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(05/07/07 4:00am)
LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr. wanted to give Oscar De La Hoya a beating. He had to settle for just getting a win.\nMayweather won one of boxing’s richest fights ever Saturday night by using his superb defensive skills and superior speed to take a 12-round split decision and win the WBC 154-pound title in his first fight at that weight.\nThe fight was billed as one that would save boxing, and while it didn’t do that, it was an entertaining battle between two proud champions who both fought hard from the opening bell through the end of the final round.\nThe fight ended with the sellout crowd on its feet roaring and the two fighters trading punches wildly at the final bell. They then stopped and embraced each other.\nMayweather was favored on one scorecard 116-112 and 115-113 on a second. De La Hoya was ahead 115-113 on the third scorecard. The Associated Press had Mayweather winning 116-112.\n“It was easy work for me,” Mayweather said. “He was rough and tough, but he couldn’t beat the best.”\nIn the end, Mayweather was simply faster and more slippery in a bout where neither fighter managed to hurt the other and neither went down.\nStill, De La Hoya did enough to impress at least one judge and thought he did enough to win the fight.\n“I landed the harder, crisper punches,” De La Hoya said. “I felt when I landed my punches I could see I was hurting him. If I hadn’t pressed the fight, there would be no fight.”\nMayweather’s estranged father also thought De La Hoya did enough to win.\n“I thought Oscar won the fight on points, threw more punches and was more aggressive,” said Floyd Mayweather Sr., who used to train De La Hoya. “My son had good defense and caught a lot of his punches, but I still thought Oscar pressed enough to win the fight.”\nRingside punching stats heavily favored Mayweather, crediting him with landing 207 of 481 punches to 122 of 587 for De La Hoya. Mayweather also landed more power punches than De La Hoya, outscoring him 138-82.\nMayweather said before the fight that De La Hoya would fade as the fight went on, and it seemed as though he did. Two judges gave Mayweather four of the last five rounds, making the difference in what turned out to be a closely scored fight.\nThe sellout crowd of 16,200 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena cheered everything De La Hoya did, and booed when the decision was announced. It was the third loss in the last five fights for De La Hoya, who also served as the promoter for the bout.\nDe La Hoya was the aggressor throughout the fight, and he managed to get through Mayweather’s defenses in the early rounds as Mayweather moved away and counterpunched without great effect. Every time Mayweather went near the ropes, De La Hoya tried to trap him there and land a flurry of punches to the body and head.\nDe La Hoya wanted to get Mayweather into a brawl, but he was having no part of it, content to pick his spots and land counterpunches. In the fifth round, however, the fight seemed to shift into a different gear as Mayweather stood his ground and landed some hard combinations to the head.\n“He’s getting tired. He’s getting tired,” Mayweather’s trainer and uncle, Roger Mayweather, told his fighter after the round.\nIt was a night of ebb and flow, with both boxers fighting in flurries and both having their moments. The pro-De La Hoya crowd roared loudly anytime he threw a big punch, while Mayweather smiled at his opponent every time De La Hoya landed a punch that got any reaction from his fans.
