query: David Beckham refused to join with United.

pos: David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham , ( -LSB- ˈbɛkəm -RSB- born 2 May 1975 ) is an English former professional footballer . He played for Manchester United , Preston North End , Real Madrid , Milan , LA Galaxy , Paris Saint-Germain , and the England national team for which he held the appearance record for an outfield player until 2016 when Wayne Rooney surpassed his total . He is the first English player to win league titles in four countries : England , Spain , the United States and France . He announced his retirement in May 2013 after a 20-year career , during which he won 19 major trophies .   Known for his range of passing , crossing ability and bending free-kicks as a right winger , Beckham was runner up in the Ballon d'Or , twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year and in 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world 's greatest living players . He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2008 . A global ambassador for the sport , Beckham is regarded as a British cultural icon .   Beckham 's professional club career began with Manchester United , where he made his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17 . With United , he won the Premier League title six times , the FA Cup twice , and the UEFA Champions League in 1999 . He then played four seasons with Real Madrid , winning the La Liga championship in his final season with the club . In July 2007 Beckham signed a five-year contract with Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy . While a Galaxy player , he spent two loan spells in Italy with Milan in 2009 and 2010 . He was the first British footballer to play 100 UEFA Champions League games .   In international football , Beckham made his England debut on 1 September 1996 at the age of 21 . He was captain for six years , earning 58 caps during his tenure . He made 115 career appearances in total , appearing at three FIFA World Cup tournaments , in 1998 , 2002 and 2006 , and two UEFA European Championship tournaments , in 2000 and 2004 .   Beckham has consistently ranked among the highest earners in football , and in 2013 he was listed as the highest-paid player in the world , earning over $ 50 million in the previous 12 months . He has been married to Victoria Beckham since 1999 and they have four children . He has been a UNICEF UK ambassador since 2005 , and in 2015 he launched 7 : The David Beckham UNICEF Fund . In 2014 , MLS announced Beckham and a group of investors would own an expansion team in Miami , which would begin in 2016 or 2017 .

neg: Dave Brammer David Brammer ( born 28 February 1975 ) is an English former football midfielder . In a sixteen-year career he scored 22 goals in 455 games in the Football League .   Starting his career at Wrexham in 1993 , he lifted the Welsh Cup and FAW Premier Cup with the club . He moved on to Port Vale for an initial # 350,000 fee in March 1999 . In 2001 he lifted the Football League Trophy , and was also made the club 's Player of the Year . Following this success he was sold on to Crewe Alexandra for # 500,000 . He helped the `` Alex '' win promotion out of the Second Division in 2002 -- 03 . After three years with Crewe he switched to Stoke City in 2007 , thereby becoming one of a small number of players to have played for the three local rivals of Crewe , Stoke and Vale . He spent 2007 to 2009 at Millwall , before finishing his career at Vale Park later in 2009 .

neg: Dave Dunmore David Gerald Ivor ` Dave ' Dunmore ( born 18 February 1934 in Whitehaven , Cumberland , England ) , is an English former footballer who played as a centre forward .   Dunmore played for York City , before being sold to Tottenham Hotspur for # 10,500 in February 1954 , which was a record transfer fee received for York at the time . Dunmore played for Tottenham Hotspur before joining West Ham United during the 1959-60 season . He made his West Ham debut on 19 March 1960 against Blackburn Rovers , and went on to make 39 appearances for the club , scoring 18 goals . He played his last game for the Irons on 4 March 1961 , a home defeat against West Bromwich Albion , and joined Leyton Orient . With Malcolm Graham , Dunmore was Orient 's joint top scorer in their only season in the First Division . He later rejoined York City in 1965 , before moving into non-league football .

neg: 2009–10 Derby County F.C. season The 2009 -- 10 season was Derby County 's 111th season in the Football League . It is their 42nd season in the second division of English football and their second consecutive season in the second tier following an 18th-placed finish in the previous campaign . Derby struggled against relegation for much of the season , but a run of just two defeats in the final 10 fixtures saw the club finish in 14th , their third highest finish in their respective division in the previous ten years . The Derby Evening Telegraph described the campaign as `` Good in patches , poor in others , and ultimately frustrating . ''   The season was Nigel Clough 's first full season in the job following his appointment in January 2009 . The club started the season with odds of 21/1 for the title , though the media prediction was that they would improve greatly on the previous campaign 's struggles and push for a playoff place . This proved overly optimistic , however , as the club battled relegation from the Championship for the fifth time in eight seasons . Although the club never fell into the bottom three during the campaign ( the lowest position was 20th ) it spent just six fixtures in the top half of the table , only one of which was achieved after August . A lack of consistency was one reason ; not only in results ( the club never recording more than two consecutive victories ) but also in the club 's inability to field a consistent team selection . A club record 40 players represented the club , with only 6 players making 30 or more league starts , and an over-reliance on loanees ( 14 players signing temporary deals over the season ) also played a part , as did injuries ; one match , away to Ipswich Town in October , came at the height of the club 's injury problems and saw them unable to even name a full complement of substitutes such was the lack of players available . A purple patch of form in February saw the club end local rivals Nottingham Forest 's 19 match unbeaten run , inflict eventual-Champions Newcastle United 's biggest defeat of the season ( 3 -- 0 ) and hit five in a match for the first time in three years when they edged out Preston North End 5 -- 3 at Pride Park , but a run of just three wins in twelve through the end of February until the end of April , ensured that safety was not achieved until the 44th fixture of the season after a 1 -- 1 draw at home to relegation rivals Crystal Palace . One bright point to the campaign came with the reserves successful The Central League Division One Central Section campaign , which saw them finish top and become the first Derby reserves team to win the title since Arthur Cox 's reserves claimed it in the 1985 -- 86 season . It was also the first time a Derby County reserves side had won its respective division since the club successfully captured the Premier Reserve League in 2000 -- 01 .   The club sold 21,406 season tickets for the 2009 -- 10 season and had an average home attendance of 29,207 ( down from 29,440 the previous season ) , second only to Champions Newcastle United 's 43,388 and over 4,000 ahead of third placed Sheffield United . The ground operated at 86.9 % capacity , putting it third behind Cardiff City and Blackpool . These averages made Derby the 12th best supported club in the country for the third consecutive season .

neg: List of non-League clubs in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup since 1945 Since the end of the Second World War in 1945 , nine non-League football clubs -- that is , clubs outside the divisions of The Football League and , since 1992 , the Premier League -- have reached the Fifth Round of the FA Cup , to become one of the last 16 clubs in the competition . To date , only Lincoln City has subsequently reached the Sixth Round , or `` quarter finals '' . The last non-League team to reach the quarter finals ( then the Fourth Round ) was Queens Park Rangers in 1914 , when the Football League had just two divisions .   The most recent example of a non-league team beating top-flight opposition in the FA Cup was Lincoln City 's Fifth Round victory away at Burnley in 2017 . The last time a non-league side beat top-flight opposition at home in the FA Cup was Sutton United 's Third Round victory over Coventry City in 1989 .   In 2017 , two non-League teams made it to the Fifth Round of the competition , Lincoln City and Sutton United . This was the first time two non-League teams has appeared made it this far in the same season since the establishment of the Football League in 1888 . Lincoln City subsequently became the first non-League team in 103 years and the first since World War II to make the quarter finals , but lost 5-0 to Arsenal .

neg: 1957–58 Manchester United F.C. season The 1957 -- 58 season was Manchester United 's 56th season in the Football League , and their 13th consecutive season in the top division of English football .   The season marked the biggest tragedy in the club 's history as eight players , three club officials and ten other passengers died as a result of their injuries in the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958 on their way back from a European Cup quarter-final away to Red Star Belgrade . Centre-half Mark Jones , captain Roger Byrne , full-back Geoff Bent , winger David Pegg , right-half Eddie Colman , inside-right Bill Whelan and centre-forward Tommy Taylor were all killed instantly . Left-half Duncan Edwards was in hospital for two weeks before he too died on 21 February .   Winger Johnny Berry and centre-half Jackie Blanchflower were both injured to such an extent that they never played again , while several of the surviving players were unavailable for a considerable amount of time as they recovered from their injuries .   Manager Matt Busby was badly injured , and his assistant Jimmy Murphy ( who was not on that fateful flight ) took charge of the first team until the end of the season as Busby recovered from his injuries . Club secretary Walter Crickmer and coaches Tom Curry and Bert Whalley were all killed in the crash , which claimed a total of 23 lives .   Despite the decimation of their squad , a makeshift United side still managed to reach the FA Cup final that season , where they lost to Bolton Wanderers . They also reached the semi-finals of the European Cup . However , their league form suffered after the crash and their title challenge faded as they finished ninth in the final table .   With the United squad decimated by death and injuries in the aftermath of the Munich tragedy , a number of younger players broke through into the first team . These included winger Shay Brennan and forward Mark Pearson . Another notable new member of the side was goalkeeper Harry Gregg , signed in December 1957 a few weeks before the Munich crash , and who was hailed a hero for his rescue efforts in the crash .   United 's top scorer for the season was Dennis Viollet , who found the net 23 times in all competitions and 16 times in the league despite being out of action for some two months as he recovered from injuries sustained in the Munich crash .

