Holyfield Says He Would Fight Tyson

Evander Holyfield says he has forgiven Mike Tyson for biting off part of his ear and would not rule out fighting him again.

“If time permits,” Holyfield said when asked Tuesday in Hamburg, Germany, about a possible rematch.

Tyson bit off a piece of Holyfield’s right ear and also bit the left ear in the third round of a title rematch June 28 and was disqualified, then later banned from boxing indefinitely, the ban subject to yearly review.

Holyfield said he planned to retire in 1999 or 2000.

“Right now we are looking for the best fight,” he said in answer to a question about his next possible opponent.

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Lennox Lewis wanted a heavyweight unification match with Holyfield for his next fight but negotiations broke down. So instead, Lewis will defend his World Boxing Council title against Shannon Briggs on March 28 at Atlantic City, N.J.

Former heavyweight boxer Tommy Morrison was sentenced to six months in jail after being found guilty in a drunken-driving case at Jay, Okla.

Baseball

An investment group headed by Dallas Star owner Tom Hicks has ironed out details to buy the Texas Rangers, a source told The Associated Press.

The Rangers, meanwhile, scheduled a “major news conference” for this afternoon.

Hicks, a billionaire leveraged-buyout specialist, was reported to be near a $150-million purchase of the Rangers.

Any deal would require approval by three-fourths of the American League owners and a majority of the National League owners. The approval process would take at least six to nine months.

The Rangers are owned by a group of 28 limited partners, including Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Many of the investors have never been revealed.

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Costa Rica and Nicaragua have offered asylum to Cuban pitcher Orlando Hernandez and six others who defected with him to the Bahamas, player agent Joe Cubas said.

Bahamian officials said Hernandez and another defecting player, catcher Alberto Hernandez, would have to leave Nassau by today. The two players, who are not related, have been there since they fled Cuba two weeks ago.

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New York Met pitcher Jason Isringhausen has agreed to have surgery on his right elbow next week and will miss the 1998 season. . . . The Cleveland Indians signed free-agent second baseman Carlos Garcia to a $650,000, one-year contract. . . . Right-handed reliever Kent Bottenfield and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a $700,000, one-year contract. . . . The Montreal Expos signed outfielder Derrick May to a minor league contract that will pay him $200,000 if he makes the team. . . . Pitcher Ricky Bones agreed to a one-year, minor-league deal with the Minnesota Twins. . . . Pedro Borbon, a left-handed reliever who missed the 1997 season because of a torn ligament in his pitching arm, agreed to a $195,000, one-year contract with the Atlanta Braves.

Tennis

Jim Courier is gone from the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Championships and Andre Agassi could be on his way out too.

Courier lost to Mark Woodforde of Australia, 7-5, 6-2, in the first round at Adelaide. Agassi trailed Armenia’s Sargis Sargsian, 6-4, 3-2, when rain forced suspension.

Greg Rusedski beat Spanish clay-court specialist Juan Albert Viloca, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the $1-million Qatar Open at Doha, Qatar, but second-seeded Sergi Bruguera fell to fellow Spaniard Carlos Costa, 6-4, 6-2.

Winter Sports

Competing in her favorite discipline and on a course at Bormio, Italy, less than 10 miles from where she was born, Deborah Compagnoni won for the ninth consecutive time in a World Cup giant slalom.

Compagnoni, the defending Olympic champion, beat Germany’s Martina Ertl by 0.64 of a second.

Alberto Tomba staged a second-run comeback to jump from eighth to second place in a World Cup giant slalom race at Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.

But Hermann Maier put together a strong second heat to clinch his fourth win of the season by a commanding 2.44 seconds.

Miscellany

Penn State wants to prosecute a sports agent who bought running back Curtis Enis clothing in violation of NCAA rules and state laws.

Jeff Nalley “fooled around with the integrity of the university, and I won’t stand for that,” university President Graham Spanier said.

The U.S. swimming team is trying to gain Olympic medals for swimmers in the 1970s and 1980s who lost to drug users from the former East Germany, team spokesman Charlie Snyder said at the World Championships in Perth, Australia.

U.S. Swimming, the sport’s domestic ruling body, has hired German lawyers to monitor the investigation into systematic drug abuse in sports during the former East German regime.

Meanwhile, Erica Rose, 15, of Cleveland powered the U.S. to two gold medals today. Rose easily won the women’s five-kilometer open-water event on a benign Indian Ocean course.

That victory, combined with John Flanagan’s eighth-place finish and Austin Ramirez’s 15th-place finish in the men’s event, led the U.S. to the team gold.

Washington guard Benji Olson said he would pass up his senior football season and make himself available for April’s NFL draft.