Anthony Cacace vs Ryan Garner - could twice cancelled fight be on the cards later this year?
A late bloomer and now 36, a shock technical knockout win over Joe Cordina to secure the IBF world super featherweight title last year has catapulted Cacace into the big time of British and Irish boxing.
Prior to his world title shot, Cacace had been set to face fellow super featherweight Ryan Garner until that proposed bout fell through twice.
With both men set to fight in the coming months, perhaps the duo will finally meet inside the ring.
Cacace vs Garner cancellations have worked out for both parties
In April 2022, Ryan Garner accepted the chance to step in on short notice to fight Anthony Cacace, only for the bout to fall through. A further meeting was scheduled for November 2023 but fell apart after Cacace injured his wrist.
That proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Belfast fighter, who would be offered the chance to take on Joe Cordina for the IBF super featherweight world title the following year.
Garner has since admitted that perhaps an earlier fight with Cacace would have proven to be a fool's errand. In fact, the man nicknamed the Piranha believed it was a bullet dodged.
He told Queensbury Promotions' media: "I was the one that wanted that fight with Cacace, but now that I look back on it, it could have been too soon. Well, it would have been too soon, because I'm a different fighter now. So, I'm glad it never happened. Me being a fighter, I want the biggest fights, I want the biggest paydays, I want the chances. But now that I'm a bit older, more mature, I think that was too soon.
With the benefit of time, Garner now feels differently.
"At the time,' he says, 'I was like, 'I'm ready for this'. But now I look back and I've seen myself in the gym, and how physically much stronger I am now, a different head on my shoulders. That Ryan Garner isn't the Ryan Garner that is here today."
Having avoided a potential loss in the form of Cacace, Garner has maintained his unbeaten record – with the Piranha now 17-0.
Cacace is at a stage in his career where he wants the biggest fights possible, having eschewed defences of his IBF world super featherweight title in order to face Josh Warrington and Leigh Wood.
In comparison, Garner is on the precipice of breaking into the world title picture, and whilst he may not carry the name power of Cacace's recent opponents, he can sell out an arena.
The Piranha headlined a show at the Bournemouth International Centre in March, with thousands of his fans travelling from neighbouring Southampton to support their man. Garner's promoter Frank Warren has hinted that his fighter will return to Bournemouth in the summer in a possible defence of his recently acquired EBU super featherweight belt.
According to the EBU, Garner is in private negotiations with James Dickens over a potential bout. A successful defence of his EBU crown would further increase Garner's stock and leave enough time in the final months of 2025 to arrange a fight with Cacace.
Garner has long spoken about fighting at the home of his beloved Southampton FC, St. Mary's, and a fight with Cacace would draw a huge crowd to the Premier League stadium. Cacace has also shown that he is willing to enter hostile territory to fight, as evidenced by this weekend's bout in Wood's backyard of Nottingham.
Sign up to a DAZN subscription to watch the very best boxing
DAZN is the home of combat sports, broadcasting over 185 fights a year from the world's best promoters, including Matchroom, Queensberry, Golden Boy, Misfits, PFL, BKFC, GLORY and more.
An Annual Saver subscription is a one-off cost of £119.99 / $224.99 (for 12 months access), that's just 64p / $1.21 per fight. There is also a Monthly Flex Pass option (cancel any time) at £24.99 / $29.99 per month.