neg: 1999–2000 FA Cup The 1999 -- 2000 FA Cup was the 119th staging of the world 's oldest cup competition , the Football Association Cup or FA Cup . Both the semi-finals and final of the competition were played at Wembley Stadium for the last time before reconstruction work began . The competition culminated with the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Aston Villa . The game was won by a goal from Chelsea 's Roberto Di Matteo , giving them a 1-0 victory .   The previous season 's winners , Manchester United , withdrew from the 1999 -- 2000 competition due to their participation in the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship in South America , to take place in early 2000 , thus becoming the first FA Cup winners not to defend their title . Despite this being at the request of the Football Association ( FA ) , they received criticism from journalists and television pundits . To keep the competition running smoothly , the FA chose to draw one team from among those lower-division teams defeated in the second round to progress as `` lucky losers '' to the third . Darlington were the team drawn .   The main competition started in November 1999 for clubs from the Football League and Premiership . For details on the preliminary and qualifying rounds of the FA Cup see FA Cup Archives .

neg: Nick Chatterton Nicholas John `` Nick '' Chatterton ( born 18 May 1954 ) , is an English retired footballer who played as a midfielder in the top three divisions of the Football League . Chatterton was born in South Norwood , London .   Chatterton started his career in 1973 at Crystal Palace , where he was the son of the club 's groundskeeper Len Chatterton . In 1979 , he moved to neighbouring south London club , Millwall . In 1986 , he moved to Colchester United , where he finished his career .

neg: 2013–14 Everton F.C. season The 2013 -- 14 season was Everton 's 22nd season in the Premier League and 60th consecutive season in the top division of English football . It was also Everton 's 115th season of league football and 117th season in all competitions . It was the first season without David Moyes as manager since 2002 , with Moyes leaving Everton to succeed Alex Ferguson as manager of Manchester United . In addition , the club crest was redesigned ahead of this season for the first time since 2000 . On 5 June 2013 , Roberto Martínez was announced as the new Everton manager , having left his post at relegated FA Cup holders Wigan Athletic . Everton finished in sixth position in the domestic league in the previous season , missing out on qualification for the UEFA Europa League , meaning it failed to qualify for any European competitions for the fourth season running .   Everton 's Premier League campaign began in August 2013 with Martínez changing their style of play to a possession based , attractive brand of football which initially led to three successive draws to start the season . A first victory came in the next match 1 -- 0 against Chelsea and by Christmas Everton had only suffered one defeat , a run which included a win over Moyes ' Manchester United , the first time the club had tasted success at Old Trafford in 21 years . The team almost went an entire year unbeaten at home but lost 1 -- 0 against Sunderland on Boxing Day . Everton 's progress stalled somewhat in the early part of 2014 with three losses in four games against Liverpool , Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea , before winning seven league games in a row for the first time since 1987 . The spell contained perhaps Everton 's best performance of the season when they defeated Arsenal 3 -- 0 . The streak was ended with a 3 -- 2 home defeat by Crystal Palace , but Everton returned to do the double over Manchester United for the first time since 1969 . Moyes was sacked as their manager a day later . Two defeats in a row after this ended Everton 's Champions League hopes but a finish of 5th in the league table is their highest in five years with Everton qualifying for next season 's Europa League . Martínez utilised the loan market during the season , with Romelu Lukaku ( on loan from Chelsea ) being Everton 's top scorer with 16 goals in all competitions . The emergence of young players such as Ross Barkley , John Stones and summer signing James McCarthy was also a feature of his debut season in charge , with Barkley going on to be selected for England 's World Cup squad . Right back Séamus Coleman was named Everton 's player of the year .   In the cup competitions Everton lost in the sixth round of the FA Cup ( entered at round three ) and the third round of the League Cup ( entered at round two ) .

neg: 1994–95 Blackburn Rovers F.C. season The 1994 -- 95 season was Blackburn Rovers F.C. 's third season in the Premier League , and their third consecutive season in the top division of English football .   The season was marked by the club winning the Premier League title , ending their 81-year run without an English league title . They ended up winning the title by a one-point margin over Manchester United . Rovers led the way for most of the season , but a 2 -- 1 defeat at Kenny Dalglish 's old club Liverpool on the final day of the season briefly appeared to threaten their title hopes . Manchester United however could only draw ( 1 -- 1 ) at West Ham so the league title was back at Blackburn for the first time since 1914 . Jack Walker 's dream had come true : within five years of buying the club , he had taken them from strugglers in the old Second Division to champions of England .   Early exits from the League Cup , FA Cup and UEFA Cup to Liverpool , Newcastle and Trelleborg respectively were frustrating for Rovers in 1994 -- 95 , but turned out for the best as they could concentrate on the league challenge .   Kenny Dalglish won the Premier League Manager of the Year award for leading Blackburn to success , Alan Shearer won both the Golden Boot for contributing 34 of Blackburn 's 80 league goals and also the PFA Players ' Player of the Year award as nominated by his fellow professionals . Graeme Le Saux , Colin Hendry , Tim Sherwood and Shearer all made it into the PFA Team of the Year .

neg: 1983–84 Manchester United F.C. season The 1983 -- 84 season was Manchester United 's 82nd season in the Football League , and their 9th consecutive season in the top division of English football . As FA Cup holders they suffered a shock exit at the hands of Third Division underdogs Bournemouth in the third round , but did reach the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners ' Cup and were narrowly defeated by Juventus . They frequently led the league during the season but eventually finish fourth , having been held to a draw in 14 out of 42 games despite losing just eight times . Perhaps the most memorable game of the season was the European Cup Winners ' Cup quarter-final clash with Barcelona of Spain , a side featuring Diego Maradona . After going 2 -- 0 down in the first leg , United achieved a remarkable 3 -- 0 win in the return leg at Old Trafford .   It was the breakthrough season at the club for young striker Mark Hughes , who scored four times late in the season , and the final season at the club for midfielder Ray Wilkins who exited Old Trafford at the end of the campaign to sign for Milan . Captain Bryan Robson stayed at the club despite an attempt to sign him by Italian side Juventus .   The close season saw the arrival of wingers Gordon Strachan and Jesper Olsen .

neg: 1960–61 Chelsea F.C. season The 1960 -- 61 season was Chelsea Football Club 's 47th of competitive football , and their 35th in the English top flight .   Chelsea 's performances and results were erratic throughout the season , typified by large victories over Arsenal , Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion and heavy defeats against Manchester United , Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley , culminating in a sixth consecutive mid-table finish since their Championship success in 1955 . The club were also victims of an upset in the FA Cup , losing 2 -- 1 at home to Fourth Division side Crewe Alexandra .   The season was nonetheless a watershed in the club 's history ; frustrated at the club 's lack of direction , Chelsea 's star player Jimmy Greaves joined AC Milan at the end of the season . Manager Ted Drake , his position weakened by the Crewe result in particular , would also leave the club early into the next season .   Despite the lack of tangible success , the season produced a series of records . Chelsea scored 98 league goals , a record that stood until Chelsea 's record breaking 2009 -- 10 season and conceded 100 goals -- another club record . Greaves scored 41 league goals , plus another two in the League Cup for a seasonal total of 43 , which has never been bettered by another Chelsea player . Greaves also notched six hat-tricks ( another club record for a single season ) , and during the campaign scored his 100th career league goal ; at the age of 21 , still the youngest ever player to do so .

neg: 1961–62 Manchester United F.C. season The 1961 -- 62 season was Manchester United 's 60th season in the Football League , and their 17th consecutive season in the top division of English football . Unlike the previous season , United declined to enter the Football League Cup , which they continue to decline for the next four seasons .   New to the side for the 1961 -- 62 season was David Herd , who had been the First Division 's second highest goalscorer the previous season . He joined the United ranks for a fee of # 40,000 , and finished the season as the club 's top scorer with 14 goals in the league and 17 in all competitions , although it was a disappointing season for the club as they finished 15th in the First Division .

