It’s the calm before the storm in the boxing world. A quiet weekend leads into a busy end of February and an even busier March; all eyes will be on Leo Santa Cruz this weekend as he makes his return to the ring after seven months out.

The Mexican holds the WBA featherweight belt in the 126-pounds division, with Gary Russell Jr., Josh Warrington and Oscar Valdez making up the quartet of champions in one of the most exciting divisions in boxing. Thoughts will turn to unifications in 2019, with huge fight nights awaiting Stateside.

Santa Cruz’s next dance partner is Mexican compatriot Rafael Rivera. The 24-year-old nicknamed Big Bang has been carefully selected for Santa Cruz’s return, and isn’t expected to cause many ripples in the featherweight division above his current level. He is 1-2 in his last three fights having lost two fights on the cards to unbeaten Joet Gonzalez and Joseph Diaz; he bounced back with a win over Jose Ramos in October who boasts a record of 10-14-1.

Santa Cruz to beat Rafael Rivera on points @ 2/5 (BetFred)

The first thing to consider is that Rafael Rivera is yet to be stopped as a professional. His two losses came over a ten and twelve round distance, with his size emphasizing his durability at featherweight; Rivera has previously campaigned at super feather.

Santa Cruz is more of a volume puncher than a power puncher. The champion has a 51% knockout percentage in his 35 wins in the paid ranks, with his fast aggressive style underlining why he has often won on the scorecards. Take for instance his two fights with Carl Frampton. Fast-paced and barrages of punches turned these two fights into the spectacles they were, with neither fighter ever looking like getting stopped.

Carl Frampton x2 and Abner Mares have made up three of Leo’s last four fights; the highest standard of competition for the 30-year-old to negate. Rivera is a big step down, but Santa Cruz will still be eager to get rid of the ring rust that may have set in during the end part of 2018.

Let’s not forget, Santa Cruz’s opponent was supposed to be Miguel Flores until he pulled out with an ankle injury. Although LSC’s camp will have to have changed tactics for this more aggressive, powerful opponent, it shouldn’t be a hurdle that they stumble over.

WBC champion Gary Russell Jr. is expected to be called out by Santa Cruz if he is victorious this weekend. Unifications are top priority amongst the feathers, with Warrington also showing his desire to fight Oscar Valdez after the Kid Galahad defence. Watch this space amongst the 126-pounders.

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The 2018 MLB season will forever be remembered as the Red Sox’s season, after Boston set a new franchise record for regular season wins, before surging to the World Series title.

Their fourth World Series of the century, and their first since 2013, was an emphatic triumph in which they beat all of their main rivals along the way. They overcame two 100-win teams in the New York Yankees, and the defending champions the Houston Astros, before overcoming the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series with a convincing 4-1 win.

Their regular season record was an indication of how dangerous Alex Cera’s team had become. They passed the 100 win mark for the first time since 1946, and smashed the 105-win record that had stood since 1912, becoming the first team to qualify for the play-offs, and winning the American League East title for the third year in a row. They eventually finished with 108 wins, and they were even more impressive in the play-offs, dropping a total of two games against the Yankees and the Astros on the way to their World Series encounter with the Dodgers.

For Cera, who was in his first season as Red Sox manager, the campaign was a spectacular success. In particular, his inventive use of starting pitchers in relief roles proved to be an inspired improvisation, and a host of Red Sox players dominated the end of season awards and the statistical charts, with Mookie Betts topping the lists for batting average and slugging percentage, and JD Martinez earning more RBIs than any other player in baseball. Betts was also named as the MLB MVP; the twelfth time that a Boston player has been recognised as the best in the league.

For the beaten World Series finalists, this was another season of what might have been. The Dodgers had lost a thrilling 2017 World Series to the Astros, and were widely tipped to dominate the National League again in 2018. In fact, they were ranked as slight favourites to win baseball’s ultimate prize according to the implied probabilities on the bigbetbookmakers.com site. But their sole success in the World Series came in Game Three: an encounter that lasted a remarkable eighteen innings and took over seven hours to finish. It was the longest game in World Series history, and it kept the series alive at 2-1 but the Dodgers were unable to match that effort subsequently.

