50 Cent's Broadway Boxing promotion is a knockout

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson has his sights set on moving into the sport of boxing as a promoter and on Wednesday night the rapper's SMS Promotions teamed up with DiBella Entertainment to stage the latest edition of New York City's longest boxing series — Broadway Boxing at midtown Manhattan's famed Roseland Ballroom. SMS is planning to partner with DiBella for future fight nights as well.

50 Cent and one of his fighters Emanuel DeJesus (6-0, 4 KOS)
who won a unanimous decision against Khalik Meminger

Wednesday's show boasted eight fight cards and the house was filled with guest boxers and celebrities.

In the featured bout, returning former world junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (31-2, 8 KOs) outpointed Jamaal Davis (14-10-1, 6 KOs) in an eight-round junior middleweight match-up. Foreman targeted a gaping cut over Davis' right eye to dominate the last few rounds and get the decision.

Foreman, the Belarus-born Israel native, held the WBA championship belt after losing the title in 2010 to Miguel Cotto, suffering a knee injury in the bout. After a two-year hiatus, Foreman is on the comeback trail after earlier success in his career showed promise.

Yuri Foreman continued his successful comeback

Davis, also 32, is a relative journeyman known for delivering tough challenges to more heralded fighters. According to an ESPN report, DiBella is bringing Foreman along slowly. Foreman has since relocated to Park Slope in Brooklyn, and is nearing completion of his studies to become a rabbi.

In the co-feature, non-stop puncher and super bantamweight Heather Hardy (6-0, KO) battered Seattle's Cassie Trost (1-2-1) to a stoppage victory. Trost was a bloody mess early in the fight as Hardy was relentless in her attack, ultimately putting Trost to a knee in the fourth round. The referee stopped it shortly after at 1:34 of the round, getting the popular Hardy her first knockout win.

Hardy (L) looked unbeatable

Up and coming Brooklyn light heavyweight Travis Peterkin (8-0, 4 KOs) carried overmatched middleweight Hector Hernandez, of Yuma, Ariz., the whole six-round distance with a unanimous decision.

The southpaw Peterkin could have gotten his opponent out of there in the early rounds, but the younger and stronger Peterkin seemed content to mix it up. Peterkin landed a straight left often, missing chances to follow it up as much as he could have, but he was still mighty impressive.

Undefeated Peterkin (R) continues to impress

From the quality of the bouts and and the cheers from the crowd, it looks like Fiddy is going to like the NYC fight game.

Photos by Tony Mangia

A-Rod gets second opinion; MRI doesn't show quad strain

Alex Rodriguez thinks he’s healthy enough to play, as does a doctor who examined his MRI exam results, but the Yankees star still travelled to Tampa to rehab his quad injury Wednesday, while the team is set to continue their series in Texas.

The doctor who gave a second opinion on A-Rod’s Grade 1 quad strain Wednesday said that he appears to be healthy and there is no strain.

"He asked me to look at and I spent about 20 minutes going over it, particularly on the quadriceps muscle and to be perfectly honest I don’t see any type of injury there," Dr. Michael Gross chief of orthopedics at Hackensack Medical Center said in an interview on WFAN.

The Yankees third baseman, believing that the team is misrepresenting his quadriceps injury simply to collect insurance money, had the second opinion on his injury to confirm he is healthy.

"To be perfectly honest,'' Gross told WFAN host Mike Francesa, "I don't see any sort of injury there.''

Dr. Gross said that a strain of that level is sometimes difficult to decipher on an MRI, but he did talk to Rodriguez over the phone.

"I asked him if anything hurt and he said to me, 'No.' If there’s no pain to me then there’s no injury," Dr. Gross said.

"I asked him, do you think you're fit to play. And he said, '100-percent'"

Rodriguez, who's earning $28 million this season, was scheduled to be activated Monday for the first time this season after undergoing January hip surgery. Yet, the Yankees ordered him to undergo an MRI in New York where he was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strained quadriceps, keeping him sidelined at least another week to 10 days.

The Yankees have not determined whether they will attempt to send Rodriguez on another rehab assignment, but he is adamantly opposed to go on another 20-day assignment, according to a person close to Rodriguez but unauthorized to speak publicly.

