Bout

This weekend's Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn bout is going to be a tremendous fight, one of the biggest the sport has seen. It's rare that we get fights like this that match two superior fighters, both in their prime. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mmablog)

LAS VEGAS -- Felix Trinidad called Oscar De La Hoya a "chicken" before their fight last night, and for at least three of the last four rounds, De La Hoya ran like one.Trinidad added De La Hoya's World Boxing Council welterweight title to his International Boxing Federation belt with a majority decision in their unification bout before a sellout crowd of 12,000 at the Mandalay Bay Events CenterJudge Glen Hamada scored the fight, 114-114. Ben Logist scored it, 115-114, and Jerry Roth, 115-113, for Trinidad.

Vincent Pettway was supposed to get a shot at International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Felix Trinidad a month ago, but a hand injury forced the Baltimore fighter to withdraw. Pettway is healthy now, and next month he will get his shot at a second title.Mack Lewis, Pettway's trainer, said yesterday that his fighter will get in the ring with Trinidad on May 29 in Puerto Rico. The bout originally was scheduled for March 7 in Mexico City, but Pettway injured his right hand in a tuneup fight with Gerald Reed on Dec. 13.Details of the fight are being worked out, according to Lewis.

The host school's fourth-ranked Justin Mitchell (189) bounced Northeast's third-ranked Tom Cain, 9-3, a title-bout of unbeaten wrestlers in yesterday's 13th annual Overlea tournament, during which no team points were kept.Mitchell (17-0) scored two takedowns and, in the third period, three near-fall points against Cain (17-1), who was fourth at last year's states.Overlea crowned two other champs in sixth-ranked wrestlers Jason Laubach (119) and Derrick Oxendine (152).But Cain's teammate, James Taylor (Hwt.

His promised state championship fight was changed into a meaningless eight-round bout, but Maryland middleweight Alfonzo Daniels made the best of the situation in winning a unanimous decision over durable Ali Fountain at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie last night.Originally, Daniels was booked to battle Lloyd "Jabba" Bryan, a one-time title contender. Bryan's handlers claimed their fighter was injured in training and pulled out of the fight. But Bryan reportedly has signed for a more lucrative television bout against Dana Rosenblatt on May 21."

After a tumultuous month marked by a canceled major fight and dancing back and forth between boxing promoters, everything seems to be back on track for unbeaten Baltimore heavyweight contender Hasim Rahman.Rahman has reunited with Cedric Kushner after a brief fling with Don King and is back in good graces with Lou DiBella, HBO's vice president of programming.In fact, HBO has booked Rahman (29-0) to fight David Tua (31-1) in a heavyweight elimination bout Dec. 19 to help decide the No. 1 contender for International Boxing Federation champion Evander Holyfield's crown.

In hindsight, Calvert Hall coach Henry Franklin would change a lot about yesterday's 35-33 loss to fifth-ranked Hammond.How about the facts that Hammond sophomore Ryan Mackin (125) and senior teammate Nick LaSalle each broke ties late in their bouts to win, 6-5 and 6-3, over Cardinals wrestlers Kevin King and Zach Mryncza, respectively?Or the fact that Hammond junior Rob Osborn (140), a JV champ last year, wound up pinning one of Franklin's wrestlers in the second period after holding only a 2-1 lead after the first period of a pivotal bout?

Iron Mike Tyson is back.Make that "humble" Iron Mike Tyson.The former two-time heavyweight champion, pleading for his torture to end, got his boxing license restored in Las Vegas yesterday, 15 months and 10 days after it was revoked by the Nevada State Athletic Commission because he bit champion Evander Holyfield's ears twice in a 1997 world title fight.The five-man commission, meeting for almost three hours in a hearing that featured Muhammad Ali and Magic Johnson as key witnesses, favored relicensing Tyson by a vote of 4-1. Only James Nave, a veterinarian who clashed with Tyson and his advisers several times in two hearing sessions, cast a negative vote.

In one of the wildest wrestling matches in recent memory in Anne Arundel County last night, fourth-ranked Arundel overcame inspired Old Mill for a 30-25 victory that pleased the home crowd at Arundel but left Wildcats coach Buddy Hepfer completely cold."

''Bout Baltimore'Take a glimpse into Baltimore's past and a gander at its present in the musical play " 'Bout Baltimore," this weekend and next weekend at St. Timothy's School. The Pumpkin Theatre presents the children's play by Mark Andrew Beachy that follows the trail of a young girl on her journey through Baltimore. Led by Herbina, an Inner Harbor crab, the young girl is introduced to places, events and famous figures in Baltimore, from Lord Baltimore to Cal Ripken." 'Bout Baltimore" was the winning entry of WMAR-TV's Baltimore Bicentennial Playwriting Contest.

