The archive

57 stories

• World middleweight title · 2007

  Kelly Pavlik gets up and takes the title

  Jermain Taylor had Kelly Pavlik on all fours in the second round. In the seventh, the challenger from Youngstown backed the champion into a corner and finished him.

• World middleweight title · 2006

  Arthur Abraham's victory, and the argument it left behind

  Edison Miranda broke Arthur Abraham's jaw in two places in the fourth round. Abraham fought on for eight more, won clearly, and left behind a question about whether he should have been allowed to.

• La Liga · 2006

  Beckham, Ronaldinho and the fall of Florentino Pérez's Real Madrid

  Real Madrid signed David Beckham in 2003 and Barcelona took Ronaldinho instead. Over the next three years Madrid went through five coaches and won nothing after the 2003 Supercopa, and in February 2006 Florentino Pérez resigned.

• Champions League · 2005

  Ronaldinho's hat-trick, and the 18-year-old beside him

  Barcelona's 150th Champions League match belonged to Ronaldinho: a free-kick, a finish and a penalty. The move that made his second goal started with Lionel Messi.

• World super-featherweight title · 2004

  Once and for all: Barrera wins the third fight with Morales

  After Marco Antonio Barrera lost to Manny Pacquiao and Érik Morales moved up to super-featherweight, they met a third time in Las Vegas in November 2004. Barrera won a majority decision, and The Ring made it the Fight of the Year for the second time.

• Champions League · 2004

  Rooney's first night at Old Trafford

  He was 18, had been out for three months with a broken foot, and had cost Manchester United more than £20 million. Wayne Rooney needed 54 minutes to score a hat-trick.

• Premier League · 2004

  Leeds sell Ferdinand, Woodgate and the rest, and go down two years after O'Leary

  Leeds United had borrowed heavily against Champions League income that did not come. Within two years of sacking David O'Leary they had sold most of his team, lost their chairman and three managers, and been relegated.

• Serie A · 2003

  The €14 billion hole: how Parmalat's collapse brought down Parma

  In December 2003 Parmalat was found to have billions that did not exist, and Calisto Tanzi was arrested in Milan. His football club, 98.7 per cent owned by the company, went down with it.

• Serie A · 2002

  Cup winners in 2001, out of existence in 2002: how Fiorentina collapsed

  Fiorentina won the Coppa Italia in June 2001. Fourteen months later the club was thrown out of professional football, and Florence started again in the fourth tier.

• World featherweight title · 2002

  A punch in Houston, a slip in the seventh: Barrera evens it with Morales

  Between the fights Marco Antonio Barrera beat Naseem Hamed and punched Érik Morales at a press conference. In the Las Vegas rematch in June 2002, the referee ruled a seventh-round fall a slip, and Barrera won a unanimous decision.

• World heavyweight title · 2002

  Prison, the bite and Memphis: Tyson's long way down

  After Tokyo, Mike Tyson went to prison, came back to win two titles, was disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield's ears and spent years on the margins. In June 2002 in Memphis, Lennox Lewis beat him with his jab and knocked him out in the eighth.

• Champions League · 2002

  Zidane's volley, Ronaldo's title, and a sacking in a Bernabéu corridor

  Between 2001 and 2003 Florentino Pérez added Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo to Real Madrid. The club won a ninth European Cup in Glasgow and the league in 2003, and the day after the title the coach was told he was finished.

• World middleweight title · 2001

  How Bernard Hopkins took Trinidad apart

  Postponed by the attacks of 11 September, the final of boxing's middleweight tournament went ahead at Madison Square Garden 18 days later. Félix Trinidad was unbeaten. By the 12th round he was on the floor and his father was stepping into the ring.

• Champions League · 2001

  Leeds lose 4–0 in Barcelona, then go all the way to the Champions League semi-final

  In 2000–01 Leeds United signed Rio Ferdinand for a British record fee, beat Milan and Lazio, and reached the last four of the Champions League. Two of their players spent much of the season waiting for, and then sitting through, a criminal trial.

• Olympic Games · 2000

  Cameroon come back to win gold

  A week after beating Brazil with nine men, Cameroon were 2–0 down to Spain in the Olympic final at half-time. They levelled within 13 minutes of the restart and won on penalties.

• Olympic Games · 2000

  Nine men against Brazil

  Cameroon finished their Olympic quarter-final with two players sent off. They still beat Brazil, and the winning goal came from a 17-year-old.

• La Liga · 2000

  Florentino Pérez promised Real Madrid Luís Figo, and then he delivered him

  In July 2000 a construction boss won the Real Madrid presidency by promising to take Barcelona's best player. Eight days later Figo was presented at the Bernabéu, and the Galácticos had begun.

• UEFA Cup · 2000

  O'Leary's young Leeds reach a European semi-final, and two supporters are killed in Istanbul

  When George Graham left for Tottenham in 1998, his assistant took over and trusted a squad of young players. Eighteen months later Leeds United were in the UEFA Cup semi-final, and on the night before the first leg two of their supporters were stabbed to death in Istanbul.

