Khamzat Chimaev is now a Top 10 fighter.
“Borz” debuted at No. 10 by planishing welterweight “Leech” Li Jingliang at the UFC 267 event last weekend on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, a commanding first-round performance that pushed the Russian-born Swede to a perfect 10-0 with all 10 wins ending by way of knockout or submission.
Something tells me Chimaev is just getting started.
Four deviled eggs for the price of two.
Featherweight fighters Jonah Bilharinho and Canaan Kawaihae were trying to knee their way out of the clinch during the second-round of their 145-pound clash on Dana White’s “Contender Series” last Tuesday night in Las Vegas, with both combatants taking knee-to-nuts for a rare double low blow.
Watch the slow-motion replay in the video above.
Bilharinho would later win the fight by way of technical knockout after uncorking a spinning wheel kick in the third and final frame; however, White was not impressed with the Brazilian’s body of work and opted against signing “Shiva” to a UFC contract.
Is Jiri Prochazka getting the first crack at newly-crowned light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira?
“Probably, yeah,” UFC President Dana White told reporters at the “Contender Series” post-fight press conference last Tuesday night.
That might not sit well with light heavyweight contender Aleksandar Rakic, seated one spot below Prochazka at No. 3 in the official 205-pound rankings.
Shane Burgos has taken plenty of precautions in preparation for his fight at UFC 268.
Burgos vs. Quarantillo takes place on the pay-per-view (PPV) main card broadcast of UFC 268, taking place inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York on Sat., Nov. 6. “Hurricane” Shane is coming off a trouble knockout (KO) loss to Edson Barboza at UFC 262 on May 15. Burgos absorbed a shot from Barboza and appeared to be fine; however, shortly after his body appeared to shut down over the course of 10 to 15 seconds. In a new interview with MMAMania.com, Burgos reflects on the scary incident.
“I saw somebody say something about how [my] brain was too tough or mind was too tough or his body or something like that, which sounds cool. I’m going to run with that,” Burgos chuckles. “Not to toot my own horn, but I do think it was that. I remember the shot landing and I remember being like, ‘Okay, why are my legs f—king shutting down?’ I’m trying to stand up straight and my legs are just like, ‘Nah, we’re going to go down.’
Daniel Cormier says it is time for Khamzat Chimaev to fight one of the UFC welterweight division’s best: Gilbert Burns.
Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns is the right fight to make, former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) titleholder Daniel Cormier says.
UFC fans have been salivating over who to pair Chimaev with after his steamrolling of Li Jingliang at UFC 267, which took place inside Etihad Area in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. on Sat., Oct. 30. Cormier suggests Chiamaev (10-0) should battle the welterweight division’s second-ranked contender Burns (20-4).
Financial institutions and traditional investors in the US may be able to get exposure to ethereum (ETH) through a futures-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) as early as the first quarter of 2022, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence estimated.
According to James Seyffart, this is when an ETF backed by regulated ETH futures contracts could be approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
He also noted that a spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF is also possible in 2022, however, SEC approval may also take longer due to concerns about regulation in the underlying bitcoin market, per Bloomberg.
Although widely considered a superior type of ETF in the crypto community, the SEC has so far been reluctant to approve a spot-based bitcoin ETF. Instead, it has opted for ETFs backed by regulated futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which do not hold any actual BTC.
Asked by Bloomberg TV about his views on the potential for an ethereum ETF, Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder & CEO of crypto exchange FTX, also said that he would not be surprised to see such an ETF approved.
Meanwhile, news also came out on Tuesday that the ETF provider Direxion has been asked by the regulator to withdraw its proposal for an inverse bitcoin ETF – dubbed the Direxion Bitcoin Strategy Bear ETF – that would offer short exposure to the price of bitcoin.
One of the founders of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has criticised Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg’s plans in the cryptocurrency space.
Mr Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and payment company Square, has designs on using decentralised financial services that use Bitcoin, but Buterin has said that the crypto network does not have the necessary functionality to do that, in an interview with Bloomberg.
“On Ethereum there’s native functionality that allows you to essentially directly put ETH or Ethereum-based assets into these smart contracts, into these lock boxes, where there’s then arbitrary conditions that can govern how those assets get released,” said Buterin.
“Jack is basically going to have to essentially create his own system that enforces those rules.”
Mr Dorsey’s is a keen advocate of cryptocurrency, claiming that it will “unite a deeply divided country. (and eventually: world),”
The social media chief executive continued: “We have all these monopolies of violence, and the individual doesn’t have power. The amount of cost and distraction that comes from our monetary system today is real, and it takes away attention from the bigger problems,” claiming that bitcoin could become a single world currency in less than ten years.
Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, is planning on launching Facebook’s own crypto Diem (formerly called Libra), which could become a part of the chief exeuctive’s plans to build a ‘metaverse’ whereby digital and physical infrastructure is more closely linked using virtual and augmented reality. Facebook hopes that a fully-grown economy with interoperability between apps and services could be developed this way.
Mr Zuckerberg’s developments, Mr Buterin said, have the aim of anticipating the evolution of the internet “before the rest of the world goes in some different direction and Facebook is sort of left in the dust”, but that due to the “huge amount of mistrust” around Facebook, the social media giant should build on existing blockchain technology instead.
In ten years, Mr Buterin hopes that Ethereum will be “running the metaverse”.
This is not the first time that Mr Buterin has poured cold water on the plans of billionaire CEOs. In May, he called Elon Musk’s notions of scaling Dogecoin “fundamentally flawed” after the SpaceX founder said that Dogecoin hould speed up its blockchain and increase the network’s capacity tenfold.
“Increasing the parameters sounds very attractive at first: if you do the math on a napkin, it is easy to convince yourself that a consumer laptop can process thousands of transactions per second,” without adding any new technical developments, wrote Mr Buterin, but said in a blog post there were “subtle reasons” why the approach would not work.
The value of ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, rose to record high levels of about $4,400 (about £3,200) on Friday, in line with upgrades and surge in use of the ethereum blockchain network.
Currently valued at about $4,350, the cryptocurrency has grown in value by more than 7 per cent in the last 24 hours, according to Coin Market Cap.
In the process of touching the mark of $4,400, ether breached its previous top value of $4,380 which it set on 12 May.
Ether works on the ethereum blockchain network that runs thousands of applications, such as NFTs and decentralised finance.
BALTIMORE – The sports gambling site Bodog was shut down and four Canadians indicted, including founder Calvin Ayre, for illegal gambling that generated more than $100 million in winnings, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The website’s domain name was seized Monday and the indictments, which were handed down Feb. 22, were unveiled Tuesday in Baltimore, prosecutors said.
The indictments follow federal prosecutions last year of three of the biggest websites involved in online poker. More than 75 company bank accounts in 14 countries have been frozen, and authorities are seeking $3 billion in fines and restitution, in that investigation.
In addition to the 50-year-old Ayre, prosecutors say the indictment names website operators James Philip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney.
Gamblers in Maryland and elsewhere were sent a least $100 million by wire and check from 2005 to 2012, the U.S. Attorney’s office said, adding Bodog conducted a $42 million advertising campaign between 2005 and 2008 to attract gamblers to the Bodog.com website.
The operation allegedly moved funds from Bodog’s accounts located in Switzerland, England, Malta, Canada and elsewhere to pay winnings to gamblers. The four Canadians face up to five years for conducting an illegal gambling business and 20 years for money laundering. Bodog.com faces a fine of up to $500,000 for gambling and money laundering. Initial appearances for the individuals have not been scheduled.
Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Baltimore, said the four are not in custody.
“Sports betting is illegal in Maryland, and federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law simply because they are located outside the country,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Many of the harms that underlie gambling prohibitions are exacerbated when the enterprises operate over the internet without regulation.”
Prosecutors say the investigation was led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore and also involved the Internal Revenue Service, Anne Arundel County Police and Maryland State Police. HSI agents seized the domain name on Monday.
Bodog has extended one of the longest running current shirt sponsorship deals in British football and will once again be adorning the shirt of Ayr United.
The partnership is now entering its 7th year with Ayr United starting the season in the Ladbrokes Scottish League One, the third tier of football in Scotland, after suffering relegation last season.
Ayr United Football Club commented: “It’s a big season for the club and its great to have Bodog on board again. In the modern era its pretty rare to have such a long-term sponsor and there’s aplenty to be positive about the season ahead as we strive for promotion once more.”
However the deal has not been without its controversies. Last year the club and the brand were heavily criticised by the founder of Scottish Women in Sport Maureen McGonigle for promoting the new kit launch by using body paint on a naked model.
Bodog seems pretty comfortable with its position though. Founder of the Bodog brand, Calvin Ayre, explained: “After the controversy of last year’s kit launch we felt we should change our strategy; so this year we are using a body-painted model in the away strip rather than the home one. We hope the pictures will give The Honest Men the boost they need for promotion and a good Cup run too. ‘Mon Ayr!”
The deal itself is also an unusual outlier from the usual marketing deal given that it appears to be a sentimental decision by Calvin Ayre given he traced his ancestors back to that area of Scotland and the similarities between his name and that of the team. Bodog doesn’t have a UK licence and Ayr United doesn’t have a considerable international presence, so the commercials are unlikely to be significant. The partnership also challenges the Gambling Commission’s assertion that brands need a UK licence in order to sponsor football teams, with the counter argument that a licence isn’t necessary if an operator doesn’t take UK customers, as is the case with Bodog.
