England coach Wayne Bennett has pledged Brisbane Broncos backing for the 2017 World Club Series.Plans for the annual clash between the leading clubs from Super League and the NRL were thrown into disarray earlier this week when Melbourne Storm officially withdrew.They were promptly followed by a host of other Australian outfits, who claimed it interfered with their preparations for the new domestic season.Wigan and Cronulla, the two 2016 Grand Final winners, will meet in the traditional World Club Challenge at the DW Stadium on the weekend of Feb. 16-17.However, uncertainty surrounds the other two scheduled ties in the recently-expanded World Club Series following the snub from beaten NRL Grand Finalists Melbourne, who were due to play Super League runners-up Warrington.Brisbane had offered to host Wigan if they had lost the Super League Grand Final and Bennett, a long-time advocate of the international game, says he has already been in touch with Rugby Football League chief executive Nigel Wood to reassure him of his clubs commitment to the series.We would be keen to travel, Bennett said in his first interview to English journalists since his appointment in February. I spoke to Nigel on Monday night and told him that the whole concept has got the clubs backing.We love coming over, weve enjoyed it in the last couple of years as a club and were also trying to host one here in the pre-season. But if that doesnt come to fruition and theres a vacancy to come over to England we will certainly go.The other clubs have all got their reasons Im sure, but we dont find it interferes with our season really. Weve played in a Grand Final, gone over for the World Club Series and started the following year well, so I cant find a fault with it. Personally Id be extremely disappointed if we shared the same view.Meanwhile, Bennett said he would have had no qualms about picking Australia-born players in his 24-man squad for the Four Nations Series, even though he opted not to in the end.Twins Brett and Josh Morris, who have both represented the Kangaroos, and Newcastle Knights scrum-half Trent Hodkinson were among a raft of players linked with a switch of allegiance.I was considering any player that was eligible for England, whether they were Australia-born, Australia-based or simply English, Bennett said. It didnt faze me in any way.The speculation got out of control though. It was purely media-driven in this country, I dont know what it was like in England.At the time I said nothing about it but Ill pick the best 24 players to play for England in my opinion. If theyre Australia-based, I would have stood by that. Nike Air Max TN Baratas . 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On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford. Air Max 200 Mujer . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. Ovechkin and his Russian national team were eliminated from the mens hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. Mikey Garcia was near the top of boxing 2? years ago. Entering his prime, he was making headway on most pound-for-pound lists, had won a world title in a second weight division, was an HBO headliner, and was on the verge of his first seven-figure purse.Top Rank promoter Bob Arum even talked him up as a possible opponent for Manny Pacquiao. Garcia was going places. And then suddenly he was going nowhere.Since outpointing Juan Carlos Burgos to retain a junior lightweight world title for the second time on Jan. 25, 2014, Garcia has not had a fight. Unhappy with his career-long promoter, Top Rank, Garcia, believing his promotional contract had expired, sued the company. The ensuing legal wrangling has kept him on the sidelines all this time. Finally, the issue was settled out of court a few months ago and Garcia was free to resume his career.Top Rank, of course, promoted many big fights while Garcia sat out. Garcia, on the other hand, was a man without a fight -- other than the one between his lawyers and Top Ranks.But even though there was no end in sight on the contract beef, Garcia, a former featherweight titleholder who relinquished his junior lightweight title because he was idle and unable to make a mandatory defense, trained regularly at the Oxnard, California, gym of his brother and trainer Robert Garcia.As much as he trained, however, he was spinning his wheels, with his career direction entirely uncertain. But at least he stayed in shape.Even though its been 2? years, I stayed in the gym almost the entire time, Mikey Garcia said. I probably took maybe two to three weeks off throughout the entire two-year period. I was always active, always in the gym, and I was doing a lot of sparring, actually.Robert Garcias gym is filled with talented young fighters, and Mikey Garcia figures he sparred with almost all of them during his sabbatical.I helped out a lot of the guys in my brothers gym, starting with Marcos Maidana when he fought [Floyd] Mayweather, Garcia said. I was his primary sparring partner, and we worked a lot of rounds with him. And then the fights [of] my other gym members, like