neg: 1986–87 Manchester United F.C. season The 1986 -- 87 season was Manchester United 's 85th season in the Football League , and their 12th consecutive season in the top division of English football .   The pressure on manager Ron Atkinson after last season 's failed title challenge remained strong after United lost their opening three games of the season , and despite some decent results in the following few weeks , United bowed out of the League Cup in a fourth round replay defeat at Southampton , prompting the dismissal of Atkinson on 6 November 1986 after more than five years in charge .   Alex Ferguson was confirmed as Atkinson 's successor within hours , recruited from Scottish side Aberdeen , where he had enjoyed considerable success in the previous seven years . United recovered well in the league after his appointment and finished 11th , managing to scratch up some impressive results including winning both of their league clashes with Liverpool ( results which helped deprive Kenny Dalglish 's side of the league title ) , a 4 -- 1 home win over Newcastle United on New Year 's Day 1987 , a 2 -- 0 home win over a resurgent Arsenal and a 2 -- 0 win at Old Trafford in the Manchester derby which helped push City towards relegation . Their win at Liverpool also made them the only team to win at Liverpool in the league all season .   However , United were prevented from finishing even higher in the league by a few disappointing results after Ferguson 's arrival , beginning with a 2 -- 0 defeat in their first game under Ferguson at Oxford United , losing both of their clashes with newly promoted Wimbledon , being beaten at Old Trafford by Norwich City just after Christmas and suffering a 4 -- 0 defeat at Tottenham near the end of the season , although by the time of the Tottenham game it was mathematically impossible for United to either win the title or suffer relegation ( there was no prospect of European qualification due to the ongoing ban on English clubs in Europe following the Heysel disaster two years earlier ) . United also failed to win any another away games in the league apart from the visit to Liverpool on Boxing Day .   United 's improvement under Ferguson during the season was achieved without making any major signings , although it was widely expected that he would spend heavily on new players during the 1987 close season . He went on to pay Celtic # 850,000 for high-scoring striker Brian McClair . He strengthened the defence by paying Arsenal # 250,000 for experienced full-back Viv Anderson . Unsuccessful bids were also made for several other players : Ferguson expressed an interest in bringing striker Mark Hateley back to England from Milan , but the player opted to remain overseas and signed for AS Monaco instead . He also made a bid to bring Peter Beardsley back to the club from Newcastle United , but the England international forward instead joined Liverpool for a British record fee . Ferguson was offered the chance to sign Watford winger John Barnes , but declined to make an approach for the player due to his faith in Jesper Olsen in the same position .

neg: Enoch West Enoch James `` Knocker '' West ( 31 March 1886 -- September 1965 ) was an English footballer .   Born in Hucknall Torkard , Nottinghamshire , West started his career for Sheffield United . He was not a success at Bramall Lane , and in 1905 a fee of # 5 was enough to convince the Blades to sell him to Nottingham Forest . In 1910 , he transferred to Manchester United . He helped the club win the 1911 league medal . He scored 80 goals in his Manchester United career , his most successful season being the 1911-12 season when he scored a total of 23 goals ; 17 in the league and six in the FA Cup , although United failed to win either of these competitions .   In 1915 , he was banned for life by the Football Association , along with three other United players and four Liverpool players after being found guilty of match fixing . West protested his innocence , but his ban was not lifted until 1945 . His suspension , which lasted 30 years , was the longest in Football League history . As he was 59 by the time his ban was lifted , he was never involved in football again .   West died in 1965 , at the age of 79 .   Free The Manchester United One , written by Graham Sharpe , was a book written about Enoch West 's attempts to clear his name in connection with the match-fixing scandal , many years after his death .

neg: Phil Jones (footballer, born 1992) Philip Anthony Jones ( born 21 February 1992 ) is an English professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team . Before joining Manchester United , Jones played for Blackburn Rovers at both youth and senior levels . Although primarily a centre back , he has also been used as a right back or defensive midfielder .   Jones has represented England at various levels and is currently a member of the England senior squad . He played for the under-19 team in 2009 before making his debut for the under-21 team in 2010 . He made his debut for the England senior squad on 7 October 2011 .

neg: 2010–11 Aston Villa F.C. season The 2010 -- 11 Aston Villa F.C. season was Aston Villa 's 136th professional season ; their 100th season in the top-flight ; and their 23rd consecutive season in the top flight of English football , the Premier League . It was also the first ( and only ) season under French manager Gérard Houllier , who was appointed after previous boss Martin O'Neill resigned on 9 August 2010 . Despite a generally disappointing season in both the league and cup competitions , a late surge allowed the club to finish in 9th position in the Premier League ( 3 places lower than their 6th-place finish the previous season ) .   Aston Villa once again competed in the UEFA Europa League , marking their 2nd consecutive season in the tournament and 3rd consecutive season in European competition overall . However , after drawing the away fixture , Aston Villa were eliminated for the second consecutive year in the play-off round , and again at the hands of Rapid Vienna .   This season marked the first time that four West Midlands county clubs performed in the Premier League . Aston Villa once again contested the Second City derby with Birmingham City , who remain in the league , alongside Wolverhampton Wanderers , who also avoided relegation . West Bromwich Albion also join them in the league , meaning that Villa will contest a total of six local derbies throughout the duration of the Premier League season . An additional derby game at Birmingham City took place on 1 December 2010 in the Football League Cup .

neg: James Milner James Philip Milner ( born 4 January 1986 ) is an English professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Liverpool . A versatile player , he has been utilised in many different positions such as on the wing , in midfield and most recently at left-back .   Milner 's talent in football , cricket , and long-distance running was recognised at a very young age . He represented his school in these sports and played football for amateur teams from Rawdon and Horsforth . He supported Leeds United from a young age and was a season ticket holder at the club . In 1996 , he joined the Leeds United youth academy . He made his debut for the first team in 2002 aged only 16 and gained prominence as the youngest player to score in the Premier League .   While at Leeds United , he spent time on loan at Swindon Town to gain experience as a first-team player . Following his move to Newcastle United , he was loaned to Aston Villa for a season . He went on to make over 100 appearances for Newcastle , before returning to Aston Villa on a permanent transfer in 2008 . After playing an influential role in Aston Villa 's run to the 2010 League Cup Final and being named 2009 -- 10 PFA Young Player of the Year , Milner joined Manchester City for a reported # 26m transfer fee in 2010 , going on to win the 2011 -- 12 and 2013 -- 14 Premier League titles , 2010 -- 11 FA Cup and 2013 -- 14 League Cup . After five seasons with Manchester City , Milner signed for Liverpool on a free transfer in 2015 .   Milner made a record 46 appearances for the England national under-21 football team , playing at the 2007 and 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championships . He also played 61 appearances for the full English national team , scoring once against Moldova . He was selected for the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup squads , as well as the 2012 and UEFA Euro 2016 UEFA Euro Championships . Milner retired from international football in 2016 .

neg: 1979–80 Manchester United F.C. season The 1979 -- 80 season was Manchester United 's 78th season in the Football League , and their fifth consecutive season in the top division of English football . They finished the season second in the league , just two points behind champions Liverpool , and qualified for the 1980 -- 81 UEFA Cup . It was the first season at the club for new midfielder Ray Wilkins , signed in the 1979 close season for a club record fee of # 750,000 . However , United had gained a reputation for playing generally dull football under Sexton , and by the end of his third season as manager they had still yet to win a major trophy , as Liverpool ruled supreme in the English league .

neg: England 2018 FIFA World Cup bid England 2018 was the Football Association 's unsuccessful bid for the right to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup . FIFA invited bidding countries to bid for either the 2018 or the 2022 finals , or both . The FA initially decided to bid for both , but with the withdrawal of all non-European bids for the 2018 event , this bid , and that of all other European bidding nations , were effectively disqualified from eligibility for the 2022 edition .   England 's bid was managed by England 2018/2022 Bidding Nation Ltd. . This company was established by The FA for the purpose of bringing the World Cup tournament to England for the first time since 1966 . England attempted to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup but lost out to Germany . England hosted the 1966 FIFA World Cup and had the campaign been successful , England would have become the sixth nation to host the World Cup for a second time . It won the right to host Euro ' 96 . Andy Anson , England 2018 Chief Executive , called for humility with England 's bid claiming they `` must not fall victim to arrogance '' and that lessons had been learned from the unsuccessful attempt to host the 2006 competition . Anson stated that `` the tone of this campaign has to be different .