For Boston’s bitterest rivals, this was a particularly hard World Series to watch. The Yankees had trailed eight games behind the Red Sox in the East Division and had succumbed 3-1 in the Divisional Series, and their misery was compounded when Boston went on to win the World Series. The Red Sox have now won the title twice since the Yankees last tasted victory, and the 2019 season will be the tenth anniversary of their last World Series, a drought that is unacceptable for a team that was once the most dominant franchise in the whole of US sport.

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The 2018 Heisman Trophy, recognising the performance of the best player in college football, was won by Kyler Murray of Oklahoma, a deserving winner, ahead of the other two final contenders: Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins.

Murray was not rated among the favourites for the trophy, according to the implied probabilities on the bigbetbookmakers.com site, but he finished the season strongly, playing his best football of the campaign in the final month, which included a pivotal role in a victory over Texas to win the Big 12 title. That strong finish was enough to give Murray the edge over Tagovailoa, whose form had tailed off at the end of the SEC Championship. But the final decision was still in doubt right up to the date of the announcement in the closest Heisman race since 2000 when Mark Ingram won the trophy.

And it wasn’t the last time during the 2018 season that the two star quarterbacks would be in direct rivalry. They met again in the Orange Bowl at the end of December, and this time it was Tagovailoa who prevailed as Alabama beat Oklahoma by 45 to 34.

Until his dip in standards at the end of the campaign, Tagovailoa had been in sensational form all season. In fact, he didn’t throw his first interception until a game against LSU at the start of November, and only gave up three more in the remaining weeks. Game after game, the Red Tide were blowing opponents away, with Tagovailoa leading the way, and for a long time it had seemed as though he would be a certainty for the Heisman Trophy.

But as the season went on, Murray began to earn more attention. From November onward, he recorded an impressive 1,724 passing yards and 418 running yards, with 17 touchdowns altogether, and he also benefitted from playing most of every game, whereas Tagovailoa was often rested in the final quarter, his work invariably done by that stage.

Murray’s win means that Oklahoma have now recorded consecutive Heisman Trophy wins, after Baker Mayfield won it in 2017, the first time that has been achieved since 2005. The irony is that Murray will almost certainly not be following in Mayfield’s footsteps as he has already signed up to play for the Oakland A’s in 2019. Murray will be hoping to emulate Bo Jackson and Vic Janowicz who both made it to the MLB after winning the Heisman Trophy.

The third contender, Dwayne Haskins was particularly unfortunate to come up against Murray and Tagovailoa, who recorded the top two highest passer ratings in college football history. But his performances in 2018 were extremely impressive, helping to sustain an OSU passing game that was one of the most successful in college football, and which ultimately played a major role in the promotion of offensive co-ordinator Ryan Day to the head coach position.

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Paris St-Germain have been the dominant power in French football for a number of years, and their supremacy hasn’t just been confined to Ligue 1, which they had won in four out of the five previous years prior to the 2017-18 season. The Paris giants have also dominated the country’s two main Cup competitions: the Coupe de France, and the Coupe de le Ligue.

That stranglehold on French football silverware wasn’t loosened in the 2017-18 season as PSG completed a clean sweep of all the major honours in domestic football; their third in four seasons. And, with the final played in March, the Coup de le Ligue once again provided PSG with their first opportunity of the season to pick up another set of winners medals.

Having won the competition for the previous four consecutive seasons, it was no surprise that PSG went into the 2017-18 edition as overwhelming favourites, according to the implied probabilities on the Bigbetbookmakers.com site, a long way clear of second favourites Monaco, who were the only other team to be generally available at a single figure price with sportsbooks.

But unlike the 2016-17 tournament in which PSG were rarely troubled en route to the final, where they handed out a 4-1 drubbing to Monaco, the 2017-18 competition threw up a tougher path for the reigning champions. They faced away fixtures in the Fourth Round, Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals. Strasbourg were beaten 4-2 in the last eight, and there was a straightforward win over Ligue 1 newcomers Amiens in the quarter-finals, but they were given a fright in the Semi-Final.

