Leonard Considering a Third Comeback

Sugar Ray Leonard, 40 years old and five years removed from his last fight, said Thursday he might come out of retirement to fight Hector “Macho” Camacho.

“There’s no question that both fighters are interested,” said John Cirillo, head of boxing at Madison Square Garden in New York. “And I don’t see any reason for a smoke screen if Ray isn’t coming back.”

Leonard, one of boxing’s most charismatic personalities, has retired three times. He had a detached retina in 1981 and has not fought since losing a 12-round decision to Terry Norris at Madison Square Garden in 1991.

Asked if he was considering coming back for financial reasons, Leonard laughed and said: “I paid my taxes.

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The New York State Athletic Commission filed charges Thursday seeking revocation of fight manager Lou Duva’s license and forfeiture of all or part of the $1 million Riddick Bowe was to be paid for his heavyweight fight against Andrew Golota.

The commission said the charges against Duva involve his protest of referee Wayne Kelly’s disqualification of Golota, which the commission alleged including charging and bumping the official.

Auto Racing

Dale Earnhardt, overcoming the broken collar bone and sternum from a race crash last weekend, qualified for Saturday’s Brickyard 400, but Jeff Gordon won his second consecutive Indy pole with a record lap of 176.419 mph at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Randy LaJoie gained the pole position for tonight’s Kroger 200 Busch Grand National race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Pro Basketball

The Lakers announced their exhibition schedule Thursday. The Lakers will play the Denver Nuggets in Hawaii on Oct. 10 and 12, the Dallas Mavericks at Fresno State on Oct. 16, play host to the Phoenix Suns, Washington Wizards (formerly Bullets) and Philadelphia 76ers as part of the Forum Shootout Oct. 18 and 19, the Houston Rockets at San Diego, the Suns in Tucson, Ariz. and Seattle SuperSonics at Boise State.

New York Knicks top draft pick John Wallace was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct Wednesday night for playing his car radio too loudly during a visit to his hometown.

The Cleveland Cavaliers signed Lithuanian center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, their first-round draft pick, to a three-year deal worth approximately $2.5 million.

Frank Brickowski, 37, signed a one-year deal reportedly worth $1.7 million with the Boston Celtics.

Baseball

Houston Astro owner Drayton McLane said he is not satisfied with a stadium proposal made by Harris County to convince him not to sell the baseball team.

Names in the News

Mark Johnson, the leading scorer on the 1980 gold medal U.S. Olympic hockey team, was hired as an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin.

Morgan Wootten, legendary high school basketball coach at DeMatha in suburban Washington, was upgraded to good condition, three weeks after liver transplant surgery at a Baltimore hospital.

UC Irvine basketball Coach Rod Baker, who interviewed this week for the vacant head coaching job at the University of Maine, withdrew his name from consideration.