This weekend's Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn bout is going to be a tremendous fight, one of the biggest the sport has seen. It's rare that we get fights like this that match two superior fighters, both in their prime. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mmablog)

1 Piece of the Rock: He doesn't live here anymore, but we can still claim Hasim Rahman, especially if he beats Wladimir Klitschko in the International Boxing Federation bout (4:45 p.m., HBO). 2 Tebow, not tae bo: And the Heisman goes to ... (8 p.m., ESPN). 3 Not so much: Indiana vs. Kentucky (4 p.m., chs. 13, 9) used to be a huge men's basketball game. Now, neither team is ranked. Watch and recall those earlier days. 4 Couldn't be: much worse: The Wizards endured a 34-point loss to the Celtics on Thursday, so tonight against the 76ers (7:30, Comcast SportsNet)

1 ACC showdown: Miami-Georgia Tech (7:30 p.m., ESPN) is a key football matchup in that other half of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Who wants to play the Terps? 2 Doubly good: TNT has two powerful intraconference matchups starting at 8 p.m.: Celtics-Pistons, then Lakers-Suns. 3 Go get 'em, Chad: Tonight, Ravens fan, you love the Bengals as they take on the Steelers (8, NFL Network). 4 Try the punch: Ballroom Boxing at Michael's Eighth Avenue features a state title bout between Mike Paschall and Marcus Hall (doors open at 6 p.m., first bout 8:15)

I was one of the 4 million or so folks who watched the mixed martial arts prime-time coming-out party on CBS on Saturday night. From a purely ratings point of view, the telecast was a mixed bag for the network and perhaps for martial arts, in general. On the one hand, the MMA event, which featured Internet phenomenon Kimbo Slice in the last bout, produced a lower-than-usual rating for that time slot - Saturday, 9 p.m.-11 p.m. Programming that typically airs in that slot attracts 5.9 million viewers, and the fights produced by Elite XC drew 4.3 million, according to The New York Times.

A mixed martial arts fighter has died in a hospice about six weeks after he was injured in a sanctioned bout, a rare fatality for a combat sport that is growing in popularity. Sam Vasquez, 35, of Houston, was injured at the Toyota Center on Oct. 20 and died Friday. The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Vasquez's death, but spokeswoman Stacey Mitchell said it could be several days before the official cause is determined. Vasquez was hospitalized after he was knocked out by Vince Libardi of San Antonio in the third round of a fight at the Renegades Extreme Fighting show.

Rich Franklin entered US Bank Arena to Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" and sported orange-and-black trunks, both in homage to the Cincinnati Bengals teams of yesteryear. But it was Anderson Silva who did his own version of the Ickey Shuffle midway through the first round of their bout en route to yet another dominating victory over Franklin at UFC 77 on Saturday night. In a fight that ended in remarkably similar fashion to their first bout about a year ago, Silva actually knocked Franklin out twice.

Baltimore native Hasim Rahman will defend his World Boxing Council heavyweight title against Oleg Maskaev, a native of Kazakhstan, on Aug. 12 in Las Vegas most likely at the Thomas & Mack Center, his promoter, Bob Arum, said last night. The bout between the 33-year-old Rahman (41-5-2, 33 knockouts), who is 6-0-1 with four knockouts in his past seven fights, and the 37-year-old Maskaev (32-5, 25 KOs), who has won 10 straight bouts - eight of them by knockout - is a rematch of a November 1999 bout in Atlantic City, N.J., won by Maskaev, a Staten Island resident, by eighth-round knockout.

Atlantic City, N.J. -- Hasim Rahman's last four fights here have varied from bizarre to exciting to boring. On Nov. 6, 1999, the day before Rahman's 27th birthday, the fighter was knocked out of the ring and into the lap of HBO commentator Jim Lampley, resulting in an eighth-round loss to Russian Oleg Maskaev. In May 2000, Rahman overcame an early knockdown to defeat 6-foot-7 South African Corrie Sanders, whom he pinned on the ropes and nailed with nearly 40 unanswered blows before the bout was stopped.

Boxing promoter Bob Arum said yesterday that he avoided a purse bid for Hasim Rahman's upcoming World Boxing Council title bout with James Toney, instead reaching a deal with rival Don King that allows Arum to control the promotion of a title defense likely to take place in Atlantic City, N.J., or Baltimore. Arum said the 33-year-old Rahman (41-5-1, 33 knockouts) could meet Toney (69-4-2, 43 KOs) on March 18. Toney, 37, also is promoted by Dan Goosen. "We offered Toney's people [King and Goosen]

As Hasim Rahman and Vitali Klitschko stood nose-to-nose for nearly the length of an entire round during Tuesday's news conference in Las Vegas for their upcoming heavyweight bout, an observer envisioned a replay of Rahman's ESPN fracas with Lennox Lewis. "It was a long stare-down - maybe three minutes. We were like, `Come on fellas, turn to the cameras,'" said publicist Kelly Swanson yesterday while sitting next to Rahman at Baltimore's ESPNZone on the Inner Harbor. "People were like, `Kelly, grab them,' but I was like, `I'm not touching those guys.