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TOM ASPINALL INSTALLED AS UFC CHAMPION AFTER JON JONES CONFIRMS RETIREMENT

Britain’s Tom Aspinall has been upgraded to UFC undisputed heavyweight champion following the official retirement of Jon Jones.

UFC president Dana White ended months of uncertainty in the heavyweight division by delivering the news after Saturday’s Fight Night in Azerbaijan.

Aspinall spent 19 months as interim champion and is only the third Briton to become a UFC champion.

American Jones – considered one of the greatest mixed martial arts fighters of all time – had not competed since defeating Stipe Miocic in November.

“Jon Jones called us last night and retired,” White said.

“Jon Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC.

“Do I regret the time that I gave (Jones to decide)? Listen, if you look at what he’s accomplished in the sport, no.”

Aspinall had unsuccessfully campaigned to fight 37-year-old Jones.

Reacting to the news, the 32-year-old, who last fought in July, posted on Instagram: “For you fans, it’s time to get this heavyweight division going. An active undisputed champion.”

Aspinall is expected to defend his title this summer or in early autumn, with number-one contender Ciryl Gane a likely opponent.

“I obviously feel bad for Tom that he lost all that time and obviously money, but we’ll make it up to him,” said White.

“Tom Aspinall’s a good guy. He’s been incredible through this whole process.

“He’s been willing to do anything, fight him (Jones) anywhere at any time and do this, and now he’s like ‘I’ll fight anybody – you tell me who and I’ll fight them’.”

- PA

SERGIO PEREZ LEFT RED-FACED BY TWO SACKED F1 DRIVERS AFTER :RAKING UP £3.7M BILL'

Sergio Perez's Formula One season hasn't gone anywhere near as well as his Red Bull partner Max Verstappen's, but the Mexican driver does top another table.

Sergio Perez tops all other F1 drivers when it comes to the cost of damages caused (Image: Getty)

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez is credited with causing the most expensive crash damages in this Formula One season – even ahead of two axed drivers. Despite starting the term strongly alongside peer Max Verstappen, the Mexican star has suffered a monumental drop-off as rival teams upped their game. This has left him eighth on the Drivers’ Championship table and without a podium since April.

To accompany this dip, Perez has also racked up a significant bill for the damages he’s caused his team, with an unofficial table dubbed the ‘Destructors’ Championship’ placing the 34-year-old highest, above Logan Sergeant, the table’s topper in 2023, and Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu- both of whom will be out of a seat come next year.

In fact, Sargeant has already been replaced at Williams by Franco Colapinto, meaning that the dismal Perez’s nearly £4million bill outweighs that of an already axed driver, increasing the mounting pressure on the Austrian team to find a replacement.

Though not an official source, the table reveals that Perez caused costly damages in China, Imola, Monaco, Canada, Austria, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Mexico. The estimated £3.7m in damages Perez accumulated, however, was largely due to his huge entanglement in Monaco, involving Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Niko Hulkenberg.

In the first lap, with cars bunching close, Magnussen caught Perez’s rear left and sent him spinning into the barriers. Both Magnussen and his peer Hulkenberg sustained significant damage, too, and their races ended prematurely. The bill assigned to Perez supposedly topped £2m.

"It's another accident in which Magnussen was involved. You should watch the replays carefully. Thank God it turned out well, but it was a very critical situation,” Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko told Sky Germany back in May when asked about the incident - which caused a 40-minute delay to proceedings.

"I was surprised how quickly they put this incident behind them. These are decisions that you can hardly influence. On the one hand, there is the danger and on the other hand, the damage is two to three million [euros]. With the budget regulations, that is a big handicap for us."

Another of Perez’s pricey collisions came in Azerbaijan, when, on the penultimate lap, the Mexican grappled with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, ending both of their races.

“It is a pathetic touch, an absolutely pathetic touch, with serious ramifications!” former F1 driver Mark Webber told Channel 4 when covering Perez and Sainz’s crash.

“Sergio is trying to get across into the tow. At this speed, it’s fine margins. Sergio’s repair bill this year is impressive. He’s got more of the Ferrari in view, when you’re [looking in] the mirror, you’re not quite sure where he should be. Sergio should have given him more room to get down that straight.

Next up on the calendar is the Las Vegas GP, where Perez will look to limit any further damages and embarrassment as his peer Verstappen looks to stamp down a decisive claim on what would be his fourth Drivers’ Championship title.

