Local boxer Hugo Micallef has won his first professional fight, making him the only Monegasque fighter to ever be able to make such a claim.
Hugo Micallef notched up more than 100 amateur victories while representing his homeland in tournaments worldwide, and recently signed a multi-year promotional contract with Top Rank.
He made is professional debut in Paris on 10th September on the undercard of heavyweight contender Tony Yoka’s homecoming bout against fellow unbeaten Petar Milas. Micallef dominated his Argentinian opponent in four rounds for a unanimous victory on points.
In a proud announcement, the National Council said on social media: “After the disappointment of this summer and his non-participation in the Tokyo Olympics, I am happy to see Hugo bounce back and launch his promising career in the most wonderful way. I wish him the best for the future. For his qualities, his tireless work and his tenacity, he deserves it!”
The 23-year-old, who had aspirations of becoming the first Olympic boxer from the Principality of Monaco, now sets his sights on becoming the first boxer from his country to win a professional world title. He helped break the glass ceiling for Monegasque boxing at the world amateur level and counts Prince Albert and the National Council among his supporters.
Prince Albert II has made an official visit to Kiel where he took part in celebrations of his great-grandfather, Prince Albert I, who had deep connections with the northern German city.
Prince Albert II just wrapped up an action-packed two-day trip to the German city of Kiel in the Schleswig-Holstein region of the country on the 8th and 9th of September. There, he was met by the President of the region Daniel Günther and Kiel’s Mayor Ulf Kämpfer.
On Wednesday 8th, Prince Albert II was welcomed to the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research (GEOMAR) where they introduced their newest marine drone. The facility christened it the Albert I in a touching tribute to the Monegasque ruler who had carried out projects with GEOMAR near the turn of the 20th century.
In the late afternoon, the Sovereign visited the city’s former Yacht Club to unveil a plaque commemorating Prince Albert I’s trips to Kiel and his peace efforts between Germany and France as well as the 100-year anniversary of the death of Albert I, which is officially in 2022. The marine drone christened the ‘Albert I’ and signed by Prince Albert II of Monaco. Photo by G. Luci / Prince’s Palace
From 1898 until 1914, Albert I was a regular guest of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who invited him to attend the regattas held annually in Kiel. In those years, Albert I attended the event 11 times.
Albert I, always a defender of the seas, parlayed his first visit to the city to speak about a proposed project for creating a network of meteorological observatories for Europe in the Azores, but he also managed to help diffuse a particularly thorny diplomatic issue between France and Germany, namely the notorious Dreyfus Affair.
Dreyfus had been accused of falsely communicating French military secrets to the Germans. The entire affair put a huge strain on relations between the two countries. Albert I was able to get the Kaiser to assure him that Dreyfus was indeed innocent.
This small gesture led to an idea that the regatta could become a time when diplomats from both countries could come together for informal discussions to avoid future misunderstandings.
Prince Albert’s trip continued on Thursday 9th September with a visit to Kiel’s marina where the Keiler Woche (Keil Week) sailing races were about to kick off on the 12th. There, he was able to meet up with crew members of Team Malizia, the Monaco Yacht Club-based team founded by the Prince’s nephew, Pierre Casiraghi, and German super-sailor Boris Hermann.
Top photo of Prince Albert by G. Luci / Prince’s Palace
Leclerc rewarded for gritty drive in thrilling Italian GP
Charles Leclerc ground out an impressive fourth place finish in a topsy-turvy race in Monza, Italy, which produced some enthralling wheel-to-wheel racing. McLaren were the major benefactors of the race which was blown wide-open by a spectacular collision involving title rivals Verstappen and Hamilton.
Ferrari, although undoubtedly disappointed with their overall pace over the course of the race weekend, will be buoyed by a positive result and an impressive points haul, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz securing P4 and P6 respectively. The performance becomes ever-more impressive when considering the major setbacks which dogged Ferrari over the course of their home Grand Prix weekend, with Sainz suffering a major crash on Friday, and Leclerc suffering from illness.
Leclerc, in the knowledge that his Ferrari lacked the pace of his rivals, was particularly cautious pre-race, and sought to play down his chances of recreating his iconic 2019 Monza victory. “Winning is going to be difficult realistically, but we are never giving up, and today if there’s an opportunity, we’ll try to take it.” Leclerc’s pessimism, though understandable, was ultimately misplaced, as a chaotic race played into the hands of Ferrari, who were primed to take advantage. Photo source: Scuderia Ferrari Press Office
A dramatic start saw McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo snatch the lead off drivers’ championship leader Max Verstappen at the opening corner, and a collision between Antonio Giovanazzi and Carlos Sainz, the latter luckily escaping unscathed. The race quickly settled down, and Ferrari’s poor pace, relative to their rivals, was exposed as both McLarens, Verstappen, and Hamilton opened up a healthy gap to the Ferraris behind.
