls after former lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov called them “useless”.
The 29-0 retired Russian made his comments at a press conference to promote his Eagle Fighting Championship, dubbing the girls who typically appear between each round “the most useless people in martial arts”.
The remarks led to a mixed response among figures in the sport, including jibes from bitter foe Conor McGregor and a reaction from Shevchenko in which she said that it was “so not right” to talk about the girls in such a manner, calling them a “huge part of any promotion”.
Following her fourth-round TKO victory over Lauren Murphy at UFC 266 on Saturday, the Kyrgyzstani-Peruvian made a point of approaching the ring girls and posing with them for a photo.
“Beautiful women are a decoration of any event. I want people to know that, and no one has the right to say that they are useless because they’re at the place that they have to be,” Shevchenko said after her victory.
“They were here at the beginning. You [can] come to any event [and] you will see beautiful women. A man, everyone enjoys it – it’s kind of like beautiful, right? This is a decoration.”
On Monday, the 33-year-old took to Instagram and doubled down on her message by posting the snap with a quartet of ring girls and writing: “Beauty will save the world.”
Literary great Dostoevsky originally came out with the enigmatic line in a bid to encapsulate how beauty transcends aesthetics.
Perhaps the most famous of all ring girls, Luciana Andrade, was clearly impressed, leaving a love heart for Shevchenko and replying: “It’s the women supporting women, for me.”
Presenter Laura Sanko also approved, adding a string of clapping hands, while Valentina’s sister – UFC fighter Antonina ‘La Pantera’ – also showed her support.
Pornstar and devoted MMA watcher Kendra Lust responded by telling Shevchenko: “Love this.”
Others left memes and comments about Nurmagomedov, with one writing: “Khabib has just left the building.”
Some argued that the Dagestani’s remarks, in which he spoke of how he had felt uncomfortable being near ring girls at an event he attended with his legendary late father, Abdulmanap, have been blown wildly out of proportion.
“It’s the opposite,” said one, responding to a suggestion that Nurmagomedov would be annoyed by Shevchenko’s post.
“Everyone blew up once Khabib shared one opinion – and you’re all still talking about it.”
Gymnastics star Simone Biles has claimed that black women “have to be greater” and said that their achievements are “dimmed down” even when sporting records fall by the wayside.
A four-time gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Biles endured a turbulent time at this summer’s Tokyo showpiece, briefly looking as if she might walk away empty-handed as she dealt with personal struggles.
The elastic-limbed 24-year-old eventually secured a silver medal in the team event and bronze in the balance beam final, and she has now suggested that she believes she has to considerably out-perform white athletes to earn the credit she deserves.
“As a black woman, we just have to be greater,” said Biles, speaking to writer and poet Camonghne Felix for New York. “Because even when we break records and stuff, they almost just dim it down – as if it’s just normal.”
Felix, who is a former speechwriter for Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic Party politician and governor of New York from 2011 to 2021, clearly agrees with Biles.
“I have a theory that if someone were to try and account for the exact amount of labor black women have forcefully and freely contributed to the US economy and culture, if America had to match us cent for sweat drop, it would be a number so great it would bankrupt all of this country’s resources,” she wrote.
“And if we’ve done it right, in the next generation, there will be no mules. We’ve done enough – the world will have to meet us on our terms.”
Biles is said to have been inspired by best-selling book ‘The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck’ as she has faced the pressures involved in her sensational career and being under the spotlight.
Before tying with Shannon Miller as the American female gymnast with the most medals of all time, Biles thought about leaving the sport when disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar hit the headlines for an appalling campaign of sexual abuse.
“I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years,” she admitted, speaking after addressing the US Senate over the FBI’s handling of the Nassar case. “It was too much.
“But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was six years old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that, as long as my mind and my body would let me.”
When she was asked whether she would alter any aspects of her gymnastics journey, Biles replied: “No, I wouldn’t change anything because everything happens for a reason.