(08/31/06 3:59am)
LAS VEGAS -- Some crowded around the ring with cell phone cameras in hand. Others sat at a bar not 20 feet away drinking beer. Still others ignored it all and smoked cigarettes and played slot machines.\nMike Tyson used to put on displays. On this day, he was just on display.\nDown the street, tourists watched lions and dolphins between breaks at the slot machines. In the Aladdin hotel, they didn't need to move from their seats at the bar to see another curiosity in a makeshift ring.\nThe former baddest man on the planet has been reduced to this -- just another freak show on the Las Vegas Strip.\nThe signs said he was in training, and that was enough to lure a few hundred people to the makeshift ring set up just outside the casino's buffet restaurant. Training for what was a question better left unanswered.\nTyson once made $35 million for one fight and more than $300 million in his career before blowing it all. Now he's a casino sideshow, trying to make a few bucks the only way he knows how in a sport he no longer can stand.\n"I truly hate fighting," Tyson said. "I've got a bad taste in my mouth."\nOn this day, Tyson is contrite, seemingly embarrassed his life has been reduced to this. He says he's uncomfortable going out in front of people masquerading as the fighter he once was when he knows it's all really a charade.\nBut he owes his creditors millions, needs the money desperately and took up the casino on its offer to make some.\nSo he gets into the ring to throw a few punches at the mitts of trainer Jeff Fenech as tourists take pictures.\n"I'm looking to make a buck like anyone else," says Tyson.\nThere's talk of a series of three-round exhibition fights to earn that buck. It's a time-honored tradition in boxing, where no one gets hurt and the former champ who is down on his luck gets a small taste of the money he used to make.\nTyson is 40, but he's an old 40. Look past the bizarre tattoo that stretches across the left side of his face and there's a weariness on his face that comes with years of hard fighting and even harder living.\nIt's been 20 years since Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever by knocking out Trevor Berbick. I remember watching him that night and later seeing him walk around the Las Vegas Hilton with the WBC title belt wrapped proudly around his waist.\nHis world quickly became filled with riches, women and fame in such abundance that the one-time street tough from New York had no chance of handling it all. He went to prison for rape only to come out bigger than ever, but his new life spiraled out of control almost as quickly.\nHe doesn't want anybody's sympathy and isn't even sure why they still care. They do, though, because they remember what he once was.\n"I had a great life. I had 20 lives. No way should they be sympathetic to me," Tyson said. "Unfortunately, I'm not a wealthy person."\nHe still manages to drive a BMW, though he's quick to say that in the day he would drive Ferraris and Bentleys. The problem was he would buy several and give them away to the hangers-on that were always around in his prime but were nowhere to be seen on this day.\nHe owned mansions, too, and not just one. When you're heavyweight champion of the world, you think the money will never stop flowing.\n"I blank all that out of my mind," Tyson said. "If I think or dwell on that, I can't be the person I want to be in life."\nWhich is?\n"A simple guy."\nUnfortunately, nothing will ever be simple for Tyson. He's always been tormented by demons he's been either unable or unwilling to control, and he seems as confused over his future as he was in his past.\nHe was embarrassed by his knockout loss to an Irish stiff named Kevin McBride the last time he got into the ring 14 months ago and vows never to fight for real again. But here he is training next to a bank of slot machines trying to get in some kind of shape so he can make a few bucks off of his name.\nIt's sad, but that's the way it is. When I look at Tyson, it's all I can do not to picture him ending up like Joe Louis, who worked as a casino greeter and often was brought out drooling in his wheelchair to ringside so high rollers could say they saw the Brown Bomber.\nPeople loved Louis. For some reason, they're still fascinated with Tyson.\n"People truly believe and support me," he said. "I realized that over time. I don't know if it's for sympathetic reasons or just something that they can relate to me in life."\nTyson seems happy to be talking about it, happy somebody still cares. He doesn't really want to be doing this, but the offer of a free hotel suite and some cash brought him up from Phoenix, where he spends most of his time.\nNow it's showtime, time to walk into the casino and go to work.\n"Life," he says, "has changed so much"
(06/09/05 1:09am)