neg: Darlington F.C. Darlington Football Club is an English football club based in Darlington , County Durham . They are members of the and play at Blackwell Meadows .   The club was founded in 1883 , and played its matches at Feethams . The club originally played in regionally organised leagues , and were one of the founding members of the Northern League in 1889 . They were first admitted to the Football League when the Third Division North was formed in 1921 . They won the Third Division North title in 1925 , and their 15th place in the Second Division in 1926 remains their highest ever league finish . After their admission to the League , they spent most of their history in the bottom tier . They won the Third Division North Cup in 1934 , their first victory in nationally organised cup competition . They reached the last 16 of the FA Cup twice , and the quarter-final of the Football League Cup once , in 1968 . In the early 1990s they won successive titles , in the Conference National in 1990 and the Fourth Division in 1991 . In 2011 they won the FA Trophy , defeating Mansfield Town 1 -- 0 at Wembley Stadium .   Darlington moved to the all-seater , 25,000-capacity Darlington Arena in 2003 . The cost of the stadium was a major factor in driving the club into administration . In May 2012 , the club was bought out of a period of administration without entering into a Creditors Voluntary Agreement ( CVA ) . The Football Association ruled that it should be treated as a new club , which required a change of playing name . The name chosen was Darlington 1883 , and that team was placed in the Northern League Division One , the ninth tier of English football , for the 2012 -- 13 season . They won three promotions in four seasons before the FA approved their request to revert to their traditional name .   The club 's main rivals are Hartlepool United . The club 's traditional colours are black and white shirts , black shorts and black and white socks . The club 's crest depicts Locomotion No 1 , referring to the town 's railway history ; as well as a stylised Quaker hat , referring to the religious movement that had a historic influence on the town , and which was the source of the team 's nickname , the Quakers .


query: Alphabet works in Internet technology and life science research.

pos: Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate created in a corporate restructuring on October 2 , 2015 . It is the parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries . The two founders of Google assumed executive roles in the new company , with Larry Page serving as CEO and Sergey Brin as President . The company is based in Mountain View , California .   Alphabet 's portfolio encompasses several industries , including technology , life sciences , investment capital , and research . Some of its subsidiaries include Google , Calico , GV , CapitalG , Verily , Waymo , X , and Google Fiber . Some of the subsidiaries of Alphabet have altered their names since leaving Google -- Google Ventures becoming GV , Google Life Sciences becoming Verily and Google X becoming just X. Following the restructuring Page became CEO of Alphabet while Sundar Pichai took his position as CEO of Google . Shares of Google 's stock have been converted into Alphabet stock , which trade under Google 's former ticker symbols of `` GOOG '' and `` GOOGL '' .   The establishment of Alphabet was prompted by a desire to make the core Google Internet services business `` cleaner and more accountable '' while allowing greater autonomy to group companies that operate in businesses other than Internet services .

neg: Semantic publishing Semantic publishing on the Web , or semantic web publishing , refers to publishing information on the web as documents accompanied by semantic markup . Semantic publication provides a way for computers to understand the structure and even the meaning of the published information , making information search and data integration more efficient .   Although semantic publishing is not specific to the Web , it has been driven by the rising of the semantic web . In the semantic web , published information is accompanied by metadata describing the information , providing a `` semantic '' context .   Although semantic publishing has the potential to change the face of web publishing , acceptance depends on the emergence of compelling applications . Web sites can already be built with all contents in both HTML format and semantic format . RSS1 .0 , uses RDF ( a semantic web standard ) format , although it has become less popular than RSS2 .0 and Atom .   Semantic publishing has the potential to revolutionize scientific publishing . Tim Berners-Lee predicted in 2001 that the semantic web `` will likely profoundly change the very nature of how scientific knowledge is produced and shared , in ways that we can now barely imagine '' . Revisiting the semantic web in 2006 , he and his colleagues believed the semantic web `` could bring about a revolution in how , for example , scientific content is managed throughout its life cycle '' . Researchers could directly self-publish their experiment data in `` semantic '' format on the web . Semantic search engines could then make these data widely available . The W3C interest group in healthcare and life sciences is exploring this idea .

neg: MUMmer MUMmer is a bioinformatics software system for sequence alignment . It is based on the suffix tree data structure and is one of the fastest and most efficient systems available for this task , enabling it to be applied to very long sequences . It has been widely used for comparing different genomes to one another . In recent years it has become a popular algorithm for comparing genome assemblies to one another , which allows scientists to determine how a genome has changed after adding more DNA sequence or after running a different genome assembly program . The acronym `` MUMmer '' comes from `` Maximal Unique Matches '' , or MUMs . The original algorithms in the MUMMER software package were designed by Art Delcher , Simon Kasif and Steven Salzberg . Mummer was the first whole genome comparison system developed in Bioinformatics . It was originally applied to comparison of two related strains of bacteria .   The MUMmer software is open source and can be found at the MUMmer home page . The home page also has links to technical papers describing the system . The system is maintained primarily by Steven Salzberg and Arthur Delcher at Center for Computational Biology at Johns Hopkins University .   MUMmer is a highly cited bioinformatics system in the scientific literature . According to Google Scholar , as of early 2013 the original MUMmer paper ( Delcher et al. , 1999 ) has been cited 691 times ; the MUMmer 2 paper ( Delcher et al. , 2002 ) has been cited 455 times ; and the MUMmer 3.0 article ( Kurtz et al. , 2004 ) has been cited 903 times .

neg: Genome Biology Genome Biology is a fully open access scientific journal that publishes original , peer-reviewed research in genomics . It is published by BioMed Central ( BMC ) , and is currently the BMC journal with the highest impact factor . The journal has an international editorial board of leading researchers .   The details of this journal 's scope and editorial policies are described here . Authors and peer reviewers are asked to disclose competing interests .   The journal is supported in part by advertising .

neg: Animat Animat ( third-person indicative present of the Latin verb animō ) , meaning to `` animate , give or bring life '' .   Animats are artificial animals , a contraction of animal-materials . The term includes physical robots and virtual simulations . Animat research , a subset of Artificial Life studies , has become rather popular since Rodney Brooks ' seminal paper `` Intelligence without representation '' . The word was coined by S.W. Wilson in 1985 ,  in `` Knowledge growth in an artificial animal '' , published in the first Proceedings  of an International Conference on Genetic Algorithms and Their Applications .   An example using the Animat model as proposed by Wilson is discussed at some length in chapter 9 of Stan Franklin 's book , Artificial Minds . In this implementation , the animat is capable of independent learning about its environment through application and evolution of pattern-matching rules called `` taxons '' .   In 2001 Thomas DeMarse performed studies on ` Neurally controlled animat ' . Every two years , the Society of Adaptive Behaviour meets and produces a proceedings on this topic . They also have a journal , Adaptive Behavior .   Alan H Goldstein has proposed that , because nanobiotechnology is in the process of creating real animal-materials , speculative use of this term should be discouraged and its application become purely phenomenological . Based on the Animat Test ( contained in the reference `` I , Nanobot . '' ) any nonbiological material or entity that exhibits the minimum set of behaviors that define a life form is , de facto , an Animat . Goldstein 's basic premise is that in the age of nanobiotechnology it is necessary to follow the chemistry and molecular engineering rather than watching for the emergence of some pre-conceived minimum level of ` intelligence ' such as an artificial neural network capable of adaptive phenomena . Goldstein has cautioned that there is a serious disconnect between the fields of nanobiotechnology and A-life based on profound differences in scientific training , experimental systems , and the different sets of terminology ( jargon ) these two fields have produced . Nanobiotechnologists ( really molecular engineers who work with both biological and nonbiological molecules ) are generally not concerned with complex systems per se ; even when they are building molecular interconnects between such systems , e.g. neuroelectronic splices . A-Life researchers mainly take a systems-level approach . The enormous transformative power of novel molecular engineering has the potential to create Animats , true nonbiological life forms , whose relatively simple behavior would not fit into most standard A-Life paradigms . As a result , Goldstein argues , the first Animats may come into being completely unrecognized by either scientific community .

