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Evander Holyfield and Francois Botha of South Africa Meets in Uganda
Francois Botha Will Defend His Heavy Weight Title
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American Evander Holyfield will challenge South African Francois Botha for the World Boxing Federation world heavyweight title in Uganda on Jan. 16, the South African Press Association reported on Thursday. Organizers for the fight at Kampala's Nambole Stadium said that both boxers had signed contracts and a crowd of 80,000 are expected to watch the bout.
"I am very much looking forward to going to Uganda and I expect a tough fight against Francois Botha," said Holyfield (47-10 with 2 draws), who has not fought since losing a points decision to Nikolai Valuev in a World Boxing Association title fight in December 2008. "I am going to win and I will cherish the WBF world title," said the 47-year-old American, a former world cruiserweight and heavyweight champion. "I have always been my own harshest critic. My performance against Carrion, without making any excuses, was arguably the worst of my career," said Botha, who retained his WBF title by drawing with Pedro Carrion of Cuba in Germany in October.
"Expect the fittest, toughest and best ever - and extremely serious -- Francois Botha in Uganda in January. I owe my fans and members of Team Botha the performance of my life. I intend to make good on that," he added.
AT&T Discontinues Tiger Wood Sponsorship
Third Big Company To Drop The Scandalous Tiger
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Telecom giant AT&T Inc. announced that it is cancelling its sponsorship deal with Tiger Woods, becoming the third major corporate sponsor to cut ties with the embattled golfer. With more than $1 billion in career earnings, Woods is the highest-paid athlete in history. The bulk of his earnings have come from sponsorship deals, which are so lucrative because Woods has been able to pair dominance in his sport with a pristine public image.
The gulfer who has been linked to nearly a dozen different women, and has admitted unfaithfulness to his wife, Elin Nordegren. Mr Woods has announced he is taking an indefinite leave from professional golf.
Woods' endorsement include sports-focused companies, such as Nike, trading-card company Upper Deck and video-game-maker Electronic Arts; and broader businesses, such as AT&T, Accenture and Gillette. Bill Sutton, a professor in the University of Central Florida's DeVos Sports Business Management graduate program, said the Woods scandal has made him an unattractive pitchman for companies such as AT&T and Accenture that aren't selling products directly related to sports and have instead been using him to promote "a product related to his lifestyle."
Chris Henry Reported To Have Threaten Sucide Before His Death
Bengals Wide Receiver Died After a Fatal Fall From Truck
Chris Henry the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver reported to have begged his fiancee to stop so they could talk or he would kill himself, a witness said.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police verified that a domestic dispute started the turn of events that led to fatal fall of Henry from the moving pickup truck on Wednesday. Henry, who had a troubled past, was on medical leave visiting with his fiancée Loleini Tonga's, when the fight began Wednesday afternoon.
The two were scheduled to be married in March 2010.
Terrell Owens Buffalo Bills Wide Receiver Wants To Be A Fashion Model
American Football To Fashion Model
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens want to be a Fashion Model, though he is not always the model teammate, he wants to be a model in behavior.
The verbose pass-catching enthusiast signed a contract with the Wilhelmina Agency this week. Owens said he was approached by the firm, which was founded by former supermodel Wilhelmina Cooper and has offices in the model-friendly cities of Los Angeles, New York and Miami.
Seeking to capitalize on Owens' popularity, the agency will represent him in future endorsements and sponsorship deals in the fashion and personal care industries. "Well, I'm always putting my hands in and feeding into something," Owens said. "When you've got some good looks like myself, you've got to take full advantage of it." Owens got another bit of good off-the-field news recently when VH1 decided to pick up his reality show for a second season.
World Cup Soccer Draws Good For USA
The US Team Should Make Second Round
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The United States received a favorable draw for the 2010 World Cup on Friday and will be expected to advance to the second round of the soccer world championship, which will begin June 11 in South Africa. Anything short will be considered a major disappointment. The Americans drew a top seed in England, the 1966 World Cup champion, but avoided a second European power and a top African team, instead being placed in a group that includes Slovenia and Algeria.
