A touted annual global championship has the in-principle support of all 12 leading rugby nations according to Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle, who hopes the initiative doesn’t lose steam amid the red tape to come.

The Nations Championship would involve the top-12 Test nations playing for points during the existing northern and southern hemisphere competitions, the Six Nations and Rugby Championship, before meeting for a two-week finals playoff in November in Europe.

A promotion-relegation component tying in a second division would also encourage emerging nations in a format which Castle said would create interest in Tests that had been irrelevant at times previously.

Castle met other rugby executives late last month in the United States for a discussion she labelled as “momentous” for the code.

“It just brings together two things: value for every Test match … with my (the fans’) country, but also Italy playing France might be important because I need to know whether they win or lose to see how I end up,” she said.

“We’re just making sure that every Test match played is relevant so that interest grows.”

Castle said potential broadcasters had indicated they “would pay more for this type of joint competition” and any argument of it devaluing the World Cup wasn’t valid.

“It’s just not (like the World Cup) though; you’re talking about Test matches all over the world in different locations – one Test match, as opposed to a World Cup where all the countries are gathered in one location, so I don’t even think they’re comparable,” she said.

Castle said the challenge was keeping the project’s moving pieces intact.

“What is it they say about time kills deals?” she mused.

“I think that’s where we’re at and it’s not the sort of thing you’d want to float on forever in a day.

“But at the same time, everyone needs a high level of comfort, because you’ve got 12 countries with 12 different governance and approval systems.

“It’s a complex piece of work that’s happening but the important thing is that … there’s a view that, in principle, it’s something that they definitely want to pursue.”

Castle said a precise launch date and how the global event would fit in a World Cup year were still to be determined.

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Lunch Australia 5 for 474 (Patterson 74*, Paine 28*) v Sri Lanka

Australia marched happily on to a mammoth total in the first session of day two, losing only the wicket of Joe Burns early, before Kurtis Patterson strode to 74 off 144 deliveries, putting on an unbeaten 70 with Tim Paine for the sixth wicket.

Sri Lanka’s bowlers found swing with the second new ball for a time, but as the movement gradually disappeared, they found themselves neutered once more, as they had been through large parts of the opening day. The only point of solace for the visitors is that at least Australia did not score as quickly in this session as they had in the afternoon and evening on Friday.

With Patterson striking at 51, and Paine taking his time to work his way into the innings, Australia made only 90 runs in 31 overs. Offspinner Dilruwan Perera’s tight lines were also responsible for the dip in the scoring rate.

Burns, who had begun the day on 172, had appeared tetchy in the early overs, finding his edge repeatedly beaten, as Vishwa Fernando and Kasun Rajitha moved the ball consistently off the seam. Although it was his outside edge that Rajitha had most-often tested, it was an indipper that eventually cost Burns his wicket. In attempting to fend a length ball away to the offside, Burns thrust his bat out, but the ball jagged in, took his inside edge, and clattered into leg stump. It was Rajitha’s first wicket of the innings, though he has been Sri Lanka’s most consistent quick so far in the game.

Patterson also almost chopped Rajitha on soon after, but before long, he had his cut and pull shots humming, as Sri Lanka’s early discipline frayed. Once the ball also stopped moving, Patterson began to drive effectively, especially through the covers, where he hit four of his nine boundaries. At the other end, Paine had a laboured start, finding Fernando especially difficult to deal with, but he survived and eventually settled after facing 25 balls.

Patterson’s half-century was the first of his career, in his second Test innings. His family were in attendance for the occasion.

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DENVER — Houston Rockets superstar James Harden just barely extended his streak of 30-point performances, but a pair of other streaks ended with the Denver Nuggets‘ 136-122 win Friday night at the Pepsi Center.

Harden hit a leaning 3-pointer with 1:05 remaining to get to 30 points for the 25th consecutive game, tied for the third-longest such streak in NBA history with Wilt Chamberlain, who is the only player to surpass it.