neg: Scientific Research Publishing Scientific Research Publishing ( SCIRP ) is an academic publisher of peer-reviewed open-access electronic journals , conference proceedings , and scientific anthologies . , it offers 244 English language open access journals in the areas of science , technology , business , economy , and medicine .   The company has been accused of being a predatory open access publisher and of using email spam to solicit papers for submission . In 2014 there was a mass resignation of the editorial board of one of the company 's journals , with the outgoing Editor-in-Chief saying of the publisher `` For them it was only about making money . We were simply their ` front ' . ''

neg: Bionumbers BioNumbers is a free-access database of quantitative data in biology designed to provide the scientific community with access to the large amount of data now generated in the biological literature . This aims to make quantitative values more easily available , to aid fields such as systems biology .   The BioNumbers project performs literature-based curation of various sources . It is a regularly updated online resource that contains > 13,000 entries from ~ 1,000 distinct references . Examples of data include transcription and translation rates , organism and organelle sizes , metabolites concentrations and growth rates . Entries are provided with full reference and details such as measurement method and comments . BioNumbers also publishes a monthly review of a problem in quantitative biology .

neg: Biologist A biologist , is a scientist who has specialized knowledge in the field of biology , the scientific study of life . Biologists involved in fundamental research attempt to explore and further explain the underlying mechanisms that govern the functioning of living matter . Biologists involved in applied research attempt to develop or improve more specific processes and understanding , in fields such as medicine , industry and agriculture .   While `` biologist '' can apply to any scientist studying biology , most biologists research and specialise in specific fields . In this way , biologists investigate large-scale organism interactions ( ecology ) , whole multicellular organisms , organs , tissues , cells , and small-scale cellular and molecular processes . Other biologists study less direct aspects of life , such as phylogeny and evolution .   Biologists conduct research based on the scientific method , to test the validity of a theory , with hypothesis formation , experimentation and documentation of methods and data .   There are many types of biologists . Some work on microorganisms , while others study multicellular organisms . There is much overlap between different fields of biology such as botany , zoology , microbiology , genetics and evolutionary biology , and it is often difficult to classify a biologist as only one of them . Many jobs in biology as a field require an academic degree . A doctorate or its equivalent is generally required to direct independent research , and involves a specialization in a specific area of biology . Many biological scientists work in research and development . Some conduct fundamental research to advance our knowledge of living organisms , including bacteria and other pathogens . This research enhances understanding and adds to the scientific database of literature . Furthermore , it often aids the development of solutions to problems in areas such as human health and the natural environment . These biological scientists mostly work in government , university , and private industry laboratories . Many expand on specialized research that they started in post-graduate qualifications , such as a doctorate .

neg: Alphabet of human thought The alphabet of human thought is a concept originally proposed by Gottfried Leibniz that provides a universal way to represent and analyze ideas and relationships by breaking down their component pieces . All ideas are compounded from a very small number of simple ideas which can be represented by a unique character .

neg: Computational sociology Computational sociology is a branch of sociology that uses computationally intensive methods to analyze and model social phenomena . Using computer simulations , artificial intelligence , complex statistical methods , and analytic approaches like social network analysis , computational sociology develops and tests theories of complex social processes through bottom-up modeling of social interactions .   It involves the understanding of social agents , the interaction among these agents , and the effect of these interactions on the social aggregate . Although the subject matter and methodologies in social science differ from those in natural science or computer science , several of the approaches used in contemporary social simulation originated from fields such as physics and artificial intelligence . Some of the approaches that originated in this field have been imported into the natural sciences , such as measures of network centrality from the fields of social network analysis and network science .   In relevant literature , computational sociology is often related to the study of social complexity . Social complexity concepts such as complex systems , non-linear interconnection among macro and micro process , and emergence , have entered the vocabulary of computational sociology . A practical and well-known example is the construction of a computational model in the form of an `` artificial society '' , by which researchers can analyze the structure of a social system .

neg: Informing science Informing science is a transdiscipline that was established to promote the study of informing processes across a diverse set of academic disciplines , including management information systems , education , business , instructional technology , computer science , communications , psychology , philosophy , library science , information science and many others . Its principal unit of analysis is the informing system , a collection of informers , clients and channels that has been designed or has evolved to serve a particular informing need . The organization created to advance the informing science transdiscipline is the Informing Science Institute ( ISI ) , whose founder , Eli Cohen , proposed the need for field in his article `` Reconceptualizing Information Systems as a Field of the Transdiscipline Informing Science : From Ugly Duckling to Swan '' ( Cohen , 1999 ) . The ISI presently host an annual conference ( Informing Science & Information Technology Education ( InSITE ) ) , publishes seven academic journals , and -- through its Informing Science Press -- has published for dozens of books . Both its journals and books are open access at no cost online , as well as being available for purchase in print form .

neg: DAVID DAVID ( the Database for Annotation , Visualization and Integrated Discovery ) is a free online bioinformatics resource developed by the Laboratory of Immunopathogenesis and Bioinformatics ( LIB ) . All tools in the DAVID Bioinformatics Resources aim to provide functional interpretation of large lists of genes derived from genomic studies , e.g. microarray and proteomics studies . DAVID can be found at http://david.niaid.nih.gov or http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov   The DAVID Bioinformatics Resources consists of the DAVID Knowledgebase and five integrated , web-based functional annotation tool suites : the DAVID Gene Functional Classification Tool , the DAVID Functional Annotation Tool , the DAVID Gene ID Conversion Tool , the DAVID Gene Name Viewer and the DAVID NIAID Pathogen Genome Browser . The expanded DAVID Knowledgebase now integrates almost all major and well-known public bioinformatics resources centralized by the DAVID Gene Concept , a single-linkage method to agglomerate tens of millions of diverse gene/protein identifiers and annotation terms from a variety of public bioinformatics databases . For any uploaded gene list , the DAVID Resources now provides not only the typical gene-term enrichment analysis , but also new tools and functions that allow users to condense large gene lists into gene functional groups , convert between gene/protein identifiers , visualize many-genes-to-many-terms relationships , cluster redundant and heterogeneous terms into groups , search for interesting and related genes or terms , dynamically view genes from their lists on bio-pathways and more .   DAVID 6.8 ( beta ) was released in May 2016 .

neg: Alphabetic Tower Alphabetic Tower is a 130-meter-high structure in Batumi , Georgia . The tower symbolizes the uniqueness of Georgian alphabet and people . The structure combines the design of DNA , in its familiar double helix pattern . Two helix bands rise up the tower holding 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet , each 4 meters tall and made of aluminum .   In the middle of the building is an exposed elevator shaft leading to very the top of the building , in the crown of the structure , where a colossal silver ball is located .

neg: Health informatics Health informatics ( also called health care informatics , healthcare informatics , medical informatics , nursing informatics , clinical informatics , or biomedical informatics ) is informatics in health care . It is a multidisciplinary field that uses health information technology ( HIT ) to improve health care via any combination of higher quality , higher efficiency ( spurring lower cost and thus greater availability ) , and new opportunities . The disciplines involved include information science , computer science , social science , behavioral science , management science , and others . The NLM defines health informatics as `` the interdisciplinary study of the design , development , adoption and application of IT-based innovations in healthcare services delivery , management and planning . '' It deals with the resources , devices , and methods required to optimize the acquisition , storage , retrieval , and use of information in health and biomedicine . Health informatics tools include amongst others computers , clinical guidelines , formal medical terminologies , and information and communication systems . It is applied to the areas of nursing , clinical medicine , dentistry , pharmacy , public health , occupational therapy , physical therapy , biomedical research , and alternative medicine . All of which are designed to improve the overall of effectiveness of patient care delivery by ensuring that the data generated is of a high quality e.g. an mHealth based early warning scorecard .   The international standards on the subject are covered by ICS 35.240.80 in which ISO 27799:2008 is one of the core components .  Molecular bioinformatics and clinical informatics have converged into the field of translational bioinformatics .

neg: Enhanced publication Enhanced publications or enhanced ebooks are a form of electronic publishing for the dissemination and sharing of research outcomes , whose first formal definition can be tracked back to 2009 . As many forms of digital publications , they typically feature a unique identifier ( possibly a persistent identifier ) and descriptive metadata information . Unlike traditional digital publications ( e.g. PDF article ) , enhanced publications are often tailored to serve specific scientific domains and are generally constituted by a set of interconnected parts corresponding to research assets of several kinds ( e.g. datasets , videos , images , stylesheets , services , workflows , databases , presentations ) and to textual descriptions of the research ( e.g. papers , chapters , sections , tables ) . The nature and format of such parts and of the relationships between them , depends on the application domain and may largely vary from case to case .   The main motivations behind enhanced publications are to be found in the limitations of traditional scientific literature to describe the whole context and outcome of a research activity . Their goal is to move `` beyond the simple PDF '' ( FORCE11 initiative ) and support scientists with advanced ICT tools for sharing their research more comprehensively , without losing the narrative spirit of `` the publication '' as dissemination means . This trend is confirmed by the several enhanced publication systems devised in the literature , offering to research communities one or more of the following functionalities : Packaging of related research assets ; Web 2.0 reading capabilities ; Interlinking research outputs ; Re-production and assessment of scientific experiments .