“We feel this is a group that gives us a real fair chance to move on,” Bob Bradley, the United States coach, said in an interview with ESPN at the draw in Cape Town. Brazil, a five-time World Cup champion, was drawn into the so-called Group of Death with the Ivory Coast, which is led by perhaps the world’s top striker, Didier Drogba, and Portugal, which finished fourth at the 2006 World Cup and features Cristiano Ronaldo. Only two teams will advance from each of the eight four-team groups, meaning that one team from among Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal will go home early. Italy, the reigning World Cup champion, was placed with Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. Spain, the world’s top-ranked team, was grouped with Switzerland, Honduras and Chile. Argentina heads a group that includes Nigeria, South Korea and Greece. South Africa may become the first home nation not to advance beyond the first round, having been placed in a forbidding group with France, Mexico and Uruguay. The final group, headed by the Netherlands, also includes Denmark, Japan and Cameroon.
I am Very Sorry, I have Let My Family Down - Says Tiger Woods
Day After Jaimee Grubbs Went Public on Affairs With The Tiger
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Tiger Woods Apologizes as Alleged Mistress Jaimee Grubbs Goes Public
Jaimee Grubbs Tells US Weekly She Had A 31-Month Fling With Tiger Woods
The day after a Los Angeles woman claimed to have had a nearly three-year affair with Tiger Woods, the golf star released a statement of his own, apologizing for his "transgressions" and vowing to be a better husband and father in the future.
"I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart," said Woods in a statement posted to his Web site. "I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves."
"I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect," said Woods. "I am dealing with my behavior and personal fallings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone." Mr. Woods likes to party and be in the company of women, said one realiable sources close the the ace golfer. Rumors about Woods' alleged extramarital affairs began swirling almost immediately after news broke of his early morning car crash last week. On Nov. 27, Woods plowed his black SUV into a fire hydrant and then a tree near his Pensacola, Fla., home, causing $3,300 worth of damage to the property, according to a police report. Traveling at 30 mph in a 25 mph zone, Woods' car had $8,000 of damage. In the meantime the Highway Patrol announced Tuesday that they would not be seeking criminal charges against Woods, issuing him only a $164 traffic citation for "careless driving," Woods' problems were not over
Soccer Star Beckam is Proud of LA Galaxy
Despite Loss in Finals
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England star David Beckham says he is proud of LA Galaxy despite their defeat in the MLS Cup final on penalties. Galaxy lost 5-4 in a shoot-out to Real Salt Lake after a 1-1 draw but Beckham, who joins AC Milan on loan in January, will return to the US next season. "It's always tough losing, but we can be proud of where we've come to," said Beckham, who scored his spot-kick. Meanwhile, MLS commissioner Don Garber says Beckham has been given the option of buying the league's 20th team.
The 34-year-old, who can invest in a future franchise under the terms of his LA Galaxy contract, has reiterated his desire to become an MLS team owner.
MLS currently has 15 teams with Philadelphia joining in 2010 followed by Portland and Vancouver in 2011, while Montreal lead the chase to become the league's 19th team. Beckham, who is in the third year of a five-year contract with LA Galaxy, was denied his first silverware with the club on a night of high drama in front of 46,011 fans at Qwest Field in Seattle. Beckham will play for Milan on loan for the second successive season when he joins the Rossoneri in January, but says he will return to Galaxy - possibly after playing for England at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Sweden's Robin Soderling Scores a Huge Upset Over Nadal
Winning Streak Came To an End
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Sweden's Robin Soderling enjoyed his second shock win of the year over world number two Rafael Nadal with a straight-sets victory at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. The eighth seed repeated his stunning effort at the French Open with a 6-4 6-4 win in the opening Group B match of the round-robin phase. Soderling only made it into the season finale for the world's top eight players after Andy Roddick pulled out with an injury, but the 25-year-old has put himself in pole position to reach the last four.
Nadal refused to make any excuses after the defeat, insisting that he was 100% fit and dismissing any suggestion that he had been after revenge for Roland Garros. "He's a big player on this surface, so it's difficult. If you are not completely calm and playing very well in that moment, it's really difficult to win, and today I didn't play in this way at that moment." "I've played a lot of big matches this year and played well, beaten a lot of good players, so I'm sure I've improved that part of my game." Soderling had arrived in London with little expectation surrounding him, but relatively free of pressure and coming off the best year of his career as he rose to nine in the world. At 6ft 4ins and with a big serve and heavy forehand, his game is more naturally suited to the O2 Arena conditions than Nadal's, and three of the Swede's four career titles have been won indoors.