WASHINGTON -- Kevin McBride barely had a chance to utter what seems to be the only phrase he knows when Mike Tyson told him how it was going to be.\nThis wasn't the new charming Mike Tyson. In fact, it sounded suspiciously like the Iron Mike of old.\n"I'm going to gut you like a fish," Tyson told McBride.\nThose were fighting words, and Tyson will have a chance to back them up when launches the latest comeback of his turbulent career Saturday night at the MCI Center against the unheralded Irish heavyweight.\nTyson hasn't shown in recent years he can fight like he used to. But for a few moments at Wednesday's final pre-fight press conference he sure sounded like he did in the days he was terrorizing the heavyweight \ndivision.\nOf course, it's easy to sound tough when the opponent is McBride, the so-called Clones Colossus who seemed afraid to even be at the press conference, much less in the ring against Tyson.\n"I'm a contender, not a pretender," McBride kept repeating, as if to convince himself that he does have a chance against Tyson in the scheduled 10-round fight.\nA lot of fighters have a chance with the 38-year-old Tyson these days, as Danny Williams found out when he stopped Tyson in their fight last July in Louisville. McBride, who has been going to a hypnotist to get himself ready for the fight, doesn't appear to be one of them, however.\nMcBride got the fight because he was willing to work cheap -- $150,000 to the $5 million Tyson will make -- and because Tyson's handlers figure he'll be easy to hit and go down a lot easier than Williams did in his aborted comeback fight.\nAt the press conference at Howard University, McBride was virtually ignored until the end by a town enjoying its lovefest with Tyson.\nEven the member of the Washington, D.C., boxing commission sitting on the dais, Arnold McKnight, had to tell Tyson that he loved him.\n"I love you too, brother," Tyson replied.\nMcBride might have something to worry about since the same commission appoints the referee and judges for the fight, but few think the judges will have much to do with the outcome anyway. McBride may be big but he's slow and easy to hit, and has never beaten a heavyweight of any consequence.\nAbout the only good thing anybody can say about McBride is that he's 6-foot-5, 275 pounds and holds the Irish heavyweight championship.\n"A tomato can," is how Tyson described him.\nWhile McBride may not be much, Tyson hasn't exactly looked like the baddest man on the planet lately, either.\nHe's been stopped in two of his last three fights, and once again has to be packaged as a reborn fighter who has rededicated himself to his craft to make people believe. He's got a new trainer in Jeff Fenech, says he has stopped smoking marijuana and wants to be the heavyweight champion once again.\n"I'll go back and take what the people owe me," Tyson said.\nTyson was at his amiable best for most of the press conference, posing for pictures, making jokes, hugging the promoter and clapping for all speakers. He even applauded his ex-wife, Monica, who is now serving as a business manager of sort and will get $750,000 herself from the fight as part of Tyson's bankruptcy reorganization plan.\nTyson is making a $5 million purse, but he owes nearly $40 million to various creditors and will likely see only about $250,000 or so after he gets done making payments under a court ordered bankruptcy reorganization plan.\nTyson is in desperate need of a win, both to resolve his financial problems and to keep his career going. His purses are already shrinking from what they used to be, and a loss to another unheralded fighter would likely spell the end of his career.\nThough Tyson has been in tough times lately both in and out of the ring, he still remains as probably the biggest draw in boxing. Washington promoter Marty Wynn said some 13,000 of the 17,300 tickets for the fight have been sold and said he expected to near a sellout by fight time.\nWynn said he had options for Tyson's next two fights, with one scheduled for November assuming Tyson wins.\n"People call this a circus and some reporters call it a fiasco," Tyson said. "But you have to understand that these people aren't here because I'm a circus. They're here because I'm an icon, an international star."\nMcBride apparently thought so as well, saying that it had always been his dream to fight Tyson and now his dream was coming true. That dream actually could have come true last year when McBride was offered the fight at similar money but his manager turned it down because it wasn't enough.\n"When the Tyson fight came up this time I grabbed it with all my hands," McBride said.
(10/10/03 6:26am)
EAGLE, Colo. -- The woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape told police a flirtatious encounter quickly turned ugly when he grabbed her by the neck, bent her over a chair and attacked her, repeatedly asking, "You're not going to tell anybody about this, right?"\nAt a preliminary hearing Thursday to determine whether Bryant will stand trial, Eagle County Sheriff's Detective Doug Winters testified that the 19-year-old woman was raped after agreeing to go to Bryant's suite at the resort where she worked.\nWinters described in graphic detail for a packed courtroom how, according to the woman, an exciting, chance meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers' superstar led to a nightmarish assault that left her shaken and in tears.\nShe said she told Bryant "no" at least twice and he ignored her, pulling her dress up and her underwear down and raping her from behind.