“And I learned a lot about myself — courage, resilience, how to say no and speak up for yourself.”
Ex-PSG and Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka has warned his former club that it will be “very difficult to recover” from substituting Lionel Messi on his home debut, accusing the French giants of “playing with his head a lot.”
PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino hooked Messi on his home debut for the club against Lyon, appearing to receive an upset response from the Argentina captain on the touchline after replacing him after 76 minutes.
The Ligue 1 leaders scored the winner in a 2-1 victory after Messi made way, and the former Arsenal and France forward, who was once dubbed ‘Le Sulk’, claims the most high-profile signing in their history will not forget the incident.
“You don’t take off a six-time Ballon d’Or winner at the 65th minute [sic], when he hasn’t scored for his team. That plays with his head a lot,” said Anelka, who won the Premier League with the Blues and Arsenal and the Champions League with Real Madrid.
“A forward needs his coach to show him confidence, and that right there won’t do it.
“I’m getting ahead of myself but Messi will not forget what Pochettino has done. It will stay with him.
“He’s the star of the team and it was his first game at the Parc des Princes. It’s going to be very difficult to recover from that as a situation.
Some speculation Messi was injured on international duty and he’s been playing through it since
Consequently, hard to put a timeline. I want to say it should be quick but if he still has pain + repeat scan in 48hrs shows bone edema still present then he won’t play this weekend https://t.co/1m9zlku7qE
“Messi didn’t play [in PSG’s subsequent away game] against Metz and, for me, that’s already a response.
“You can’t manage Messi like that. The coach wanted to send out a strong message, which is good – but this is Messi.”
Pochettino denied there had been a dispute with Messi despite cameras appearing to catch the former Barcelona talisman looking mystified by the move as he came off.
Many have pointed to Messi’s subsequent absence from PSG’s last two matchday squads – beating Metz and Montpellier without his influence – as proof that he was carrying a knock which could have occurred while he was on international duty with Argentina.
Vigilant Pochettino may have been acting as a precaution to prevent further damage to arguably the most important player in his star-studded squad, with Mauro Icardi’s 93rd-minute winner meaning no harm was done on the night.
Anelka wasn’t done there with his hot takes. While France wonderkid Kylian Mbappe is clearly on edge after being caught on camera at the weekend appearing to call Neymar a “vagabond” and accusing the Brazilian of not passing enough, Anelka insists that Messi, who is being tipped for a return to action when PSG host Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday, must supply the World Cup winner in their vaunted strikeforce.
“Mbappe has to lead the attack because he’s No.1,” Anelka said. “Messi was at Barcelona but now he has to serve Mbappe. He’s been at the club for five years and Messi has to respect him.”
Now working as a pundit in his homeland, Anelka revealed that he plans to move into coaching and would prefer to live in Asia or the Gulf.
“I’ll take after my former coaches,” he ambitiously predicted. “Carlo Ancelotti for his man-management, Antonio Conte for his tactics and repeating moves, Arsene Wenger for his counter-attacking and, most of all, Sam Allardyce for his ability to get the best out of each player.”
Bolstered by the two most expensive players in the world in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, Tuesday’s tantalising showdown between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City is set to star the most expensive lineups of all time.
Not many clubs can boast greater spending power than reigning Premier League champions City, who were able to splurge $139 million on Aston Villa playmaker Jack Grealish in the summer after the midfielder caught the eye for England at Euro 2020.
Over the summer, the Abu Dhabi-backed City Football Group which owns the club was said to have raised a whopping $650 million in a loan underwritten by banks Barclays, HSBC, and KKR Capital, the Financial Times said – although that did not result in boss Pep Guardiola signing England captain Harry Kane after City were widely reported to have fallen short of Tottenham’s $203 million asking price.
PSG, meanwhile, are in a different league. Qatar Sports Investments were clearly likely to give the club colossal bargaining power when they took over the French giants in 2011, and perhaps the only real surprise of their most luxurious signing so far was that it took until 2017.