neg: Sergey Brin Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin ( Серге́й Миха́йлович Брин born August 21 , 1973 ) is a Russian American computer scientist , internet entrepreneur , and philanthropist . Together with Larry Page , he co-founded Google . Brin is the President of Google 's parent company Alphabet Inc. .   , Brin is the 13th richest person in the world , with an estimated net worth of US$ 39.8 billion .   Brin immigrated to the United States with his family from the Soviet Union at the age of 6 . He earned his bachelor 's degree at the University of Maryland , following in his father 's and grandfather 's footsteps by studying mathematics , as well as computer science . After graduation , he moved to Stanford University to acquire a PhD in computer science . There he met Page , with whom he later became friends . They crammed their dormitory room with inexpensive computers and applied Brin 's data mining system to build a web search engine . The program became popular at Stanford , and they suspended their PhD studies to start up Google in a rented garage .   The Economist referred to Brin as an `` Enlightenment Man '' , and as someone who believes that `` knowledge is always good , and certainly always better than ignorance '' , a philosophy that is summed up by Google 's mission statement , `` Organize the world 's information and make it universally accessible and useful , '' and unofficial yet sometimes controversial motto , `` Do n't be evil '' .

neg: Molecular Systems Biology Molecular Systems Biology is an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research within systems biology at the molecular level , including genomics , proteomics , metabolomics , microbial systems , the integration of cell signaling and regulatory networks , and synthetic biology .   The journal was published by Nature Publishing Group together with the European Molecular Biology Organization since its launch in March 2005 , until December 2013 , when EMBO press was started .   According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal had a 2014 impact factor of 10.872 , ranking it 10th out of 289 journals in the category `` Biochemistry & Molecular Biology '' . The journals citing Molecular Systems Biology most often were PLoS ONE , BMC Systems Biology , Molecular Systems Biology , PLoS Computational Biology , and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

neg: ICLIP iCLIP ( individual-nucleotide resolution Cross-Linking and ImmunoPrecipitation ) is a method used for identifying protein-RNA interactions . The method uses UV light to covalently bind proteins and RNA molecules . This cross-linking step has generally less background than RNA immunoprecipitation protocols . As with all CLIP methods , iCLIP allows for a very stringent purification of the linked protein-RNA complexes , using immunoprecipitation followed by SDS-PAGE and transfer to nitrocellulose . The radiolabelled protein-RNA complexes are then excised from nitrocellulose , and treated with proteinase to release the RNA , leaving one or two amino acids at the crosslink site of the RNA .   The RNA is then reverse transcribed , causing cDNAs to often truncate at the crosslink site , which is the key insight and unique feature in the development of iCLIP , as it allows identification of the site of RNA-protein interaction at high resolution . Analogous resolution can be obtained with standard HITS-CLIP methods , using the observation that RT that does read through the cross link site has a high error rate , which can be used to deduce the position of the crosslink ( `` Crosslink induced mutation site '' ( CIMS ) analysis ) .   The small amount of resulting cDNAs is then PCR amplified and sequenced using a next-generation sequencing platform . The primer used for reverse transcription can contain a random sequence , which can be used to barcode cDNAs . This helps to identify PCR over-amplification effects in the high-throughput sequencing step and therefore improves the quantification of binding events .

neg: BioSteel BioSteel was a trademark name for a high-strength fiber-based material made of the recombinant spider silk-like protein extracted from the milk of transgenic goats , made by Nexia Biotechnologies , and later by the Randy Lewis lab of the University of Wyoming and Utah State University . It is reportedly 7-10 times as strong as steel if compared for the same weight , and can stretch up to 20 times its unaltered size without losing its strength properties . It also has very high resistance to extreme temperatures , not losing any of its properties within -20 to .   The company had created lines of goats to produce recombinant versions of either the MaSpI ( Major ampullate spidroin I ) or dragline I ( for its superior elasticity , flexibility and strength ) from Nephila clavipes , the golden orb weaver ) or MaSpII ( Major ampullate spidroin 2 or dragline 2 from Nephila clavipes ) dragline proteins in their milk . When the female goats lactate , the milk , containing the recombinant DNA silk , was to be harvested and subjected to chromatographic techniques to purify the recombinant silk proteins .   The purified silk proteins could be dried , dissolved using solvents ( DOPE formation ) and transformed into microfibers using wet-spinning fiber production methods . The spun fibers were reported to have tenacities in the range of 2 - 3 grams/denier and elongation range of 25-45 % . The `` Biosteel biopolymer '' had been transformed into nanofibers and nanomeshes using the electrospinning technique .   Nexia is the only company which has successfully produced fibres from spider silk expressed in goat 's milk . The Lewis lab has produced fibers from recombinant spider silk protein and synthetic spider silk proteins and genetic chimeras produced in both recombinant E. coli and the milk of recombinant goats , however , no one has been able to produce the silk in commercial quantities thus far . The company was founded in 1993 by Dr. Jeffrey Turner and Paul Ballard , and was sold in 2005 to Pharmathene .   In 2009 , two transgenic goats were sold to the Canada Agriculture Museum after Nexia Biotechnologies went bankrupt .   Research has since continued with the help of Randy Lewis , a professor formerly at the University of Wyoming and now at Utah State University . He was also able to successfully breed spider goats in order to create artificial silk . There are now about 30 spider goats at a university-run farm .   Applications of artificial spider silk biopolymers include using it for the coating of all kinds of implants and medical products as well as for artificial ligaments and tendons due to its elastic tendencies and also since it is a natural product which will synthesize well with the body . Furthermore , artificial silk biopolymers can be applicated in personal care products as well as in textile products .

neg: English in computing The English language is sometimes described as the lingua franca of computing . In comparison to other sciences , where Latin and Greek are the principal sources of vocabulary , computer science borrows more extensively from English . Due to the technical limitations of early computers , and the lack of international standards on the Internet , computer users were limited to using English and the Latin alphabet . However , this historical limitation is less present today . Most software products are localized in numerous languages and the use of the Unicode character encoding has resolved problems with non-Latin alphabets . Some limitations have only been changed recently , such as with domain names , which previously allowed only ASCII characters .

neg: EQUATOR Network The EQUATOR ( Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research ) Network is an international initiative aimed at promoting transparent and accurate reporting of health research studies to enhance the value and reliability of medical research literature . The EQUATOR Network was established with the goals of raising awareness of the importance of good reporting of research , assisting in the development , dissemination and implementation of reporting guidelines for different types of study designs , monitoring the status of the quality of reporting of research studies in the health sciences literature , and conducting research relating to issues that impact the quality of reporting of health research studies . The Network acts as an `` umbrella '' organisation , bringing together developers of reporting guidelines , medical journal editors and peer reviewers , research funding bodies , and other key stakeholders with a mutual interest in improving the quality of research publications and research itself .


query: Floyd Mayweather Jr. competed in professional boxing from 1996 to 2015.

pos: Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. ( born Floyd Joy Sinclair ; February 24 , 1977 ) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2015 , and currently works as a boxing promoter . Widely considered to be one of the greatest boxers of all time , undefeated as a professional , and a five-division world champion , Mayweather won fifteen world titles and the lineal championship in four different weight classes ( twice at welterweight ) . As an amateur , he won a bronze medal in the featherweight division at the 1996 Olympics . Mayweather is a two-time winner of The Ring magazine 's Fighter of the Year award ( 1998 and 2007 ) , a three-time winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America ( BWAA ) Fighter of the Year award ( 2007 , 2013 , and 2015 ) , and a six-time winner of the Best Fighter ESPY Award ( 2007 -- 2010 , 2012 -- 2014 ) .   In 2016 , Mayweather was ranked by ESPN as the greatest boxer , pound for pound , of the last 25 years . In the same year , he peaked as BoxRec 's number one fighter of all time , pound for pound , as well as the greatest welterweight of all time . Many sporting news and boxing websites ranked Mayweather as the best boxer in the world , pound for pound , twice in a span of ten years ; including The Ring , Sports Illustrated , ESPN , BoxRec , Fox Sports , and Yahoo! Sports . He is also regarded as the best defensive boxer in the sport , as well as being the most accurate puncher since the existence of CompuBox , having the highest plus -- minus ratio in recorded boxing history . He finished his career with a record of 26 wins without a loss or draw in world title fights ( 10 by KO ) ; 23 wins ( 9 KOs ) in lineal title fights ; 24 wins ( 7 KOs ) against former or current world titlists ; 12 wins ( 3 KOs ) against former or current lineal champions ; and 2 wins ( 1 KO ) against International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees .   In addition to his accomplishments in the ring , Mayweather is well known for being one of the most lucrative pay-per-view ( PPV ) attractions of all time , in any sport . He topped the Forbes and Sports Illustrated lists of the 50 highest-paid athletes of 2012 and 2013 respectively , and the Forbes list again in both 2014 and 2015 , listing him as the highest paid athlete in the world . In 2007 , he founded Mayweather Promotions , his own boxing promotional firm after defecting from Bob Arum 's Top Rank . Mayweather has generated approximately 19.5 million in PPV buys and $ 1.3 billion in revenue throughout his career , surpassing the likes of former top PPV attractions including Mike Tyson , Evander Holyfield , Lennox Lewis , Oscar De La Hoya , and Manny Pacquiao .