\nAt one point, the woman told police, Bryant forced her to face him and say "no" when he asked if she was going to tell anyone. After the attack, Bryant made her kiss his penis, Winters said the woman told investigators.\nBryant, 25, has insisted the sex was consensual. He sat at the defense table staring straight at Winters for much of the hearing, hands folded in front of him. Bryant occasionally clenched his jaw, but showed little other reaction.\nThough the testimony was graphic, the most explosive statement came from Bryant's own defense attorney when she suggested under cross examination that the woman's injuries would also be "consistent with a person who has had sex with three different men in three days."\nThat led an angry Judge Frederick Gannett to empty the courtroom and summon the lawyers to his chambers. Gannett was also upset earlier when defense attorney Pamela Mackey said the woman's name six times when asking questions.\nShe apologized, saying she would write herself a big note not to say it.\n"Or I could get you a big muzzle," Gannett said.\nThe hearing -- expected to last only an afternoon -- was finally adjourned after more than six hours, an indication the trial could be long and laborious for both sides. Gannett said it would continue next Wednesday, and the district attorney's office said Bryant had to appear.\nWinters, the only witness of the afternoon, recounted what the woman told him in an hourlong interview the day after she met Bryant at the resort. It all began with a tour of the hotel June 30 that led to some flirting. She went back to Bryant's room and showed him a tattoo on her ankle, then turned down his request to join him in the hot tub, Winters said.\nHer shift at the front desk was ending and she wanted to go home, he said, and "she was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable."\nWinters said she stood up to leave and Bryant gave her a hug that led to some consensual kissing, Winters said.\nBut when she turned to go, Bryant grabbed her by the neck, pulled up her black dress and raped her against a chair, Winters said. She told investigators she said "no" at least twice, before bursting into tears as the five-minute attack went on.\nBryant faces up to life in prison if convicted of a felony charge of sexual assault. The judge said he would not rule Thursday on whether to proceed to trial.\nLegal experts had expected the defense to waive the hearing and head straight to trial rather than allow prosecutors to lay out their case for the first time -- evidence that will be discussed in public for months.\nBryant wasn't holding her neck so tight she couldn't breathe, Winters said, but enough to control her movement.\n"She was afraid that he was going to choke her," he said.\nAfterward, Bryant told the woman to clean up, Winters said. She fixed her hair, wiped her face and left after again promising to remain silent.\nShe went back to the front desk to finish up her work and finally left the resort with an unidentified bellman, Winters said. She told him what happened and he urged her to report it, later following her home.\nWinters testified that the woman's blood was found on the inside of Bryant's T-shirt, based on DNA tests. The woman told him she had bleeding from the attack, he said.\nThe prosecution also presented photographs showing vaginal injuries and one of a bruise on the woman's jaw, and a rape nurse's statement that her injuries were not consistent with consensual sex.\nMackey, though, suggested Winters had no idea when the bruise occurred, and got him to acknowledge that the woman needed no treatment for injuries when she was examined. She also questioned him on whether he saw marks on her neck when he interviewed her the next day.\n"She talks on how Mr. Kobe Bryant grabbed her neck and choked her," Mackey told Winters. "You looked at her neck to see?"\nWinters said he had, then Mackey asked him if he saw any injuries on her neck.\n"Not from the front, no," he said.\n"Not a red mark?" she asked.\n"That's correct," he said.\n"Not a scratch?"\n"That's correct."\nWinters said the woman seemed serious when he first interviewed her with her parents at their Eagle home.\n"I sensed a crackle in her voice," he said. "She stated that he raped her."\nGannett had rejected defense requests to have the woman testify and to see her medical records.\nThe hearing began as hundreds of reporters and a handful of spectators gathered outside the courthouse to catch a glimpse of Bryant as he arrived with his lawyers in a caravan of three SUVs. He said nothing to the crowd.\nBryant had to take off a necklace and was checked with metal detectors before walking into the courtroom.\nBryant, free on $25,000 bond, had been ordered to appear in court for a bond hearing even if the preliminary hearing was waived. He left the Hawaii training camp of the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday.\nBryant has the right to go to trial within six months of entering a plea, but he could agree to push that back until later, perhaps after the NBA season ends early next summer.