Fireworks Illuminate the Skies of Ghana in Victory
As Africans Celebrate Historic Triumph over Brazil
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GHANA Satellites, that West African country's Under-20 version of the famous Black Stars of Ghana, made history at the capacity Cairo International Stadium, when they beat pre-tournament favourites and four times champions Brazil 4-3 in a pulsating shoot-out to lift the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
Ghana's deserved victory in the enthralling and energy-sapping final marked the first time any African country would be winning one of FIFA's biggest prizes. And it could not have come at a better time than in a year generally referred to as Africa's year, the year Africa hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa earlier this year, the just finished Egypt 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup, in a series of world extravaganzas, which will be climaxed by next year's World Cup to be hosted in Africa, tagged South Africa 2010.
The baton of hosting has already been passed on to Nigeria, by organisers of Egypt 2009, as Nigeria, who will host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, becomes the cynosure of the world's eyes later this month.
It was a good omen for Africa when the courageous Ghanaian youngsters played their much-fancied Brazilian counterparts to a standstill despite losing a player to a rather harsh Red Card as early as the 37th minute.
Playing against such adversity, the young Ghanaians proved worthy ambassadors of the Black African race when they played a highly technical and disciplined game to withstand the onslaughts of the free-scoring Brazilians for at least 83 minutes, which included 30 minutes of extra-time after the regulation 90 minutes could not produce a goal from both team.
In spite of the obvious disadvantage, the Ghanaians gave as much as they took from the marauding and goal-hungry Brazilians, who were trying to win the Cup for the fifth time, a feat which would have been second only to Argentina's six titles.
The hero of the Ghanaian triumph yesterday was striker Emmanuel Agyemang Badu, who scored the last penalty in a nerve-racking penalty shoot-out which went to sudden-death after the two countries lost two penalties each.
Ebony-skinned Dominic Adiyiah won two trophies - the golden ball and golden boot for emerging as the tournament's top scorer with eight goals.
But Ghana also has their agile goalkeeper, Daniel Agyei, to thank for his role in the entire tournament, and in particular, for saving two penalty kicks in yesterday's shoot-out. To underscore Agyei's feat of keeping his country in the penalty contest, anytime his team mate missed a penalty, he caught the next one from the Brazilian penalty-taker.
Incidentally, it was Ghana, which was the first African country to qualify for next year's World Cup in Africa, while the Black Satellites were the only country left to represent Africa at the quarter-final stage of the U-20 World Cup.
The African and South American champions, who had not lost a game during the competition, keep that proud record intact, but at the end of the day, it was the Black Satellites, who followed in the footsteps of Argentina, victors at Canada 2007, in lifting the famous trophy.
Brazil had the better of the early stages and went agonisingly close to taking the lead early on when Giuliano's free-kick was put into the box and Alex Teixeira was inches away from connecting with a header. Giuliano prompted A Sele‹o once again, playing the ball to Paulo Henrique on the left who crossed for Alan Kardec, but his volley was wide.
Douglas stung the hands of the goalkeeper with a shot from distance, but the major talking point of the first half came in the 37th minute when David Addo was given a straight red card for a foul on Alex Teixeira, after the latter was breaking quickly on the counter attack. While the Belgian believed Addo to be the last man, the Africans protested that both Jonathan Mensah and David Addy had tracked back to cover.
Ghana, who boasted the tournament's most prolific strikeforce in Dominic Adiyiah and Ransford Osei failed to muster a single shot on goal in a stop-start opening 45 minutes, punctuated by no fewer than 17 free-kicks, yet this was not the bruising encounter those statistics may suggest.
Abeiku Quansah had a goalbound shot saved four minutes after the break, but it was a routine stop for Rafael as Brazil did most of the pressing. Alex Teixeira should have done better, but headed wide from Diogo's centre and Alan Kardec had a golden opportunity, but headed straight at Daniel Agyei from Souza's cross.
