Boxing: Carl Frampton ended Northern Ireland’s long wait for another boxing world champion on a night to savour in Belfast as he pounded Kiko Martinez to swipe away the Spaniard’s title. The 27-year-old, fighting in his home city, claimed an overwhelmingly unanimous verdict, the judges’ scorecards showing two verdicts of 119-108 and one of 118-111. Not since Wayne McCullough made a second successful defence of his WBC bantamweight title in 1996 has Northern Ireland been able to celebrate a global boxing title fight victory. Unbeaten Frampton, managed and promoted by former world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan, had a crowd of 16,000 roaring him on at the Titanic Quarter in Belfast.

Rugby Union: Argentina lock Tomas Lavanini faces an anxious build-up to his side’s Rugby Championship clash with Australia on the Gold Coast next weekend after being cited for dangerous charging in their 28-9 loss to New Zealand on Saturday. The 21-year-old Lavanini was penalised for the incident in the 51st minute at McLean Park when he charged into a ruck, hitting All Blacks captain Richie McCaw in the head and stunning the openside flanker who needed medical treatment. Governing body SANZAR decided the incident required further examination and the Racing Metro player was cited for dangerous charging.

Superbikes: Marco Melandri collected two World Superbike Championship wins in one day at the Circuito de Jerez yesterday to deny title hopeful Sylvain Guintoli more valuable points. In both races the Aprilia rider steadily worked his way to the front of the pack before overtaking team-mate Guintoli and forcing championship leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) into third place in the process. The outcome in southern Spain means there are 31 points between Sykes and Guintoli with four races remaining. Melandri is mathematically still in contention for the title but, at 85 points behind, it looks like the 2014 crown will go to either Sykes or Guintoli barring spectacular collapses from the pair at Magny Cours and Losail.

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Tennis: Martina Navratilova (right) surprised partner Julia Lemigova (left) by proposing to her during the US Open on Saturday. After Kei Nishikori’s stunning win over Novak Djokovic, Navratilova appeared on the big screen on Arthur Ashe Stadium to pop the question. Navratilova, 57, said: “I have been waiting for the right time to ask Julia to marry me. I thought this was the right place and the right time to pop the question and thankfully I got a ‘yes’.” The couple have been together for six years and live in Miami with Russian Lemigova’s two daughters. The 42-year-old businesswoman said: “We are very happy together and Martina has made our family complete.”

Cricket: George Bailey has stood down as Australia’s Twenty20 captain to concentrate on longer forms of the game with half an eye on adding to his five test caps. The 32-year-old batsman, who has also captained the Australian one-day side this week in Zimbabwe in the absence of injured skipper Michael Clarke, said he struggled with the transition between the different formats of the game. “It took a lot of thought and a lot of time,” he told reporters. “I had a good think about what I wanted to do in the next four years and I’m really passionate about playing the best four-day and one-day cricket that I can.” Bailey made his ODI debut in 2012 but he really came to prominence when he stood in as captain for the injured Clarke on the tour of India last year.