- BEN CRAWFORD

WHY ‘MINI-DRS’ WILL NOT BE FORMULA 1’S LAST FLEXI-WING CONTROVERSY

Flexi-wings are a hot topic in F1 again. But it is not the first time, and it won't be the last.

McLaren MCL38 rear wing
Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Formula 1’s off-track political battles can often be as interesting as the action on track.

The fight to get technical innovations approved on your car, and taken off your rivals, has long been the name of the game in trying to get yourself to the front of the field.

One such battleground this year has been flexi-wings, with interest ramping up at both the front and the rear of various cars.

The situation is quite a delicate one, because flexible bodywork operates in a grey area of the regulations. Wings are passing the static load tests in the pits, but it is impossible to make parts that do not deflect to some extent when exposed to the huge aero loads out on the circuit.

At the very heart of the conflict therefore is how much movement the FIA considers to be fair game, and how much it views as blatant exploitation. These are lines that can move around – especially if competitors start lobbying with complaints.

The latest such debate has been about McLaren’s ‘mini-DRS’ on its rear wings. Although the design fully complied with the statutory load tests, politicking from rivals forced the FIA into discussions before it was agreed a change would be made.

While the flexing witnessed on the upper flap of McLaren’s rear wing was extremely obvious, given it was something we’ve not witnessed before, it is not the only trick that has been seen in the pitlane this year.

But, as always happens with these things, the probing of rivals depends on how much flexing is being done, and whether it is viewed as taking the Mickey or not.

McLaren’s rear wing was the main talking point in Azerbaijan, but it was clear that some of its rivals are rotating the rear wing assembly backwards to reduce drag, although some are doing it to a larger extent than others.

Red Bull Racing RB16B reflecting rear wing
Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Ferrari SF21 real wing FP1, Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Photo by: Giorgio Piola 

And, given the FIA requested the teams add target dots on the rear wings in 2021 (see above, right, yellow dots added to the Ferrari rear wing), to allow it to monitor footage from the rear-view camera and see how much flexion was occurring, this behaviour now must mean that it is deemed acceptable.

Nothing new

Controlling the amount of flexion being used by the teams as a means to increase downforce and reduce drag is not even close to being a new issue for the sport.

Each regulatory cycle just ends up posing more questions, as teams attempt to apply their old knowledge to the latest regulations.

For example, we saw teams attempt slot gap manipulation on their rear wings in the early to mid-2000s, in order to reduce drag.

Slot gap separators were seen as a means to prohibit the practice. Meanwhile, constant adaptations have also been made to the static tests conducted on both the front and rear wings to limit the amount of flexion teams built into their designs down the years.

Rear wing flap pullback test
Photo by: Giorgio Piola 

Front wing deflection test loads
Photo by: Giorgio Piola 

Whilst the flexion of the rear wing elements was more noticeable, there was also work being done by the teams to take advantage of flexion with the front wing too.

Its exploitation was fully unmasked as F1 entered a new regulatory era in 2009, as not only were the aerodynamic regulations much more restrictive, footage showing the front wing assembly was much more readily available, owing to the placement of the cameras.

The loss of the larger and more complex bargeboard structures also resulted in the front wing having to provide more support from a wake control point of view.

Its design and flexion were used as a means to push the wake outboard and reduce the turbulence that might otherwise be ingested beneath the floor and cause flow instability within the diffuser.

The governing body fought a protracted battle on this front throughout that period but, just as is the case now, there’s only the static tests in place that the teams must comply with.

This helped provide scope for multiple development directions to emerge, as each team used the wing’s built-in flexibility to support its given aims.

During the aforementioned period in time, the teams were notably flexing their wings in different ways. Some used vertical flexion, so that the outboard section of the wing would bend down towards the track surface, whilst others had their wing assembly rotate rearwards.

The differing approaches obviously suited each of their end goals based around their design configurations both locally and downstream.

It also made it much more difficult for the FIA to police, with them having to find different ways to prevent those various practices.

Similarly, it appears that the amount and type of flexion being utilised with this current generation of front wings doesn’t follow a common theme, with each team finding a way to flex the wing in a way which helps its overall goals.

Moreover, it seems there’s also independent flexion of the components occurring, making it altogether difficult to ascertain where the deformation is taking place and when.

FIA front wing target dot test mockup

In an effort to better understand, and perhaps help the governing body frame the regulations in the future, it has been monitoring front wing flexion more closely since the Belgian Grand Prix.

Teams must now place dots on the front wing elements and endplate, which can be used as a reference in the footage captured by new cameras that are mounted in the usual position on the side of the nose.

It has never really been a question of who is using flexi-wings to improve the car's performance, as they all are to some extent.