As the midway point to the second half approached, Ghana had more possession, but still Brazil looked the more dangerous. Rafael Toloi slipped a perfectly-weighted pass for Alan Kardec to latch on to, but he fired wildly into the side netting. The No9 was guilty of missing yet another chance seconds later when he planted a free header from Douglas Costa's cross over the crossbar.
There was no doubt who the 67,814 in the stadium were supporting, as there was a tremendous roar from the home fans whenever their fellow Africans crossed the halfway line and the noise levels increased further when Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu's deflected shot forced Rafael to make a fine, low save to his right.
As the half wore on, the Black Satellites seemed to increasingly get into their rhythm of playing with ten men and their attacking forays became more and more regular, while at the back they defended with tremendous spirit. They earned the right to take the tie into extra time, but there was still drama to come in the latter stages of the 90 when Andre Ayew and Rafael Toloi clashed for the ball, the latter requiring serious treatment.
With Rogerio having made all three of his substitutions, there was a distinct possibility that Brazil would have been forced to play extra time with ten men. Yet despite running with a noticeable limp, the defender continued heroically to maintain the numerical advantage for his team.
Agyei frustrated Wellington Junior in the second period of extra time, with a smart stop at his near post, but with some players having played 11 and a half hours during this competition, the pace of the game decreased - and the game limped into a penalty shoot-out.
That was when the fireworks began. First, Alan Kardec and Ayew and Giuliano and Inkoom traded successful penalties, but Brazil got the first advantage after seeing Douglas Costa score and Jonathan Mensah miss. Souza then saw his penalty saved, but Bright Addae failed to reduce the deficit when his strike from 12 yards was comfortably claimed by Rafael.
That left Maicon with the chance of winning it for Brazil, but he blasted the chance high over the bar. Adiyiah kept his cool to take the shoot-out into sudden death. Then Agyei denied Alex Teixeira before Agyemang-Badu made the victory certain with the decisive spot-kick.
Caster Semenya The New Voice of Gender Expression
"What Is A Traditional Women" - Caster Runs For Me By Doyin Ola
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NYC Identify with Caster Semenya’s
Story By Doyin Ola
New York, October, 2009: In South Africa, thousands of miles away from New York City, Caster Semenya lives and breathes. Perhaps she is already training for the next race, picturing a victory not overshadowed by questions about her gender. Two months prior, she emerged out of relative obscurity to shatter this year’s world record and win the gold medal at the women’s 800m final in Berlin. Her victory was so astonishing that all the whisperings about her gender were suddenly amplified. A few other runners who thought the title was rightfully theirs, grumbled publicly. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) stepped in, refusing to believe that someone so young, new and, some would argue, so black and poor, could win. They did the unimaginable: forced Semenya to undergo a battery of ‘gender tests’. Most female bodied people often dread that annual visit to the gynecologist. Many shudder at the thought of laying on the examining table, legs stirruped, a medically trained individually studying away in between them. What Caster went through at the hands of supposed gender experts, psychologists, endocrinologists, gynecologists, and internal medicine specialists, makes the routine Pap smear exam look like a nice, peaceful stroll on a sandy shore.
As a Nigerian who defies gender categorization, Semenya’s story is all too familiar. I decided to interview other New York City Africans who, in some way or other, are gender ‘outlaws’ like me. I wanted to learn about what aspects of Caster’s story they strongly identified with, their analysis of how Caster has been treated, and what the entire world can learn from this moment. I asked NCK, an African man who wanted to maintain anonymity, why there was such furor around Semenya’s gender expressions. “[It’s] not only how dare she put herself within the arena of woman, but how dare she come out of those trappings [of poverty] and run the race, cross the finish line, wear the[gold] medal and the South African flag.” He connects the athlete’s experiences to the legacy of colonialism in Africa, stating that this is the same way apartheid and labels of the like were imposed in South Africa. Words are not meant to impose limitations, he explains, yet words and phrases like “masculine” or “hermaphrodite”, have been used by other athletes, IAAF officials, and mainstream journalists, to dehumanize Caster, in spite of her win. Kagendo Murungi, a Kenyan woman who identifies as gender non-conforming as an act of resistance of society’s two gender system, argues that African women’s successes are constantly devalued because of pervasive racist and sexist stereotypes. “There is a long history of the most private aspects of our physical anatomies being paraded around the world for the pleasure of the European elite. The spectacle and outrage of the Hottentot Venus might be the best known example of this phenomenon,” she declares. Similarly, Fly Yvonne Etaghene, a self identified Nigerian-dyke-poet, argues, “If Caster can be someone who is not fitting into a socially prescribed gender role, then that means our genders demarcations are not real.”
