Latest news with #TheMiracle
USA Today
06-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Lerone Murphy wants Brian Ortega after 'masterful' UFC on ESPN 65 main event performance
LAS VEGAS – Lerone Murphy is ready for the next step toward a UFC featherweight championship opportunity and has former title challenger Brian Ortega in his sights. Murphy (16-0-1 MMA, 8-0-1 UFC) won his second UFC main event by winning a clear unanimous decision over Josh Emmett at the UFC Apex. According to one official judge, Emmett (19-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) only won one round, while the other judges found two rounds to score in his favor. Manchester's Murphy was happy with the performance and thought he clearly won four rounds in the fight behind a solid stick-and-move approach. 'That was the exact gameplan, what you saw there: pick him off at range, catch him on the way in,' Murphy told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. 'Obviously, I wanted the finish – finishes are just not coming at the minute, but masterful performance anyway. We're just chasing them finishes, chasing them wins, racking up them wins, and aiming for that title.' Still undefeated with eight UFC victories and two main events under to his credit, 'The Miracle' Murphy is forging a path toward a featherweight title shot. If he gets his wish, his next opponent will be Ortega (16-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC), who currrently sits at No. 6 in the promotion's 145-pound rankings. 'Just a fight I've been looking at for a while, and obviously, you see Diego Lopes go on to get a title shot after beating him, so I want to take a similar route,' Murphy said. 'I fought Dan Ige, same as Lopes too, so yeah man, give me one of them guys.' One of the big criticisms hovering around Murphy at the moment is that he hasn't finished an opponent since 2021 when he knocked out Makwan Amirkhani at UFC 267. Since, he's recorded five consecutive decisions, although to his credit, the level of competition has steadily increased. With Ortega, he feels that matchup will produce the stoppage fans want to see. 'I finish him,' Murphy said. 'That simple, I finish him. I get better with every fight, I get more expereience and I get more confident.' The vacant featherweight title will be up for grabs at the upcoming UFC 314 pay-per-view in Miami. The aforementioned Lopes gets his first opportunity to fight for gold when he takes on former champion Alexander Volkanovski. Murphy appears to know he has more work to do in order to get a shot at the winner, but is happy the result against Emmett puts him one step closer. For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie's event hub for UFC on ESPN 65.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brian May reveals one of Freddie Mercury's grand ideas that got vetoed by the rest of Queen
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Queen guitarist Brian May shares his memories of his late friend and bandmate Freddie Mercury in a new interview, and reveals that not every idea that the flamboyant frontman had was golden. "Deep down Freddie was one of the shyest people I've ever met," May tells Queen biographer Mark Blake in the current issue of MOJO magazine, "but he was so full of bluster, you'd forget. Freddie would always be excited, and his excitement would take over. He'd be so full of excitement he could hard speak. "Freddie's ideas were off the wall and cheeky and different — and we tended to encourage them. Sometimes the idea he brought in was brilliant, and sometimes not brilliant."As an example of one of those less-than-brilliant ideas, May recalls an alternate reality where Queen's 1989 album The Miracle could simply have been called Good, had Mercury got his way. 'He came in one day and announced, 'I've got this amazing idea. You know Michael Jackson has just put out this album called Bad? Well, listen… What do you think about us calling our next album Good?' "We all looked at each other and said, 'Well, maybe we should think about it, Freddie'," the guitarist recalls. "It wasn't one of his world-shattering ideas, but looking back, maybe we were wrong..." In the interview, May also confesses that, during Queen's career, he would be nervous about presenting his song ideas to his bandmates, who were all also songwriters in their own right. "Every time I brought a new song to the boys I'd be as nervous as hell, thinking, They're gonna say it's rubbish, they're gonna hate it...' he recalls. 'I'd always be embarrassed and apologising. That never ever went away.'Such nerves notwithstanding, May also reiterated that the idea of new Queen music isn't beyond the realms of possibility. "I think it could happen,' he tells Blake. "Both Roger [Taylor] and I are constantly writing and coming up with ideas and doing things in our studios. "I could have the beginnings of a Queen song right there in front of me now. It's just whether the idea reaches maturity or not. It's whether that seed can grow.'
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What We Still Don't Know About Gene Hackman's Death
American actor Gene Hackman in London, Sept. 7, 1973. Credit - Evening Standard—Getty Images It's been one week since Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the investigation is still ongoing as facts and questions continue to pour in. The Oscar-winning actor, 95, was reportedly found in a mudroom near his cane, while his wife, 65, was in an open bathroom near a space heater. The pair was discovered by a maintenance worker when he arrived to do routine work on the house. 'There were no apparent signs of foul play,' Sherif Adan Mendoza said in a press conference on Feb. 28, though Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office detectives wrote in a search warrant affidavit investigators thought the deaths were 'suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.' Read More: The Miracle of Gene Hackman Hackman's pacemaker showed that his last event was recorded on Feb. 17, indicating this is likely when the actor died, according to Mendoza. On Wednesday, it was revealed that authorities had initially misidentified the deceased dog that was found dead in Hackman's home, which was first reported by USA Today. The authorities had stated that a German Shepherd was found deceased—Hackman's dog Bear—but Bear has survived, along with a second dog named Nikita. The couples' kelpie mix, Zinna, is the dog that was reportedly found dead. This news brings to the forefront that despite a few certainties in the ongoing investigation, many facts about their deaths remain a mystery. Here's what we still do not know about Hackman and Arakawa's deaths. Autopsy findings showed that there was no 'external trauma' to either individual, Mendoza said in the press conference, but the manner of death has not been determined. Both individuals tested negative for carbon monoxide, Mendoza confirmed. On March 4, the Sheriff's office posted on their official Facebook page that though the New Mexico Gas Company had found five issues—including a 'miniscule leak' in Hackman's home— 'those results are not believed to be a factor in the deaths…though the information was relayed to the Office of the Medical Investigator for consideration.' Mendoza had said in a press conference with reporters on Friday that there were no 'obvious' or 'immediate' signs of foul play related to the deaths of Hackman and Arakawa. Yet, Mendoza said that officials are not ruling out foul play, and in the ongoing investigation, they are 'keeping everything on the table.' Found on the scene was an open prescription pill bottle, and pills strewn on the ground near Arakawa's body. The Sheriff's office has yet to release what prescription these pills were, who they were prescribed to, and whether the pills are related to the deaths. The pills, though, are 'important evidence,' Mendoza said in the press conference on Friday, though he is deferring to pathologists to determine whether they are related to their deaths. Mendoza said that two cell phones were found on the scene by authorities, and that the Sheriff's Office is working to analyze texts, phone calls, and photos to piece together what could have occurred. Since there is no surveillance or security video inside or outside the home, according to Mendoza, this evidence may help piece together a timeline. Contact us at letters@
