Tyson-Holyfield Bout Postponed

Mike Tyson postponed his rematch with Evander Holyfield until June 28 after reopening a cut over his left eye that he first injured in sparring last month.

It was the second time Tyson had postponed a fight against Holyfield, and the third time since Tyson was released from prison that he has had to postpone a fight because of illness or injury.

The fight had been scheduled for May 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but promoter Don King postponed it on the recommendation of the plastic surgeon who treated Tyson’s cut.

“What can I do? These things happen,” said Tyson, a mark clearly visible on the left corner of his eye.

“It will set me back in a way as far as my mind-set goes,” he said at a hastily called news conference Tuesday evening. “On the other hand, it’s a blessing in disguise because it gives me time to clean up some other aspects in my life that have been going on.”

Tyson said he first was cut in sparring in Florida on March 17 and the cut was reopened last Wednesday when he resumed sparring, requiring 10-12 stitches. Tyson worked out again Monday, and the cut began bleeding again.

Tyson declined to name the sparring partner who originally caused the injury with a head butt during a session in which Tyson was wearing protective headgear.

“He’ll take it too personal,” Tyson said. “He took it really hard when it happened.”

Tennis

Monica Seles withdrew from the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla., complaining of bronchitis and a 103-degree temperature.

Seles battled similar symptoms at the Family Circle Cup last week, but reached the finals before losing to top-ranked Martina Hingis for the second week in a row.

In addition to Seles, the tournament lost 15th-seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria, who withdrew because of a sprained wrist.

Other seeded players advanced with relative ease, with six of the eight winning in straight sets.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario dropped her first set to Argentina’s Florencia Labat before regrouping and posting a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in just over two hours.

Rain midway through the first set halted top-seeded Michael Chang’s anticipated advance to the second round of the Salem Open in Hong Kong. Chang led wild-card entrant Melvin Tong at the time, 3-0.

Basketball

The University of New Orleans has hired former assistant Joey Stiebing as its coach.

Stiebing, 35, served as an assistant for seven years under Tic Price, who left last month to become Memphis’ coach, and Tim Floyd, who left in 1994 to become coach at Iowa State.

Southland Report

USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, after a meeting with members of the women’s basketball team, said no decision on Coach Fred Williams’ future with the program would be made until next week. Garrett and Lisa Love, an associate athletic director, said the meeting with returning players was part of a “normal process of evaluation.”

UC Irvine has been granted permission by USC to talk to Williams about a coaching vacancy there.

Returning USC safety starter Grant Pearsall suffered a knee ligament tear in a spring football drill Saturday, had surgery and may sit out the 1997 season.

A bill that would have required state agencies to use state real estate whenever possible, drawn with an idea of making UCLA play football in the Coliseum instead of the Rose Bowl, was voted down in committee in Sacramento.

Len Stevens, former basketball coach at Nevada and Washington State, has joined the UC Irvine staff as an assistant.

Miscellany

U.S. Olympic Committee officials said they expected formal applications from Cincinnati, Houston, New York, Seattle and Washington as possible host cities for the 2008 Olympics.

The NCAA narrowed its choices for a new headquarters site to the Kansas City area and Indianapolis.

Jill Dyke and Suzan Toft, playing against each other in match-play golf competition at Stoke-on-Trent, England, had holes in one within seconds of each other on the 116-yard fourth hole, a feat British bookmakers listed at a 100,000,000-1.

Names in the News

Bob Cain, a Detroit Tiger left-hander who pitched to 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel on Aug. 19, 1951, in a stunt dreamed up by St. Louis Brown owner Bill Veeck, died of cancer in Euclid, Ohio, at 72. . . . Quarterback Neil O’Donnell agreed to rework his $4.65-million contract for 1997 to give the New York Jets more room under the salary cap. . . . The Green Bay Packers gave General Manager Ron Wolf a three-year contract extension through 2002 that raises his pay to a reported $1.3 million to $1.4 million a year.