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SPORTS Wednesday 14 august 2019

In this July 26, 2019, file photo, Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner
competes in the skills challenge during the WNBA All-Star festivi-
ties in Las Vegas.
Associated Press
WNBA suspends

Brittney Griner

3 games for fight;

4 others punished Boxing promoters Eddie Hearn and managing partner of Skill Challenge Entertainment Omar Khalil
shake hands, during a press conference at The Savoy Hotel, London, Monday, Aug. 12, 2019.
Associated Press

By DOUG FEINBERG cation with Griner and tak- Continued from Page 18 where Ruiz scored a major boxing — should somehow
NEW YORK (AP) — The ing an open-handed swing "That's well beyond my upset over the previously be pure. It's nonsense, of
WNBA has suspended Mer- at her. Thornton also was head as a sports organizer," undefeated Joshua in their course, as evidenced when
cury center Brittney Griner suspended two games for Hearn said Monday in Lon- June 1 fight. Russian President Vladimir
three games for her role in her role in the scuffle. don as questions swirled Still, Hearn would have Putin spent billions to host
a fight in the Dallas-Phoe- Phoenix's Diana Taurasi and about the propriety of served himself better had a tainted Olympics in Sochi
nix game Saturday that re- Dallas' Kaela Davis were holding the heavyweight he not tried to pretend he's and the Chinese did the
sulted in six players getting suspended a game apiece championship of the world merely a sportsman and same in 2008 to deliver the
ejected. for leaving the bench area in a country that is at odds that political things are too message they were a world
The league punished Gri- during the altercation. with the rest of the world complicated for him to power.
ner on Tuesday for throwing With 6:25 left in the fourth in so many ways. He later worry about. Ali and Foreman were used
punches, escalating the in- quarter, Griner and Anig- added, "We knew the criti- If he needs a quick lesson, in Zaire, too, to try and
cident and pushing Wings we got tangled up in the cism we may face when Amnesty International calls show the world that Mobu-
forward Kayla Thornton's lane and a scuffle ensued. we announced the fight." it "sportwashing," which ba- to wasn't such a bad guy
face with an open hand. Griner had to be restrained It would be hard not to sically means the use of big even as the dictator looted
Dallas' Kristine Anigwe was by an official at midcourt, know. A quick glance at sporting events to burnish his impoverished country to
suspended two games for where she was still trying to news sites not controlled a country's image. And, pay for the fight.
instigating the initial alter- get at Dallas players.q by the Saudi government no doubt, the rematch in Just how much the Sau-
shows that despite recent a temporary outdoor sta- dis paid has not been re-
relaxations on rules ban- dium in Diriyah, on the out- vealed, though Hearn said
ning women from driv- skirts of the capital, Riyadh, it wasn't the $40 million
ing and attending sport- is a big event that would some speculated. What
ing events, there are still have drawn 80,000 rabid they'll get for their money is
reports of serious human boxing fans in Wales. an intriguing heavyweight
rights abuses in the coun- Hearn said he was unfamil- rematch, though Hearn
try. There are also questions iar with the term. He came tries to sell it as far more.
/arubatoday/ about how high up in the prepared with his talking "I think it's going to be mind-
Saudi government the plan points at hand, saying other blowing for the sport of
to kill Washington Post col- organizations like the WWE, boxing," he said. "This could
umnist Jamal Khashoggi Formula One and golf's Eu- change boxing forever. This
was put together. ropean Tour had staged will be a boxing event that
But boxing promoters — successful events recently will go down in history."
actually, most people in in the country. It will, but probably for all
sports — tend to gloss over They made money, so why the wrong reasons. The only
those kinds of issues when shouldn't he? vision Hearn has is the same
there is money involved. Why, even women will be vision that has ruled boxing
And the Saudis, Hearn said, allowed inside the tempo- for more than a century —
offered more money than rary 12,000-seat stadium. pure greed.
could have been gener- Isn't that progress enough? This is a money grab, noth-
ated at the Principality Sta- The argument being made ing more and nothing less.
dium in Wales — where Ruiz is that sports are different, Hearn would serve himself
didn't want to fight — or at sports should stand on their — and boxing — better if
Madison Square Garden, own and sports — even he owns that now.q