Ruiz Keeps WBA Title

World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion John Ruiz, floored in three earlier rounds by low blows, was declared the winner in his title defense against Kirk Johnson on Saturday night in the Mandalay Bay Events Center at Las Vegas when the challenger threw yet another punch below the belt in the 10th round.

Referee Joe Cortez, who had penalized Johnson one point on two occasions, halted it by disqualifying Johnson at 2:17 of the 10th.

Ruiz was winning the fight on all the judges’ cards despite having to take time out the three earlier times he was hit low.

A round earlier, Ruiz had to wait five minutes to resume after Johnson hit him low.

“I don’t know what he was thinking,” Ruiz said. “I came out fighting clean, and he hit me low and I had to catch my breath. It took me out of my game plan.”

Said Johnson: “I was starting to feel good, but then I don’t know what happened. It was terrible, man. It was my fault.”

Ruiz, from Chelsea, Mass., improved to 38-4-1, with 27 knockouts. Johnson, from North Preston, Canada, dropped to 32-1-1. Ruiz earned $1.5 million and Johnson got $1 million.

In undercard bouts, Tim Austin (25-0-1) of Cincinnati defended his International Boxing Federation bantamweight title by stopping Mexico’s Adan Vargas (37-4-1) in the 10th round, WBA super-middleweight champion Byron Mitchell (25-1-1) of Ozark, Ala., beat Julio Cesar Green (25-5-1) of the Dominican Republic in the fourth round when the ringside doctor stopped the fight, and heavyweight Lamon Brewster of Los Angeles stopped Willie Chapman of Salt Lake City at 1:32 of the sixth round of a scheduled 10-round bout.

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Former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes, 52, won a unanimous decision over Eric “Butterbean” Esch in a 10-round fight at Norfolk, Va.

Esch, a 334-pound former Toughman champion, had never fought more than four rounds.

In the undercard, Jacqui Frazier-Lyde (9-1) stopped Heidi Hartmann (2-1-1) in the third round of a women’s super-middleweight bout. Frazier-Lyde, 40, is the daughter of former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.

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South Africa’s Francois Botha (44-4-2-1) knocked down Clifford Etienne (24-1-1) of Louisiana twice en route to a draw in a 10-round heavyweight fight at New Orleans.

Tennis

With her booming serve falling perfectly, Venus Williams was simply too much for Lisa Raymond.

Top-seeded Williams overpowered her unseeded challenger, 6-3, 6-0, in the semifinals of the Bank Of the West Classic at Palo Alto.

Defending champion and fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters wore down second-seeded Lindsay Davenport, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, in the other semifinal. Davenport was playing in her first tour event since suffering a knee injury in November.

Williams advanced to the tournament’s final for the fourth time. She defeated Davenport in the 2000 final.

Anna Kournikova withdrew from her doubles semifinal match because of an abdominal strain. Kournikova and partner Meghann Shaughnessy were scheduled to play Raymond and Rennae Stubbs.

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Russia’s Dinara Safina won her first WTA Tour title when Henrieta Nagyova quit because of a foot injury during the final of the Prokom Open at Sopot, Poland.

Safina, 16, won the first set, 6-3, and was leading 4-0 in the second when Nagyova stopped.

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Juan Carlos Ferrero and Alex Corretja won semifinal matches, setting up an all-Spanish final in the Generali Open at Kitzbuehel, Austria.

The eighth-seeded Corretja defeated sixth-seeded Gaston Gaudio, 6-3, 6-1, and second-seeded Ferrero beat 12th-seeded Mariano Zabaleta, 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-3.

Track and Field

Alesia Turova of Belarus broke her world record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing in 9 minutes 16.51 seconds during the BALT track and field meet at Gdansk, Poland.

She set the previous mark of 9:21.72 on June 12 at Ostrava, Czech Republic.