Bowe Fight Canceled After He Suffers Cut

Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe was cut over his left eye while sparring Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of his scheduled Feb. 5 bout against South Africa’s Francois Botha.

Bowe required 10 stitches to close the cut, which occurred during a sparring session in Washington, D.C., according to a Caesars Palace spokeswoman, who said Bowe won’t be able to resume training for two weeks and will not be able to spar again for six weeks.

A spokesman for the Bowe camp said Tuesday that, as of now, manager Rock Newman’s plans are to reschedule the fight, which was to take place at the Las Vegas resort.

The fight against Botha was to be the first for Bowe since losing his heavyweight titles to Evander Holyfield on Nov. 6. During the Holyfield fight, Bowe suffered several cuts.

Tennis

Defending champion Pete Sampras defeated Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2, in a first-round match in the New South Wales Open at Sydney, Australia.

No. 2-seeded Andrei Medvedev was forced out by a knee injury that could keep him from this year’s first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, which begins Monday.

Doubles star Richey Reneberg turned in a surprise by ousting eighth-seeded Karel Novacek of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-3.

Ivan Lendl easily won a battle between two former top-ranked players when he trounced Mats Wilander of Sweden, 6-2, 6-1. In women’s play, second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina beat Natalia Medvedeva of Ukraine, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, in the first round.

Basketball

California guard K.J. Roberts will likely miss the rest of the season because of a recurring stress fracture in his left foot, Bear Coach Todd Bozeman said. Roberts averaged 11.3 points and 2.2 rebounds this season.

Houston Rocket guard Vernon Maxwell, hospitalized last week because of an irregular heartbeat, rejoined the team for tonight’s game in Boston.

“They took me off medication and they pretty much left it up to me,” Maxwell said. “I wanted to play it safe so I may play (against the Celtics). I’ll go to the shoot-around and see how it goes.”

Charlie Ward’s return to the basketball court has been put on hold for at least a few days.

The Heisman Trophy winner from Florida State was expected to be back for Tuesday night’s game at Maryland, but Coach Pat Kennedy said the point guard will rest a few more days.

Speedskating

Kristen Talbot of Schuylerville, N.Y., a longshot medal hopeful at next month’s Lillehammer Olympics, underwent a 40-minute operation to donate bone marrow to save her brother’s life.

Dr. Richard Jones, who performed the bone marrow transplant at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, said donating marrow may slow an athlete whose success hinges on fractions of a second.

The one pint of marrow taken from Talbot was about 2% of the marrow in her bones, equivalent to the amount of blood taken during routine donations, Jones said.

Talbot was the fourth and final qualifier for the 500 meters in the Olympic speedskating trials last Saturday at Milwaukee.

Miscellany

Randy Walkowe, an AIDS-infected teen-ager who was a regular in the Michigan locker room and traveled with the Wolverines when they went to the NCAA Final Four last season, died at his home Monday. He was 13.

Walkowe, a hemophiliac, learned he had AIDS in 1987 after he received a tainted blood transfusion.

His mother, Sandy, said she believes her son’s involvement with the basketball team added a year to his life.

Paul Mellon, owner of Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero, won the Eclipse Award of Merit for his contributions to thoroughbred racing. When Sea Hero won a $1-million bonus for collecting the most points from the Triple Crown races, Mellon donated the money to the Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation.

Steve Carlton is the overwhelming favorite and Orlando Cepeda the sentimental favorite as the Baseball Hall of Fame voting is announced today.

Don Sutton and Phil Niekro, both 300-game winners, and Graig Nettles, Ron Guidry and Bruce Sutter are among the other candidates.

Names in the News

Jeff Martin scored 20 point to help the American Conference to a 119-108 victory over the National Conference in the Continental Basketball Asnn. All-Star game at Fort Wayne, Ind. . . . Center Ted Drury, who fractured his left kneecap Dec. 22 while playing for the Calgary Flames, will be re-examined today to determine whether his knee will heal in time for him to play for the U.S. Olympic team in Lillehammer. . . . Outfielder Orlando Merced agreed to a one-year, $1,485,000 contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, more than quadrupling his salary. . . . Outfielder R.J. Reynolds agreed to a minor-league contract with the Cincinnati Reds. . . . The funeral for former National League President Chub Feeney will take place in San Francisco and will be private, baseball officials said.