It is not just about fight night, a DAZN membership also includes access to documentaries and features, weekly magazine shows, live fight watchalongs, press conferences, weight-ins, open workouts, exclusive interviews and access to training camps, and podcasts and vodcasts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
23 minutes ago
- Times
HMRC made a mistake — but won't give us our £15k back
My mother died last year and I have been settling her estate with help from my brother-in-law. It was relatively simple: she had some investments and a mortgage-free house. But it has been time-consuming. Filling in all the paperwork took us an entire day, and we are professionals (he is an accountant and I am a retired judge). Even then we had problems because HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) gave us different information about what tax we should pay. After probate was granted in October, we spoke to two estate agents who estimated that the house was worth £550,000. We told HMRC this was the probate value and we also put it up for sale at that price. Several months later we ended up selling the house for £627,000. We sent a form to HMRC to correct the probate value to the sold price. We then calculated the inheritance tax (IHT) due as roughly £27,800 and immediately paid HMRC to avoid any interest charges. But then HMRC wrote to us to say that we should pay capital gains tax (CGT) instead. We were convinced that this advice was wrong, so we each called HMRC separately, but were both told that we should pay CGT. HMRC then sent a CGT calculation saying we owed £14,965, which we paid. We then asked HMRC to return the IHT payment. Twice we were told that the refund was in progress but that was weeks ago and we still don't have it. After chasing HMRC for a third time we were told that we should have paid IHT after all. It said an IHT calculation would be sent, but we are still waiting for that. We are so confused. We just want to pay the correct tax and get a refund on the other and address supplied I was so sorry to hear how painstaking the probate process had been for your family. It sounded emotionally and practically difficult enough without HMRC adding to your burden by giving you conflicting information. An estate is exempt from IHT on the first £325,000, which increases to £500,000 if the person who has died passes on their main home to children or grandchildren. Married couples and civil partners can leave assets to each other free of tax, and also inherit each other's tax-free allowances. Your father died in March 1990 when the IHT allowance was £118,000. But he had left this amount to you and your sisters on his death, which meant that his tax-free allowance had already been used up and could not be inherited by your mother. The good news is that even though he died before the residence allowance was introduced in 2017, your family could claim this extra £175,000 allowance from his estate because his wife had died after this date (yet another example of how complex the rules are). This meant that up to £675,000 of your mother's estate was free of tax. When her house was sold for £627,000 and combined with other taxable assets in her estate of nearly £117,000, she was put over the tax-free threshold by more than £69,000. IHT is charged at a rate of up to 40 per cent, leaving £27,800 to pay. If a property is sold for a lot more than the estimated value when you inherited it, HMRC might ask questions and expect you to pay extra tax. I spoke to Stefanie Tremain from the accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg who said that HMRC will usually get the district valuer, which is a government service, to review property valuations in an IHT return. • Will my partner pay tax on the property he inherits from me? Tremain said: 'If the value in the IHT return is accepted, a future sale value should not be queried or cause HMRC to revise the probate value.' But you had applied for a correction, essentially changing the estimated valuation to the price that the property was actually sold for. This meant that technically there had been no increase in the value of the property since you inherited it because you had corrected the value that should be used for the IHT calculation. CGT is charged if you make a profit when you sell a property that isn't your main home. When you inherit a property there is no CGT to pay. It is only when you sell the property at a later date, and it has increased in value since you inherited it, that CGT would be owed. When you changed the value of the property, HMRC was under the impression that the property had increased in value by £77,000 between you inheriting and selling it. After the tax-free allowance of £3,000 and other exemptions, such as estate agent and solicitor fees to sell the property, were deducted, CGT was charged at a rate of 24 per cent on the rest of the gain. Tremain said: 'If you have corrected the IHT return to increase the probate value of the house then you have increased the estate's IHT liability. But as a result you have effectively wiped out the CGT liability.' So in other words, CGT didn't apply to you. It sounds as though there was some confusion during those conversations with HMRC that caused it to believe that you needed to pay CGT rather than IHT, which wasn't right. The fact that even HMRC manages to get things like this wrong tells you everything you need to know about how complicated our tax system is. After my involvement HMRC spoke to you to apologise for giving you incorrect advice and has finally refunded the CGT payment of £14,965, plus £63 interest. It also finally sent an IHT calculation showing that you had actually overpaid by £52, which has also been refunded. HMRC said: 'We have