Played in Rennes, the game saw PSG leading 3-0 at the hour mark and seemingly coasting towards the final. But on 85 minutes, Diafra Sakho pulled one back for Rennes and two minutes into injury time, Sanjin Prcic scored a second, to set up a thrilling finish. PSG had done enough, however, and they reached their fifth consecutive final, where they would once again take on Monaco.

Rennes had also been involved in the Coupe de le Ligue’s most dramatic game, at the quarter-final stage. Taking on Toulouse, who had already been involved in a six-goal thriller in the Third Round, Rennes opened the scoring through a Steeve Yago own goal, and Benjamin Bourigeaud got their second just before half time. But goals from Issiaga Sylla and Yaya Sanogo kept Toulouse in touch until, with the game heading for extra time, Adrien Hunou scored twice in six minutes to seal the win.

Astonishingly, Leonardo Jardim’s side had been the only team other than PSG to win a domestic trophy in the previous three seasons, and they reached the 2017-18 final having beaten Caen, Nice and Montpellier along the way, but once again they had to cede supremacy to PSG in the final. Uruguayan star Edinson Cavani opened the scoring after just 8 minutes at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux and Angel Di Maria added a second on 21 minutes. With Monaco running out of ideas late in the game, Cavani added a third from the penalty spot and the trophy belonged to PSG again.

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The 2018-19 NCAA College Football season produced two worthy finalists and the dominant teams in college football faced off in the Championship game at Levi’s Stadium, California.

Alabama Red Tide were making their fourth consecutive appearance in the Championship game, making them the dominant team since the College Football Play-Offs replaced the Bowl Championship Series in 2014, while their opponents Clemson Tigers had managed three.

But while the finalists were familiar, there was something different about this Championship game. Both teams were undefeated in fourteen games on their way to the final, which meant that the winner would be the first team since 1897 to win fifteen games in a single season.

In the end, that honour went to Clemson, who were the underdogs going into the final. In fact, according to the implied probabilities on the bigbetbookmakers.com site, Alabama, who edged out the Georgia Bulldogs and the Oklahoma Sooners en route to the Championship game were the overwhelming favourites to be crowned the kings of college football. But their dominance was ended by a Clemson team with an equally impressive 14-0 record.

Both teams had suffered losses in personnel ahead of the Championship game. Clemson had three players suspended due to failed drug tests, while Alabama were also without three members of their roster for the big game, due to NCAA violations. But it was the Tigers who were better able to cope without their missing players, recording a stunning 44-16 victory over the Red Tide, handing coach Nick Saban his biggest loss at Alabama since he took over in 2007.

But Clemson’s strong performance wasn’t a complete surprise, in fact their form going into the Championship game was arguably more impressive than their opponents’. The Tigers had beaten Pittsburgh Panthers 42-10 in the ACC Championship Game, and then crushed Notre Dame Fighting Irish 30-3 in the Cotton Bowl to earn their place in the showpiece event.

The first quarter of the Championship game was fairly even. Cornerback A.J.Terrell pulled off an interception and returned it 44 yards for Clemson to take a 7-0 lead, but three plays later, Alabama were level when Tua Tagovailoa made up for his error by finding Jerry Jeudy for a 62-yard touchdown. Travis Etienne for Clemson and Hale Hentges for Alabama added further touchdowns and at 14-13 at the end of the first quarter, only a missed kick from Joseph Bulovas separated them.

Alabama made a good start to the second quarter, and Bulovas gave them a 16-14 lead with a 25-yard field goal inside six minutes, but that was to be Alabama’s last scoring action of the game. Running back Etienne ran in two more short-range touchdowns and Greg Huegel added a field goal to make the half-time score 31-16, and third-quarter scores from Justyn Ross and Tee Higgins gave Clemson a commanding 28 point lead. At the start of the fourth quarter, Alabama had a first down on the Clemson 27-yard line, but couldn’t convert it and the Tigers were able to manage the game from there, seeing out the victory to claim the Championship title and make history in the process.

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