Boxing

Heavyweight Jeremy Williams of Long Beach almost knocked Mark Young out of the ring, dropping him him with a left hook 2:31 into the sixth round of a scheduled 10-round, nontitle fight at Atlantic City, N.J.

Williams, 21, weighed 217 pounds for the fight at Merv Griffin’s Resorts Hotel and Casino and improved to 12-0 with nine knockouts. Young, 231, dropped to 13-20-1.

Motor Sports

Cory McClenathan of Anaheim led the quickest qualifying top fuel field in NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series history Saturday at the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Topeka, Kan.

McClenathan covered the quarter mile in 4.789 seconds at 285.44 m.p.h. It took a 4.934-second run or better just to make the the 16-car field for the finals. The previous quickest field came earlier this year at Houston where the bump was 4.951.

Chuck Etchells of Putnam, Conn., used the first four-second run in Funny Car history to claim the No. 1 spot. Etchells had a 4.987 at 296.73. Warren Johnson of Duluth, Ga., was the pro stock leader at 7.094 at 195.35, both track records.