Dalton open to keeping America's Cup in Spain or returning home if New Zealand can win 3rd in a row

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona has only just started, but Grant Dalton is already thinking about where the next edition could be held. If, that is, his New Zealand sailing team can keep hold of the Auld Mug.

After being heavily criticized back home for taking the event abroad, the boss of Emirates Team New Zealand and chief executive of this edition of the cup says he could take sailing’s premier event back to Auckland.

But he could also keep it right here in Spain.

It is all about what is best for the team he has turned into competitive sailing’s top outfit thanks to its mastery of the sci-fi-like foiling yachts.

“We yachtsmen, we are slightly superstitious,” Dalton told The Associated Press. “But every single challenger is thinking about what they would do if they won, because they have to. So we have to think about where.

“Obviously New Zealand wants it back, but it has to be financially viable for that to happen. (So) the doors are absolutely open to it staying here.”

Dalton spoke to the AP hours before his team's Taihoro racing yacht was damaged Thursday after its opening race when a crane mishap caused it to drop some six meters (20 feet) onto the support cradle. Dalton was in his office at his team's base when it happened and he said it sounded “like a bomb went off.” But a quick repair job, which included cutting out and replacing a piece of the hull, had the most feared boat at the America's Cup back on the waves two days later.

A world-class yachtsman himself, Dalton is respected as a hard-driving, straight-talking leader. He demands the most from his team to stave off complacency, and he is not shy about taking on critics.

His decision to take the America’s Cup out of Auckland was slammed back home, where sailing is a national sport — Dalton says that any taxi driver can banter about his team. While Dalton acknowledges that his detractors hated the move, he insists it was necessary after the 2021 cup was held during the pandemic lockdown. If he had kept the race in New Zealand, he says it was impossible to ensure that this team would have the financial resources to successfully defend its crown and mount a top-notch event.

He now says that Barcelona has already met expectations as far as providing the perfect backdrop to attract sponsors. Luxury goods and fashion maker Louis Vuitton is back as its main sponsor, for starters.

But he knows that perhaps the only thing that can appease those angry fans is to prove he was right by having New Zealand successfully defend the title.

“New Zealand is rugby, cricket, America’s Cup. … So, are we forgiven for taking it away? I think there’s probably a slightly deeper understanding now,” Dalton said. “But there’ll always be haters. And yes, I think the answer is (that) to close the loop we have to win.”

If it seems like hubris for Dalton to be thinking so far ahead, he has good reason since the America's Cup favors the defending champion like few other competitions in sports. In this truly winner-take-all event, the victor gets to pick the venue and set the rules for the following cup, and it gets a guaranteed spot in the finals where it will take on the sole rival that gets through the grueling knockout phases.

Dalton has no problem in pointing out which rivals he thinks have the best chance of reaching the final, where they will face his team’s Taihoro.

He predicts that it will come down to Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, which lost 7-3 to the Kiwis in 2021, or NYYC American Magic, the only team to beat New Zealand in last week’s preliminary regatta. That means that INEOS Britannia, the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and France’s Orient Express Racing Team are outside rivals, according to Dalton.

The final best-of-13 series between New Zealand and the best of the rest will start in October.

Dalton, 67, is synonymous with the America’s Cup, having rebounded from a historically painful loss to triumph twice.

He took charge of the team in 2003 after New Zealand lost the America’s Cup. Ten years later it was back in the finals, only to suffer a historic 9-8 loss after having led 8-1 to Oracle Team USA. But Dalton kept his team on course and got revenge over Oracle in 2017 in Bermuda. His New Zealand then successfully defended the cup in 2021 back home.

The Pacific island nation is now going for cup No. 5 overall and third on the trot.

The New York Yacht Club, back this year represented by American Magic, successfully defended the cup 24 times after the schooner America beat the British in the inaugural race around the Isle of Wight back in 1851. But even during that great 132-year-run, the NYYC was never represented by the same boat syndicate more than twice in a row.

What would it mean to him and Team New Zealand to become the first outfit to win it three consecutive times?

“Everything,” Dalton said. “No single team that’s been together has won it three times in a row. And if we were lucky enough to achieve that, it’s a feat that hasn’t happened ever. So it will mean everything for us.”

