Riyadh Season Signs Strategic Partnership with MMA

The agreement is part of the Riyadh Season endeavor to host and sponsor prominent international public events and making Riyadh an important location for fighting games in the world - SPA
The agreement is part of the Riyadh Season endeavor to host and sponsor prominent international public events and making Riyadh an important location for fighting games in the world - SPA
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Riyadh Season Signs Strategic Partnership with MMA

The agreement is part of the Riyadh Season endeavor to host and sponsor prominent international public events and making Riyadh an important location for fighting games in the world - SPA
The agreement is part of the Riyadh Season endeavor to host and sponsor prominent international public events and making Riyadh an important location for fighting games in the world - SPA

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Advisor Turki bin Abdulmohsen Al-alsheikh has announced the signing of a long-term strategic agreement between Riyadh Season and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), whereby a new Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will take place during the Riyadh Season 2024-2025.
As per the agreement, Power Slap competitions, another aspect of the UFC brand, will be launched at the event as well, and Riyadh Season will be a sponsor of the scheduled UFC fight, to be held at the Sphere in Las Vegas under the name Riyadh Season Fight, as well as organize yet another UFC fight during the 2024-2025 Riyadh Season, according to SPA.
Al-alsheikh stressed that this agreement is part of the Riyadh Season endeavor to host and sponsor prominent international public events and making Riyadh an important location for fighting games in the world, as well as to diversify the events taking place during the season, in order to gather the largest audience possible from all over the world.
Riyadh Season recently announced that UFC FIGHT NIGHT between champion Khamzat Chimaev and former champion Robert Whittaker will take place as part of the Integrated Martial Arts Championship, which will be held on June 22, 2024, at the Kingdom Arena.



Adopted Wild Boar Threatened with Euthanasia in France

French horse breeder Elodie Cappe walks with "Rillette", a wild boar she rescued as a piglet in 2023 that is now at the center of a legal dispute over the keeping of wild animals in France, at her farm in Chaource, France, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
French horse breeder Elodie Cappe walks with "Rillette", a wild boar she rescued as a piglet in 2023 that is now at the center of a legal dispute over the keeping of wild animals in France, at her farm in Chaource, France, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
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Adopted Wild Boar Threatened with Euthanasia in France

French horse breeder Elodie Cappe walks with "Rillette", a wild boar she rescued as a piglet in 2023 that is now at the center of a legal dispute over the keeping of wild animals in France, at her farm in Chaource, France, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
French horse breeder Elodie Cappe walks with "Rillette", a wild boar she rescued as a piglet in 2023 that is now at the center of a legal dispute over the keeping of wild animals in France, at her farm in Chaource, France, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

Animal rights campaigners in France are fighting to save a wild boar adopted as a piglet by a horse breeder but now threatened with being put down if her owner does not send her to a specialized sanctuary, Reuters reported.
A French court is set to rule in coming days on the fate of "Rillette", who was found as a tiny piglet outside the horse farm of Elodie Cappe in Chaource, central France, in April 2023.
Now a big sow with a bristly brown coat, Rillette strolls around between the horses and dogs on the farm and enthusiastically kicks around a big plastic ball with her snout.
"I do not know how she sees me. Maybe I am her mother, maybe her best friend, or just her protector, but as you can see there is a link of love between us," Cappe said as she hugged Rillette in the hay and kissed her on the snout.
Cappe says Rillette no longer is a wild animal and that two attempts to set her free have failed miserably as the boar immediately ran back towards her owners.
"Rillette has no link whatsoever with her own species. If we release her in the woods, she will sit in middle of the road and run to the first human she sees," she said.
Authorities' attempts to remove the boar on health and safety grounds have whipped up a storm of protest in France.
Last weekend hundreds of people in the area marched behind a "Free Rillette" banner, while animal rights campaigner and movie icon Brigitte Bardot posted on X: "I ask that Rillette be saved...who are the monsters who want to euthanize her?".
Rillette's owner says she will fight to save her. "All will depend on the magistrate's decision, but it could come down to euthanasia, and I will not let that happen," said Cappe, who risks three years in jail for failing to comply.
Cappe said that Rillette - jokingly named after a regional dish of shredded pork - is sterilized and vaccinated and poses no danger to the public as she is confined to the farm.
"Why would they take her away, since she is happy here and does not bother anyone?" she asked.