apologised and confirmed that CGT was not due.' You said: 'We never thought the problem was a particularly difficult one, but we were getting nowhere and would no doubt still be in limbo without your help.' • How to gift property — your questions answered In March last year my husband and I went on the holiday of a lifetime to Chile. We booked several internal flights through All was going well until we tried to check in for our flight from Patagonia to Santiago. It looked like our flight didn't exist. After logging into the airline's website, we discovered that the flight had been rescheduled and we had been reallocated to a flight for the previous day, so we had unknowingly missed it. There was no way we could have caught that flight as we had been hiking in a remote location. told me that it had sent me an email about the change but I have searched my inbox, including my junk folder, and I can't find any evidence that it contacted me about this. We were incredibly stressed when we found out. We were in a remote part of Chile where transport options are limited, so we felt pretty stranded. also wasn't particularly helpful in finding us alternative arrangements, so we requested a refund of £377.91 for the flight we missed. We managed to book a flight for the next day with a different airline for £583.80. Given that failed to tell us about the flight change, we think it should reimburse us for our more expensive replacement flight. But a year on, we now have a six-week-old baby but still no refund. We have contacted many times over the past year but are repeatedly told that it won't refund us until they receive it from the airline. While we have been told the matter has been escalated, we have seen no evidence of address supplied A year is a long time and much can happen, so much so that you had welcomed a new family member, and yet there was no sign of your refund. has a partnership with the travel agent Gotogate which arranges flights. When I spoke to Gotogate's parent company, Etraveli Group, it claimed it had emailed you on February 20 last year to tell you that your flight was leaving a day earlier than planned. I couldn't get to the bottom of why you didn't get that message. Etraveli Group said: 'While we acknowledge the customer's claim that she did not see this message, and understand the stress and consequences this situation caused, the communication was sent and delivered correctly from our end.' • Cancelled flight fiasco on has cost me £3,600 While it did request a refund from the airline, usually when a customer misses a flight the ticket is seen as 'used'. I suspected this was why a refund from the airline wasn't forthcoming. But thankfully after I explained the situation to the airline, it sent a refund of £346.99 to which it then passed on to you. It was odd that you were missing the remaining £30.92 which you had paid for checked-in bags, and it was only after I chased all three companies that you got this payment. said: 'We can see that the airline made a schedule change which is not uncommon in the aviation industry. Our partner, Etraveli Group, informed the customer of the change and provided options to accept the new flight or request a full refund.' As a gesture of goodwill, has given you £189 travel credit to make up for the extra cost of the replacement flight. While this left a shortfall of nearly £17, you were satisfied with this. • £1,495,607 — the amount Your Money Matters has saved readers so far this year If you have a money problem you would like Katherine Denham to investigate, email yourmoneymatters@ Please include a phone number
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Inside Daniel Farke's giant survival plan: Why Leeds made physicality and set-pieces the focus of their summer - and the one key position they still want to strengthen, writes AADAM PATEL
The running joke at Leeds United this summer is that if you aren't around 26 years old and tall, then the chances are the club aren't interested. And in reality, that is very much the plan, with all seven signings at Elland Road so far at least 5ft 11in and around their prime. When the recruitment team at Leeds set out their strategy for the transfer window and their bid to stay up, physicality and set-pieces were keywords. As one Leeds source told Mail Sport: 'Physicality was something we lacked last season and something we identified as one of the major things we needed to improve if we want to compete in the Premier League. It's no secret either that we had to get better at set-pieces.' Of the 1,115 goals in the Premier League last season, 229 (20.5 per cent) came from set-pieces, excluding penalties. In 2023-24, the figure was 19.8 per cent. 'It's not a coincidence,' said boss Daniel Farke when asked about the signings after Saturday's 1-1 draw against Villarreal. 'If you join the Premier League with one of the smallest groups, there's more pressure. You have to make sure you're good at defending corners and set-pieces. We are more likely to need to score goals from set-pieces because I'm not sure if we can dominate games the way we did in the Championship.' Staying in the Premier League has never been more difficult for newly promoted teams. In the last two seasons, all of the promoted clubs have been immediately relegated, something that had only happened once before, in 1997-98. Leeds' analysis identified the clear difference between intensity levels in the Premier League and the Championship and pinpointed physicality across all positions as something they had to focus on for their return to the top flight. First through the door was 6ft 4in Slovenian central defender Jaka Bijol from Udinese for £15million. The 26-year-old led the rankings at Euro 2024 for clearances (38) and was second