However, Harden didn’t finish as the game’s leading scorer for the first time since a Dec. 11 loss in Portland, a 24-game streak that ranks behind only Chamberlain’s run of 40 straight games as the leading scorer in 1961-62, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Denver shooting guard Malik Beasley scored a career-high 35 points and All-Star center Nikola Jokic had 31 to help the Nuggets’ snap a nine-game losing streak against the Rockets.

“We’ve beaten all comers. We’re not scared of anybody,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “If we play them in the playoffs, now we know we’ve beaten this team. We know what it takes to beat them.”

Jokic, who also had 13 rebounds and nine assists, dominated a Houston team forced to play small with center Clint Capela recovering from right thumb surgery. He repeatedly bullied Rockets defenders on post-ups, making 12 of his 15 shots from the floor.

The Nuggets are getting accustomed to those kinds of performances from Jokic, who received “MVP! MVP!” chants on several occasions throughout the game. Beasley’s breakout performance as a fill-in starter provided a massive lift for the Nuggets with guards Gary Harris (adductor) and Jamal Murray (ankle) sidelined.

“I definitely think this is a statement performance to show the world who I am,” Beasley told ESPN. “I’m not just out there on the bench. I’m not just on this team with a lot of great players. I am a player. I work hard just like everybody else.

“I’m glad I got to show it tonight, and most importantly, it was a great team win.”

Beasley had 22 points — one shy of his previous career high — by halftime to help the Nuggets score 83, tied for the second most by any team in a first half this season. He had 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting during Denver’s 48-point second quarter.

“Once you give a guy confidence like that, especially early in the game, he just carried that wave that he had,” Harden said. “He got a couple of open looks and in transition was getting to the basket, got a couple of big-time dunks. You give a guy like that confidence, anything can happen.”

Beasley, a 2016 first-round pick who played sparingly in his first two seasons, was 12-of-17 from the floor and 5-of-9 from 3-point range. He has established himself as a quality rotation player this season, averaging 11.2 points in efficient fashion (.501 field goal percentage, .426 3-point percentage).

“That guy is just continuing to grow up in front of all of our eyes,” Malone said. “Right now, he’s shooting into a big basket. He’s shooting with great confidence, and he’s embracing the challenge to guard every night. Hard work pays off.”

Beasley also played a significant role in limiting Harden to 30 points on 9-of-21 shooting. Beasley and Torrey Craig were the primary defenders on Harden, and the Nuggets frequently trapped the reigning MVP to force the ball out of his hands.

Harden scored 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the first quarter but missed all but two of his 11 shots over the next two quarters as Denver built a commanding lead. He made three 3s in the fourth quarter to extend his streak of 30-point performances, but the Rockets never made a serious comeback threat against the Nuggets (36-15), who pulled even with the Golden State Warriors for the best record in the Western Conference.

“I didn’t want him to get 30,” said Craig, who also had a career high with 22 points, highlighted by a southpaw putback slam dunk. “I was trying real hard to stop him from getting 30, but that last shot where he leaned in at the end, he hit it. Our team was giving me a hard time about it.

“He’s a great player. He’s obviously one of the best scorers in the league. To hold him to 30 after the way he’s been playing, and we get the win, so I’m not too disappointed.”

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• Huw Richards

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  • FT’s rugby writer from 1995 to 2009
  • Also writes for the International Herald Tribune and the Sunday Herald

PARIS — A Tricolor hurled down from the upper deck of the Stade de France after the final whistle was a suitably Gallic verdict on the opening match of the 2019 Six Nations.

While nothing is more prized about this venerable competition than its continuing capacity for the unexpected, one Frenchman doubtless acted for most of his compatriots in feeling that one can have too much of a good thing. Seen from outside, the Stade de France looks like an outsize flying saucer drawn from the imagination of some 1970s science fiction cartoonist, and this match had more than a touch of fantasy about it.

