Boxing

Duke McKenzie, the former world champion, faces legal action after pulling out of a non-title fight against Belfast's Wayne McCullough on Saturday. McKenzie and the Las Vegas-based World Boxing Council bantamweight champion, McCullough, were due to contest a 10-round bout in Denver, but the 33-year-old Croydon fighter had problems with his visa and is refusing to travel. McCullough's American manager, Mat Tinley, is resigned to looking for a new opponent: "I will definitely be suing McKenzie, who signed a contract for a six-figure pay day," he said.

Chris Pyatt is reported to have given up boxing after losing his Commonwealth light-middleweight title to Salford's Steve Foster on the Steve Collins-Nigel Benn bill. But Foster said yesterday: "Chris has still got a lot to offer and I think he should fight on. I don't want him to retire because I like watching him fight too much. He has been one of the fighters I have admired the most." It was Pyatt's 50th fight in a career which he climaxed by taking the World Boxing Organisation middleweight title from Italy's Sumbu Kalambay three years ago, before losing it to Steve Collins in 1994.

Frankie Liles, the World Boxing Association super-middleweight champion from New York, is to be managed by Frank Warren.

Frank Maloney is to promote Paul "Silky" Jones, the former WBO light- middleweight champion from Sheffield, in an 18-month agreement.