Boxing: Hasim Rahmam will defend his world heavyweight titles in a rematch with Britain's Lennox Lewis in November, Rahman's co-manager said yesterday.
"Rock is excited that the deal is done and he's ready to repeat what he did the first time," co-manager Steve Nelson said. Rahman shocked Lewis with a fifth-round knock-out in South Africa to take away his WBC and IBF crowns last April.
The rematch will be on November 10th or 17th, probably in Las Vegas, Nelson said. Lewis reached agreement for a rematch with Don King, Rahman's promoter, a couple of weeks ago.
Nelson and co-manager Stan Hoffman went to King's Florida home last Thursday and negotiated until coming to terms Saturday morning. Meanwhile Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson will fight Brian Nielsen in Copenhagen on September 8th, Danish promoter Mogens Palle said yesterday.
"I expect to receive the contract signed by Mike Tyson by tomorrow at the latest," Palle said. "We agreed on the final details late last night."
Last week, representatives from US cable television company Showtime, which owns the rights to all Tyson fights, were in Copenhagen to inspect possible venues for the fight and selected Denmark's national stadium Parken.
Danish newspaper strabladet earlier reported that Tyson would get around $5.9 million, while Nielsen, who has a 62-1 record against relatively low-grade opponents, would make around $700,000.
Cycling: Scotland's Alex Coutts, won the first stage of the NCBI Stena Line-sponsored Junior Tour yesterday evening, storming up the Howth Head climb two seconds clear of the rest, reports Shane Stokes.
Coutts recorded a time of 6:44 for the 2.4-mile time trial, 23 seconds faster than the winning time on this stage last year, with VC La Pomme riders Julian Antomarccii second and Phillippe Tesson third.
Fourth place went to Stephen Roche's son Nicolas, riding with the Cote d'Azur team, and who leads the first- year junior classification. Philip Duignan was best of the official Ireland team in eighth. The junior tour continues today with a 46-mile stage based in Skerries and concludes on Sunday.
After the stage Coutts vowed to try and win the race "I am going to try and hold the jersey but it will be difficult."
Golf: The 2002 Masters at Augusta National will be played on a course lengthened by nearly 300 yards.
The biggest change is at the 18th, where the tee is going back between 55 and 60 yards and moved five yards right to make it a sharper dogleg.
In addition, the bunkers on the left of the fairway are being made around 10 per cent bigger and trees will be added to the left of them. Nine holes are being lengthened, seven par fours and the par-five eighth and 13th.
"Our objective is to keep this golf course current," said Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson.
Cricket: Ashes tour vice-captain Adam Gilchrist will skipper Australia in place of the injured Steve Waugh, the team announced yesterday.
Waugh tore a calf muscle in the third Test at Trent Bridge before the world champions romped to a seven-wicket victory to go 3-0 up in the series and retain the Ashes.
Batsman Gilchrist, who is also Australia's wicket-keeper, will be in charge for the fourth Test at Headingley, which starts a week on Thursday.
