Lightning Strikes Title Unification Plans

Steve (Lightning) Little floored champion Michael Nunn in the first round and was best in a subsequent war of attrition Saturday night in winning the World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight title in London.

Little, who hadn’t fought in more than a year, upset the plans for a Nunn-Nigel Benn unification bout this summer.

Benn followed the script, retaining his World Boxing Council title with a unanimous decision over Henry Wharton.

Surprised by the challenger’s aggressiveness early on, Nunn wore down his opponent in the middle rounds, but Little found a late second wind that secured him the points in a split decision.

“I was trained to pressure him,” Little said. “I put the pressure on and worked the hands.”

The judges scored it 115-112, 116-114, 113-115, in Little’s favor.

Little has only five knockouts on the way to a 22-12-2 record. Nunn is 42-2 with 27 knockouts.

Benn is 38-2-1 with 32 knockouts. Wharton is 17-1-1 with 12 knockouts.

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Orlando Canizales, fighting off the hard punches and rowdy San Jose crowd sentiment of hometown challenger Gerardo Martinez, scored a fourth-round technical knockout to retain his International Boxing Federation bantamweight title for the 14th consecutive defense.

Canizales of Laredo, Tex., is 36-1-1 with 27 knockouts. Martinez is 29-2.

Golf

George Archer’s second-round 63 at Sarasota, Fla., gave him a two-day total of 13 under par and the individual lead at the Chrysler Cup.

But it wasn’t enough to offset a balanced International team, which held a 10-shot lead after two rounds in its quest to end United States’ domination. Gary Player and Simon Hobday of South Africa led the international scoring with 67s.

Peter Senior had a 72 and his nine-under 207 gave him a one-shot lead over three players after the third round of the $216,000 Canon Challenge tournament at Sydney, Australia.

Barry Lane of Great Britain took a one-stroke lead over four players in the Hong Kong Open by firing a four-under 67 in the third round for a 205 total.

Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain and Carl Mason of England fought strong winds and driving rain to shoot 71s and stay tied at eight-under 208, good for a one-stroke lead after the third round of the $450,000 Andalusian Open at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

Tennis

Top-seeded Michael Stich advanced to the final of the Rotterdam Indoor tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Paul Haarhuis and will play Wayne Ferreira, an upset winner over second-seeded Goran Ivanisevic, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

The doubles entry of John McEnroe and Boris Becker was beaten by the unseeded pair of Jeremy Bates and Jonas Bjorkman, 6-4, 6-4.

In his first tournament in his comeback from wrist surgery, Andre Agassi, the defending champion, continued his dominance at Scottsdale, Ariz., by routing Karsten Braasch, 6-1, 6-4, to advance to the final of the $288,750 Nuveen championships.

Agassi will play Luiz Mattar of Brazil, who upset second-seeded MaliVai Washington, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Auto Racing

Terry Labonte held off Harry Gant to win the Goodwrench 200 race in the Busch Grand National series by 0.25 seconds at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham.

Labonte, driving a Chevrolet, earned $15,320 and averaged 100.161 m.p.h. on the 1.017-mile oval.

Tommy Kendall of La Canada edged fellow Ford Mustang drivers Dorsey Schroeder and Ron Fellows to win the pole position for today’s Grand Prix of Miami.

Pat Dean, a mechanic for Las Vegas casino owner Michael Gaughan, won the San Felipe, Mexico, off-road race in a Chenowth Porsche 3.5-liter desert car. Dean completed the 250-mile race over rocks and sand in 4 hours 16 minutes 21 seconds.

Miscellany

Walter Dawkins and Geoff Jenkins each had four hits and Jason Brown hit a three-run homer for his first hit at USC as the Trojans beat visiting Arizona, 15-4, in a Pacific-10 Conference Southern Division game. Freshman right-hander Scott Henderson (1-0) pitched into the sixth inning for the Trojans, giving up two runs on four hits while walking two and striking out five.

American Michael Johnson won the 400 meters in 45.17 seconds, his 36th consecutive victory in the event, and Britain’s Colin Jackson won the 60-meter hurdles in 7.38 seconds at an indoor meet at Birmingham, England.

Victor Aristizabal scored with three minutes left to give Colombia a 2-2 tie with South Korea in an exhibition between World Cup soccer teams at East Los Angeles College.

Names in the News

Guard Chris Hinton of the Atlanta Falcons says he has agreed in principle to a three-year contract with the Minnesota Vikings, a deal believed to be worth $7.5 million. . . . Fred Lebow, director of the New York City Marathon, was released from a hospital after his first round of chemotherapy treatments for brain cancer. . . . The International Swimming Federation banned Zhong Weiyue of China from international competition for two years and invalidated his world records in the 50-meter and 100-meter butterfly as the penalty for failing a drug test. . . . Bryan Goebel earned $43,000 for winning the Professional Bowlers Assn. event at Peoria, Ill., with a 296-280 victory over Norm Duke. . . . Jorge Solari of Argentina was hired to coach the World Cup-bound Saudi Arabian national soccer team. . . . Glen Rice has agreed to a five-year contract with the Miami Heat that will pay him an estimated $4.3 million a season.