Overtime

Boxing

Jones, Ruiz set for March fight

Light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. will move up to heavyweight to fight WBA champion John Ruiz in March, and Evander Holyfield will meet Chris Byrd next month, promoter Don King announced Thursday.

Holyfield, bidding for a fifth world heavyweight title, will face Byrd, the No. 1 challenger, for the vacant IBF championship Dec. 14 at Caesars Boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J. The Jones-Ruiz fight will be held March 1 in Las Vegas.

Jones has been criticized in recent years for fighting little-known opponents among the light heavyweight ranks, and his move to heavyweight had been rumored for some time. Jones' promoter, Murad Muhammad, said it was his fighter's dream to step up in weight.

Figure skating

Olympic champion will not retire

More Olympic glory could be in Alexei Yagudin's future.

The most dominant men's figure skater of his era, the 22-year-old Yagudin plans to be back on the ice later this month after learning that a hip injury is not career threatening after all.

Yagudin, the 2002 Olympic gold medalist and a four-time world champion, suffers from severe inflammation caused by fluid buildup in the joint of his right hip. He's had hip problems since last year, but they worsened last month, when he withdrew from Skate America in Spokane, Wash.

At that event, he worried that the injury might force him into retirement. Yagudin had planned to compete in Skate Canada last week, but he also withdrew from that event.

Then, a series of examinations by Dr. Geoffrey H. West-rich, a sports medicine/hip and knee specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and another specialist, led to treatments with anti-inflammatory medication, which alleviated the pain.

Yagudin is now thinking about the world championships in March.

"I am very optimistic, and my long-term goals still remain the same," he said. "The doctors explained to me that for every problem, there is a solution. We found the problem and we know how to treat it."

Yagudin was told he needed complete rest, and he went to the Caribbean for a two-week vacation. He hopes to return to the ice on Nov. 20, but only for a short test of the hip.

College football

Semifinalists named for award

Oklahoma teammates Andre Woolfolk and Brandon Everage are among 14 semifinalists for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation's top defensive back.

The other semifinalists are Rod Babers of Texas, Troy Polamalu of Southern California, Sammy Davis of Texas A&M, Etric Pruitt of Southern Mississippi, Mike Doss of Ohio State, Stuart Schweigert of Purdue, Terrance Holt of North Carolina State, Shane Walton of Notre Dame, Terence Newman of Kansas State, Dennis Weathersby of Oregon State, Willie Pile of Virginia Tech and Eugene Wilson of Illinois.

Three finalists will be selected Nov. 25, with the winner to be announced Dec. 12.

College basketball

Dayton says player made up abduction

A Dayton University basketball player who claimed he was abducted by a gunman last month has admitted fabricating the story.

The school said Thursday that campus police, city police and the FBI investigated the abduction claim, conducting several interviews and giving Sammy Smith a polygraph test. Bruce Burt, the school's director of public safety, said the test did not support Smith's story.

The 6-foot-5 Smith, a 21-year-old junior forward, was granted a release from the university on Monday, allowing him to transfer. He played in 46 games during his two seasons at Dayton and averaged 1.2 points.

Burt said the university is not sure why Smith fabricated the story.