behind Virgil van Dijk for headed clearances (21) despite playing in only four games at the tournament. Bijol continued to post impressive defensive numbers in Serie A last season, ranking joint-fourth for aerial duels won (110), fifth for headed clearances (103) and fourth for overall clearances (182). That said, his style does see him on the receiving end of the referee's ire — only two players picked up more yellow cards last season than he did (11), and he was the second most booked defender in Serie A over the last three seasons with 25 yellows. Bijol will be suspended for Leeds' first game against Everton, due to the red card he got playing for Udinese in his last Serie A game in May. Sebastiaan Bornauw is another giant at centre half and fits the bill at 6ft 3in. The 26-year-old signed for £5.1m from Wolfsburg and, with 11 goals in 140 Bundesliga games, will certainly be an asset going up. 'I think as a centre back, I am dangerous in front of goal. I like set-pieces, offensive set-pieces,' the Belgian said when he signed. The 24-year-old led the rankings at Euro 2024 for clearances and was second behind Virgil van Dijk in headed clearances Lukas Nmecha also joined from Wolfsburg and at 6ft 1in will be a handful. There were early signs of his strong hold-up play when he started against Manchester United in Stockholm and he scored in both of Leeds' friendlies in Germany, albeit against weak opposition. Nmecha has struggled with injury, playing only 22 league games in the last two seasons and starting only three, so he was let go for free. The 26-year-old averaged four shots per 90 minutes and had the best expected goals ratio per 90 minutes (0.90) of any player to feature in at least 400 Bundesliga minutes in 2024-25. These are small sample sizes, but Leeds see potential in a player who also has some Premier League experience — he played two games for Manchester City late in their 2017-18 title-winning season. A direct replacement for Junior Firpo will be Swedish left back Gabriel Gudmundsson, who played nine Champions League matches for Lille last season and joined in a deal worth £10m. He scored four goals and got three assists in 137 games for Lille in all competitions and the 26-year-old will be key in moving Leeds upfield, with only two Ligue 1 left backs carrying the ball a further distance (4,032 metres) last season, while none of those had more shots following a ball carry than he did (nine). At 5ft 11in, he is tall for his position and crucially, his injury record is good but Leeds have a hole to fill, with Firpo providing four goals and 10 assists last season. If Gudmundsson can improve his end product, then Leeds may have a gem on their hands. The arrival of Sean Longstaff for £12m from Newcastle offers Leeds something they severely lacked in their last season in the top flight — bundles of Premier League experience. The 27-year-old has played 171 times in the Premier League. Sean Longstaff provides his new side with Premier League experience after making the switch from Newcastle United Longstaff's hard-working style is also bound to endear him to a fanbase who appreciate industrious players willing to give their all — he has covered the most distance per 90 minutes of any Premier League player to play at least 2,500 minutes over the last two seasons (12.3km). Also joining is Anton Stach, the 6ft 4in twice-capped German midfielder who signed from Hoffenheim for £17m. Stach led all Bundesliga players across the past two seasons for interceptions (120), and he ranked third for possession won (393) and fourth for each of tackles (142) and duels won (381). His versatility — similar to that of captain Ethan Ampadu, who is adept in central defence and defensive midfield — could also prove handy. Last season, the 26-year-old filled in at centre back in 33 per cent of his Bundesliga minutes, with the rest coming in midfield. Dealing with set-pieces was also a key factor in signing Brazilian goalkeeper Lucas Perri from Lyon for £15.6m but above all, Leeds wanted a good shot-stopper with a commanding presence. In Ligue 1 last season, according to Opta's xGoT (Expected Goals on Target) goalkeeping model, Perri prevented six goals and posted a save percentage of 72.5 per cent. His numbers were even more impressive in the 2023 Brazilian top flight, registering a 78.4 per cent save ratio — the best of any goalkeeper with 10 or more games — and preventing an incredible 12 goals according to his xGoT. Perri is 27 and like the other arrivals brings important top-level experience. 'They are all really good footballers,' said Farke. 'We don't want to play basketball with them. They fit with what we want to do and they add a special physicality. Speaking about age, this is what I wanted because sometimes you underestimate how important experience at this level is. 'Often, you could go with a 30-plus player who has played many games but is on the way down. I didn't want to do that. We are ambitious and want to be back for good. The pressure is on us and they have to live it straight away. 'For that, I wanted experience of Premier League level, of Bundesliga level, Serie A level and so on. It's important to have players with good age, good experience but not the finished products. 'We didn't want to have projects. We didn't want players just happy to get another contract. We want players who are ambitious. The general theme is quality and players on the way up the hill in their career.' Leeds are still in the market for a first-choice striker, a left winger and are open to back-up options in other positions. As Farke says, central defence and central midfield are sorted and they will go into their Premier League opener against Everton under the lights at Elland Road, ready for battle.
