Promoter Testifies He Gave Lee Money to Improve Rank

A noted boxing promoter testified Tuesday at Newark, N.J., that he funneled $25,000 to International Boxing Federation founder Robert W. Lee so the IBF would rank one of his fighters as the top junior middleweight contender in 1998.

Dino Duva, who was with Main Events at the time, is the second major promoter to testify against Lee at his racketeering and bribery trial.

The fighter, Fernando Vargas, eventually became the IBF champion and still holds the 154-pound title.

Duva told a federal jury that then-IBF rankings chairman C. Douglas Beavers told him that it would cost $25,000 to ensure that the IBF followed its own rules.

Vargas beat No. 11 Anthony Stephens in June 1998 and got the No. 1 rating.

Duva, who is testifying with immunity, said Lee later demanded money. Duva testified he put $25,000 in a candy bag, stuffing tissue paper on top of the cash, and had the Main Events site coordinator, Dennis Dueltgen, give it to Lee during a breakfast meeting.

The Lee trial is in its 11th week and is expected to last into August. In the meantime, a court-appointed monitor is overseeing the IBF, and Lee is barred from participating in IBF affairs.

Also Tuesday, the IBF elected a former Michigan boxing commissioner, Hiawatha G. Knight, as its new president.

Knight, of Detroit, is believed to be the first woman to head one of boxing’s major sanctioning organizations.

Knight has been interim president since January, a month after Lee resigned.

Olympics

When the so-called “geld memo” finally was released last month, ending years of speculation, the International Olympic Committee immediately pledged to investigate.

But the committee’s ethics panel now says it will wait at least three months before it decides whether the controversial Salt Lake City bid document is worth investigating.

IOC spokesman Franklin Servan-Schreiber said the commission has no plans to meet until Sept. 16, during the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.

“It will be looked at. I guess their feeling is there is no urgent matter with the geld memo,” Servan-Schreiber said.

The cryptic dossier, which lists personal habits, loyalties and family needs of IOC members, was retrieved under a subpoena in the U.S. Justice Department’s grand jury investigation of the Olympics scandal.

IOC vice president Kevan Gosper apologized to Australians for allowing his daughter to become the first Aussie torchbearer of the Olympic flame.

“I made a mistake . . . in respect of not declining the invitation for Sophie to run,” Gosper told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. “It’s not easy to apologize to a friend. I can tell you it’s not easy to apologize to a nation.”

Russ Silvestri of San Francisco guaranteed himself a berth in sailing at the Sydney Olympics by finishing 25th among the 89 boats in the Finn Gold Cup world championship at Weymouth, England.

Silvestri won the U.S. team trials in April, but still needed a good finish at the world championship to earn a trip to the Games.

Miscellany

Defensive end Reggie White, who retired from the Green Bay Packers after the 1998 season as the NFL’s all-time sacks leader, has had preliminary talks with the Tennessee Titans about returning to action, the Tennessean reported.

The Packers still have White, 38, on their reserve/retired list, but they granted his agent, Jimmy Sexton, permission to explore other options for White, Sexton confirmed.

The Titans refused to comment on the report and White could not be reached.

The Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers are also reportedly interested in White.

In other news, the NFL officially suspended Titan defensive lineman Josh Evans for the 2000 season after a third violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy.

The NHL approved the sales of three franchises, including the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.

John McMullen completed the $175-million transfer of the Devils to Puck Holdings LLC, an affiliate of YankeeNets, whose principal owners are George Steinbrenner, Lewis Katz and Ray Chambers. The company also owns baseball’s New York Yankees and the New Jersey Nets of the NBA.

Also approved were the sales of the Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders.

The Avalanche was sold to Stanley Kroenke, a real-estate developer and heir to the Wal-Mart fortune.

Computer Associates executives Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar purchased the Islanders for an estimated $190 million from Howard and Edward Milstein and Steven Gluckstern.

Dave Stockton and Dave Stockton Jr. beat the father-son team of Jack and Mike Nicklaus on the first playoff hole to win the Champions Challenge at Lehi, Utah. Both teams shot 12-under-par 60s in the scramble format.

Former McNeese State coach Kirby Bruchhaus bet on college and pro football in violation of NCAA rules, according to a report that prompted the coach to resign this month.

The report, released Tuesday, was put together by independent investigator Chuck Smrt, who formerly worked for the NCAA and was hired by McNeese. Bruchhaus, who resigned June 6, has denied the allegations.

It was not clear whether the McNeese State football program could face sanctions.

Buzz Peterson was hired as Tulsa’s basketball coach, leaving Appalachian State after four seasons. . . . New York City police say two men robbed New Jersey Net point guard Stephon Marbury of a $150,000 diamond necklace as he waited in his Bentley for a red light to change early Tuesday morning in Manhattan. Marbury was not injured. No arrests have been made.