By the time of the pit window, only a matter of seconds separated the top four, and the ever-jubilant Italian tifosi were seemingly in store for a tight, nail-biting modern classic between the two championship rivals and a rejuvenated McLaren team. Two poor pit-stops, firstly from Red Bull and then from Mercedes, created a thrilling scenario, which saw Hamilton and Verstappen contesting the tight Variante del Rettifilo chicane just as the former was leaving the pit lane exit. Verstappen attempted an audacious move around the outside of the first corner of the chicane, but as the gap left by Hamilton tightened, Verstappen was left with little room. At this point, with Verstappen committed to the move, and Hamilton committed to defending his position, the subsequent collision was an inevitable outcome, and it led to both drivers retiring from the race. This type of racing incident is symptomatic of two drivers racing to the absolute limit, in what is one the most entertaining and hotly-contested drivers’ championships in recent years.
The collision brought out the safety car, and it was at this point that the opportunistic Ferrari team struck – pitting Charles Leclerc and releasing him into an improbable second place. As soon as the safety car period ended, Ferrari’s lack of pace was brutally exposed, with McLaren’s Lando Norris making short work of getting past the laboured Ferrari. The Ferrari was then a sitting duck for the Red Bull of Segio Perez and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who fought valiantly from the back of the grid to claim the final spot on the podium. In passing Leclerc however, Perez incurred a five-second time penalty which ultimately promoted Leclerc to fourth place – an impressive result in testing circumstances.
Post-race, Leclerc revealed that he was pleased with his personal performance, but alluded to the Ferrari’s general lack of pace stating that, “I put my whole heart into it today. In terms of my personal performance, I would rate this as one of my top drives since joining F1.” He added, “Of course we want more than a fourth place, but taking all things into consideration I think this is a result we can be pleased with today.”
The day, however, belonged to Daniel Ricciardo and the McLaren team, who took full advantage of a chaotic race to claim McLaren’s first victory since 2012, and their first one-two since 2010.
AS Monaco Basketball saw back-to-back losses as they took on Partizan Belgrade on Saturday and Kazan Unics on Sunday at the semi-finals of the Istanbul Cup in Turkey.
AS Monaco Basketball saw a lot of action over the weekend, but sadly this didn’t translate into wins.
The Partizan game was absolutely thrilling. The cat-and-mouse went on the entire game with both teams sitting at 84 points apiece when the final buzzer went. This led them into overtime, but even then nothing could be decided. In the end, the match stretched into extra time an unheard of three times, and the final score was 114 to 120.
The second game was a rematch of the Eurocup finals with Monaco playing Kazan. The Unics were out to vindicate themselves after their defeat in the finals. The first half of the game saw them out-playing the Roca team at every turn.
It was in the second half that Monaco turned up, and they poured it on from that point. After being behind the whole match, they came back and evened up the score with three minutes on the clock. Both teams scrambled to take a definitive lead, but it wasn’t until the last seconds that the game was decided. In the end, Monaco lost by a single heart-breaking point with a final score of 84 to 85.
Monaco Life with AS Monaco Basketball press release, photo source AS Monaco Basketball
AS Monaco is having a rough start to the season with only a single win in five matches, made worse by the latest loss to Olympique de Marseille at home on Saturday night, going down nil to two.
Despite having a two-week break, several opportunities to score, a solid line-up, and ample possession, AS Monaco just couldn’t seem to make anything happen on Saturday night in their home game against Olympique de Marseille.
Both teams came out swinging and there was some pretty exciting football from the start. The two teams wasted no time putting pressure on the goalkeepers who were both excellent at keeping the wolves at bay.
It took 37 minutes for a ball to find the inside of a goal, but sadly for Monaco it was between their posts. Alexander Nübel lost his battle against Bamba Dieng, opening the scoring and putting Marseille one up.
After the halftime break, things weren’t looking much better when at the one-hour mark, Dieng scored a second goal. Coach Niko Kovac leapt into action, shuffling the players around, and whilst playing impressively, even fresh legs weren’t able to save the slowly sinking ship.
In the end, Marseille won the night with two points to Monaco’s zero. A disappointing end and a continuation of a slow start to the season for Monaco.
“We are not happy tonight,” said Coach Kovac after the match. “Four points from five games is not what we expected but it is the truth of the moment. We have to show the same attitude and the same passion as last season. We have a good team, good players, but the other teams are playing us more directly now and we have to respond in a compact, aggressive way; that’s how we’ll have our chances.”
The team have a shot at redemption next Sunday when they play crosstown rivals Nice, but before that they take on SK Sturm Graz on Thursday in Europa League play at Stade Louis II.
Monaco Life with AS Monaco press release, photo by AS Monaco
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