Tim Bradley survives weird finish, beats Vargas for WBO belt

CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Timothy Bradley got rocked in the final minute and survived a confusing finish to beat Jessie Vargas by unanimous decision Saturday night, claiming the interim WBO welterweight title.

Bradley (32-1-1) controlled most of his bout against the previously unbeaten Vargas, but the former two-division champion was hurt by a hard right that nearly knocked him down. The fight went on as Bradley recovered somewhat, but referee Pat Russell apparently stopped the fight 10 seconds early, thinking the 10-second warning was the bell to end the bout.

Bradley won 117-111, 116-112 and 115-112 on the scorecards, bouncing back from a winless 2014 — but not before a wild scare at the end.

Russell appeared to be deciding that the bout was over by stoppage when he stepped in, and Vargas' corner went into a wild celebration. Carl Moretti, the vice president of Bradley promoter Top Rank, went up to Russell immediately to find out what happened, and Russell said he thought the 10-second warning was the bell to end the fight.

The veteran referee was booed by the StubHub Center fans. Bradley acknowledged he was hurt by the overhand right, but said he would have survived the final 10 seconds.

The bout was Bradley's first fight at the famed outdoor ring south of Los Angeles since his 2013 brawl with Ruslan Provodnikov in which he overcame a concussion from the first round and survived a knockdown in the closing seconds to win a unanimous decision.

"I don't have to defend anything," Bradley said. "He landed a great shot, he hurt me, but I would have finished. Come on, I survived Provodnikov."

Vargas (26-1) said he could have won the fight if he had those 10 seconds. During Bradley's in-ring interview, Vargas demanded a rematch.

Vargas, the WBA light welterweight champion, knew he was stepping up in weight and class against Bradley, one of the world's top pound-for-pound fighters with victories over Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. But Vargas struggled against Bradley's furious pace at the start, constantly attacking with multiple combinations and making him pay with counters.

Vargas tried to keep up but was sorely behind in landing punches. At the end of the first and fourth, Bradley staggered Vargas. By the fifth, Bradley drew blood from Vargas' nose.

The fight was for the WBO belt that Floyd Mayweather said he would vacate after beating Pacquiao in May. But Mayweather has balked at relinquishing the belt, and the WBO has demanded Mayweather declare his intentions by July 3.

If he relinquishes, then Bradley would go from interim champion to world champion.

It was the fifth time Bradley has won a championship belt. He won the WBO welterweight title twice, the WBC light welterweight belt twice and the WBO 140-pound belt once.

Bradley and his wife, Monica, who also is his manager, recently had their fifth child, and Bradley said he wants each kid to have his or her own championship belt in their Christmas photo.

AYAM ORANG KAYA

HANOI – Jika sekilas pandang, anda mungkin menyangka sekumpulan ayam di Vietnam mungkin berpenyakit gara-gara mempunyai sepasang kaki yang besar dan mengerikan berban­ding ayam biasa.

   Namun sebenarnya, ayam ber­kenaan merupakan baka unik dan jarang ditemui, dikenali sebagai ayam Dong Tao yang sangat popular dalam kalangan masyarakat Vietnam teruta­manya bagi golongan kaya dan mewah.

   Menurut laporan portal Od­dity Central, seekor ayam Dong Tao dewasa boleh mencapai berat antara tiga dan enam kilogram, manakala bahagian kakinya boleh menyamai besar pergelangan ta­ngan manusia dewasa.

   Ayam betina kebiasaannya ber­warna putih, manakala ayam jantan baka tersebut mempunyai bulu yang berwarna-warni. Daging ayam Dong Tao dikatakan le­bih sedap berbanding ayam biasa, menyebabkan permintaan yang tinggi daripada orang ramai.

   Menurut Oddity Central, sekilo daging ayam Dong Tao boleh mencecah harga antara 350,000 dong (RM59) dan 400,000 dong (RM68) bergantung pada bahagian ayam tersebut, manakala baka ayam berkenaan dijual pada harga enam juta dong (RM1,027) seekor.

   Malah harga ayam Dong Tao meningkat berkali ganda semasa musim perayaan Tet, sambutan Tahun Baharu Vietnam ekoran permintaan yang tinggi.

   Berdasarkan rekod, pada 2013, seorang petani dari bandar Ho Chi Minh pernah menolak tawaran yang kurang daripada 50 juta dong (RM8,561) bagi sepasang ayam Dong Tao yang di­belanya.

HUNGRY PYTHON EATS PORCUPINE WHOLE

EVER wonder what might happen if a python ate a porcupine? Well, wonder no more. One of these giant snakes — which kill prey by suffocating it and then consuming it whole — recently dined on a porcupine and didn't live to brag about it.

On June 14, a cyclist riding along one of the mountain bike trails at the Lake Eland Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, spotted a very engorged snake. The cyclist snapped a few photos of the gluttonous python and posted them to social media, where they quickly attracted the attention of locals who wanted to see the python themselves. Lots of people came to the park in the following days just to view the swollen snake, according to Jennifer Fuller, general manager at the game reserve.

At the time the photos were taken, no one knew what the snake had eaten, just that it must have been something fairly large. On the Lake Eland Game Reserve Facebook page, park staff and visitors speculated as to what the snake may have swallowed for dinner, suggesting everything from a small warthog to a baby impala to an errant child (that last one was posted as a joke). [See Images of the Engorged Python Dining on Porcupine]

But on Saturday, June 20, park rangers found the python dead near the bike trail. They decided to cut it open and have a look inside. What they found was one heck of a snack: a 30-lb. (13.8 kilograms) porcupine.

It isn't unusual for pythons to eat porcupines, Fuller told Live Science in an email. In fact, many species of snakes eat porcupines and other horned or quilled animals, according to a study published in 2003 in the Phyllomedusa Journal of Herpetology. And while a 30-lb. meal might sound like too much to digest, it isn't if you're a python.

As Fuller noted, pythons in the Lake Eland Game Reserve have been spotted consuming even larger prey, including adult oribi antelope, which can weigh nearly 50 lbs. (22.7 kg). Pythons possess the incredible ability to alter their metabolism, as well as the size of their organs, after a meal. This allows the a python to digest prey that is much larger than the snake is, according to a study published in 2013 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It still isn't clear if this python's spiky meal was actually responsible for the predator's death. Rangers found the snake underneath a rocky ledge, where it had apparently fallen. On impact, the quills inside its engorged belly may have pierced the python's digestive tract, which could have killed the animal, Fuller said.

In the 2003 study, entitled "Prickly food: snakes preying upon porcupines," researchers found that when a snake eats a porcupine, the animal's quills are left undigested and are easily detectable in the snake's gut. Sometimes, the quills will even pierce all the way through the snake's body, according to the study. But there's no word yet on whether this particular snake died because it was pierced by quills or because it fell off a ledge (or because it was pierced by quills as a result of falling off the ledge), Fuller told the Australian news website News.com.

Rangers at the reserve stripped off the python's skin after removing the porcupine from the predator's digestive track. They also took measurements of the snake's massive body, which was 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) long. Special attention was paid to the animal's head, which features a highly flexible jaw that allows the animal to open its mouth wide to swallow prey whole.

Despite popular belief, a python's jaw does not actually dislocate when the snake is eating. The two lower jaws move independently of one another, and the quadrate bone at the back of the head attaches the jaw loosely to the skull, allowing the jaw to move around freely.

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