Weekend news roundup 20/05: Champions and endings

Jonathan Victoria • 20 May 2024 News

Many feel-good winners from different sports this weekend.

Usyk defeats Fury for undisputed crown

Credit: HIGHLIGHTS! Oleksandr Usyk beats Tyson Fury for Undisputed crown (Sky Sports Boxing, YouTube)

Oleksandr Usyk is the king of heavyweights as he defeated Tyson Fury via split decision to take home the undisputed crown.

The Ukrainian was in fine form and even almost earned the victory in the ninth round after a flurry of hits rocked Fury and had him bouncing against the ropes. Thankfully for the Gypsy King, the referee stepped in to help him somewhat get to the end of the round.

With his victory, Usyk now holds all the major championships in the heavyweight division and is the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999, but also the first ever four-belt undisputed champion.

Debutant ‘IF’ tops US domestic Box Office 

IF, the new kids comedy film from the mind of John Krasinski and featuring Ryan Reynolds, Steve Carell and Emily Blunt to name just a few, has debuted at number one at the US domestic box office this weekend, ahead of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and fellow debutant The Strangers: Chapter 1.

An opening weekend of $35m domestically plus a further $24m internationally sees IF already sitting at $59m globally after its first three days in cinemas.

Second is the newest Planet of the Apes instalment, which brought in a strong $26m domestically in its second weekend. It’s now close to a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office, with totals of $101.2m domestically and $136.3m internationally for $237.5m globally.

The Strangers: Chapter 1, the third film of the The Strangers film series, takes the bronze position with $12m. The international numbers are as of yet unknown.

Schauffele wins first major title

Credit: Schuaffele edges DeChambeau to snatch historic major victory | PGA Championship Day 4 Highlights (Sky Sports Golf, YouTube)

Xander Schauffele prevailed at Valhalla Golf Club to take home his first career major title after a hard-fought win in the PGA Championship.

Schauffele had a brilliant weekend, kicking things off with a round of 62 on Thursday. He held the lead for every day of the weekend, starting level with Collin Morikawa on Sunday.

He shot six-under on the final day to put away the competition, in particular one-time U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau, who went seven-under for the day and finished one shot back of Schauffele.

In the process of winning, Schauffele’s total of 21-under broke the record for lowest score to par in a major championship, the previous record being 20-under which was achieved four times before.

‘Venom: The Last Dance’ will be Hardy’s final showing

Sony has revealed that the third film in the Venom franchise,  which will be named Venom: The Last Dance, will be the final film in the series starring Tom Hardy.

Tom Rothman, the Sony Motion Picture Group Chairman, spoke about the future of the Sony-led Spider-Man films, which includes Venom, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films and the animated Spider-Man Spider-Verse films.

Speaking to Deadline, Rothman said that the next films for each will be a “significant event” for fans, and said of the upcoming third Venom film “The third and last Venom, is going to be huge.”

Venom: The Last Dance is assumed to pick up from where we last saw Hardy’s Eddie Brock, which was in a post-credit scene at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Venom appeared in the MCU timeline for a minute before returning to his own world. Any more details are as of yet unknown, so we must wait for releases ahead of its premiere on 25th October 2024.

Leverkusen completes invincible Bundesliga season

Credit: Bayer Leverkusen Lift the Trophy! (Bundesliga, YouTube)

Bayer Leverkusen completed their history-making campaign after beating Augsburg 2-1 and claiming the first-ever Bundesliga perfect season, going unbeaten in their 34 games with 28 wins and six draws.

The Xabi Alonso-led team secured their first league title with five matches to spare, ending Bayern Munich’s run of eleven consecutive titles.

Along the way, Leverkusen also set a new European record for consecutive unbeaten games, which is currently still running and sitting at 51.

Their season isn't over yet as they are still aiming to win the treble, with the Europea League final against Atalanta on Wednesday and the DFC-Pokal final against FCK on Saturday awaiting them.