Sean Ingle – Worldwide Sports News

December 16, 2025

Joshua v Paul makes Joe Louis’ ‘Bum of the Month’ look like the Rumble in the Jungle | Sean Ingle

The best we can hope for is that Paul does not get seriously hurt. Joshua, Netflix and the sport itself should know better

Precisely 85 years ago, one of the most fearsome heavyweight boxers in history stunk out the joint. Joe Louis was in the midst of his “Bum of the Month club”: a staggering run of 13 world title defences in 29 months against an assortment of stiffs, wild men and colourful characters. And when he arrived in Boston on 16 December 1940, most believed that Al McCoy would rapidly become his next victim. Only it didn’t quite turn out that way.

“McCoy was expected to crumple under the first punch Louis tossed in his direction,” the New York Times’ correspondent wrote. “Instead, the wily New England veteran made Louis appear ludicrous at times. Adopting a crouching, bobbing, weaving style, McCoy was an elusive target for the paralysing fists of the titleholder.” After the messy contest was stopped at the end of the fifth, a storm of jeers rang out. Louis had won, but only his bank balance had been enhanced.

December 15, 2025

It’s Lionesses v Red Roses v Rory’s Europe as BBC names Spoty team of year shortlist

Public vote will decide winner among back-to-back European champions, Rugby World Cup winners and Team Europe

England’s Lionesses are up against their rugby union counterparts, the Red Roses, and Europe’s winning Ryder Cup side on the shortlist for team of the year at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award.

For the first time the BBC have swerved having to make the call themselves by making the team award a public vote, with the winners to be announced live at the ceremony on December 18.

November 25, 2025

Arsenal v Bayern offers a stark reminder of the shift in football’s power balance | Sean Ingle

Ten years ago Arsenal were thrashed by the Bavarian giants – now Mikel Arteta’s men are rated the best side in Europe

November 2015. The Allianz Arena, Munich. A decade ago, yet a lifetime away for Arsenal in the Champions League.

That night Arsène Wenger’s team were so shredded in a 5-1 defeat by Bayern Munich that my Guardian colleague David Hytner likened them to “the chicken feed from the lower reaches of the Bundesliga that Bayern routinely gobble up”. It was Arsenal’s joint‑worst result in Europe. And to rub it in, Bayern repeated the trick the following season. Twice: 5-1 at home, then 5-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

November 21, 2025

Golovkin to be elected World Boxing president and lead buildup to 2028 Olympics

Former world champion promises to restore trust in sport
World Boxing replaced IBA as governing body this year

The former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is to be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it heads towards the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and went on to make the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for Sunday’s election. As a result he will take charge of World Boxing, which became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing this year.

November 19, 2025

Wimbledon’s expansion plans heading for court of appeal after judge’s ruling

Plans for 39 grass courts were given approval in 2024
Pressure has led to judicial review of that decision

Wimbledon’s battle to build 39 new grass courts on a nearby golf course has taken a fresh twist after local residents were granted permission to take a judicial review case to the court of appeal.

Last year the All England Club (AELTC) was given approval by Jules Pipe, the London deputy mayor for planning and regeneration, to build the courts on what used to be Wimbledon Park Golf Club – a decision that was then endorsed in the high court on 21 July. However, the Save Wimbledon Park pressure group challenged that verdict and on Monday it was announced that Lord Justice Holgate had granted a judicial review of the court’s decision.

November 12, 2025

Women’s 100m final moved up to LA28 opening day in Olympics rejig

Sha’Carri Richardson hails athletics ‘having its moment’
‘Innovative schedule also honours tradition,’ says Coe

The women’s 100m final will headline the first day of competition at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics as part of organisers’ plans to “open with a bang”.

The surprise decision, which will lead to all three rounds of the 100m taking place on the same day, was welcomed by the US sprint star Sha’Carri Richardson, who said it showed that “track and field is having its moment”.

November 12, 2025

Haskell warns club rugby is heading off a cliff ‘like Thelma and Louise’ as £34m losses revealed

Report says franchise model could save up to £1.9m a year
‘Smaller clubs are spending way above their means’

James Haskell, the former England international, has likened English rugby to “Thelma and Louise heading off a cliff” after an independent report found that Prem clubs made a combined loss of £34m last season.

The report by a leading UK corporate recovery and insolvency firm, Leonard Curtis, suggests the game should consider adopting a franchise model, which it says would help Prem clubs to save between £1.1m and 1.9m a year.

November 10, 2025

IOC edges closer to ban on transgender women in female Olympic events

Sources expect ban within next six to 12 months
IOC president wants to protect the female category

The International Olympic Committee is edging closer towards implementing a ban on transgender women competing in the female category in time for the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Multiple sources expect such a ban to come into effect over the next six to 12 months with the new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, making clear she wants to drive through her campaign pledge to protect the female category.

