Sporting smacks

It’s been a year since the controversial kiss of a coach on a player stole the thunder from Spain’s Women’s World Cup victory against England in Australia.

Former Spanish football federation chief Luis Rubiales’s surprise kiss on the lips of Jenni Hermoso during the medal ceremony, viewed live by millions worldwide, cost the 46-year-old his coaching job and position as Hermoso, 34, did not consent to the smooch.

The issue worsened after the world football governing body FIFA suspended him and he was charged with sexual assault along with three of his associates, who allegedly pressured the player to say that the kiss was consensual to kill the scandal.

Rubiales will be tried in February with public prosecutors seeking a punishment of two-and-a-half years in prison for sexual assault and coercion, according to reports.

Meanwhile, mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and organizer Craig Jones of Australia has dethroned the kissing coach as his own version of a stolen kiss recently went viral on social media.

The grappler was promoting his fight in the self-organized Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) MMA competition on 16 August.

During a promotion for the CJI in which he introduced his bigger opponent, the two faced off for a pictorial. Craig then grabbed his rival by the head and planted a kiss on Gabi Garcia’s lips, which was broadcast live.

Garcia recoiled in shock and swatted Jones away as he ran off laughing, New York Post reports.

Footage of Jones’s provocation stirred online outrage, with one calling the kiss a sexual assault and another urging the filing of charges against him.

Nevertheless, the first intergender professional MMA fights pioneered by CGI took place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, with Jones winning over his female Brazilian opponent by submission hold in the second round.

Aside from the Garcia-Jones card, a second man-against-woman match saw Ffion Davies winning in the second round over UFC fighter Mackenzie Dern via armbar submission, according to MMA site Bloody Elbow.

As a consolation for the victim of a stolen kiss and a loss, Garcia, the fight with Jones was the “most watched event in grappling history,” according to Bloody Elbow. She also earned her biggest purse in her pro career with the CGI appearance contract worth more than $200,000, Essentially Sports reports.