(08/07/03 1:54am)
EAGLE, Colo. -- A day before Kobe Bryant's first scheduled court appearance to acknowledge a sexual assault charge, his lawyers sought to clamp down on apparent information leaks from law enforcement officers.\nAttorneys Hal Haddon and Pamela Mackey asked Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett to schedule a hearing so officers could be questioned under oath about any comments they made, and to punish any that violated an earlier order prohibiting such comments.\nThe motion came on the heels of news reports in the past week that quoted anonymous sources who described reported injuries to Bryant's accuser and the amount of time she spent in Bryant's room. The sources also said Bryant gave inconsistent statements to law enforcement officials.\nEagle County sheriff's department spokeswoman Kim Andree did not return a call seeking comment.\nThe brief was filed Tuesday, one day before Bryant, 24, appeared in court where Gannett advised the NBA player of his rights, the charge against him and his penalty. The Los Angeles Lakers star is free on $25,000 bond.\nBryant is charged with felony sexual assault against a 19-year-old woman who worked at an exclusive resort hotel in nearby Edwards when Bryant stayed there June 30. He has said the sex was consensual.\nIn anticipation of the hearing, a mini-community of satellite trucks and television tents has cropped up across the street from the Eagle County courthouse. Inside, final touches were being put on a security plan never seen before in this mountain community.\nTuesday evening, sheriff's deputies conducted trial runs to prepare for the roughly seven-mile trip from the airport to the courthouse. The mock motorcades included three unmarked SUVs and two people standing in for Bryant and his wife Vanessa.\nAll this, despite the fact that Bryant's appearance is expected to last no more than 10 minutes and is a legal formality.\n"If there's not a change of venue this is just the beginning of the headache," police officer Paul Ramsay said while reviewing security Tuesday.\nBryant hoped to avoid his initial appearance, but Gannett ruled otherwise. His attorneys also lost their battle to keep cameras out of the courtroom.\nNow, Bryant begins the formal part of what could be a long legal fight of a felony charge that has damaged his reputation and could put him in prison.\nLawyers for both sides are trying to keep secret details of the accusations by the hotel worker who came to his room.\nGannett issued a gag order for those involved in the case and sealed police and investigator records. That hasn't stopped some media outlets from quoting sources -- usually unidentified -- about the woman's condition and frame of mind after she left Bryant's room that night.\n"This already extensive media coverage has erupted into an intensive media campaign to expose every detail of the alleged incident," prosecutors wrote in arguing to keep the evidence sealed.\nAuthorities are taking no chances for a hearing that has drawn so much media that seats in the small courtroom had to be rationed and an overflow tent set up outside.\nOfficials plan to clear the courthouse, bring out their only metal detector and post sheriff's deputies everywhere to try to ensure there aren't any problems.\n"We're dealing with a celebrity that's recognized worldwide, and for that reason we have to look at this not as any other case," Deputy District Attorney Greg Crittenden told the judge last week.\nMotels in the town of 3,500 that straddles Interstate 70 about 30 miles from Vail have "No vacancy" signs, and restaurants are doing booming business.\nThis will be a different kind of court for Bryant than the one where he knows all the moves. There will be no cheering spectators. And lawyers will coach Bryant on what to say and how to say it.\nOf course, the stakes are also a lot higher than a Los Angeles Lakers' playoff loss, which reduced Bryant to tears a few months ago. If convicted, he faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation, and a fine of up to $750,000.\nA trial appears inevitable, unless Bryant's attorneys can persuade the judge to throw the case out for lack of evidence. Even if they are successful, the evidence made public at the preliminary hearing will probably further stain the once clean-cut image of one of America's most celebrated athletes.\n"Once the accusation is brought to the police, it's almost impossible to settle it," said Florida attorney Roy Black, who won an acquittal for William Kennedy Smith in a 1991 rape trial. "If he pleads guilty he loses endorsements and his popularity as a player."\nBryant is to begin preseason practice late next month with the Lakers in Hawaii. The judge hasn't restricted his travel.
