Newport were four points adrift of safety in the fourth tier when Fuchs was named as Dave Hughes’ successor in November last year.
The Austrian guided Newport to survival in League Two, but left the club on the eve of their return for pre-season ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.
The arrival of Mullins means it is the third successive summer that there has been a managerial change at Rodney Parade.
He is also the fourth permanent boss appointed by owner Huw Jenkins since his January 2024 takeover of the club, following Nelson Jardim, Hughes and Fuchs in the hot seat.
Former England Under-21 international Mullins – who also played for Reading, Birmingham City and Notts County – moved into coaching within Watford’s youth system in 2016.
Having managed the Hornets’ under-23s, he twice took temporary charge of Watford’s senior team, following the exits of Quique Sánchez Flores and Nigel Pearson from Vicarage Road.
Mullins joined Colchester United as an assistant in 2020 and – following a stint as interim boss – took permanent charge of the U’s in May 2021, but was sacked less than a year later.
He went on to have a brief stint in charge of the Turks and Caicos Islands national team in 2023 before joining Fulham as under-21 boss later that year.
In his first campaign in charge, Mullins led the young Cottagers to Premier League Cup glory with a 4-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur Under-21s in the final.
Melissa Mullins was submitted on her return to the UFC by Brazilian Bia Mesquita as the British fighter suffered more heartbreak in Las Vegas.
Mullins, 34, was fighting four months after she was in tears on the scales at UFC London having narrowly made the weight.
That hometown fight for Mullins was cancelled when her opponent failed to make weight, and it was another diffcult night for the bantamweight as she was submitted in the first round on Saturday.
Mullins started strongly, pressuring Mesquita with some heavy striking, and she caught her with a big left hand that badly wobbled the Brazilian.
It looked like Mullins would be getting a big win against an undefeated fighter.
Mullins, however, let the contest go to the ground and Mesquita – a world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu – was able to buy time to clear her head before moving herself into an armbar position, forcing Mullins to tap.
Speaking after the loss, Mullins said: “For me I performed like I had never before. Ended up in the game of a female who is the best of what she does.
“I couldn’t be happier with my camp or peformance prior to the result. Hate this game but love fighting.”
Mullins moves to a 7-3 record in the UFC since her debut in 2023.
In the main event of the night, Manuel Kape ended a decade-long wait for revenge when he knocked out Kyoji Horiguchi in the third round of their flyweight contest.
The Angolan-Portuguese, who lost to Horiguchi in 2017, will now be hoping for a title fight against Joshua Van.
“Kyoji’s an amazing fighter, maybe the best fighter I ever fought in my life,” Kape said.
“I want to be like him and if I’m here in this position it’s because of Kyoji.
Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins crashed chest first into the blue padding of the wall as he made one last-ditch effort to save his team from a Dodgers home run. His glove, though, came up empty.
Not even a leaping Mullins, one of baseball’s veteran home-run robbers, could stop Freddie Freeman from doing what the Dodgers first baseman does best: hitting clutch home runs.
Freeman’s two-run home run in the sixth inning Wednesday, set up by Andy Pages’ double an at-bat earlier, lifted the Dodgers to a 5-4 win that allowed them to maintain a season-high nine-game lead over their closest National League West rival, the San Diego Padres (38-35). For the Dodgers (48-27), it was their sixth sweep of the season — all while surviving a shaky start on the mound by the usually unshakable Shohei Ohtani.
“He’s like a lot of our guys — when they feel good, they get their rest, production follows,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Freeman. “He’s been good for quite some time.”
If Ohtani’s left knee inflammation was bothering the four-time MVP, it didn’t seem to pose that great of a threat as he pitched the first four innings, and he pinch-hit in the sixth inning for Miguel Rojas, who had started at designated hitter.
Tampa Bay (41-30) eventually broke through in the fifth inning, scoring four runs on small-ball hits that found just enough grass. No particular pitch seemed particularly off for Ohtani, though the Rays connected more on his four-seam fastball that inning than the others. A bleeding blister that opened up didn’t help either.
“The stuff was good,” Roberts said. “The sweeper wasn’t as lights out, swing and miss as we’ve seen. He still always finds a way to manage innings and make pitches when he needs to, but yeah, I mean, I think that he was still kind of working through some delivery stuff with the knee.”
A handful of unlucky plays in the fifth left the Dodgers vulnerable. Take Mullins’ single to Freeman. Mullins hit the ball hard enough that Freeman, more than a handful of steps away from first base, wouldn’t be able to make the play unassisted. Ohtani tried his hardest to match Mullins’ speed but couldn’t.
“There was a little confusion with the Shohei inning, as far as you know, Freddie going to second, then Shohei thinking that, so giving them an extra out there,” Roberts said.
After a five-hit inning, Ohtani escaped on a bunt that went to Tommy Edman — playing third base in his return from the injured list — who threw to first for the third out. Ohtani’s ERA, after he surrendered a season-worst four earned runs, rose to 1.47 but still is second only to Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski among pitchers with at least 70 innings.
Shohei Ohtani gave up a season-worst four earned runs in the fifth inning Wednesday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“I felt good overall,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s just really that inning, that fifth inning, that I wasn’t really too pleased. But aside from that, the stuff was good and felt pretty good overall.”
Rays starter Shane McClanahan also ran into trouble in the fourth inning. Alex Call singled in Mookie Betts for the first run, then stole second base. Call sprinted home on an Alex Freeland single, his helmet popping off and skidding a couple of feet into the grass as he crossed home.
McClanahan left the game with the bases loaded after the left-hander walked Edman — his only time reaching base in an 0-for-3 day — before Pages ended the inning by lining out softly to short against Casey Legumina.
The Dodgers came up short in another bases-loaded opportunity the next inning, squandering a chance to take the lead. Kyle Tucker pushed one run across on a bases-loaded walk. Yet, with no outs, the next three batters — Call, Dalton Rushing and Freeland — went down in order. The Dodgers finished with 11 runners left on base, which nearly cost them.
Alex Vesia put the potential tying run on base with a walk and spent most of his ninth-inning outing with Tampa Bay’s Austin Slater on second. The Dodgers intentionally walked Yandy Díaz with two outs to face Jonathan Aranda, who earned a walk. With the bases loaded, Vesia struck out Mullins swinging to end the game. It capped a stretch of nine scoreless innings by the bullpen in this series after the unit struggled during the team’s recent trip.
“I put myself into that mess,” Vesia said with a small smile while shaking his head. “Rush and I were just — I was leaning on him, to be honest. He had some good words of encouragement during a couple meetings. Just trust my stuff. I felt like I was nibbling around the edge. Overall, I’ll take it. It was a good win for all of us.”
Injury updates
Teoscar Hernández, out with a hamstring injury, is scheduled to take live batting practice Thursday. A simulated game is also in the works for the 33-year-old outfielder before a rehab game early next week, Roberts said.
Will Smith is unlikely to be reinstated Friday when he is eligible to come off the injured list. The Dodgers still are trying to figure out ways to make sure he doesn’t regress once the catcher comes back from a neck injury. He did a full workout Tuesday.
“I don’t want to put a say on when he’s going to play,” Roberts said. “But each day is getting better.”
