Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula and Welcome to Season 05 Episode 73 of Breakfast Bites by TeivovoSports.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news on a cloudy, bright and warm Friday morning 16 June 2023.

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

In rugby league: Latrell Mitchell has been ruled out of Origin II at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Wednesday 21 June, with his ongoing calf injury and replaced in the starting side by Stephen Crichton. Bulldogs halfback Matt Burton, who made his NSW Blues debut last year is the now the 18th player.

Maroons Assistant Coach Cameron Smith has opened up on why they picked Cowboys gun Jeremiah Nanai over veteran backrower Felise Kaufusi. Both players featured in Queensland’s 2022 series win.

Kaufusi started this year with a bang, but has since been hampered by suspensions. Cameron Smith explained it was a “lack of football” that saw Kaufusi out of the Maroons team.

“There’s just no other reason that you can come up with to say why he’s not here, he just hasn’t played enough games,” Smith said on SEN.

In rugby: Our World Famous Tips for the Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals this weekend in Aotearoa: The Blues to sunburn the Crusaders in the heat of Christchurch tomorrow night and the Chiefs to chill out the Brumbies in funky Hamilton on Saturday to set up an all-Kiwi grand final again!

In Football: A moment of Messi Magic from Inter Miami and global superstar Lionel after only 79 seconds, opened the scoring for 2022 World Cup Champions Argentina who went on to claim a 2-0 win over the Socceroos, in front of a sold-out crowd of nearly 70,000 fans – not in Sydney or in Argentina, but in Beijing yesterday.

The South American giants showed exactly why they are world champions, playing with freedom and dazzling style at times with exceptional individual quality, and they have now lost just once in 46 games, a stunning run dating back to 2019.

As for why the game was played in Beijing, call it sports washing or whatever, Argentina’s football association pocketed US$100Million from the game.

In SportsBiz: The total prize pool for Wimbledon will rise 11% from last year to a record US$56.5Million with Singles Champs winning US$3Million each – Men ans Women, while those losing in the first round get paid US$69,500 each, to go home.

Wimbledon’s prize pool now compares more favorably to other tennis Grand Slams. The just-completed French Open 2023 awarded a total of US$54.6M, while the 2023 Australian Open paid out US$52.8M earlier this year.

Last year’s US Open featured a prize pool of US$60.1 million.

In boxing: UFC superstar Conor McGregor made headlines during Game 4 of the NBA Finals last weekend, when he sent Burnie - the Miami Heat mascot to the hospital with a punch.

Their mid-court “stoush” was part of an advertisement featuring a staged physical altercation between the mad Irishman and the mascot, after which McGregor would spray him with his pain relief spray for him to heal.

But McGregor got a bit carried away. The spray didn’t exactly work and the mascot was rushed to hospital where they gave him real pain medication.

“All is well,” McGregor said Tuesday, according to TMZ. “I spent a lot of time with him afterwards, we talked it over, everything is great. It was all part of the show.”

What else can we say except, “Ola, ole hombre, or as they say in Irish - cheers”!

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

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

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