Marc Ratner

Boxing trainer Eddie Futch, teacher of champion fighters and a respected figure in an often seamy sport for seven decades, died Wednesday morning in Las Vegas. He was 90. The Clark County coroner's office would divulge no more details pending a further examination today. "In a business riddled with politics and intrigue," said promoter Bob Arum, "Eddie never got involved in any of that. He always appeared to be above it. You won't find anybody who has anything bad to say about him.

A routine drug test administered to Fernando Vargas in Nevada the night of his fight against Oscar De La Hoya has revealed the presence of an anabolic steroid, an illegal substance that could result in a suspension for the Oxnard fighter. Vargas is the first boxer to test positive for steroids in Nevada, according to Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Vargas' manager, Rolando Arellano, said his fighter would ask for a second test.

It was to be the most intriguing weigh-in in the heavyweight division in 18 years. How far up on the scale had light-heavyweight champion Roy Jones come in his bid to defeat World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion John Ruiz on Saturday night at Thomas & Mack Center? The answer got buried Thursday under a pile of bodies at the center of the Palace Ballroom at Caesars Palace.

Another chapter in the history of Mike Tyson and postponed fights was written Tuesday when the former heavyweight champion said he would be unable to make his scheduled May 3 rematch with Evander Holyfield after opening a cut over his left eye for the fourth time while training. The cut required 10-12 stitches last Wednesday and the fight apparently will be postponed to June 28, said Marc Ratner, head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Attention, Las Vegas: You can call off the Mike Tyson watch. He's not coming. Expected to reapply for his boxing license a year after it was revoked by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the former heavyweight champion instead pulled a surprise move Friday, applying for a license in New Jersey. That state's Athletic Control Board, rather than simply honoring Nevada's revocation, has scheduled a July 29 hearing in Trenton to consider Tyson's request. He is expected to attend the hearing.

Oscar De La Hoya said Tuesday that he will launch his comeback against Arturo Gatti in March. That was no surprise. It has been speculated for weeks that Gatti would be De La Hoya's next opponent. The surprise came when De La Hoya said that, after this fight, he will move from 147 pounds to 154. That would seem to indicate that De La Hoya's next big pay-per-view fight will be against fellow Southern Californian Fernando Vargas because Felix Trinidad Jr.

Mike Tyson already has lost the first round of his scheduled World Boxing Assn. heavyweight title match against Evander Holyfield. In an hourlong, sometimes heated public hearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the protest by Team Tyson of the appointment of Mitch Halpern as referee for Saturday's fight at the MGM Grand Garden was defeated by a 4-1 vote.

The target of a joint FBI-New York City Police Department boxing investigation is promoter Bob Arum's Top Rank organization, not last September's Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley super-welterweight title fight, according to a knowledgeable law enforcement source. FBI agents raided Arum's Las Vegas office Tuesday, seizing computers, medical records, fight tapes, contracts and other financial documents.

For charity, for one last fight, for reasons that elude the rest of the boxing world, heavyweight Tommy Morrison says he is coming back to fight again, seven months after announcing he would retire after contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Morrison has no bout scheduled as of yet, and no opponent, but he told a Tulsa news conference Thursday afternoon that he hopes to fight by the spring and is returning to raise money for children who have the AIDS virus.

The complaint served Bob Arum on Tuesday by the Nevada Athletic Commission, which put the boxing promoter's license to stage bouts in the state at risk, may be the first in a line of similar complaints against rival promoters.