However, the issue is more about making sure that the practice doesn’t result in a design that’s clearly working in a way which beats the static load tests but deforms excessively whilst on track.

This not only would lead to another arms race amongst the teams, as they all chase similar constructions, but can create an unsafe development environment, as the boundaries are pushed too quickly beyond the known limits of materials.

- Matt Somerfield

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TOKYO CHAMP WONGPATTANAKIT DEFENDS TAEKWONDO TITLE.IN PARIS

Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit celebrates on the podium with her medal after winning the gold medal of taekwondo women’s -49kg event of the Paris Olympics 2024 at the Grand Palais in Paris on August 7, 2024. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP

PARIS -- Panipak Wongpattanakit retired on a perfect note as she became the first Thai athlete in any sport to become a two-time Olympic champion on Wednesday.

Wongpattanakit defended her Tokyo Games title to secure Thailand's first gold medal of the Paris Olympics and Park Tae-joon restored South Korea's pride on the opening day of the taekwondo competition.

Wongpattanakit, who confirmed she will end her career, celebrated the gold by grabbing a Thai flag after jumping into her coach's arms.

"I have so much pain," she said on the eve of her 27th birthday. "I had a broken knee. And my ankle, my hip... Now, I have to retire."

Wongpattanakit, who comfortably won her three opening bouts to reach the final of the 49-kilogram category, trailed in the first round against Guo Qing of China but rallied with two consecutive kicks to the body and head.

Guo fought back to force a decider, but Wongpattanakit prevailed after video reviews showed that she had successfully landed two spectacular head kicks.

Under the new rules introduced in Paris, bouts are decided on a best-of-three format rather than cumulative points.

Taekwondo is South Korea's national martial art, and the country suffered a humiliation in Tokyo, where it failed to win a single gold medal for the first time since the sport became a medal event in 2000.

Park set the record straight by routing his opponent in a brutal final for the gold medal.

"It was my childhood dream," Park said.

In the men's 58 kilos class, Park demolished Gashim Magomedov of Azerbaijan, who soldiered on but retired injured.

After contact with his opponent's leg in the opening round, Magomedov crashed to the canvas, clutching his left leg in pain. He was attended to by doctors and managed to resume the fight.

Trailing 7-0 with 14 seconds left, he limped and sat again to receive further treatment, losing the round without scoring a point. Magomedov was helped off the canvas but returned for the second round and continued without threatening his opponent, who capped off his masterpiece with a superb turning kick to the head.

Magomedov's ordeal continued a bit longer as Park landed a final kick to his back that ejected him from the combat arena. It was the coup de grace, and Magomedov called it quits.

"In Tokyo, South Korea did not get a gold medal, it was a bit frustrating and sad. Today I'm honored and proud. The whole team has worked hard to make sure we were prepared here," Park said.

Mobina Nematzadeh of Iran and Lena Stojkovic of Croatia won bronze medals in the women's tournament. The men's bronze medals went to Cyrian Ravet of France and Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi of Tunisia.

Taekwondo tournaments at the Olympics award two bronze medals, with the losing semifinalists facing two contestants who lost to the finalists in the elimination phase.

Ravet shines for France

Ravet came close to a massive upset in his quarterfinal against Park. Spurred on by the loud support of a partisan crowd holding massive cutouts of their favorite Olympian, he had a two-point lead in the deciding round with 33 seconds left. But the Frenchman could not hold on to his advantage as the South Korean delivered two straight body kicks to turn things around.

With Park reaching the final, Ravet was allowed to play in the repechage and made the most of it as he qualified for a bronze-medal match. He was then awarded a bronze without combatting due to Vito Dell'Aquila's withdrawal.

Dell'Aquila, the Tokyo champion, fought with an injury in Paris and was defeated 2-0 in the semifinals by Magomedov.

"My abductor was really in flames," he said. "I couldn't fight but for the Olympics I tried anyway. This was my dream."

Palestine's hopes vanish early

Omar Ismail wanted to inspire the Palestinian youth with a medal in taekwondo amid the Israel-Hamas war, which has claimed more than 39,000 Palestinian lives, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

But the teenager's campaign in Paris was brutally ended in the last 16 stage.

No Palestinian athlete has ever won an Olympic medal.

Ismail was the only Palestinian athlete to qualify for the Paris Games in his own right. The seven others gained their spots under a wild-card system delivered as part of the universality quota places.

Ismail was born in Dubai to parents who come from the West Bank town of Jenin.

- Associated Press 

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