Sporting Digest: Boxing

Roberto Duran, the 46-year-old Panamanian, is to challenge William Joppy, the World Boxing Association middleweight champion, in either May or June.

The Ulsterman Ray Close, banned from boxing in Britain after failing a routine brain scan three years ago, will challenge Denmark's International Boxing Organisation super-middleweight champion, Mads Larsen, on 20 March in Copenhagen.