neg: Lennox Lewis vs. Tommy Morrison Lennox Lewis vs. Tommy Morrison was a professional boxing match contested on October 7 , 1995 .

neg: Alex de Jesús Alexander `` Alex '' de Jesús ( February 2 , 1983 -- April 3 , 2016 ) was a Puerto Rican professional boxer . As an amateur , de Jesús represented the island of Puerto Rico in international events , including the 2003 Pan American Games , the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Games and the 2004 Summer Olympics . Early in his career , he won seven regional titles : the World Boxing Organization Latino lightweight title , World Boxing Council Caribbean Boxing Federation lightweight title , World Boxing Association Fedecaribe Lightweight title , WBO Latino light welterweight title , WBA Fedecaribe Welterweight title , WBC Latino light welterweight title and the WBA Fedebol light welterweight title .

neg: Al Haymon Alan Haymon ( born April 21 , 1955 )  is an American boxing adviser/manager . He is the adviser to Floyd Mayweather , Jr. and has twice won the Boxing Writers of America Manager of the Year Award .

neg: World championship A world championship is generally an international sports competition open to elite competitors from across the world , representing their nations , and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport or contest .   The title is usually awarded through a combination of specific contests or , less commonly , ranking systems ( e.g. the ICC Test Championship ) , or a combination of the two ( e.g. World Triathlon Championships in Triathlon ) . This determines a ` world champion ' , who or which is commonly considered the best nation , team , individual ( or other entity ) in the world in a particular field , although the vagaries of sport ensure that the competitor recognised at the best in an event is not always the ` world champion ' ( see Underdog ) .   Certain sports do not have a world championship . Instead , they may organise a world cup competition , or they may organize both , for example cycling ( UCI World Championships and UCI World Cups ) ) . Often , the use of the term cup or championship in this sense is just a choice of words . Some sports have multiple champions because of multiple organizations , such as boxing , mixed martial arts and wrestling .   Certain sports do not have a world championship or a world cup as such , but may have one or several world champions . Professional boxing , for example , has several world champions at different weights , but each one of them is decided by a `` title fight '' , not a tournament .   A certain number of sports hold world championships or world cups which are overshadowed , in terms of prestige , by the same events in the Olympic Games , the most prestigious multi-sports event .   Still other sports may or may not have a true world championship but may designate the winners of a domestic competition to be `` world champions . '' This is especially true of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada ; world cups and championships exist in all of the major sports , but the domestic U.S. and Canadian leagues are generally recognized as the world professional championships or the equivalent of a world club championship . ( In American football , although an IFAF World Championship exists , the United States is so far above and beyond the other nations it faces that the winner of the U.S.-based Super Bowl , a competition limited to the 32 teams in the National Football League , is commonly recognized as the world champion . )   Finally , certain professional sports do not have a world championship or world cup , but rather hold a series of events recognised as the elite level in their field ( e.g. tennis has a series of four Grand Slam events recognised as the pinnacle of the game , in addition to key team events , world tour finals and the Olympic Games , but no world championship or world cup ) .

neg: Club fighter A club fighter ( or clubfighter ) is a professional boxer who usually fights locally and has a mediocre record . Club fighters generally are not nationally recognized and have not won any fights that show the ability to win a championship . The term is often used as a pejorative for over-hyped fighters or for older boxers when they begin to decline . For example , Floyd Mayweather Jr. called Arturo Gatti `` a blown-up club fighter '' , even though Gatti was the WBC super lightweight champion at the time .   A club fighter is less respected than a contender , who defeats journeymen and club fighters in order to establish himself as a challenger for a world title . A journeyman is slightly more respected than a club fighter -- often by way of having a superficially good record .   Category : Boxing terminology  Category : Pejorative terms for people

neg: UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Alves UFC Fight Night : Condit vs. Alves ( also known as UFC Fight Night 67 ) was a mixed martial arts event held on May 30 , 2015 at the Goiânia Arena in Goiânia , Brazil .

neg: Asian Amateur Boxing Championships The Asian Amateur Boxing Championships is the highest competition for boxing amateurs in Asia . The first tournament took place in 1963 , hosted by Bangkok , Thailand .

neg: Boxing at the 1998 Asian Games – Men's 67 kg The men 's welterweight boxing competition at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok , Thailand was held from 7 to 17 December at the Impact Arena .   Like all Asian Games boxing events , the competition was a straight single-elimination tournament . This event consisted of 16 boxers . The competition began with the round of 16 on 7 December , where the number of competitors was reduced to 8 , and concluded with the final on 17 December . As there were fewer than 16 boxers in the competition , a number of boxers received a bye through the preliminary round . Both semi-final losers were awarded bronze medals .   All bouts consisted of five three-minute rounds . The boxers receive points for every successful punch they land on their opponent 's head or upper body . The boxer with the most points at the end of the bouts wins . If a boxer is knocked to the ground and can not get up before the referee counts to 10 then the bout is over and the opponent wins .

neg: John David Jackson (boxer) John David Jackson ( born May 17 , 1963 ) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1984 to 1999 , and currently works as a boxing trainer . He won the WBO junior middleweight title in 1988 , making six successful defenses . In 1993 he won the WBA middleweight title , losing in his first defense the following year . Today , Jackson is best known as the trainer for light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev .

neg: Frank Bruno vs. Mike Tyson II Frank Bruno vs. Mike Tyson II , billed as `` The Championship : Part I '' , was professional boxing match contested on March 16 , 1996 for the WBC Heavyweight championship .

neg: Boxing at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Light middleweight The light middleweight class in the boxing at the 1996 Summer Olympics competition was the fourth-heaviest class at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta , Georgia . Light Middleweights were limited to those boxers weighing more than 71 kilograms . The competition in the Alexander Memorial Coliseum started on 1996-07-20 and ended on 1996-08-04 .

neg: Mike Dallas Jr. Michael `` Mike '' Dallas Jr. ( born December 19 , 1986 ) is an American professional boxer .

neg: Hirokuni Moto ( born March 9 , 1970 in Kagoshima ) is a retired male boxer from Japan . He represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta , Georgia , where he lost in the second round of the men 's middleweight division ( -- 75 kg ) by Thailand 's Thamwisai Wangsomnuk .

neg: Mark Coleman Mark Daniel Coleman ( born December 20 , 1964 ) is a retired American mixed martial artist , professional wrestler , former NCAA collegiate wrestler and former Olympic amateur wrestler . Known as The Hammer , he was the UFC 10 and UFC 11 tournament champion , the first UFC Heavyweight Champion , and the Pride Fighting Championships 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix champion . At UFC 82 Coleman was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame . At the age of retirement he was taking 150,000 USD salary per year .   Coleman is credited with proving the ability of wrestlers to dominate in the developing sport of mixed martial arts , and with being one of the first in American MMA to successfully use the strategy that he coined ; ground-and-pound , earning him the distinction as `` The Godfather of Ground & Pound '' .