We know, of course, that double-figure comebacks are much more common than they were and that Wales were responsible for the two largest revivals, overturning 13-point deficits here in 2001 and at Twickenham in 2008, by winning teams in tournament history. Still more vivid is the memory of the revival here in 2005 which was the vital step towards that year’s gloriously unexpected Grand Slam. It was also a happy anniversary for Wales, 50 years to the day since JPR Williams and Mervyn Davies won their first caps. Yet that Wales fought back to win from 16 points down at the break was as unlikely as the complete French dominance which came before.

So Wales move on to face Italy, with coach Warren Gatland’s prediction that victory in Paris was the first step towards a championship in his final season with Wales still valid. An equally reliable prediction is that he won’t let his players forget that first half in next week’s camp in Nice.

Lord knows what Jacques Brunel, the France coach, will say to his players. The competence that brought that lead gave way to devastating error in the second half.

Wales showed a formidable will to win. They can hail the power and opportunism of George North, who extended his lead as the decade’s top scorer by first snapping up a fumble by Yoann Huget — in retrospect the key moment, as France’s lead, already cut by Tomos Williams’s score after a break by Josh Adams, dwindled to a mere two with 25 minutes still to go — then intercepting a loose French pass to restore Wales’s lead once and for all with eight minutes left.

For the best part of a decade France had been the Six Nations missing link, the dog that does not bark in the night — or on matchday afternoons. They had spent almost the whole of the 2010s reminding us that mediocre is a French word. So a certain wariness tinged a broadly optimistic mood in both the French media and at the Stade before the match.

Given that this weekend’s fixtures are the last of 2018’s in reverse, one might have expected a degree of continuity in the opening fixture of the 2019 tournament. For Wales, yes, with nine starters the same, including the entire front row. For France, an emphatic non. Three forwards — one from each line — and not a single back from the team who started at Cardiff in March.

But what has in the past been interpreted as madness looked more like method in Jacques Brunel’s matching of a back division drawn entirely from Toulouse and Clermont, first and second in the TOP14, with a set of forwards whose dimensions suggest that the international game may not have to wait much longer to see its first one-ton pack.

Attention naturally enough focussed on the debutants: 19-year-old rugby dynast Romain Ntamack, joining wing Damian Penaud as one of two sons of famed rugby fathers (Emile and Alain, respectively) in the threequarter line — and the outsize lock Paul Willemse, a Junior World Cup winner as a South African. Something new, something borrowed, one might say of Les Bleus.

The set was completed by something which, if not exactly old, is undoubtedly mature — the Clermont half-back pairing of scrum-half Morgan Parra, a 30-year-old who made his debut as a teenager and whose periodic omissions have generally been welcomed by France’s opponents — and the 29-year-old Camille Lopez. Long-time club partners, they had somehow only played once previously together for France.

Brunel’s charges showed themselves capable of doing several things well at once in a first half which finished with them 16 points out. Heavy rain may have been preferred to the snow falling on the British Isles by the Welsh fans who made it to Paris bearing tales of cancellations and delays, and to ground authorities who still recall the postponement against Ireland in 2012, but threatened to dampen not only them but the atmosphere in a stadium several empty blocks short of a capacity crowd.

The military band entrusted with two of the best anthems in world sport set the tempo for the first half by slowing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau to funereal pace before a rousing La Marseillaise brought the stadium back to life. Parra’s left boot, box-kicking shrewdly, was soon in evidence, as was a Welsh propensity to fumble.

France kept control when it mattered — a sustained attack starting on the left, working its way across the field three times in all before Louis Picamoles on the right stepped inside two Welsh tackles and just made it to the line. Yoann Huget, who had started that assault, was the beneficiary 20 minutes later when a superb back-handed offload by flanker Arthur Iturria sent him on a curving run to the left corner for a try, which he celebrated with a military salute to the crowd.