That was when Brazil enigma Neymar moved to the Parc des Princes from Barcelona for $259 million, with some accounts putting the total cost of the temperamental striker, who recently signed an extension until 2025, at closer to $571 million overall.
A year later, France prodigy Kylian Mbappe became the second-most expensive player of all time, joining for $210 million from Monaco in a move that would ultimately combine him with a figure few would ever have expected to see in Ligue 1.
Lionel Messi’s enforced move from Barca, leaving because of financial rules around spending in La Liga, was a symbol of quite how badly his boyhood club has been mismanaged in recent years.
Despite that astonishing windfall from the sale of Neymar, the five-time Champions League winners could not afford to keep Messi this summer, leading to a tearful farewell for the icon who once had a contract buyout clause worth $818 million.
Messi’s pay packet in Paris will provide some consolation to the figure many consider the best player of all time. The Argentina captain’s contract reportedly earns him around $121,500 every day, leading to inevitable conjecture – also regularly leveled at City – about Financial Fair Play rules.
Elsewhere among the handsomely-paid players, Belgium maestro Kevin de Bruyne cost City around $93 million when he joined from Wolfsburg, which some fans would consider fair value for the Premier League Player of the Season in 2020, when he also won the first of his two PFA Players’ Player of the Year awards.
According to Transfermarkt, there are five other City players – Riyad Mahrez, Joao Cancelo, Aymeric Laporte and last season’s Premier League Player of the Season, Ruben Dias – who each cost more than the next-most expensive Paris signing remaining at the club, $60 million Angel Di Maria.
The site estimates the value of the squads combined at around $2.04 billion, rating De Bruyne ($122 million), England striker Sterling ($110 million) and academy sensation Phil Foden ($97.5 million) as City’s most valuable assets.
For Paris, the three top trumps are as predictable as they are potent: Mbappe is valued at $195 million – a figure that persistent suitors Real Madrid will be keenly aware of – with Neymar priced around $100 million less than the transfer fee he originally commanded, and 34-year-old Messi worth $97.5 million.
Ex-Newcastle star Steven Taylor has retired from football and says he wants to return to the UK to see his family after missing out on “any type of normal life” because of rigid Covid restrictions in Australia.
Taylor captained top side Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand, where UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya took drastic action on Monday by vowing that he would never fight there again and promising to relocate to the US, with his City Kickboxing academy considering following him.
Phoenix general manager David Dome estimated that former England international Taylor has spent “three months alone in a hotel room” because of the restrictions put in place by Prime Minister Jacinda Arden and in neighboring Australia.
“The thought of having to relocate and hub again… I got caught in a lockdown at the end of last season and then again one day after I got out of managed isolation,” explained the 35-year-old, adding that “family is more important than football.”
Steven Taylor has called time on his playing career.
After he left Newcastle, the defender spent time in the US, India and New Zealand, ending his career with Wellington Phoenix.
“It feels like it’s followed me everywhere. I haven’t had any type of a normal life for some time.
“I’m excited for the next chapter and to see my family back home in the UK.”
Phoenix have been based north in Australia over the majority of the past two A-League seasons and Dome stressed how difficult their relocation has been.
“Covid has been tough on this club, its players and staff over the past two years and especially for Steven,” said Dome.
“[He’s had] six stints in quarantine – that’s three months alone in a hotel room – over the past two-odd years. That kind of thing takes a toll on a person.”
Taylor and Adesanya could soon be joined by the England cricket team, who are said to be considering pulling out of the sport’s biggest test competition, The Ashes, due to host team Australia’s covid regulations.
Nigerian-born brawler Adesanya, whose adopted homeland has seen just 27 deaths from covid but has constantly imposed strict protocol, blasted: “I’m done. All that money, they can get it from somewhere else. The rugby, the cricketers and all the others they’re f*cking giving exemptions to.
“But for me, you will never ever see me fight on these shores [again]. That was one of my dreams.”