neg: Roy Jones Jr. Roy Levesta Jones Jr. ( born January 16 , 1969 ) is an American professional boxer , boxing commentator , boxing trainer , rapper , and actor who holds dual American and Russian citizenship . He is a former six-time , four-weight world champion , having held titles at middleweight , super middleweight , light heavyweight , and heavyweight , and is the only boxer in history to start his professional career as a light middleweight and go on to win a heavyweight title . As an amateur he represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics , winning a silver medal in the light middleweight division .   Jones , who is considered by many to be one of the best boxers of all time , pound for pound , left his mark in the sport 's history when he won the WBA heavyweight title in 2003 , becoming the first former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title in 106 years . He also became the undisputed light heavyweight champion in 1999 , by unifying the WBA , WBC , and IBF titles . During his prime , Jones was known for possessing exceptional hand speed , athleticism , movement and reflexes .   The Boxing Writers Association of America ( BWAA ) named Jones as the Fighter of the Decade for the 1990s . He was also named Fighter of the Year for 2003 by the World Boxing Hall of Fame , and is a three-time winner of the Best Boxer ESPY Award ( 1996 , 2000 , and 2003 ) .

neg: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao , billed as The Fight of the Century , or the Battle for Greatness , was a professional boxing match between undefeated five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao . It took place on May 2 , 2015 , at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas , Nevada . Mayweather Jr. won the contest by unanimous decision , with two judges scoring it 116 -- 112 and the other 118 -- 110 . Although the fight was considered to be one of the most anticipated sporting events in history , it was largely considered a letdown by critics and audiences alike upon its broadcast .   Despite predictions that Mayweather -- Pacquiao would be the highest-grossing fight in history as early as 2009 , disagreements between the two professional boxers ' camps on terms for the fight prevented the bout from coming to fruition until 2015 . The failure to arrange the Mayweather -- Pacquiao fight was named the 2010 Event of the Year by The Ring . Serious negotiations were kickstarted in 2014 by an unlikely source : a Hollywood waiter and part-time actor made a key introduction between Pacquiao 's trainer and confidant Freddie Roach and CBS President Les Moonves , who both worked to facilitate the match . By 2015 , negotiations for the fight had been finalized , with all of the major issues that prevented the fight from happening in the past resolved , including purse split , drug testing , and location .   The fight was televised through a pay-per-view ( PPV ) jointly produced by HBO and Showtime , the respective rightsholders of Pacquiao and Mayweather . In the Philippines , the fight was also broadcast in simulcast across three of the country 's major broadcast television networks . The fight was expected to be the most lucrative in the history of professional boxing : with an initial estimate of 4.4 million purchases , the PPV alone broke revenue records in the U.S. with $ 410 million in revenue , making it the highest-grossing PPV in history , surpassing Mayweather -- Álvarez in 2013 . By September 2015 , the figure had been amended to 4.6 million . The broadcast of the fight in the Philippines was watched by nearly half the country 's households . Due to the record high price of the PPV , the fight was also widely broadcast through unauthorized online streams on services such as Periscope .   Despite the large amount of hype that surrounded it , critics felt that the bout itself was disappointing , primarily citing Mayweather 's defense-oriented strategy in the ring and Pacquaio 's difficulty in landing punches on Mayweather . This had led to some critics re-labelling the fight ` Better Never Than Late ' rather than ` The Fight of the Century ' . It was later revealed following the event that Pacquiao had sustained an undisclosed injury to his right shoulder while training , and that while it had healed in time for the fight , he re-injured it during the 4th round . Further controversy emerged when it was alleged that prior to the fight , Mayweather had been administered IV fluids cleared by the United States Anti-Doping Agency through a retroactive `` therapeutic use exemption '' -- an exemption , however , not authorized by the Nevada State Athletic Commission .

neg: List of WBC world champions This is a list of WBC world champions , showing every world champion certificated by the World Boxing Council ( WBC ) . The WBC is one of the four major governing bodies in professional boxing , and certifies world champions in 10 different weight classes . In 1963 , the year of its foundation , the WBC inaugurated titles in all divisions with the exception of light flyweight , super flyweight , super bantamweight , super middleweight and cruiserweight , which were inaugurated in the subsequent decades . The most recent title inaugurated by the WBC is in the minimumweight ( also called strawweight ) division in 1987 .

neg: Emanuel Steward Emanuel `` Manny '' Steward ( July 7 , 1944 -- October 25 , 2012 ) was an American boxer , trainer , and commentator for HBO Boxing . Steward trained 41 world champion fighters throughout his career , most notably Lennox Lewis , Wladimir Klitschko , Thomas Hearns , and Tony Tucker , through the famous Kronk Gym . His heavyweight fighters had a record of 34-2-1 combined in title fights . He was an inductee of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame , and the World Boxing Hall of Fame . Steward was also known for his charity work in Detroit , Michigan , helping endangered youths to attain an education .

neg: Bernard Paul (boxer) Bernard `` Punching Postman '' Paul ( born October 22 , 1965 ) is a Mauritian/British professional light welter/welter/light middleweight boxer of the 1990s and 2000s who won the British Boxing Board of Control ( BBBofC ) Southern ( England ) Area light welterweight title , and Commonwealth light welterweight title , and was a challenger for the World Boxing Organization ( WBO ) Inter-Continental light welterweight title against Jon Thaxton , British Boxing Board of Control ( BBBofC ) British light welterweight title against Mark Winters , and World Boxing Organization ( WBO ) Inter-Continental light welterweight title against Ricky Hatton , his professional fighting weight varied from 138 lb , i.e. light welterweight to 149 +1 / 4 lb , i.e. light middleweight .

neg: World Fighting Alliance The World Fighting Alliance was a mixed martial arts organization based in the United States .   Owned and organized by MMA legend and trainer John Lewis ( Promoter/Match Maker ) and nightclub operator and `` Club Rubber '' promoter John Huntington ( Producer ) along with Lawyer Louis Palazzo ( Investor ) , the WFA began promoting events after the Nevada State Athletic Commission began sanctioning mixed martial arts . The Las Vegas-based promotion , unlike its cross-town rival , the Ultimate Fighting Championship , featured a nightclub environment and a slogan of `` Where the fight club meets the Night Club '' . Sexy and flashy , its events featured several scantily-clad ring girls between rounds and go-go dancers between fights , and plenty of loud music , including guest performers like Ice-T .   However , in an incident at Level 3 which seriously harmed the promotion 's reputation , credentialed photographers were ejected by venue security from their areas and were forced to move to where they could not take acceptable pictures . The inconvenience caused by the ejection was substantial , some writers at the event were forced to track down their photographers and leave their beat , while some offended editors decided to yank coverage of the event altogether . While the difficulties of the last event did not seem to deter the promotion and the promoters promised a Level 4 , Lewis and Huntington did not promote another WFA event since , and the promotion was assumed to be defunct .   After a rise of interest in mixed martial arts in the United States in 2005 , the WFA reemerged with new ownership and began an aggressive program to establish itself as a new major mixed martial arts promotion . The owners , Ross Goodman and Louis Palazzo , both attorneys from Las Vegas , began by signing contracts with several of the biggest free agents on the market , including former UFC middleweight contender and Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland , PRIDE middleweight contender Quinton Jackson , retired UFC and Pancrase champion Bas Rutten , former top-ranked Bantamweight fighter Urijah Faber , and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez . In their recruitment efforts , they also came close to signing Tito Ortiz before he was enticed by an offer from the UFC .   The fruits of their acquisitions culminated in WFA : King of the Streets on July 22 , 2006 , a pay-per-view broadcast event at the Forum in Inglewood , California . The card was headed by a main event of Quinton Jackson vs. Matt Lindland , Jackson 's first fight on American soil since becoming a headliner in PRIDE , and featured famed boxing broadcaster Barry Tompkins and wrestling star Bill Goldberg at the announce desk . Despite heavy expectations and an aggressive marketing campaign , including a pre-event special broadcast on Showtime , the event only attracted a crowd of over 5,000 , with only 2,300 tickets sold . Pay-per-view buys were also low , reportedly under 50,000 .   Despite the disappointing numbers , and rumors of financial troubles , the WFA announced their next event , WFA : King of the Streets II at Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas , Nevada scheduled for December 9 , 2006 . However , the event was then postponed until early 2007 for undisclosed reasons . On November 15 , 2006 , the WFA 's CEO , Jeremy Lappen , sued the WFA and its owners for breach of contract , claiming he has not been paid since June 2006 , a few weeks before King of the Streets . Finally on December 11 , 2006 , Zuffa , the parent company of rival promotion UFC , announced it had acquired select assets of the WFA , including the contracts of WFA fighters . The WFA afterward ceased operations per the sale agreement .   The WFA brand was revived in THQ 's video game UFC Undisputed 2010 , an update to their wildly popular multi-platform MMA video game UFC 2009 Undisputed . In the game 's career mode , which mimics that of an actual MMA fighter , players start off in the WFA and after a certain amount of success are invited to the UFC .