The sole comfort accorded Wales was that while Parra’s tacking kicking was impeccable, he was fallible from the tee, missing both conversions. But this, and the denial of a try to Liam Williams after the TMO spotted a knock-on, seemed of marginal importance by half-time when France enjoyed that apparently conclusive 16-0 lead. Lopez had landed a short-range penalty after taking the kicking duties from Parra, then a 40-metre drop with the last kick of the half. They went off, presumably to chew gum, to exultant cheers. Little did they or we know.

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• Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jeff Gordon‘s immense influence on NASCAR was highlighted Friday during a star-packed Hall of Fame induction ceremony befitting a driver who changed the trajectory of an entire sport.

Gordon was the top vote-getter in the 10th class of the Hall of Fame, which included the late drivers Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki, as well as team owners Roger Penske and Jack Roush. Gordon received 96 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility, falling just short of becoming the Hall of Fame’s first unanimous selection.

This class was the first in which all five inductees competed against each other at the same time. Gordon made his Cup debut in the 1992 season finale, won by Kulwicki in part because Allison wrecked early. The stage was set for three new drivers to star in NASCAR and challenge Dale Earnhardt‘s long reign of NASCAR dominance.

The following year, a pair of aviation accidents in a span of 102 days altered NASCAR permanently.

Kulwicki died in an April 1 plane crash returning to Bristol Motor Speedway from a sponsor appearance. Allison died July 12 when he crashed the helicopter he was piloting in the infield at Talladega Superspeedway, where he’d gone with Red Farmer to watch Neil Bonnett‘s son test for his Busch Series debut.

Gordon had a quiet rookie year while Earnhardt went on to his sixth championship and added his seventh title the next season. Gordon eventually took Allison’s role as Earnhardt’s nemesis by dethroning him in 1995.

Gordon won four titles over seven seasons. Earnhardt never won another.

A moment @JeffGordonWeb will forever remember.#NASCARHOF pic.twitter.com/TIpyHlgOI2

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 2, 2019

Gordon spoke at length of how good timing and lucky breaks aided his career, particularly when he was hired by Rick Hendrick to move to the Cup series in 1992.

“All the hard work, seizing the moment as often as possible in every good car I had a chance to drive, introducing myself to anyone I could, hoping and wishing that the right person or car owner saw enough in me to take a chance — and Rick Hendrick was that individual,” Gordon said.

“I’m so fortunate to have driven the best cars built by the best people and owned by the best owner in NASCAR.”

His induction into the Hall of Fame completes the famed No. 24 team, as Hendrick and crew chief Ray Evernham are already members. Gordon was inducted by Hendrick, his daughter, Ella, and son, Leo. He was introduced by Kyle Larson, who followed his childhood idol out of California through sprint cars into NASCAR.

“In the early ’90s, a youthful Californian stormed onto the NASCAR scene,” Larson said in his introduction. “His generational talent and charisma helped transform NASCAR from a regional sport to a national spectacle. Confident and flashy, he served as the perfect rival to the rugged ‘Intimidator’ Dale Earnhardt. His name is found throughout NASCAR’s record books and now is etched permanently in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.”

Jim Hunter, NASCAR’s former spokesman, was posthumously awarded the Landmark Award for contributions to the sport.

Kulwicki, who moved from Wisconsin to Charlotte in 1984 with a car he built himself towed by his pickup truck, was honored by fellow Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth and Felix Sabates, the executor of Kulwicki’s estate.

Kulwicki was the reigning NASCAR champion at the time of his death — he beat Bill Elliott in the 1992 season finale by 10 points to win the title — and Sabates noted that Kulwicki spent $2.84 million on his championship season.

“Somewhere he’s doing his trademark Polish victory lap because tonight he’s a NASCAR Hall of Famer,” Kenseth said of Kulwicki’s celebration of driving clockwise so his window faced the fans.