IAAF officials demanded Caster essentially prove she is a ‘traditional’ woman. “Well, what is a traditional woman? What are traditional women's bodies,” queries NCK. “They are trying to say that this is one body that we can exclude out of the corpus of bodies labeled as women, as opposed to examining the label of woman, and seeing that the experience is so much larger and this person has transcended all of it.” Transcending, in Caster’s case has involved being a natural born athlete, refusing to obey gender norms in terms of how to dress or act, training endlessly, and developing a muscular body that many, regardless of gender, vie for (Linda Hamilton’s muscular build in Terminator 2 was the only reason I went to the gym in the ‘90s). Masculine women are nothing new, so why are Caster and gender nonconforming people in general, demonized by mainstream society? Etaghene blames it on people’s inability to accept gender expressions falling outside the socially-prescribed two gender system enforced in practically every sphere of life. “People don't know how to deal with athletic bodies unless they are attached to people who have penises. [They are] not able to deal with ways in which woman can be and are masculine.” Yet gender nonconformity, she argues, is part of the tapestry of African experiences and expressions. “If you look at African cultures and others from the dawn of time, there have always been masculine women and feminine men, and people who have traversed the gender spectrum, whether it be being in a spiritual ceremony and someone who is biologically a woman is possessed by a masculine spirit and is acting in a way that is [perceived as] masculine. That is gender revolutionary.” The dark-skinned ‘fro-hawk sporting poet has often been vilified for her identity. “I can relate to people poking at you and making a spectacle out of…you. Whether it be what I have to say or how I look or being a Nigerian dyke, people make that a spectacle like ‘oh my god you're a Nigerian dyke, there's only one of you and you're so weird.’” Etaghene uses art as a way to heal from such experiences. “It's about staying grounded and focused and knowing that I am my own normalcy. I am not left of center. I am my own center. I don't look at, for instance, heterosexual white femininity as who I should be.”
What has been encouraging is how South Africans, sensing the racist and sexist underpinnings of IAAF’s actions, resolutely stood up for their ‘home girl.’ Etaghene, Murungi, and NCK think this presents the perfect opportunity to increase visibility of, and respectful dialogue about, African women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, gender nonconforming, transgender, and intersex experiences. “If nothing else at least, perhaps, the mainstream press will report on intersex people and leave [the offensive term] ‘hermaphrodite’ in the past where it belongs,” adds Murungi. Similarly, Etaghene feels hopeful that more people will ardently support intersex rights, thereby placing intersex issues on a more global scale. Additionally, according to Murungi, mainstream media’s “irresponsible, outdated, knee-jerk racist, sexist, transphobic, exotifying” portrayal of Caster has been repeatedly challenged by an outpouring of D.I.Y. journalists and social networking enthusiasts. People post affirming messages on websites like Caster runs for me (www.casterrunsforme.com) and for Caster Semenya (http://4castersemenya.blogspot.com/). Others upload videos on YouTube expressing their solidarity in a multitude of ways, for example a creative one minute long piece, also titled Caster runs for me, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waycP99WlGY), urges people to question gender roles and defy any attempts to police gender expressions. In Etaghene’s case, solidarity was expressed through the creation of a love poem to honor Semenya as a survivor. In an excerpt from her poem, Caster Semenya: Praising your name, the poet looks to the past and prophesizes about the future:
but it hurts to be a visionary sometimes, to be brilliant, to be excellent / sometimes it hurts in / ways we could never have imagined / the trailblazers often get yelled at / misunderstood and demonized—from Jesus to Tupac / Audre Lorde to you, Caster / anyone who is different or exceptional / feels the brunt of unexpected pain & criticism / the children of your critics / will praise your name / rock t-shirts with your face on it / have posters of you on their walls to inspire them to be great.
(The rest of the poem can be found on her blog, dyke of a certain caliber, at http://www.myloveisaverb.com/2009/09/caster-semenya-praising-your-name.html.)
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