• World super-bantamweight title · 2000

  Barrera had Morales on one knee, and Morales still got the decision

  In February 2000 two Mexican champions who could not stand each other unified the super-bantamweight titles in Las Vegas. Marco Antonio Barrera won the last round 10–8. Érik Morales won the split decision.

• Serie A · 1999

  Wembley, Manchester United and a sale to Roma: Batistuta's last Fiorentina years

  Between 1996 and 2000 Fiorentina silenced the Camp Nou, led Serie A at the halfway point and beat the European champions. Then they sold Gabriel Batistuta.

• Coppa Italia · 1999

  Wembley, Moscow, then the sales: the trophies Parma won and the team they sold

  Between 1992 and 1999 Parma won two Coppa Italias, the Cup Winners' Cup, the European Super Cup and two UEFA Cups. Then, one summer at a time, they sold the team that had won them.

• Serie A · 1998

  Batistuta, Lehmann and three goals at San Siro

  Fiorentina went to Milan with two wins from two. Gabriel Batistuta scored three, and Milan's goalkeeper had a hand in all of them.

• Serie A · 1996

  Second in January, relegated in June: Fiorentina's fall and rebuild

  In 1993 Fiorentina went from second in Serie A to Serie B in five months. Three years later, with Batistuta still there, they won the Coppa Italia.

• World featherweight title · 1995

  Naseem Hamed takes the title in the rain in Cardiff

  Steve Robinson had become world champion at two days' notice and made seven defences. In wet, windy weather at Cardiff Arms Park, a 21-year-old from Sheffield took it all away.

• World featherweight title · 1995

  Manuel Medina would not fight your fight

  He turned professional at 14 and was never known as a big puncher. In Sacramento, Manuel Medina outworked the WBC featherweight champion and took his title on a split decision.

• UEFA Cup · 1994

  Phil King's penalty and the night Villa knocked out the holders

  Aston Villa had lost to Inter in Europe four years earlier. Against the UEFA Cup holders at Villa Park, a £250,000 understudy settled it.

• World heavyweight title · 1994

  One right hand at Wembley Arena

  Lennox Lewis was unbeaten, a 5–1 favourite and heading for a fortune against Riddick Bowe. Oliver McCall needed less than two rounds to take all of it away.

• European Cup · 1992

  Leeds were out. Then someone counted Stuttgart's foreigners

  Leeds United won 4–1 at Elland Road and went out of the European Cup on away goals. A few days later they were back in, because of a substitute who had played for a few minutes.

• Serie A · 1990

  Parma's first win: the team before the trophies

  It took Parma 77 years to reach Serie A. In their second match there, they beat the champions of Italy and Diego Maradona.

• Serie B · 1990

  Parmalat's money arrives: how Calisto Tanzi built Parma

  Parma reached Serie A for the first time in May 1990, months after their president died. The dairy company on their shirts took over the club, and over eight years Calisto Tanzi's money brought Zola, Asprilla, Thuram, Crespo and Verón to the Tardini.

• Serie A · 1990

  How Fiorentina lost Roberto Baggio to Juventus

  In May 1990 Fiorentina sold their best player to Juventus, and Florence rioted. The following April Baggio came back in a Juventus shirt and would not take a penalty against them.

• World heavyweight title · 1990

  Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson in Tokyo, and survives the long count

  Twenty-three days after his mother died, a 42–1 outsider from Columbus beat the undisputed heavyweight champion at the Tokyo Dome. Then Don King tried to take the result away from him.

• Cup Winners' Cup · 1989

  Four goals, five for Celtic, and still out

  Dariusz Dziekanowski scored four times against Partizan Belgrade. Celtic led 5–3 with two minutes left. They went out.

• World heavyweight title · 1988

  Tyson unified the title and beat Spinks in 91 seconds as his old team fell apart

  Between March 1987 and June 1988 Mike Tyson won every heavyweight title there was. By the end of 1988 his co-manager was dead, his trainer was gone and Don King was running his career.

• World middleweight title · 1987

  Leonard came back for Hagler, won on a split decision, and Hagler never fought again

  Sugar Ray Leonard had boxed nine rounds in five years when he challenged Marvin Hagler at Caesars Palace in April 1987. He won the WBC middleweight title on a split decision that included a 118–110 card, and Hagler walked away from boxing for good.

• World heavyweight title · 1986

  Mike Tyson, Cus D'Amato and the youngest heavyweight champion in history

  A reform-school boy from Brooklyn was taken in by an old trainer in Catskill and told he would be the youngest heavyweight champion in history. D'Amato died in November 1985. In November 1986 Tyson stopped Trevor Berbick in two rounds.

• World welterweight title · 1986

  The ragamuffin who took everything from Donald Curry

  Donald Curry was the unbeaten, undisputed welterweight champion and a heavy favourite. Lloyd Honeyghan's manager put $5,000 on him to win at 7–1.