Allison, a beloved member of the “Alabama Gang,” was honored with a video message from Alabama football coach Nick Saban. He was introduced by Matt Crafton and Regan Smith, and inducted by his son, Robbie.

The son of Hall of Famer Bobby Allison and nephew of Donnie Allison, Davey Allison learned his skills around Alabama tracks and his break came in 1987 when he replaced Cale Yarborough.

He finished second in the next season’s Daytona 500 to his father, the only father-son 1-2 finish in NASCAR’s signature race.

Penske, the icon of motorsports, last year celebrated Team Penske’s 500th victory as an organization. He won the Cup championship with Joey Logano and the Indianapolis 500 with Will Power.

He was introduced by Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney, and inducted by his son, Greg.

“He’s known as ‘The Captain’ but to us, he’s also known as a mentor, fierce competitor, role model and friend,” Logano said.

Penske in 2016 celebrated his 50th season in racing. He built the 2-mile speedway in Fontana, California, in 1996, and at one time owned Michigan International Speedway.

“He’s a true titan of industry and a leader in advancing the popularity of American motorsports for more than 50 years as a team owner, track owner and even a driver,” Blaney said.

Penske credited motorsports with building his corporation and setting the pace for his success.

“Racing is simply who we are,” he said. “The lessons we learn in racing help drive our success in business, and the exposure provided by NASCAR is a source of pride that builds our brand and our entire organization.”

Roush was introduced by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one of his current drivers, and inducted by 2017 Hall of Fame driver Mark Martin.

Roush, who wore his trademark Panama hat for his induction, said few expected him to succeed when he launched his NASCAR team in 1988. But Roush drivers have won a record 322 races across NASCAR’s three national series and the organization has five national series owner championships. Roush is a graduate-level mathematician, engineering entrepreneur and a strong supporter of the Detroit automotive scene and Ford Motor Co.

“Few if any knowledgeable fans and even fewer Cup team personnel would have given me favorable odds of surviving for more than three decades, as I stand before you tonight,” Roush said.

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• Associated Press

ATLANTA — Limousine companies are blaming the state of Georgia for leaving them 300 to 400 vehicles short of what’s needed to transport NFL owners, corporate clients and others this Super Bowl weekend.

Amy Patterson, vice president of operations and logistics with Atlanta’s Super Bowl Host Committee, said in a letter to Georgia’s public safety commissioner that she fears this will become a “viral news story” and “a black eye for the state.”

State law bars out-of-state limousines that aren’t insured and registered in Georgia. Limousine firms say they should get an exemption for special events such as the Super Bowl. The state’s public safety chief says he won’t allow it.

The concerns were first reported by Atlanta’s Fox affiliate, WAGA-TV.

“We are begging Gov. [Brian] Kemp to step in and protect the people of Atlanta, the people of Georgia, the people coming in from out of town to allow us to safely handle their transportation,” said Jeff Greene, president of the Greater Atlanta Limousine Association. Greene calls the situation “extremely, extremely urgent.”

Kemp said he’s leaving it up to Georgia’s Department of Public Safety commissioner, Col. Mark McDonough, and the colonel says he won’t bend.

McDonough said the law is needed for public safety, noting that chauffeured vehicles have been involved in deadly accidents.

“They’re basically asking the colonel of state patrol to set aside state law. That’s kind of brash,” McDonough told WAGA-TV. “That’s not something I’m going to give permission to do.”

Greene said limousine firms were allowed to use out-of-state vehicles to handle the crush of VIPs during the 1996 Olympic Games and the 2000 Super Bowl in Atlanta. But McDonough said he can’t find written proof that was allowed to happen.

The situation is between the limousine companies and the state, a representative of the Super Bowl Host Committee said in a Friday email to The Associated Press.

In a separate email to the AP, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau spokesman Heather Kirksey said, “We aren’t aware of a transportation shortage.”

But limousine company owner Fred Rich said, “We’re going to have to break major contracts.”

“We’re going to have to tell major, major corporate clients we can’t handle their VIP travelers,” Rich said.

