Sports in Brief: Tyson, Stallone tapped for Hall

Mike Tyson

, whose meteoric rise to the pinnacle of boxing and stunning fall from grace was legendary, was selected Tuesday for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum.

Also among those selected were auteur Sylvester Stallone and three-division champion Julio Cesar Chavez of Mexico.

Posthumous honorees to be enshrined June 12 in Canastota, N.Y., include bantamweight Memphis Pal Moore in the old-timer category and heavyweight John Gully in the pioneer category.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is due in court in Las Vegas on a misdemeanor battery charge alleging he hit a security guard in the face during an argument last month outside Mayweather's home.

Mayweather is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a Las Vegas judge on a charge that could get him a six-month jail sentence and a fine.

A police report alleges the 33-year-old Mayweather jabbed homeowner association guard Shayne Smith in the cheek Nov. 15 after Smith wrote parking violations for two vehicles outside Mayweather's house.

SOCCER: The Guardian reports some WikiLeaks fallout in the sports world. In 2008, as Burma struggled to recover from a cyclone that killed 140,000, the leader of Burma's military junta considered making a $1 billion bid to buy Manchester United football. Than Shwe, commander in chief of the armed forces and a fan of United, was urged to mount a takeover bid by his grandson, according to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Rangoon. It details how the regime was thought to be using football to distract its population from ongoing political and economic problems.

The Burmese junta had been accused of blocking vital international aid supplies after cyclone Nargis struck.

Than Shwe reportedly concluded that making a bid for United might "look bad" at the time. The senior general instead ordered the creation of a new multimillion dollar national football league. One of the teams hired Than Shwe's grandson to play on the team, a cable adds.

Cables in June 2009 reveal Iran's fear that public unrest over a national football team loss "could add fire to the increasingly volatile political demonstrations" during the presidential election. Such was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's political investment in Team Melli that spies kept tabs on key players. He loaned the squad his presidential plane to travel after personally firing the coach when they lost to regional rivals, Saudi Arabia.

WINTER SPORTS: Nate Holland of the United States won the season-opening World Cup snowboardcross for his fourth career victory in Lech am Arlberg, Austria. The 32-year-old Holland beat Tom Velisek of Canada and Mario Fuchs of Austria in the final run.

Gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic bobsledder Steve Holcomb is fighting a drunken-driving charge in Utah that his lawyer says could keep him from competing in Canada.

Holcomb, 30, is the pilot for the U.S. champion four-man team. The team captured a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, America's first gold in the sport since 1948. His attorney said Canada won't issue visas to people with drunken-driving convictions or pending charges.

- Inquirer wire services