Rodriguez's medical status has been an ongoing point of contention. When Rodriguez tweeted news he was cleared to begin a July rehab assignment, it elicited a profane response from general manager Brian Cashman. Club president Randy Levine has vehemently denied insinuations the club prefer he be declared physically unfit to play.

"We do want him back," Levine told USA TODAY Sports two days before Rodriguez's quad injury emerged. "We just want to make sure he's ready to come back. If he's healthy, he's coming back."

And the plot thickens.

Ronaldo's wayward free-kick breaks 11-year-old's wrist in friendly

Cristiano Ronaldo has gone from breaking grown women's hearts to well ... cracking little kid's bones.

The soccer star left a young fan with a broken wrist, after smashing an 35-yard free-kick wide of the goal during Real Madrid’s friendly with the Championship club, inadvertently hitting an 11-year-old with the ball.

Charlie Silverwood was watching the friendly at Dean Court when the Portugal captain rocketed his kick into the stands and accidentally hit the young spectator.

Charlie’s dad managed to duck out of the way, but the boy was struck flush on the arm by the ball, leaving his wrist broken in two places.

Despite his injury, tough little Charlie stayed behind to watch the remaining 84 minutes before heading to hospital — where he learned the extent of the damage left by the wild kick. 

Charlie was X-rayed and required an operation before his arm was placed in a cast that will stay on for six weeks.

"It was very painful," Charlie said with a bit of pride. "I’ve told friends and they cannot believe it. Ronaldo is the world’s most expensive player – and he broke my arm."

After Real routed their hosts, 6-0, the Bournemouth team gave the young fan a signed Real Madrid shirt and ball.  

Bend It Like Beckham. Break it like Ronaldo?

Amazing, back-flip, basketball trick shot in pool goes viral

Justin Kamp made this amazing, back-flip trick shot off of a pool diving board before admitting he "should be doing his summer school homework" instead.

Kamp's video of his remarkable shot in his family's backyard pool has gone viral and opened up the conspiracy debate on whether or not it was doctored with a little slick editing.

Either way, life looks pretty good for Kamp and his buds.

Gardner's diving catch looms even larger after Yankees rally against Rangers

Brett Gardner's outstanding diving catch to end the eighth inning and rob Elvis Andrus of a sure double looks a lot better to Yankees fans after their team came back from a 4-3 deficit in the top of the ninth to beat the Rangers, 5-4.

Comebacks have been rare for the weak-hitting Yankees this season—especially with the bottom of the order coming up and down one — so any runs the Rangers could have tacked on to their lead would have greatly diminished just about any chance of a come-from-behind win Tuesday night.

After Gardner's catch kept the Yankees' hopes alive, Brent Lillibridge — recently called up to the Yanks to play a position A-Rod was slated to handle by now — atoned for a costly error earlier at third by driving home Eduardo Nunez for the winning run in front of 42,000 stunned fans at Rangers Ballpark.

Afterwards, Gardner would call it "the biggest win of the year."

Call him Figuel Cabrera from now on

Miguel Cabrera rested his sore left hip flexor Tuesday night against the White Sox. So how did last year's Triple Crown winner and AL MVP pass the time in the dugout during his down time — by trying to feed Fig Newtons to his Tigers teammates.

Brayan Pena looks amused, but not too enthused, about getting one of of the cookies shoved down his throat so Miggy Figgy ate it himself.

Pena looks like an Oreos type of guy anyway.

Eric LeGrand doesn't believe that Jadeveon Clowney's hit is 'illegal'

After word spread Monday that Jadeveon Clowney's tackle versus Michigan last season would have been ruled illegal under the new college football rules in place for 2013, and Clowney would probably have been ejected from the game, one man who knows about hard hits came to the defense of the South Carolina star's helmet-popping play.

Eric LeGrand, the former Rutgers football player who is still paralyzed after breaking his neck during a game in 2010, believes that Clowney’s hit was perfectly legal. If anyone could be a spokesperson for more football safety rules, it's LeGrand. So if he is arguing that Clowney’s hit should be considered fair play, then maybe the ACC's Coordinator of Officials Doug Rhoads should see his point of view.

The courageous LeGrand tweeted his brutally honest thoughts on the new rules Tuesday.

There's no way #clowneyhit is illegal. Take it from a guy who broke his neck
— Eric LeGrand (@EricLeGrand52) July 23, 2013