Authorities have been urging everyone else to use public transportation.

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• Associated Press

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — After the opening round of the Phoenix Open, Rickie Fowler lamented a missed putt that would have given him the outright lead and household bragging rights.

Following an impressive string of birdies to close out his second round, Fowler will get his chance to trash-talk Justin Thomas, his roommate this week.

Fowler closed with four straight birdies for a 6-under 65 on Friday, draining an 8-foot putt on the final hole to take a one-shot lead over Thomas into the weekend.

“Getting to play with your buddies, those are the people you want to lose to the least,” said Fowler, who was at 13-under 129 after opening with a 64. “So having bragging rights right now — we have a long way to go, there’s a lot of golf to be played — that will be fun. I definitely don’t want him out in front of me.”

Branden Grace aced the 193-yard seventh hole after switching clubs at his caddie’s advice and was two shots back along with Trey Mullinax. Both shot 64.

Matt Kuchar and Cameron Smith were at 10 under after a second straight day of pristine weather and course conditions.

Phil Mickelson shot 75 and finished 1 over to miss the cut for the fifth time in 30 career starts at the Phoenix Open. He is a three-time champion, last in 2013.

A two-rime runner-up at TPC Scottsdale, Fowler misread a putt on his final hole Thursday that would have given him the outright lead.

Through 14 holes on Friday, it appeared Thomas, who shot 66 to reach 12 under, would again get the household bragging rights.

Fowler made a 4-footer for birdie on the par-3 12th, then two-putted for birdie on No. 15. He made a 10-footer on No. 16, two-putted for birdie on the drivable par-4 17th and smoked a 344-yard drive on the closing hole.

Fowler dropped his approach shot on 18 just behind the hole and sank the 8-footer, sending a roar across TPC Scottsdale.

“I really did a good job of taking care of the holes coming in,” he said. “Just did a good job of staying disciplined, making good shots, good swings and made some good putts as well.”

Thomas dropped in a birdie putt that nearly went all the way around the hole on the par-5 13th, but gave it right back on the difficult 14th when he pulled his approach shot and missed a 9-footer.

Thomas reached the par-5 15th in two and two-putted for birdie to get back to 12 under, finishing with four straight pars to temporarily take the lead. Fowler passed him, but the friends will be in the final group on Saturday along with Grace.

“No matter what we shot, it was going to be a good time, but it’s a little nicer knowing that we’re both sleeping in and playing in the last pairing,” Thomas said.

Playing his first Phoenix Open, Grace opened with a 67 on Thursday and got to 5 under with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 fifth. The South African switched from a 7-iron to an 8 on the par-3 seventh at the behest of his new caddie, Craig Connelly, and then celebrated from the tee as another massive Phoenix Open crowd roared for his third career hole-in-one — his first on the PGA Tour.

“I felt really good over the shot, hit a great shot and the guys behind the hole actually started jumping up before the ball actually went in,” Grace said. “When people start jumping up, you know it’s there or thereabouts. Obviously, what a nice place to have one.”

Grace, who missed the cut at Torrey Pines last week, also chipped in for eagle on the par-5 13th and reeled off three straight birdies to overcome a double bogey on the difficult par-4 11th.

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Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin missed Friday’s 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators and will also sit out Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs because of an upper-body injury.

Malkin, who had two assists in a win Wednesday against Tampa Bay, has five goals in his past 29 games.

“I’m disappointed for him because he had a great game [Wednesday],” Sullivan said. “We think that was a game he could really build on, but we’re hopeful this is a short-term thing. Certainly the fact that he had a strong game as he did the other night is encouraging, and we’re looking forward to getting him back in our lineup.”

With Malkin out of the lineup, the Penguins turned to newly acquired players Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann on Friday, with Bjugstad centering the second line, while McCann was the third-line center.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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FRISCO, Texas — Super middleweight world titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez told ESPN that he will be moving up to the light heavyweight division for his next fight.