Saul Rodriguez -- I was helping him, I was helping Max Perez, and the new guys that my brother has. Theyre fighting frequently, very, very frequently.So I kept helping them in the gym and that allows me to stay in shape because, even though its been 2? years, really, honestly, it seems like it was six, nine months for me because I stayed in the gym. I stayed active. I stayed in shape. And I never really took too much time out of the gym.All that training should finally come in handy as Garcia prepares for his return. He will take on former featherweight titlist Elio Rojas, himself saddled by a 23-month layoff, in a 10-round junior welterweight fight on Saturday night (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET with preliminary bouts on Showtime Extreme beginning at 7 p.m. ET/PT) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.I expect to pick up right where I left off, Garcia said. I was a world champion, I was undefeated, and I still am. I didnt leave because I was injured. I think Ill come back even better. Im hungrier now than I was before.Said Robert Garcia: Its been a while. We might see a little bit of rust, a little bit of adjustment to timing. But the way hes been in the gym, against top-quality fighters, hes been looking so good that I wouldnt be surprised if he put on one of his best performances.Garcia-Rojas is the co-feature of the three fights being televised on Showtime, a card headlined by featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) defending his belt for the second time when he faces former unified junior featherweight titleholder Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs).dddddddddddd The telecast will open with a junior middleweight-title-elimination bout between Ricky Hatton-trained Sergey Rabchenko (27-1, 20 KOs) and Tony Harrison (23-1, 19 KOs).Rojas (24-2, 14 KOs), 33, of the Dominican Republic, who held a featherweight title from 2009 to 2010, has not fought since a lightweight bout in August 2014. But that was his only fight in the past four-plus years. His inactivity was caused by a grand slam of problems: a contract dispute with former promoter Don King, management contract issues, injuries and a visa problem.Rojas, too, is happy to be back.Were both coming off of long layoffs, Rojas said. I see the fight pretty even. Garcia might have some advantages of being the bigger guy, but Im not worried about that. I feel like I can beat Mikey Garcia. I have some things that I think will give Mikey Garcia a lot of trouble. I have the tools.We know that Mikey is the favorite. Everyone thought LeBron James was going to lose in the [NBA] Finals when he was down 3-1, but this is a sport and anything can happen.Robert Garcia said he and his brother are not taking Rojas for granted.Elio is a fighter that has been off for a while and hes a former world champion. Hes also trying to come back and make a statement, he said. We have to be prepared for the opponent to be at the top of his game.Mikey Garcia said that other than the deal to fight Rojas, he remains a free agent with no ties to any network or promoter, although Showtime Sports general manager Stephen Espinoza has made no secret of his hopes that Garcia will remain on his network.It is a very positive thing in the sport for someone of Mikeys caliber to be returning, Espinoza said. Were excited to see what he has planned for a new division. And as is typical for Mikeys career, he never takes the easy way out.Garcia (34-0, 28 KOs), 28, of Riverside, California, said he is also talking to adviser Al Haymon, who helped put together the fight. Business entanglements aside, Garcia said he is simply looking forward to getting back into the ring.I dont feel any pressure at all. To me, its just another day at the office, he said. I have faith in my abilities and confidence in what I can do as a boxer. Im excited to be back. Im going to go in there and take care of business like I always do. I want to give the fans something to talk about.Im more motivated than I ever have been before. Its been a long time of working hard in the gym every day. Im very happy to be back and I want to accomplish a lot more. I think youre going to see a better Mikey on Saturday. My will to win is higher than its ever been.Garcia is fighting at junior welterweight but has not ruled out the possibility of moving down to lightweight. Whichever division he fights in, his goal is to win a world title in a third weight class.I want to fight at 135 and fight for a title there, he said. Im going to see how my body feels after this fight, but thats the plan as of now. Were not looking past Elio. I definitely want to get back in the ring soon if everything goes right.And he certainly has no plans for another 2?-year layoff, which he said he has put behind him.I have no regrets, Garcia said. Ive got to enjoy myself more than I had in the last 10 years. When youre in boxing, its a year-round sport. You dont have time to yourself, for your family or friends. You miss out on a lot. I learned a lot in my time away, about boxing and more. ' ' '