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Emirates Team New Zealand’s boat is shown after it was damaged when the crane failed while removing it from the water after racing on the opening day of the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona, Spain. (AP Photo/Joseph Wilson)

Emirates Team New Zealand inspects the team’s America’s Cup boat after it was damaged when a crane failed while moving it from the water to its cradle after the opening day of racing on Thursday Aug. 29, 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. (AP Photo/Joseph Wilson)

Backdrooped by the Sagrada Familia church, Emirates Team New Zealand's AC75 boat sails during America's Cup Preliminary Regatta ahead of the 37th America's Cup sailing race at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. The world's oldest international sports trophy, best yachtsmen and cutting-edge design and technology will come together in Barcelona when the 37th edition of the America's Cup starts on Thursday. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Emirates Team New Zealand's AC75 boat sails during America's Cup Preliminary Regatta ahead of the 37th America's Cup sailing race at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. The world's oldest international sports trophy, best yachtsmen and cutting-edge design and technology will come together in Barcelona when the 37th edition of the America's Cup starts on Thursday. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Sphere, Las Vegas' transformational new masterpiece, stole the show Saturday night at UFC 306, but Merab Dvalishvili put on a performance not to be forgotten in capturing the bantamweight championship with a unanimous decision over Sean O'Malley.

The judges scored it 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47 in favor of Dvalishvili (18-4), a 33-year-old from the country of Georgia. He used a ground-and-pound attack to control most of the action against O'Malley (18-2).

O'Malley, 29, who lives in Phoenix, was a slight -125 favorite at BetMGM Sportsbook.

Valentina Shevchenko reclaimed the women's flyweight championship with all three judges awarding her a 50-45 victory over Alexa Grasso in the co-main event.

This was the third consecutive meeting between the two after Grasso took Shevchenko's belt in the first match. The second was a draw.

The third one wasn't closer, with the 36-year-old Shevchenko (24-4-1) using a ground-and-pound strategy to win all three rounds over 31-year-old Grasso (16-4-1) on the judges' cards.

“It's so huge," said Shevchenko, who is from Kyrgyzstan. "It like a dream come true fighting in the Sphere.”

This show at the Sphere was unlike any show in the UFC's history, taking full advantage of the 160,000-square-foot high-definition LED screen to create an outer-space type feel as the pay-per-view portion of the card was about to begin.

UFC President Dana White called this card his “love letter to Mexico,” and mini stories of the neighboring country's history and culture as part of a celebration of the country’s Independence Day weekend were told on the screen throughout the evening. One created the illusion the arena was moving as the video played out.

Seven Mexican fighters, including Grasso, populated the card, and chants from the crowd of “Mexico” broke out several times.

Aztec pyramids seeming to hover over one contest in the octagon changed from night to morning. Another fight took place with a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday scene that included dressed up male and female skeletons lighting up the screen. Other matches had similar scenes dominating the background.

The screen was used throughout to introduce a tell-of-the-tape of each fighter, and highlights were shown on the building's exterior.

White has said this is a one-and-done given the overwhelming undertaking to put together the show as well as the roughly $20 million cost. To help pay for it, White secured a title sponsor for the first time for one of his PPV cards, making the official name Riyadh Season Noche UFC.

But White has waffled as the event approached, and it's possible the UFC will have future cards at the Sphere, those the organization is contractually obligated to MGM Resorts, which includes T-Mobile Arena. An exception was made for this night and perhaps there will be more.

T-Mobile had its own tribute to Mexican Independence Day three miles away with Canelo Alvarez winning by unanimous decision as the headline fighter.

UFC's in-house production team crew worked with Antigravity Academy production led by founder and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Carlos López Estrada to put together this event.

Heavyweight champion Jon Jones, considered by many to be the greatest fighter in UFC history, will face Stipe Miocic in UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones has not fought since moving up from light heavyweight to claim the heavyweight crown with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane on March 4, 2023.

Jones, who was in the crowd wearing a black cowboy hat, and Miocic were scheduled to fight last year, but a pectoral injury forced Jones to postpone.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Attendees watch Yazmin Jauregui fights Ketlen Souza in a women's strawweight mixed martial arts bout during UFC 306 at the Sphere, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Attendees wait for the main mixed martial arts event during UFC 306 at the Sphere, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Valentina Shevchenko, right, fights Alexa Grasso in a women's flyweight mixed martial arts title bout during UFC 306 at the Sphere, Saturday, Sep. 14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Valentina Shevchenko celebrates after defeating Alexa Grasso in a women's flyweight mixed martial arts title bout during UFC 306 at the Sphere, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili appear on screen during UFC 306 at the Sphere, Saturday, Sep. 14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun via AP)