Green Awarded $45,000 in Tyson Case

A New York jury Wednesday awarded boxer Mitch Green $45,000 in the civil lawsuit he filed against former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson over a street brawl in 1988.

The award to Green was for pain and suffering. The jury was unanimous in agreeing that Green was not entitled to any punitive damages in the $25-million lawsuit for alleged assault and battery.

In his lawsuit, Green claimed Tyson beat him outside a leather clothing store in Harlem on Aug. 23, 1988, in a dispute over their 1986 professional bout, which Green lost in a 10-round decision.

The six-person jury in New York State Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Green had provoked Tyson and reduced the initial $100,000 it agreed on by 55%, yielding the $45,000 figure.

After the judge dismissed the jury, Tyson sat calmly while Green began shadow-boxing and flexing his muscles, taunting Tyson.

Tyson and his attorneys left through a side door without commenting on the verdict.

Outside the courthouse, a jubilant Green walked down the steps shouting, “I’m the winner, I whupped him.”

Later, Judge Elliott Wilk signed an order of protection barring Green from going near Tyson for the next 30 days.

Green’s attorney, Alan Rich said, “Mitch has no problem with that, because he has no intention of going near Tyson. It’s like giving away snow in the winter.”

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Heavyweight boxer Andrew Golota, who collapsed in his dressing room after being stopped by Lennox Lewis on Oct. 4, received an injection of the pain-killer lidocaine in his right knee shortly before the match without the knowledge of the New Jersey Athletic Control Board, said promoter Dino Duva, adding he also wasn’t informed.

Golota is undergoing neurological tests at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Duva said it will be a few days before results are known.

College basketball

NCAA investigators are scheduled to visit the University of Rhode Island next week to review the college admissions scores of basketball recruit Lamar Odom.

If investigators verify the above-average score, Odom, now a part-time Rhode Island student, could play for the Rams and Coach Jim Harrick next semester.

Odom, a 6-foot-9 forward from New York, had agreed to study part time the first semester to improve his grades and enroll full time in the winter.

Former Brigham Young Coach Roger Reid is the latest applicant to be interviewed for the coaching vacancy at South Alabama in Mobile. The vacancy was created last week by the resignation of Bill Musselman.

Senior point guard Antoine Hubbard has withdrawn from New Mexico State, a week after being indefinitely suspended from the team after being accused of domestic violence against his live-in girlfriend twice over a two-week period.

Tennis

Martina Hingis made her first appearance in her native Switzerland as the world’s No. 1 player and delighted fans with a 6-3, 6-2 second-round victory over Anne-Gaelle Sidot of France at the $926,250 European Indoor Championships in Zurich.

Earlier, second-ranked and defending champion Jana Novotna recovered from a second-set lapse to earn a 6-0, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2 victory over Japan’s Ai Sugiyama.

Eighth-seeded Tim Henman of Britain moved into the second round of the Lyon Grand Prix tournament in France when Frenchman Guillaume Roux retired trailing, 6-1, 1-0. Wimbledon finalist Cedric Pioline beat fellow Frenchman Sebastian Grosjean, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic pulled off the biggest upset of the ATP Czech Indoor tournament, ousting top-seeded Spaniard Carlos Moya, 6-4, 6-4, in Ostrava.

In another upset, No. 6 Marc Rosset lost to Czech Bohdan Ulihrach, 6-3, 6-2.

In other matches, No. 2 Sergi Bruguera of Spain overcame Petr Luxa of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-3; No. 3 Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia stopped Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 4 Thomas Muster of Austria defeated Czech Petr Kralert, 6-1, 6-3.

Germany’s Boris Becker defeated Italy’s Renzo Furlan, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-3, in a preliminary group match of the $725,000 Marlboro Hong Kong Championships.

Jurisprudence

Nina Shahravan, the former topless dancer who falsely accused two Dallas Cowboy players of sexual assault, has been released from jail after 29 days on good-time credit and was immediately turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for possible deportation back to her native Iran.

A misdemeanor charge of reckless use of a firearm against former Washington Redskin safety Alvin Walton has been dismissed at the request of the prosecutor in Manassas, Va.

Walton had allegedly pulled a handgun from his waistband July 29 after his wife drove her car into their garage, according to court records.

Miscellany

Steve Hoskins rolled a 300 game in the semifinals and then went on to beat Rick Steelsmith, 226-216, in the title match to win the PBA Ebonite Challenge at Rochester, N.Y.

In the semifinals, Hoskins dismissed two-time defending champion Walter Ray Williams Jr., 300-234. He became the 11th professional to roll a perfect game on national television and was awarded a $10,000 check.

Three jockeys sued the California Horse Racing Board over riding suspensions imposed on them.

Rene Douglas and J.C. Gonzalez were suspended for three racing days and Gary Stevens was suspended for five days for an incident in Sunday’s second race at Santa Anita.

Dieter Lindemann and Volker Frischke, two former East German swimming coaches charged with giving anabolic steroids to unwitting teen-age athletes, were fired by the German Swimming Federation.

The two had been given a chance to explain but had not done so, the federation said. Both coaches had been suspended since Sept. 26.

Home Depot, the nation’s largest home-improvement retailer, signed as an American Olympic sponsor through the Summer Games in Athens in 2004.

Details were not released, but sources said the package was worth $50 million to $80 million in cash, products and participation in the Olympic Job Opportunities Program for U.S. athletes.