BBC News
25 minutes ago
- BBC News
Harry Hill says his stepfather's death made him switch careers from medicine to comedy
Comedian Harry Hill has said his stepfather's death at a young age was what inspired him to quit his job in medicine and pursue a career in 60-year-old, best known for shows such as Harry Hill's TV Burp and You've Been Framed, studied at St George's Medical School and worked as a doctor before pivoting to comedy in the early told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs: "It had been a long time coming, and then my stepfather died of cancer."And I thought, here's a man who's worked all his life. And they [my stepfather and mother] had always talked about what they were going to do in retirement. And how old was he? Maybe 54. And I thought, I don't want that to be me." "The other part of it," Hill laughed, "is I think if I'd said to him, 'I'm giving up to be a comedian', he would have been quite disapproving."So it probably kind of set me free a little bit from that. But really, I was kind of at the end of my tether with [medicine]."Hill qualified as a doctor in 1988, and began his medical career working in orthopaedics. But, he explained, he was not passionate about the job and felt he did not have the right temperament."I think it's difficult even if your heart's in it," he told presenter Lauren Laverne. "In the first six months, I had to break the news to this bloke whose wife had died in this operation, unexpectedly, and they had young children, and I was completely out of my depth. "I told him, he started crying, and then I started crying, and I thought, this isn't good. I mean, I certainly wasn't a very emotional [person]. Actually what it makes you do is bottle up your emotions."Asked how long he continued bottling his emotions for, Hill replied: "Until I had kids, I think. There's something about having kids that uncorks you."I wasn't a bad doctor," he reflected. "If I'd stuck at it, I probably would have ended up as a GP." After having doubts about his suitability, Hill had a discussion with his consultant about his career, before telling his mother he was going to have a year off to try leaving his job, Hill said: "I remember getting in the car, and this sounds impossible, driving out of the hospital car park, I turned on the radio, and the tune that came on was Eric Burdon and the Animals, with We Gotta Get Out of This Place."I remember driving away, weight lifted, and I thought, wow, this is really exciting, and it was, and terrifying in equal measure." Hill explained his stepfather, Tony, had met his mother in an amateur dramatics group, and often wrote pantomimes and starred in them as the dame. "He inherited four kids when he married my mum," Hill explained. "And I didn't think it at the time, but that's quite a guy to take that on."At the time, Hill said, it was unusual among his friends that his parents had divorced. "People didn't do it," he recalled. "Everyone's parents are divorced now, but back then, people just stuck it out." 'Stress' of writing TV Burp Hill has presented a variety of TV programmes since leaving medicine, including Harry Hill's Tea Time, Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule, Harry Hill's World of TV and a revival of Stars in Their 2019, he has hosted the Great British Bake Off children's spin-off, Junior Bake Off, on Channel his best known programme was Harry Hill's TV Burp, a satirical review of the previous week's television. It ran on ITV for 11 series, airing its final episode in 2012. Hill has previously indicated he would not revive TV Burp because of the intensive workload, a position he reiterated to Laverne. "I made a lot of TV shows, and most of them have been a lot less successful than TV Burp, but I don't look back at those years particularly fondly because of that stress," he said."I would start the week with no show, knowing that on Saturday morning I'd have to sit down and write a show. We'd work one week in advance, off preview tapes, so I'd sit down with a blank page on a Saturday, and at the end of that day I'd have to email it to the producer."While the episode was being pulled together, Hill said he and his team "would watch TV all day long, there were no shortcuts, you did actually have to watch the full two-and-a-half hours of Emmerdale"."The best day was the recording day," he said, "but if you ask my wife, every time I came back from a recording, I'd go upstairs, she'd be in bed, and I'd say 'I've got to get out of this'. It was bad. "But then I'd watch it on the Saturday and think it was great, I did really enjoy watching it."Hill also co-wrote 2021's Tony! (A Tony Blair Rock Opera), and the X Factor musical I Can't Sing, which closed in 2014 after six weeks at the London Palladium. Reflecting on its failure, Hill said: "It became clear to me, that people who like the X Factor don't really go to musicals, and people who go to musicals don't really like the X Factor. It was just a really bad idea."But he added: "You can't be heartbroken, you'd be a complete baby if you got upset about a professional failure."Desert Island Discs is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 10:00 BST on Sunday, and is then available on BBC Sounds. BBC News used AI to help write the summary at the top of this article. It was edited by BBC journalists. Find out more.
