Sporting Digest: Boxing

John Tate, the former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion, was killed on Thursday when his pick-up truck crashed into a utility pole. He was 43. The accident occurred less than a mile from the old Ivy Glenn training camp Tate used after he won the WBA title in Pretoria, South Africa against Gerrie Coetzee in October 1979.

Two unknown gunmen fired on a car carrying the Russian boxer Sergei Mizeriya early yesterday morning, wounding the fighter and killing his coach, Andrei Kharitonov. The coach died on the spot while Mizeriya was taken to hospital.