• World middleweight title · 1985

  Hagler beat Durán over 15 rounds and Hearns in three

  With Sugar Ray Leonard retired, the middleweight champion Marvin Hagler fought the other two kings between 1983 and 1985. Roberto Durán took him the full 15 rounds. Thomas Hearns lasted into the third.

• Serie A · 1984

  Maradona's Napoli did not happen overnight

  Eighty thousand people turned up to watch him be introduced. Two games into the season Napoli had one point, and Diego Maradona's first Serie A goal had come from the penalty spot.

• European Cup · 1984

  Fagan's Liverpool beat Roma in Rome on penalties

  Bob Paisley retired in 1983 and Joe Fagan, 62, stepped up from the Boot Room. A year later Liverpool played Roma in Roma's own stadium, and won the European Cup for the fourth time when Alan Kennedy scored the last penalty.

• La Liga · 1983

  The tackle that named the Butcher of Bilbao

  Barcelona were three goals up when Andoni Goikoetxea caught Diego Maradona from behind. The ankle healed. His time in Spain never really recovered.

• World heavyweight title · 1983

  Gerrie Coetzee spoils the homecoming

  Michael Dokes came into the ring throwing flowers and blowing kisses, near the city where he was born. Gerrie Coetzee, twice beaten in world title fights, knocked him out in the tenth and broke his own hand doing it.

• football · 1981

  Bill Shankly, 1913–1981

  He took over a Second Division club with a pitch that could not be watered and left it with three league titles, two FA Cups and a European trophy. Seven years after walking away, he died having never quite worked out how to live without it.

• World welterweight title · 1981

  Behind on all three cards, Leonard stopped Hearns in the 14th

  In September 1981 Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns met at Caesars Palace to unify the welterweight title. With his left eye closing and the fight slipping away, Leonard was told by his corner that he was blowing it, and finished Hearns inside two rounds.

• European Cup · 1981

  Alan Kennedy's goal in Paris gave Paisley a third European Cup

  After two first-round exits, Liverpool went to Munich in April 1981 with a makeshift side and came back through on away goals. In the final against Real Madrid, their left-back, back from a broken wrist, scored the only goal.

• World welterweight title · 1980

  Leonard lost a brawl to Durán, then Durán quit on him

  In June 1980 Sugar Ray Leonard chose to brawl with Roberto Durán in Montreal and lost his welterweight title. Five months later in New Orleans, with 16 seconds of the eighth round left, he turned his back and would not go on.

• World middleweight title · 1980

  Hagler wins the title and has to be smuggled out

  Marvin Hagler needed less than nine minutes to take Alan Minter's world middleweight title at Wembley. He was never allowed to celebrate it in the ring.

• European Cup · 1978

  The night Forest knocked out the European champions

  Liverpool had won the European Cup two years running. Nottingham Forest had just been promoted. The draw put them together in the first round, and Forest went to Anfield with a 2–0 lead.

• European Cup · 1978

  Dalglish replaced Keegan, then won Liverpool the European Cup at Wembley

  Liverpool paid Celtic a British record £440,000 for Kenny Dalglish in August 1977. The following May, against Club Brugge, he chipped the goal that made them the first British club to keep the European Cup.

• World heavyweight title · 1977

  Ali survives Shavers, then wins the 15th

  Earnie Shavers had more than fifty knockouts and hurt Muhammad Ali badly in the second round. Ali hid it, lasted, and finished with what one writer called as magnificent a round as he ever fought.

• European Cup · 1977

  Four days after Wembley, Liverpool won the European Cup in Rome

  In May 1977 Bob Paisley's champions lost the FA Cup final and the chance of a treble. On the Wednesday they beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1 at the Stadio Olimpico, and Kevin Keegan played his last game for the club.

• World heavyweight title · 1976

  Ali, Norton and the 15th round at Yankee Stadium

  Three judges gave it to Muhammad Ali by the narrowest margins. Seventeen of 21 sportswriters thought Ken Norton had won. The fight may have been decided in Norton's corner before the last round.

• World Cup qualifying · 1973

  Argentina's ghost team

  To win in La Paz, Argentina sent a second squad into the mountains for weeks, short of money and poorly housed. On 23 September 1973 they did what they had been sent to do.

• Intercontinental Cup · 1972

  Ajax finish what Avellaneda started

  Three weeks after a first leg their coach called war, Ajax beat Independiente 3–0 in Amsterdam to become world club champions for the first time.

• World light-heavyweight title · 1972

  Chris Finnegan's 14 rounds with Bob Foster

  Bob Foster had held the world light-heavyweight title for four years. For nine rounds at the Empire Pool, a former hod carrier from Britain looked like he might take his title.

• Cup Winners' Cup · 1971

  Chelsea 13, Jeunesse Hautcharage 0

  The cup holders against a village team of steelworkers, railwaymen, a hairdresser and a butcher. Over two legs the score was 21–0.

• World middleweight title · 1971

  Monzón makes his case at Luna Park

  Emile Griffith had been a world champion three times and had almost never been stopped. In Buenos Aires, in front of his own people, Carlos Monzón stopped him.