Saturday night belonged to Katie Taylor after that epic victory over Chantelle Cameron at the 3Arena, Johnny Watterson among the 9,000 crowd who witnessed the Bray fighter avenge May’s defeat and become a two-weight undisputed champion. “I think it was the longest six months of waiting for this rematch,” she said, “I can’t believe so many people were writing me off, to be honest.” She hardly had time, though, to catch her breath before promoter Eddie Hearn turned the talk to the possibility of a ‘Trilogy’ against Cameron being completed at Croke Park.
Nemo Rangers old boy Chiedozie Ogbene might have ended up in Croke Park himself if he’d kept playing Gaelic football, but his decision to focus on soccer has turned out rather well. Gavin Cummiskey was at Kenilworth Road on Saturday to talk to the Cork man – about Stephen Kenny, among other matters – after he had a blinder for Luton Town in their win over Crystal Palace. And come Sunday, Gavin was heading to Meadow Park to chat with Katie McCabe after she captained Arsenal to a 3-0 victory over West Ham.
Up in the north-west, meanwhile, Everton fans were venting their fury at the 10-point penalty imposed on the club last week for breaching financial rules, accusing the Premier League of being ‘corrupt’. Ken Early doesn’t have much sympathy for that argument, though. “Everton knew the rules, they broke the rules …. if enforcing its own rules makes the Premier League corrupt, what would we call a league that didn’t enforce them?”
In Gaelic games, we have reports on all the weekend’s key club games, among them Scotstown’s dramatic extra-time victory over Trillick in the Ulster club football semi-final, reigning champions Glen their opponents in the final after their one-point win over Naomh Conaill. And in Munster, Dingle and Castlehaven will meet in the final after wins over Clonmel Commercials and Rathgormack, respectively, while Na Fianna and O’Loughlin Gaels will square up in the Leinster decider next Saturday after seeing off Naas and Kilcormac-Killoughey.
In rugby, Gerry Thornley reports on Leinster’s 21-16 URC win over Munster, the one downside to their day the suspected torn bicep sustained by Ross Byrne. Despite the defeat, Graham Rowntree was upbeat about Munster’s performance, “I take an immense amount of pride for the stack of things we did well in that game,” he said. There were losses too for Connacht, beaten by the Bulls in Pretoria, and for Ulster away to Glasgow. “We fell on the wrong side of the referee, and we just couldn’t work it out,” said their coach Dan McFarland.
Denis Walsh is still struggling to work out his golf game, not least his putting. And not even the vast array of products on the market that are supposed to help have, well, helped. “More than 50 years after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon,” he writes, “modern science is still searching for solutions on the putting green.” As is Denis.
TV Watch: Unless you’re a Fulham or Wolves fan, you probably won’t be giddy with excitement about their Premier League meeting tonight (Sky Sports, 8pm). Aside from that, there’s a round-up of the weekend’s GAA club action on TG4 (8pm) while Against the Head will bring you the highlights from the weekend’s URC games (RTÉ 2, 8pm).