(08/07/03 1:37am)
EAGLE, Colo. -- NBA superstar Kobe Bryant made his first appearance in court Wednesday on a charge of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old hotel worker.\nFlanked by his attorneys, the 24-year-old Bryant stood quietly as his attorneys waived his right to be formally advised of the felony assault charge. Judge Frederick Gannett set a preliminary hearing for Oct. 9.\nBryant has said he had consensual sex with the woman but is innocent of assault.\nBryant, who is free on $25,000 bond, said virtually nothing during the seven-minute hearing. He left the courthouse immediately and was expected to leave Colorado soon after the court appearance.\nThe hearing was held amid a media frenzy akin to the NBA finals. Hundreds of reporters and photographers swamped this quiet mountain town and the brief hearing involving the five-time All Star was carried live on national cable networks.\nBryant took a private jet to a nearby airport and was driven to the Eagle County courthouse in a sport-utility vehicle. There were scattered cheers and a shout of "Kobe is innocent!" from the crowd after he arrived.\nBryant and defense attorney Pamela Mackey both went through a metal detector before they entered the courtroom.\nOutside the courthouse, a small city of television satellite trucks was set up next to a dozen or so platforms for live TV shots, precisely the type of coverage Bryant hoped to avoid when his attorneys asked Gannett to allow the Los Angeles Lakers star to skip the procedural hearing.\nThe judge denied the request, setting the stage for the circus-like event.\nAt times, preparation for Bryant's arrival looked more like something for a head of state. A media tent was erected outside the courthouse, authorities brought out the county's only metal detector, and sheriff's deputies were called in on overtime to keep order.\nAlong with the journalists came Bryant's fans, people like Eric Tison, 30, who drove three hours from Castle Rock, south of Denver.\n"I hope he's innocent. I'm here to support him as a basketball player," said Tison, wearing a Los Angeles Lakers No. 8 jersey and hoping for an autograph. "What goes on in his personal life now is taking away from the game"
(06/23/03 1:32am)
LOS ANGELES -- His night in the ring was long since over, and Lennox Lewis and his people were still working hard. Vitali Klitschko was tough enough, but now there was some serious explaining to do.\nLewis was still the heavyweight champion, but that and another $10 million or so in his bank account were the only things he could feel good about Saturday night.\nNo matter how hard the Lewis camp tried to spin it, a couple of truths were evident after the bloody brawl that ended prematurely at the Staples Center.\nOne, Lewis was lucky to keep his heavyweight title against a surprisingly effective and tough Klitschko.\nTwo, perhaps at the age of 37 Lewis should take notice of his increasingly wobbly legs and weak chin and finally decide it might be a good time to hang up the gloves.\n"There isn't anything else for me to prove," Lewis said. "I'm going to go back, talk to my colleagues, look at the tape and decide from there."\nWhat he sees on the tape may frighten him.\nKlitschko, who many believed wasn't even the best fighter in his family, rocked Lewis early and often before the ring doctor finally stopped the fight after six rounds because of bad cuts to Klitschko's left eye.\nKlitschko's style may have been amateurish and stilted, but the 6-foot-7 Ukrainian hit Lewis with almost every left hand he threw and had the champion exhausted and baffled.\nThe judges thought Klitschko was getting the better of Lewis in what at times was a wild and bloody brawl. So did the enthusiastic crowd of 15,939, which cheered wildly at every punch the challenger landed.\nThat's why it was hard to listen as Lewis conceded afterward that he won only three of the six rounds but was somehow robbed by the referee himself because he was deprived of a knockout he was sure was coming.\n"I really wish the referee wouldn't have stopped the fight. I wanted to knock him out for real," Lewis said.\nHe wasn't the only one wishing. Klitschko wished ring doctor Paul Wallace hadn't looked at his eye after the sixth round and told the referee to wave the fight to a close.\nWallace, in a somewhat convoluted explanation, said Klitschko's eyelid was closing in such a way that the fighter had to turn his head to see him. The explanation may have been lost in the translation in the corner, but soon Klitschko was rushing around the ring shouting "No, no, no."\n"I see everything, I don't know why he stopped the fight," Klitschko said. "I know if the doctor doesn't stop the fight I win the fight because I want to be world champion."\nIndeed, the heart Klitschko didn't show when he quit after the ninth round because of an injured shoulder against Chris Byrd was in plentiful evidence against Lewis. He took hard lefts and uppercuts from the champion without flinching and was leading 58-56 on all three ringside scorecards when the fight was ended.\nHad the fight continued, it seemed like either fighter could easily have ended it with one or two big punches.\n"I controlled the fight," Klitschko said. "But it was not so easy to fight Lennox. He's good."