SPORTS DIGEST:Lamont Peterson will almost certainly be stripped of the world titles he took from Amir Khan last December and their rematch in Las Vegas on May 19th will probably be scrapped, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission's executive director, Keith Kizer.
Khan is likely to fight for the vacated titles against an opponent yet to be named, possibly in Las Vegas on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s World Boxing Organisation welterweight title fight with Tim Bradley at the MGM Grand on June 9th. When Peterson’s team flew from Washington to Las Vegas on Tuesday it was to argue that the presence of a banned synthetic substance resulted from the “inadvertent” use of pellets designed to counter low testosterone levels. Kizer said beforehand, it would take some “really enlightening” new evidence to persuade the commission that Peterson should be granted a licence to box in Nevada.
The drama reached another high point yesterday when the commission released details that Peterson tested positive before the December fight.
Opportunity knocks for lesser lights
There is only one European Tour event all year with less money on offer than this week’s Madeira Islands Open – but victory would still mean an awful lot to every player teeing off.
While first prize at Sawgrass is just over €1.2 million the total purse at Santo da Serra is less than €685,000 and the winner’s share €112,000. But with the big names all away – England’s 21-year-old Tommy Fleetwood is the highest-ranked player at 192nd in the world – opportunity knocks.
Take Phillip Archer. The 40-year-old from Warrington thought of giving up the game at the end of last season, but won a Challenge Tour event in Colombia in March and leads that tour’s Order of Merit.
Another to watch out for is Bradley Dredge, who shot a 60 on this very course back in 2003, two years before he won the World Cup with Stephen Dodd – but Dredge is now ranked 319th in the world.
There are three Irish players in the field – Simon Thornton, Challenge Tour player Colm Moriarty and club professional Dara Ford, who is based in Madeira, and the recipient of a sponsor’s invite.
Madrid set to press ahead with bid
Madrid will not pull out of the bidding process for the 2020 Olympics despite Spain tipping into recession late last month, a senior bid official said.
Spain is under intense pressure from its European peers to streamline the euro zone’s fourth largest economy, reduce a huge public deficit and fix a banking system battered by a four-year economic slump and a burst property bubble.
Italian capital Rome had also started bidding for the 2020 Olympics before their government pulled the plug on the candidacy in February, saying it could not provide financial guarantees as they worked towards heading off their own debt crisis.
“Madrid has absolutely no intention of backing out of bidding for the Games,” the bid’s CEO of international relations Theresa Zabell said. “We will be in Buenos Aires next year with a strong bid.”
The International Olympic Committee will elect the winning host bid in September 2013 in Argentina, with Istanbul, Azeri capital Baku, Qatar’s Doha and Tokyo also in the running.
Blanket ban could lead to civil war in British boxing
British boxing stands on the brink of a damaging civil war after the Board of Control’s decision to ban any licence- holder involved in the unsanctioned heavyweight fight between David Haye and Dereck Chisora scheduled for July 14th.
As neither fighter has a board licence, the promoter Frank Warren drafted in the Luxembourg Boxing Federation to supervise the show, and the conflict has now reached another level.
The implications are wide-ranging because the term licence-holder refers to everyone from promoters, managers, boxers and trainers through to officials, including referees, judges and timekeepers.
Effectively anyone involved in this promotion will be unable to work at any show sanctioned by the British board.
If Warren were to decide to ignore the board’s decision he could continue to promote under a foreign licence and this clearly would create a schism in the sport in Britain. Whether it would lead to a breakaway organisation may be determined further down the line by lawyers. Guardian Service
Read moves into contention with back-to-back wins
American skipper Ken Read threw the Volvo Ocean Race wide open last night after guiding his boat Puma to a second successive leg.
Read continued the form which earned his US-led boat victory in the treacherous fifth leg through the Southern Ocean with a win in the 4,800-nautical mile sixth stage from Itajai in Brazil to Miami. With Spanish pace-setters Telefonica struggling to rediscover their early form, Read could yet snatch ocean sailing’s most prestigious trophy.
Puma took their overall points tally to 147, two behind Iker Martinez’s crew although the Spaniards will pick up 15 points if they finish fourth as predicted.
Camper were heading for second place with France’s Groupama in third.
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