Bowe Announces Retirement From Boxing at Age 29

Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe retired Wednesday, ending a sometimes bizarre career that featured a paraglider, a riot, two successful defenses by disqualification and an aborted stint in the Marines.

Bowe, the last undisputed heavyweight champion, will become a goodwill ambassador for HBO’s boxing community service program. He ended his career with a 40-1 record, with 32 knockouts.

“Although my time inside the ring has come to an end, it’s just the start of an exciting and important career for me,” Bowe said.

Bowe, 29, will be remembered as the man who dumped the World Boxing Council championship belt in a London trash can when the WBC demanded he fight Lennox Lewis; and as the man who won his last two fights against Andrew Golota on low-blow disqualifications, one of them touching off a chair-swinging riot in Madison Square Garden.

He will also be remembered for a three-fight series with World Boxing Assn. champion Evander Holyfield in which Bowe first won, then lost his title in a fight interrupted by a paraglider who landed in the ring at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

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WBC heavyweight champion Lewis will defend his title against fellow Briton Henry Akinwande in Atlantic City, N.J., on July 12.

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The Washington Post reported that sources close to former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson said he recently wed Monica Turner, his longtime girlfriend, at her home in Bethesda, Md.

Tennis

Second-seeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden was upset by hard-serving Sandon Stolle of Australia, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, and sixth-seeded Alex O’Brien lost to Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, in the second round of the AT&T; Challenge on clay in Duluth, Ga.

Bjorkman, ranked 22nd in the world, had won 26 matches this season. Stolle was ranked 68th.

Defending champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, facing a player ranked 74th, was defeated 7-5, 6-3, by Petra Langrova of the Czech Republic in the Rexona Cup on clay in Hamburg, Germany.

Two other seeded players were upset: No. 5 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands by Anne Gaelle-Sidot of France, and No. 8 Sandrine Testud of France by Maria Sanchez-Lorenzo of Spain.

In a match delayed more than two hours because of rain, Marc-Kevin Goellner of Germany upset third-seeded Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, 6-3, 6-4, in the BMW Open at Munich. . . . Third-seeded Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic trounced Galo Blanco of Spain, 6-4, 6-0, to lead the way into the quarterfinals of the Paegas Czech Open clay court tournament in Prague. . . . The U.S. Open will award prize money totaling $11,821,890 this year, a record sum representing an increase of 8.54% over last year’s prize pool. . . . Martina Hingis, the world’s No. 1 woman tennis player, has made her first tentative return to training since injuring her knee on a fall from a horse and requiring surgery a week ago.

Jurisprudence

A civil lawsuit by a woman who claims Vancouver Grizzly guard Anthony Peeler bit her and pointed a pistol at her has been moved to St. Louis County Circuit Court. Peeler has denied the allegations of the woman, identified in court records by the initials “A.L.” He is on five years probation because of the 1992 incident after pleading guilty of carrying a concealed weapon, false imprisonment and third-degree assault.

Football

The Dallas Cowboys restructured tight end Jay Novacek’s contract to create room under their salary cap, lowering his base salary of $1.25 million, even though they don’t know whether he’ll play this season.

Baltimore Raven center Wally Williams ruptured his right Achilles’ tendon during a team workout and is expected to be out six months. . . . The Miami Dolphins said wide receiver Daryl Frazier underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove torn cartilage in his left knee. . . . After reviewing game tapes, the NCAA has stripped Hartwick (N.Y.) College running back A.J. Pittorino of the Division III single-game rushing record apparently set against Waynesburg (Pa.) College last season, dropping him from 443 yards to 436 yards, five yards behind the mark of Marietta College’s Dante Brown.

Miscellany

Marty McInnis and Paul Ranheim scored in the final period to lead the United States to a 4-2 victory over Italy and a probable berth in the medal round of the World Hockey Championships in Finland.

China won its second title at the table tennis World Championships, defeating France, 3-1, in the men’s team final in Manchester, England.

Germany made a move in the World Cup soccer qualifying campaign, getting second-half goals from Oliver Bierhoff and Mario Basler in a 2-0 victory over Ukraine in Bremen to climb into second place in Group Nine. Another three-time World Cup winner, Italy, defeated Poland, 3-0, in Naples.

The San Francisco Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee plans to submit the $100,000 needed for an initial application to play host to the 2008 Olympic Games. . . . Also, Osaka and Yokohama submitted their 2008 proposals to Japan’s Olympic Committee.

UCLA has agreed to play in the 1998 Wooden Classic basketball event at the Pond. No date or matchups for the 1998 game have been announced. In this year’s event on Dec. 6 at the Pond, UCLA plays New Mexico and Stanford faces Georgia.

Names in the News

European double sprint champion Irina Privalova will miss the Athens world track and field championships in August because of a leg injury, a Russian athletic federation official said. . . .

Stanford’s 5-foot-10 Brevin Knight won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award for the nation’s outstanding small male senior basketball player. . . . As expected, point guard Baron Davis has signed a letter of intent with UCLA. . . . Basketball Coach Bill Herrion was given a contract extension by Drexel University through 2003.