Boxing: Boxing: Welterweight champion accused of assaulting woman in Nicaragua

Associated Press - July 24, 2003


MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Boxer Ricardo Mayorga, the WBC and WBA welterweight champion, has been accused of hitting a woman who tried to collect an alleged debt.

Attorney Javier Lacayo, representing Martha del Socorro Solorzano, filed a criminal complaint against Mayorga on Wednesday.

Solorzano says Mayora struck her when she went to his house in the Nicaraguan capital to collect a US$7,500 debt on July 18.

``Mayorga, as a professional boxer, acted in cowardly way in brutally hitting a woman,'' Lacayo said in the complaint to the court.

Mayorga could not immediately be located on Thursday.

The champion has faced earlier legal complaints - one alleging he had failed to pay child support for two of his daughters and another accusing him of attacking police officers who found him engaged in street racing.

Mayorga, 29, successfully defended his titles on July 12 in Las Vegas with a majority decision over Vernon Forrest.