October 15, 2025

India to host 2030 Commonwealth Games – next stop the 2036 Olympics?

Ahmedabad is also bid city for 2036 summer Games
Concerns over mismanagement and governance issues

India will be formally approved as hosts of the centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030 next month as the country steps up its ambitions to stage the 2036 Olympics.

Commonwealth Sport says its executive board had recommended Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, as the host city for the 2030 Games ahead of what it called an “ambitious bid” by Nigeria. The decision still needs to be ratified by a general assembly in Glasgow on 26 November, but multiple sources described that process a formality.

October 13, 2025

Luke Littler’s poker face may be the key to his dominance in darts | Sean Ingle

A new study shows twitches and involuntary movements between throws can lead to things going wrong at the oche

Sunday night in Leicester. A study in contrast. At one point Luke Humphries’s eyes widen as another 22g Red Dragon dart flies past double 16. He shakes his head. Looks down. Bites his lip. Meanwhile, the automaton beside him powers on. Until the moment Luke Littler is pumping his fists, revelling in his 6-1 victory and a first World Grand Prix title.

Littler’s extraordinary immunity to pressure is fast reaching the stage where even peak-era Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal would be taking notes. In his quarter-final against Gerwyn Price, Littler looked down and out at times until he hit a 156 checkout to clinch the match. Against Humphries, it didn’t matter that his three-dart average was more than a point lower as he won five of his six sets in final-leg deciders.

October 2, 2025

Cross-country running and cyclocross could be added to Winter Olympics by 2030

Indoor sports such as judo could switch to winter Games
Coe wants athletics events outside stadium at LA 2028

Cross-country running and cyclocross have a good chance of being added to the 2030 winter Games in France, Sebastian Coe has predicted, as part of what could be the biggest overhaul of the Olympics in a generation.

The World Athletics president also confirmed that switching some indoor sports – such as judo – to future winter Games was on the table as part of the International Olympic Committee’s new “fit for the future” plans, designed to keep the Games relevant.

August 28, 2025

Chris Froome to undergo surgery after breaking his back during training crash

Four-time Tour de France winner stable in Toulon hospital
Scans showed five broken ribs and vertebrae fracture

Chris Froome has been airlifted to hospital after suffering a collapsed lung and breaking his back and five ribs during a serious crash while training in France.

The four-time Tour de France winner’s team confirmed that Froome would undergo surgery in Toulon on Thursday after the incident which took place on Wednesday. It said that the 40-year-old was now stable, and that no one else had been involved in the crash.

August 25, 2025

Tommy Fleetwood delivers feelgood factor in ending his US drought | Sean Ingle

One of the few universally popular male sports stars, the Briton’s first win in 164 PGA Tour attempts is perhaps golf’s brightest story of 2025

Some of us have always known that deep inside Tommy Fleetwood lurked a cold‑blooded winner. Back in the late 90s I was working at the golf magazine Fore! when the deputy editor, Simon Caney, returned to the office after being thrashed 6&5 by a tiny eight-year-old who had shown him no mercy. His name? Tommy Fleetwood. Now the rest of the world knows that killer instinct exists, too.

But Fleetwood’s FedEx Cup victory, his first in 164 events on the PGA Tour, also reinforced something else. Everyone loves Tommy. Right. Left. Maga. Liberal. Whatever. It doesn’t matter.

July 15, 2025

Rise of the machines: amid AI outrage, technology can be a force for good in sport | Sean Ingle

In the fevered environments within sporting arenas, anything that can help an official has to be a good thing

We are all suckers for a good story. And there was certainly a cracking two‑parter at Wimbledon this year. First came the news that 300 line judges had been replaced by artificial intelligence robots. Then, a few days later, it turned out there were some embarrassing gremlins in the machine. Not since Roger Federer hung up his Wilson racket has there been a sweeter spot hit during the Wimbledon fortnight.

First the new electronic line-judging system failed to spot that Sonay Kartal had whacked a ball long during her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – which led to the Russian losing a game she otherwise would have won. Although, ironically, it happened only because an official had accidentally switched the system off.

June 26, 2025

IOC’s Kirsty Coventry announces ‘scientific approach’ to protect ‘female category’

Task force of scientists and federations to revise policy
Trans and DSD athletes expected to be banned from female category

Kirsty Coventry has said there is now “overwhelming support” among International Olympic Committee members to protect the female category in a significant shift in its gender eligibility policy.

Coventry, who was chairing her first meetings as the IOC’s new president, said that a taskforce of scientists and international federations would be set up within weeks to come up with a new policy.