Mayweather Stops Hernandez on TKO

Floyd Mayweather, the first 1996 Olympian to get a title shot, scored a technical knockout over Genaro Hernandez on Saturday night at Las Vegas to win the World Boxing Council super-featherweight championship.

Hernandez, who was defending his 130-pound title for the fifth time, didn’t come out for the ninth round in the scheduled 12-round bout.

Mayweather, 21, dominated after the first round, holding a substantial lead on all three judges’ scorecards when the end came.

Mayweather raised his professional record to 18-0 with 14 knockouts. Hernandez, 32, whose only previous loss was to Oscar De La Hoya, fell to 38-2-1.

“It took me a couple rounds to feel him out,” said Mayweather, who won a bronze medal in the Atlanta Olympics. “But after the second round, I started using my jab, and then I took control of the fight.”

“Father Time caught up with us,” Hernandez said. “He’s a true champion, and he’ll be a champion for a long time. He was just too quick for me.”

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Colombia’s Mauricio Pastrana remained unbeaten and won the vacant World Boxing Assn. flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Venezuela’s Jose Bonilla. Also on the card at Caracas, Antonio Cermeno of Venezuela knocked out Genaro Rios of Nicaragua to take the vacant WBA featherweight title, and Venezuela’s Carlos Barreto won the vacant WBA super-bantamweight title with a unanimous, 12-round decision over Hector Sanchez of the Dominican Republic. . . . Juan Carlos Gomez, a Cuban based in Germany, successfully defended his WBC cruiserweight title, stopping Russia’s Alexei Iliin in the second round at Hamburg, Germany. Gomez, 25, improved to 25-0 with his 21st knockout. Iliin is 23-2.

Skiing

Alberto Tomba, rarely at a loss for words during his remarkable career, retired with nothing more than a brief statement.

The winner of three Olympic gold medals told the Italian news agency ANSA of his decision, and his sister, Alessia Tomba, said he would have no other comment.

“I reflected a lot before deciding, but I leave skiing with much affection for all of those who in these many years followed me and incited me to victory,” Tomba’s statement said.

Motor Racing

Mike McLaughlin went almost the last half of the race without a pit stop in winning the All Pro Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts 300 at Concord, N.C.

Greg Moore barely beat Dario Franchitti in a dramatic battle for the pole position for today’s Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. The Canadian will start first on the 1.527-mile, 10-turn temporary downtown street circuit.

Gary Scelzi, seeking his fourth consecutive top-fuel victory, led qualifying for the Parts America Nationals at Topeka, Kan., with a track-record run in the Team Winston dragster. Scelzi, the 1997 series champion and current leader, had a track-record run of 4.561 seconds at 321.71 mph. His quarter-mile run was the sixth-quickest in NHRA history and his speed a career best.

Carl Merrill, a road racer from Maine who twice won the North American Rally Championship, died Saturday after suffering a heart attack while racing in Prescott, Ariz. He was 62.

Names in the News

Canada’s Peter Reid won the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon, finishing in 8 hours, 24 minutes, 20 seconds. Switzerland’s Natascha Badmann won the women’s division in 9:24:16. . . . Jenny Thompson, the first American since Tracy Caulkins in 1978 to win four gold medals in the World Championships, was honored as swimmer of the year in a ceremony at Cincinnati. . . . Romanian gymnast Gina Gogean, who was the all-round silver medalist at the Atlanta Olympics and won 30 medals in international competitions during her career, announced her retirement. . . . Florence Griffith Joyner’s husband, Al Joyner, will be among the speakers today at a tribute to the late sprinter at Indianapolis.

Miscellany

UCLA’s defending national champion men’s soccer team, ranked No. 2 by Soccer America, ends a nine-day layoff when it plays Loyola Marymount at UCLA. UCLA is 6-1, Loyola 3-5.

Two construction workers were killed while working at an Atlanta arena construction site.

One of the men was identified as Sam Caraway Sr., 38. The name of the other was not immediately made public.