LIVERPOOL -- It was a fight with some ferocity, accusations with a bit of anger and claims with a lot of comedy in Liverpool on Saturday night when Tony Bellew retained his WBC cruiserweight title.The fight with BJ Flores was over before it had started in many ways and the American, who had struggled to make the weight, was a reluctant player in the latest Bellew drama. Flores was meant to be tough and had talked like a beast all week, but looked drained when he stepped on the scales the day before the first bell.Bellew disdainfully bished and bashed his way to a third round win, sending Flores down four times in total before the merciful end and that was when the circus started. Flores was hastily forgotten, which is convenient because his abject performance would have been censored by the British Boxing Board of Control in a different epoch.Flores is also a close personal friend of David Haye, the former world heavyweight champion and sworn enemy of Bellew, and long before the first bell promoter Eddie Hearn had tweeted that it would go off at ringside.Well, shock horror, it did.When it was officially over, Bellew tried to locate Haye at ringside. Hes behind you, he was told. Bellew quickly ducked through the ropes. The security was plentiful, the space for the off cleared and the pair started shouting and gesturing from behind the outstretched palms of the paid help. Bellew was persuaded to get back in the ring and then he was given a microphone, which was open to the crowd at the Echo Arena.If it had been serious and nasty the Board would have surely intervened at this point, but it was not, it was a terrific circus act.I just smashed your playmate, your nightclub buddy, Bellew hollered, leaving pauses for oohs and arghs. I will smash you the same way. You are getting smashed. The crowd booed and jeered and cheered.Haye remained mostly silent, a bemused look on his face, as Bellew launched the tirade, which was equal parts sales and comedy, but there was just enough spite to keep it plausible. An angry man, remember, would have sworn and not joked; the spat was beautifully stage-managed, with members of the Board and the broadcasters boxing team standing or sitting and grinning. It was all clean, good fun -- the modern boxing way.Hes the same dimensions as me, Bellew told his audience. Im a bit fatter and hes a bit better looking. Hes a cruiserweight, he went to heavyweight because he loves money. Im the biggest payday he can get right now. Haye continued smiling.The pantomime at the end helped disguise the dreadful performance by Flores, a fighter with a reputation for being hard. It looked like Flores was in search of a safe place to land from the first bell and that was a surprise. I thought he would survive the 12 rounds.Bellew had absolutely no respect for the American and that meant he was caught with silly punches as he connected with his own. In round two Flores toppled over three times, once as he was complaining, and in the third a left hook from Bellew, which everybody in Liverpool saw, dropped Flores. The fight was over, the show was about to start.Bellew is what Belllew is, said Haye. He can talk all he likes, but I would win easily. I could take him out with just one punch. It would be a knock out. I want him to just keep talking. Haye also pointed out that Bellews defence was non-existent against Flores.Haye was involved in a real post-fight scrap in Munich in 2012 when his banter with Dereck Chisora turned predictably violent. On that occasion one man ended up with a broken jaw, another had stitches in a head wound and people were fined and suspended by the Board.The sales pitch has started for a fight that would put a minimum of 40,000 bums on seats early next summer. However, Haye could also find himself in possession of a lucky ticket for the heavyweight championship lottery during the next few weeks and that might scupper a fight with Bellew.Buy Nike React . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. Cheap Nike React China . The Cincinnati Reds remain perfect with their speedy rookie outfielder in the starting lineup. http://www.cheapnikereact.net/ . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. The teams, and a few thousand fans, waited nearly four hours from the 7:05 scheduled start time before an announcement was made shortly before 11 p. Nike React Cheap Wholesale . The International Olympic Committee released the official list of bid cities on Friday after the deadline for applications had passed. The candidates -- all previously announced in their own countries -- are: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm. Nike React Cheap Online . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city.HOUSTON -- In one of the most bizarre scenarios imaginable at a major sporting event, top-ranked Notre Dame and Louisiana-Lafayette switched venues in the middle of their hoops game due to a power outage.Even with the switch in venue and the delay, the Fighting Irish were too much for the Ragin Cajuns, winning 91-51 in a game that took nearly four hours to complete on Tuesday night.I thought we showed great resilience to battle through all the adversity we had, said Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw. The longest game in the history of womens basketball.The teams were playing at Houstons Campbell Center, in front of roughly 1,000 fans, when a power outage caused a long delay in the second quarter. After calling around to local schools, the rest of the contest was played at Rice University, about a 30-minute drive away from the original venue and also in Houston. The teams bused to Rice and picked up where they left off after a 2-hour, 35-minute delay. Notre Dame led 38-17 with 2:38 left in the second quarter.We had three options: play tomorrow, cancel or find a place to play tonight, McGraw said. I think both teams wanted to play the game. We got here, we wanted to finish it, and coming back tomorrow morning to finish it didnt seem as much fun.Rices arena was available, as the Rice womens basketball team also played on Tuesday night, against Grand Canyon.The Notre Dame-Louisiana-Lafayette game resumed at 10:11 p.m. local time with about 30 friends and family in attendance, as well as the Rice womens hoops squad. The visiting teams had a 10-minute warm-up and skipped halftime, taking just a brief break between the second and third quarters. The final 22-plus minutes of the contest took about 50 minutes to finish, making the total game time at Rice about an hour and a half.I think you have to relax a little bit, McGraw said about how Notre Dame stayed focus. The girls were able to unwind in the locker room. They were able to stay upbeat and positive. For them, this is primee time.dddddddddddd. They are wide awake. It was the coaches I was worried about falling asleep on the bench.Brianna Turner, a Houston native, had 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Fighting Irish.At the Campbell Center, it was very exciting when the lights went out, Turner said. I knew we thought we would be able to play there, but of course, we couldnt. It was so nice of Rice -- they played a game here too tonight -- to let us use their facilities and finish our game.The game was originally stopped when the lights in the arena shut off and a couple flashes of light could be seen behind loading dock doors in the corner of the arena. Emergency lights came on in the arena soon after. Both teams were sent to the locker rooms, with several pops and flashes heard and seen intermittently.Thats why I coach basketball -- because it is inside, and we dont have no rain delays or weather problems or anything like that, Louisiana-Lafayette coach Garry Brodhead said. I have never been to a game where we had to stop it, wait awhile, move venues, so I never even thought about it.The game was a homecoming for Turner, a junior forward who played high school basketball near Houston. McGraw had tried to get some of the local schools to play the Irish, but she couldnt pull it off, compelling her to play a neutral-site game against the Ragin Cajuns.The Notre Dame team had dinner at Turners house on Monday night. Turner went to high school at Manvel, which is about 10 miles south of Houston.Manvel High School cheerleaders and its dance team and band were in attendance and donned lime green Fighting Irish shirts, while playing the Notre Dame fight song at the Campbell Center, but they did not make the trip to Rice. Neither did former Irish great Skylar Diggins, who also was at the Campbell Center.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ' ' '