\nOne look at Klitschko's face was evidence he took as many punches as he gave. The left side was badly bruised under the eye, and blood was trickling down his cheek.\nStill, Klitschko looked like a winner in many ways. He won a lot of fans with a gutty showing, proved he belonged among the heavyweight elite and positioned himself for some big fights down the road.\nOne of those could be a rematch with Lewis, assuming the WBC champion doesn't retire or go after a proposed fight with Roy Jones Jr. in the fall.\n"I hope there will be a rematch," Klitschko said.\nThere would have been an immediate rematch if Klitschko had won because it was in the contract for the fight. Lewis is under no obligation to fight Klitschko again, though he said he might do it.\n"I'm happy to give him a rematch," Lewis said. "Then I'll bust up the other side of his face, too."\nLewis came into the fight with some ready-made excuses. He hadn't fought in a year since stopping Mike Tyson and had only two weeks to adjust to fighting a bigger fighter after his original opponent, Kirk Johnson, was injured. He was also a bit soft around the middle and, at 256 1/2 pounds, the heaviest of his career.\nThe fact remains he is a 37-year-old heavyweight who has been in some wars and may be hearing the clock begin to click. History is not on Lewis' side; in the past only two heavyweight champions retained their titles past age 36.\nThat's what makes Klitschko so eager to get Lewis back into the ring as soon as he can.\n"For Lennox it is a different situation because time works against him," Klitschko said. "Every day Lennox will get one day older"
(01/28/03 6:04am)
America's Olympic leaders thought they had solved their latest crisis, declaring it much ado about nothing.\nMeeting privately two weeks ago to debate accusations of an ethics violation by CEO Lloyd Ward, they emerged with smiles and a plea for unity going into the Athens Olympics.\n"For us, that's the end of it," said Bill Stapleton, U.S. Olympic Committee vice president.\nNot quite.\nStapleton should have known nothing comes easy for an organization that even in good times is often filled with dissent and paralyzed by infighting.\nThings have gotten so bad this time, though, that USOC executives will go before Congress on Tuesday to explain why America's athletes do so well when their leaders seemingly can't even agree on what to have for lunch.\nStill, the intervention of some key senators is being welcomed by many within the organization as the best way to straighten out a quarter-century of raging turf battles.\n"I think a congressional hearing is perhaps the only way out of this," said Bruce Derwin, a former USOC executive board member.\nThe scandal is giving some Olympic sponsors second thoughts and could lead to an overhaul of the committee.\nUSOC president Marty Mankamyer has been asked to resign by some members just nine months into her job. Her predecessor, Sandy Baldwin, resigned in May after admitting she lied about her academic credentials.\nIn the latest flap, the group's executive committee decided Jan. 13 not to discipline Ward over his attempt to help steer Pan American Games business to his brother.\nThe decision touched off a series of resignations, accusations and attempted coups that escalated almost daily.\nIt worried Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska so much that he summoned USOC leaders to Washington to appear before a hearing chaired by Sen. John McCain of Arizona.\n"We may appear to be in costume sometime," Mankamyer insisted, "but it's really a great organization."\nIt may not be the same after Congress finishes examining why the 1978 act that gave the committee control over America's Olympic movement isn't working.\nThe USOC's unwieldy structure includes volunteers on the 22-member executive board and 125-member board of directors. They often clash with paid staffers over the most minute issues.\nThe threat of congressional intervention isn't the only problem facing the organization. Forbes magazine warned recently that the USOC's overhead is too high and it doesn't spend enough money on its programs.\nAnd at least one big sponsor is calling for an accounting of the organization's $125 million annual budget at a time when crucial sponsorships are being solicited.\nIn a letter to the USOC, David D'Alessandro, chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services, said his company could invoke a morals clause to drop its $10 million sponsorship if USOC leaders can't resolve their differences.\n"It is no longer possible to overlook the seemingly nonstop turmoil and controversy that afflict your organization," D'Alessandro wrote.\nTurmoil is a way of life inside the USOC, which has gone through 12 chief executives in its 25-year history and almost as many volunteer leaders.\nIn the last two weeks, though, the charges and countercharges have come so fast they are more difficult to keep track of than cross-country skiers in a snowstorm.\nThe infighting intensified so much that:\n-- Five people involved in the ethics probe of Ward quit in protest.\n-- Some USOC leaders claimed Mankamyer and a USOC staffer conspired to try to get rid of Ward by making too big a deal out of the ethics charges.