Boxer Claims He Wasn't There To Lose Fight

-- BOXING

Reports of his loss to Olympic silver medalist Roy Jones Jr. are untrue, says Derwin Richards, junior middleweight champion of Texas.

Jones may have knocked out somebody 2:02 into the first round of his ninth professional bout Saturday in Pensacola, Fla., but Richards says it wasn't him.

``I would like to fight Roy Jones, but that wasn't me fighting,'' Richards, a security guard at a Houston correctional facility, told the Pensacola News Journal by telephone yesterday.

The state attorney and the Florida State Athletic Commission began investigations to learn the identity of the fighter who had claimed to be Richards before climbing into the ring with Jones.

-- HORSE RACING

Easy Goer, who staged a stirring four-race duel with Sunday Silence in the 1989 Triple Crown series and Breeder's Cup, was retired because of a bone chip in his right front foot. The 4-year-old colt won 14 of 20 career starts and had career earnings of $4,873,770.

-- BASEBALL

The Amarillo Texans, a group of college-age players, struck for nine runs in the first inning en route to a 13-3 exhibition victory over the Soviet Union national team in the opener of a three-game series in Amarillo.

The two teams play a doubleheader tonight, then the Soviet team will play exhibition games in San Bernardino, Calif., before heading to the Goodwill Games.

-- Joe Ciccarella's first-inning grand slam was the first of four U.S. home runs in a 15-0 rout of Nicaragua that was stopped after seven innings by the international 10-run rule in Millington, Tenn. Aaron Seles of Washington State was the starting pitcher for the United States. He allowed two hits over four innings and struck out five.

The U.S. team improved to 14-6 in its 24-game exhibition tour in preparation for the Goodwill Games and World Championships.

-- PRO BASKETBALL

Chris Jackson's agent says the Denver Nuggets will have to pay its first-round draft pick out of LSU a minimum of $11.5 million for the guard's first five seasons in the NBA.

Contract negotiations are not scheduled to resume for two weeks, and Bernie Bickerstaff, the Nuggets' new general manager, will represent the team in those talks.

Also, the Nuggets said they would not match a European offer to backup center Tim Kempton

-- Cleveland Cavalier forward John Williams has rejected a two-year contract offer for a reported $9 million from Il Messaggero Roma of the Italian League and will stay in the NBA as an unrestricted free agent.

-- TRACK AND FIELD

Chuck DeBus, longtime coach of the Los Angeles Track Club and a former UCLA coach, has been suspended for life by The Athletics Congress.

William Hickman, chairman of a three-member TAC panel that investigated charges against DeBus, said it concluded that DeBus had incited athletes to use banned substances, was guilty of providing banned substances to an athlete and guilty of conduct detrimental to the purpose of TAC and amateur sports.

-- SAILING

Knightrider, a 39-foot sloop sailed by Sid Halls of Comox, B.C., is the corrected-time winner of the Victoria-Maui yacht race. Mad Max, a sister ship skippered by Wink Vogel of Vancouver, finished second on time allowance. Maverick, a Maui, Hawaii yacht skippered by Les Crouch, was first to finish the 2,300-nautical-mile race.

-- LOCAL NOTES

Basketball: Scott Ranninger made a three-point basket with seven seconds left to give Spokane BCI a 51-48 victory over Seattle BCI in the national tournament in Long Beach, Calif. It was the only time Spokane led.

-- Softball: It's showdown time for the 1990 championship of the Norwest Fastpitch League when Seafirst tackles Victoria Pay Less tomorrow night and the Vancouver Magicians Saturday afternoon at Bellevue's Hidden Valley. Game time for the two doubleheaders: 7 p.m. tomorrow, noon Saturday.

-- Football: The Snohomish County Blue Knights face the Portland Thunderbolts in a Northwest League game at 7:30 p.m Saturday at Edmonds High School Stadium. Proceeds from game will go to Northwest Harvest. Admission is $4.

-- Greco-Roman wrestling: James Stephens of Everett won the 114 1/2-pound weight class at the Junior National Championships in Cedar Falls, Iowa.