Holyfield Says Tyson Can Wait

Heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield said Friday that Mike Tyson is not in his future. However, Holyfield acknowledged that could change if fans want a rematch.

Tyson got back the license taken from him for biting Holyfield’s ears during their championship fight 15 months ago.

Holyfield again said the Nevada Athletic Commission’s decision this week was the right one, but added, “I can’t say he learned his lesson. Time tells that.”

Holyfield, the World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation champion, said he expected to unify the title when he fights World Boxing Council champion Lennox Lewis in late February or early March.

“Then, I would be the undisputed champ of the world,” Holyfield said. “I guess after that I would see how bad the people want me to fight Mike Tyson.

“I’ve already beat him twice. So, it’s not how bad I want to beat him, but how bad the people want me to fight him.”

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Two long-serving Nevada boxing commissioners, who voted earlier this week to allow Tyson to return to the ring, have been reappointed to three-year terms.

The reappointments of Nevada Athletic Commission chairman Dr. Elias Ghanem and commissioner Luther Mack were announced by Gov. Bob Miller.

Miller’s spokesman, Gordon Absher, said the timing of the reappointments was coincidental and occurred only because the terms of the two men expire Oct. 31.

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Monte Barrett improved to 19-0 by beating former WBA heavyweight champion Greg Page in a 10-round unanimous decision at Atlantic City, N.J. Junior-welterweight prospect Hector Camacho Jr. improved to 18-0 with a unanimous decision over Fred Curiel. At Chester, W.Va., Camacho’s 36-year-old father escaped with a split decision over Kenny Sigurani.

Tennis

Top-seeded Venus Williams and second-seeded Monica Seles scored easy victories in the quarterfinals of the $1-million Kremlin Cup at Moscow, taking less than two hours between them to advance.

Williams defeated Katarina Studenikova of Slovakia, 6-1, 6-0, and Seles beat Sylvia Farina of Italy, 6-0, 6-1.

Wayne Ferreira of South Africa posted the biggest upset of the $750,000 Lyon Grand Prix, beating second-seeded Patrick Rafter of Australia, 6-4, 6-1. With Rafter’s elimination and top-seeded Pete Sampras’ withdrawal because of a back injury, third-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile becomes the favorite. He beat French wild-card entrant Arnaud Di Pasquale, 6-4, 6-0. . . . Andre Agassi rallied from a 0-4 deficit in the final set to beat Sweden’s Thomas Johansson, 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, 6-4, and advance to the semifinals of the Czech Indoor ATP tournament at Ostrava. Seventh-seeded Thomas Enqvist beat fellow Swede Nicklas Kulti, 6-3, 6-4.

Names in the News

Gymnast Dominique Moceanu says her decision to sue her parents was “the hardest thing I’ve done in my life” and insisted no one influenced her decision.

“Let me make it perfectly clear, no one is pushing or pressuring me into this decision,” the 17-year-old said in a prepared statement read aloud by her attorney.

Arnold Palmer’s wife, Winnie, has ovarian cancer. The golfer said that his family would face the cancer with the same courage they showed when he was found to have prostate cancer and one of his daughters breast cancer. . . . Junior center LaShonda Stephens, a starter on Tennessee’s 1998 NCAA championship team, is giving up basketball because of arthritis in her knees, Coach Pat Summitt said.

Miscellany

World Cup winner France, which was to have played the United States in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Jan. 15 in the Confederations Cup, has withdrawn from the eight-nation soccer tournament and no replacement has been named.

Claude Simonet, president of the French soccer federation, said, “We decided to pull out of this competition because we did not want to send a team which would not have been the one which won the world title.”

Gary Scelzi recorded the second-quickest quarter-mile by an NHRA top-fuel dragster, reaching the finish line in 4.538 seconds at 303.84 mph to lead qualifying in the Revell Nationals at the Texas Motorplex at Ennis. Scelzi’s elapsed time was second only to the 4.523 by Joe Amato at Gainesville, Fla., last March.

Don Basile, a pioneer of motor racing in the Southland who organized and promoted more than 3,000 events, including Indy cars, NASCAR stocks and midgets, died at is home in San Diego of natural causes. He was 82.

Louise Smith, the first woman chosen for the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, was hospitalized after returning home from the news conference where her selection was announced. Smith, 82, was in fair condition in the coronary care unit at a hospital in Greenville, N.C.

Tampa Bay Buccaneer defensive end Tyoka Jackson was arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer for sex, then was released from Hillsborough County Jail after paying $1,000 bond.