\n-- The USOC staffer, Pat Rodgers, claimed the head of the USOC ethics board told him to make Ward's ethics problem "go away."\n-- All five USOC vice presidents called on Mankamyer to resign, which she refused to do.\n-- Ward accused Mankamyer of "disparagement and character assassination" and joined the call for her to quit.\nRodgers is among witnesses who will testify at a hearing that will center on the ethics probe of Ward but could become much broader.\nWard's continuing membership in the all-male Augusta National Golf Club -- the subject of an executive board meeting in November -- is also likely to be brought up.\nAll the turmoil inside the USOC doesn't appear to have had much effect on America's performance in the Olympics. The U.S. team won the medal count with 97 at Sydney and had a team-record 34 medals in Salt Lake City.\nStill, some of the athletes at the USOC's training centers in Colorado Springs are wondering just what is going on.\n"I think it's a shame that the problems with management are taking away from the athletes," triathlete Joe Umphenour said.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
SALT LAKE CITY -- They began with a solemn tribute to a tattered flag, then quickly turned to the business of fun. Huge crowds cheered, the home team's athletes soared and Americans watched as never before.\nThe Olympics opened to rave reviews on a weekend where even the weather cooperated, with skies clearing to reveal a picturesque scene of snowy mountains towering over the city's Mormon Temple.\nA $310-million security plan worked almost flawlessly, people partied in the streets and American athletes quickly grabbed a gold and two silver medals in their bid to make this America's Games.\nEven some traffic snarls and a disappointing run on the slopes for an American ski-hopeful couldn't spoil an opening few days that were more spectacular than even the proudest Olympic boosters had hoped.\n"I thought it would be a great big mess. I had my ifs, ands and buts," said Charles Adams of Provo, Utah, his four grandchildren in tow on a downtown street. "It's been great."\nThere was even dancing and drinking, much to the delight of visitors who worried that Salt Lake City would be too staid and its liquor laws too complex.\nAn Olympics that was once mired in scandal and financial turmoil made its debut on time and on budget before a state eager to show the world its good side.\nUtah residents grew increasingly excited in the days before the games, and supermarket kiosks were crowded just before the opening ceremony with $420,000 worth of tickets sold Friday alone.\nThere was little of the jingoism that International Olympic Committee officials had worried so much about. Fans cheered athletes from all countries, though they reserved the most boisterous shouts for Americans.\nWhile athletes were skiing in the nearby mountains and setting new records at the slick speedskating oval, the real action was downtown, where fans jammed Olympic souvenir stores.\nStreets normally deserted on a Sunday were packed with people enjoying the Olympic atmosphere.
(01/30/02 5:52am)
LAS VEGAS -- Mike Tyson was trying his heavyweight best to be contrite and humble. He said he was sorry, and that next time he would learn to control his anger.\nWhen it came time for Nevada boxing regulators to speak their piece, though, Tyson was already out the door.\nThe former heavyweight champion didn't stick around Tuesday to hear the Nevada Athletic Commission reject his bid for a boxing license to fight Lennox Lewis on April 6.\nHe was already out in the parking lot, calling Lewis out.\n"I think Lennox is a coward," Tyson said. "I'm going to fight him any time I see him in the streets."\nLewis might have felt he was in a street fight with Tyson last week in New York during the news conference announcing the fight.\n"The fact is that Mike Tyson bit through my trousers and took a significant piece of flesh out of my thigh," Lewis said Tuesday night in his first public comments about the melee.\nThe commission's 4-1 decision knocked Tyson out of a Nevada fight with Lewis that would have perhaps helped salvage a boxing reputation as tattered as his personal life.\nTyson can still apply for a license elsewhere, and his advisers figure to scramble to keep one of the richest fights in history intact. But even Tyson seemed to realize that he may have sabotaged his chances of ever meeting Lewis in the ring.\n"I didn't think I was going to get licensed, but (adviser) Shelly Finkel was forcing me to come anyway," Tyson said as he headed for a limousine after the hearing.\nLewis said he has not made a decision about the possibility of fighting Tyson outside Nevada.\n"I am still consulting with my attorneys as to the legal consequences should I declare that I will not go forward with the bout," Lewis said. "I am sorry that the situation has not yet been resolved."\nTyson left the hearing minutes before the vote, seemingly tired of being lectured to by commissioners who appeared just as tired of his antics both inside and outside the ring.\nA fight that would have made Tyson more than $20 million and meant millions more to a fragile Las Vegas tourism economy was either dead or headed elsewhere after the commission rejected Tyson's explanations for a number of problems he has had in the last few years.