“I am looking for another belt. That’s why I am moving up. Also, last time I fought it was a little bit hard to make the weight, 168. My body is asking to move up,” Ramirez said Friday before the weigh-in for the rematch between light heavyweight world titlist Eleider “Storm” Alvarez and former two-time titlist Sergey Kovalev, who meet on Saturday night (midnight ET, ESPN+) at the Ford Center at the Star, the practice facility of the Dallas Cowboys.

Ramirez (39-0, 25 KOs), 27, a southpaw from Mexico, will be ringside for the fight to get a good look at both combatants because he figures to be a future opponent for the winner.

“I am looking for those belts,” Ramirez said. “They are really tough fighters. I want to be the Mexican idol. So I am looking for a challenge and an opportunity.”

Ramirez will get one as long as he keeps winning, because he is promoted by Top Rank, which is deep in the weight class. In addition to its involvement with Alvarez and Kovalev, the company also promotes lineal champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk and recently signed world titlist Artur Beterbiev, although that deal has not yet been formally announced.

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told ESPN that the plan is for Ramirez to fight a nontitle fight at light heavyweight in April or May and then for a world title.

“He came to us. He was having trouble maintaining his weight at 168 [pounds] and thought he would be much stronger at 175,” Arum said. “So without giving up his 168 title, I think we’re going to put him in a good fight at 175, and then if he comes through that we’ll match him with one of the champions to fight for a title.

“He knows as well as we do who he matches up well with. He has sparred with Gvozdyk so he feels he can handle Gvozdyk. He’s watched Alvarez fight. Our matchmakers think he’s competitive in either fight. With Beterbiev, who knows what you have.”

Ramirez won his super middleweight world title by shutout decision of Arthur Abraham in 2016 and has made five defenses. Most recently, he edged Jesse Hart by majority decision in their rematch in a very rough fight on Dec. 14. Ramirez said he would only return to super middleweight if Top Rank could give him a major fight following his spring light heavyweight bout.

“Bob told me, ‘Maybe you want to move up, fight, and after, if I don’t give you a really good fight like [one against] Canelo Alvarez or [Gennady] Golovkin or Callum Smith, something like that, then we’re going to look for a title at light heavyweight,'” Ramirez said. “It’s a big challenge for me. I am really motivated to get another belt and be a champion in two divisions.”

If Ramirez wins a light heavyweight world title, he would be only the second Mexican boxer to do so. The late Julio Gonzalez won a light heavyweight title in 2003 by upsetting Dariusz Michalczewski by split and then lost the belt in his first defense by unanimous decision to Zsolt Erdei in 2004. Arum said he believes Ramirez will be well served by the move up in weight.

“I think he’s a big guy whether at 168 or 175, and if he feels stronger by not having the sacrifice to make the weight he will be a lot better puncher,” Arum said. “He’s a great boxer. The question is if he will develop a good punch. I think going up in weight will help that.”

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Kristaps Porzingis will probably not play for the Dallas Mavericks this season as he continues recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee suffered a year ago, team owner Mark Cuban told ESPN.

The Mavs acquired Porzingis as the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade with the New York Knicks on Thursday, believing that the 23-year-old power forward/center who was an All-Star last season can form an elite duo with 19-year-old rookie star Luka Doncic for years to come.

Porizingis, who indicated to Knicks management that he wanted to be traded on Thursday morning, will be a restricted free agent this summer.

The Mavs made the trade with the plan of signing the 7-foot-3 Porzingis to a long-term deal this offseason. Sources said the organization is confident that Doncic and likely-to-retire legend Dirk Nowitzki, one of Porzingis’ idols, can help sell him on staying in Dallas.

“He loves Luka and Dirk,” one source said of Porzingis, whose other option would be to play next season on a qualifying offer, an unprecedented move for a player of his caliber that would cost him millions of dollars.

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