Lewis agrees date for Bowe

Boxing

Boxing

Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe have agreed to fight on 20 April in Las Vegas, according to Bowe's manager, Rock Newman.

The bout, at Caesars Palace, is conditional on Bowe resolving his differences with the cable network Time Warner-HBO Sports, which has a long-term deal with the American.

Newman is trying to break the contract, and Time Warner went to court in New York last week to ask a federal judge to uphold the deal.

There will be no formal announcement of the fight until the dispute with Time Warner is settled. Phil Cooper, a Caesars Palace spokesman, said they had been negotiating for the bout but he was not aware of a deal having been made.

Bowe was the undisputed heavyweight champion when he gave up the World Council title, which Lewis then inherited but later lost to Oliver McCall.

Drew Docherty returns to the ring in Mansfield on Saturday, three months after his British bantamweight title defence resulted in the death of James Murray. He challenges Puerto Rica's Daniel Jimenez for the World Organisation title. After agonising long and hard about whether to continue, he said yesterday: "I cannot wait for the first bell to go.

"The Murray family urged me to carry on. They welcomed me into their house and said I was not to blame. They made me feel a lot better, and everywhere else there were no negative comments. I never want to forget about James Murray. I just want to forget about what happened that night."