NEWSWIRE : De La Hoya Fight Gets Big Numbers

The Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad welterweight championship fight Saturday night at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center set a pay-per-view record for a non-heavyweight bout with 1.25 million buys and a little over $64 million in revenue.

The De La Hoya-Trinidad fight surpasses the old non-heavyweight record of 800,000 buys and $34 million in revenue for De La Hoya’s 1997 match against Pernell Whitaker.

De La Hoya-Trinidad also ranks third among all pay-per-view boxing events behind only the two fights between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson.

Horse Racing

Arlington International Racecourse received approval from the Illinois Racing Board to reopen next year with a summer thoroughbred meeting at Arlington Heights, Ill.

Arlington, the state’s top track before it closed in 1997 in a dispute over competition from casino gambling, was awarded the dates May 14 through Sept. 30.

Olympics

Decrying a “culture of corruption” surrounding Atlanta’s bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics, a House chairman said he intends to do whatever is necessary to make the International Olympic Committee clean up its act.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said the House commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigation will conduct hearings next month on Atlanta’s bid and will invite IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to testify. If Samaranch doesn’t appear voluntarily, Upton said a subpoena is likely.

Upton said a report on the Atlanta bid, submitted to Congress last week by former attorney general Griffin Bell, shows clearly that IOC members in many cases demanded gifts and favors and that Atlanta bid committee officials were more than willing to accommodate them.

Out-of-competition drug tests on athletes preparing for next year’s Olympics will be held outside Sydney. IOC coordination commission head Jacques Rogge said that besides some 2,000 tests at various sports events there will be another 200-400 out-of-competition tests.

Miscellany

Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller said the team will not re-sign free-agent swingman Shandon Anderson. . . . Forward Joe Smith of the Minnesota Timberwolves will be sidelined up to seven weeks after surgery on his left foot. Smith suffered a broken foot in a pickup basketball game at UCLA last week.

Claiming weariness after three consecutive weeks of tennis and unwilling to make a transatlantic flight, U.S. Open champion Serena Williams withdrew from the Seat Open in Luxembourg. This is the fourth tournament from which she has withdrawn this year. The WTA Tour said she could lose $16,900 in year-end bonus money for the no-shows.

A judge in Cincinnati jailed former Cincinnati Bengal running back James Brooks to force him to pay $107,705 in back child support. Brooks, 40, arrested Sept. 2 in Georgia, pleaded not guilty to three counts of felony nonsupport, and was returned to jail by Judge Steven Martin. Brooks owes the money to two women who gave birth to three of his children, prosecutors said.

Sports memorabilia dealer Robert M. Austin, 42, of Newport Beach was found guilty in Chicago of defrauding collectors by selling thousands of dollars’ worth of goods bearing the forged autographs of athletes. U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo set Dec. 10 for sentencing.

The NHL and its players’ association made progress toward an agreement that would allow players from the league to compete in the 2002 Olympics at Salt Lake City. . . . The Washington Capitals re-signed right wing Richard Zednik to a three-year contract for about $2.1 million.