Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula and Welcome to Season 05 Episode 66 of Breakfast Bites by TeivovoSports.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news on a drizzly but warm Thursday morning 08 June 2023.

Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

And we start with BREAKING NEWS in football: BBC Sport and American media hub - The Athletic, have cited multiple sources reporting Lionel Messi is headed to the MLS to join US Club, Inter Miami, with one source adding his MLS debut would be on 21 July against the Mexican Club Cruz Azul.

This would be the soccer superstar’s first time playing for a team outside of Europe and South America.

Neither Messi, PSG or Inter Miami have made an official announcement.

In rugby: As the special Fiji Airways charter flight from Nadi to Christchurch and return fills up with Fijian Drua fans from all over the country, Fijians living in Aotearoa are also making plans to head south in numbers, to lend their support to the cause as temperatures continue to drop in Christchurch.

In rugby league: Parramatta Eels star, Dylan Brown has been stood down by the NRL just hours after he appeared in Court over allegations he touched a woman without her consent at Sydney’s Golden Sheaf hotel last Saturday night.

Our World Famous Tips for NRL games tonight: Wests Tigers to curry goat the Gold Coast Titans at Cbus Super Stadium and tomorrow the Canberra Raiders to curry duck the NZ Warriors at GIO Stadium and the Dolphins to curry sea eagle Manly at 4 Pines Park.

In the aftermath of their ORIGIN I meltdown, questions have now been raised about the NSW Blues training loads in camp, after three star players sustained soft tissue injuries around ORIGIN I.

Firstly, crack centre Latrell Mitchell was ruled out of ORIGIN I with a calf strain 72 hours before kick-off.

Next up, South Sydney captain and champion lock, Cameron Murray went down with a groin injury playing for the Rabbitohs immediately after ORIGIN I.

Finally, star Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary tore his hamstring playing for the Panthers four nights after ORIGIN I.

So go figure.

In boxing: WWE legend Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, widely known as “The Iron Sheik,” died Wednesday at 81 years old.

Born in Iran in 1942, Vaziri trained as a wrestler in his home country before moving to the United States in the 1960s, where he coached the US Olympic wrestling team in 1972 and 1976.

As the “Iron Sheik” Vaziri carried an Iranian flag into the ring sporting curled-up boots and as Vince McMahon grew WWE, and with the US in the throes of global political turmoil, Vaziri’s Sheik proved to be the perfect heel for the likes of Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter.

The Iron Sheik and Slaughter’s iconic feud culminated in their famous “Boot Camp” Match at a sold out Madison Square Garden.

Vaziri would win the WWE World Heavyweight title once during his career and was part of a championship tag team with Nikolai Volkoff in the 1980s.

He battled personal demons for much of his life, abusing substances during his wrestling career, particularly alcohol, crack and cocaine.

Vaziri was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Wrestling Association Hall of Fame in 2008.

He amassed more than 641,000 followers on social media and finally retired in 2010 at the tender age of 68.

Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri is survived by his wife Caryl, daughters Tanya and Nikki and five grandchildren.

Rest in Peace brother.

And finally in SportsBiz: In a bombshell agreement that caught the golf world by surprise, the US-based PGA Tour said they had signed an agreement with the Saudi owners of LIV golf and the DP World Tour to form “a new collectively owned, for-profit entity”.

In doing so, the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf have ended all litigation, bringing to a close the sport’s bitter two-year rift.

As for Greg Norman, he remains LIV Golf’s commissioner, but there is no higher role for him within the new entity; in reality, he has been pushed aside. A source told Sports Illustrated in the aftermath of the announcement that Norman is “not expected to be part of the venture going forward”.

Ouch talk about chewed up and spat out.

For TeivovoSports.com I’m Culden Kamea – please hit the like and subscribe buttons below if you want to receive more Pasifika sports highlights on Breakfast Bites.

Mahalo, vina’a and tank you all too mass for all your love and support.

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