A stoic Kotetsu Boku awaits the ultimate hurrah to close a long career in fighting. (Yahoo Photo)
You know that classic storyline where an ageing warrior gets his one final chance at redemption?

Sitting across from Kotetsu Boku as he strokes his mystic beard and eases his nimble, heavily-tattooed frame into the lotus position, this reporter has a sense of déjà vu.

“I am the underdog,” the 35-year-old Japanese mixed martial artist told Yahoo! Singapore during a recent interview in Tokyo, ahead of his impending ONE Fighting Championship duel with hotly-tipped compatriot Shinya Aoki in Singapore next Friday.

Yet it is Boku who holds the lightweight championship belt that Aoki seeks – as vengeance for fallen comrade Zorobabel Moreira, whose defeat last year by the more senior, less-regarded Boku came as a surprise to many.

In a thrilling contest – his first outside of Japan – Boku bore the brunt of Moreira’s punishing kicks for two whole rounds before calmly felling the taller Brazilian with a powerful right punch.

It was an astonishing display of tenacity that won the crowd over –

By The Rundown (original post from Yahoo! Eurosport can be found here)

Is Mark Webber's feud with Sebastian Vettel the most bitter between team-mates in Formula One history?

Take a look at our top 10 and judge for yourself.

1- Alain Prost v Ayrton Senna

Formula One's most iconic rivalry. The bad blood between the McLaren team-mates reached its peak in 1989 after Senna ignored a 'non-aggression' pact in San Marino. At the season's climax, Prost and Senna collided at Suzuka, handing the title to the Frenchman. The following year Senna gained revenge when he punted Prost - now of Ferrari - off at the first corner to clinch the title for himself.

Prost and Senna
2- Mark Webber v Sebastian Vettel

A feud had been simmering since the Red Bull colleagues took each other out in 2010, and boiled over in Malaysia on Sunday. Vettel ignored team orders and overtook Webber, who had turned his engine down. The German apologised, but you can't help suspecting he would do it again.

Webber and Vettel
3- Nigel Mansell v Nelson Piquet

It

Japan's Kotetsu Boku being crowned champion of Singapore-based ONE FC. (ONE FC Photo)
Within Asia, Japan has long been identified as the nerve centre of the sport of fighting, whether in sumo, judo, karate or in modern times, mixed martial arts (MMA).

But according to key stakeholders in its MMA scene that Yahoo! Singapore recently met in Tokyo, Japan, that stage is set to shift to the affluent island-state of Singapore.

Playing a pivotal role in this movement is Singapore-based MMA organisation ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC).

“I hear that in Singapore, MMA is getting bigger because of ONE FC,” said Nobuyuki Sakakibara, former president of Japanese promotion Pride Fighting Championships, which once organised the most globally popular MMA contests before shutting down in 2007.

Going by ticket sales alone, Sakakibara is not wrong. The last three ONE FC events, held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium between 2011 to 2012, saw a progressive spike in attendance from 7,000 to 9,000.

ONE FC’s upcoming tournament at the Indoor Stadium next Friday will be headlined by an

Lewis Hamilton has had to fend off criticism he made a "mistake" ditching McLaren for Mercedes. (Photo: Cheryl Tay)

REPORTING FROM KUALA LUMPUR

Former world champion Lewis Hamilton says he has no regrets above leaving McLaren and joining the Mercedes-Petronas team this year.

Speaking ahead of this Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, the 28-year old Briton -- who finished a respectable fifth at the season-opening Australian GP -- said he's happy about his new team and feels there's no need to make any comparisons.

“I don’t look at McLaren and feel happier. I do know that it’s a fantastic team and they have got great facilities and great people working there so I have no doubts that they have always been very strong at catching up and moving forward," Hamilton told media during a briefing at the PETRONAS Twin Towers on Wednesday.

"I feel that this is only a small little blip in their journey this year. I’m sure they will catch up,” said the 2008 world champ, referring to the fact that both McLaren drivers finished behind him ain Melbourne last Sunday.

Jenson Button, with whom he was engaged in a

Michael Owen: Should he have left Liverpool at all? (Yahoo! UK Eurosport)

By Paul Parker (re-posted from Yahoo! UK Eurosport blog)

Michael Owen's decision to retire is a natural end to his career, but it should have come sooner.

He was virtually in retirement when he went to Manchester United four years ago. His decision to join Stoke City was never going to be a good fit.

Never in a million years was moving to Stoke going to be a good idea. One because he doesn't fit their kind of football, two because he isn't tall enough for them and three being the other reason that he is never fit enough to play consistently.

In theory, people are going to be like me in thinking that he was already in semi-retirement over the past three or four years.

Manchester United got themselves a reasonable name when they signed Owen. They thought they signed somebody who would be a goalscorer.

He scored a very important goal against Manchester City at Old Trafford, and that is what his time at United will be remembered for.

Other than that, you have to look back and say his

Footballer buys tickets for ‘skint’ Twitter user
By World of Sport (original post from Yahoo! UK Eurosport can be found here)

Footballers and Twitter don't normally make a great combination - Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Joey Barton are among the players to land themselves in hot water over ill-considered remarks on the social networking site.

But Ipswich Town's Tyrone Mings has shown Twitter can be a force for good with a remarkable act of charity.

One user tweeted Mings on Saturday morning to wish him luck for the game against Bolton, noting that he could not afford to go to the match.

Mings quickly responded, asking the fan if he could get to Ipswich's Portman Road ground.

When the fan confirmed he could, Mings told him he he had left two tickets for him at the club's box office, adding: " Shouldn't miss a game because you can't afford it."

The follower, Tris Monk, was treated to a 1-0 win that helped Ipswich ease their relegation fears.

His unprompted generosity was greeted with an avalanche of praise as Twitter rejoiced in a

Ian Tan came a long way to get to where he is now (Yahoo Photo)

At 26 years old, Ian Tan is a gym owner, internationally-certified fitness specialist, kettlebell champion and coach, as well as a former muay Thai professional and instructor.

And the Singaporean wouldn’t have achieved any of that if he hadn’t been an insecure teenager fending for himself in a foreign land.

In conversation with Yahoo! Singapore earlier this month, Tan revealed how an early exercise in vanity paved the road to enlightenment and success at his age, and made him the holistic sportsman he is today.

Tan was 17 when he flew alone to the United States to enroll in California’s Santa Clara University. In the company of larger-sized Caucasian schoolmates, he instantly felt “small”.

“I wanted to be bigger so people wouldn’t mess with me,” said Tan, his calm, measured manner belying a fresh-faced exterior. “For a year or two, I didn’t care about anything except how I looked.”

Tan in his first year in the United States (Facebook Photo)

So Tan, who was born with his spine abnormally curved, started carrying weights – but absent thought

Rio's Olympic Lake

By World of Sport (original post from Yahoo! UK Eurosport can be found here)

A huge clean-up has been launched in the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon after 65 tonnes of dead fish filled the waters which are set to play host to the 2016 Olympic rowing events.

The lagoon, authorities say, became deoxygenated after heavy storms, which washed ‘a large amount of organic matter’ into the lake.

The clean-up is still underway, and is not the first time that the lagoon has suffered such misfortune. In 2009 an estimated 100 tonnes of dead fish, predominantly shad, had to be removed from the waters after a similar incident.

As you can see from the picture above, taken during the Pan-Am Games in 2007, the lagoon hosted rowing successfully.

But you can see the horrific pictures of the Lake as it is this week below:

Dead fish pile up in the lake.
The cleanup effort begins.
The scale of the horror.