Fighter tries to reclaim career at Club Nokia

Juanito Garcia sparred with world junior-welterweight challenger Robert Guerrero last week in Big Bear.

They were sessions in comfort, not pain.

Guerrero returned to boxing last year after a hiatus to help his wife, Casey, battle cancer.

Garcia, 25, will return to the ring Thursday night at Club Nokia after his 20-year-old fiancee, Whitney Padilla, died of bone cancer last year.

"Robert and I talked about what we've been through," Garcia said this week at trainer Abel Sanchez's Summit Boxing Club in Big Bear Lake. "Robert told me it takes a lot to get through this, and he's right."

Part of the reason Garcia stayed in boxing rather than enroll in college was his fiancee's push for him to continue in the sport despite a stunning three-fight losing streak that took the Phoenix fighter from rising prospect in 2008 to being a failing club fighter after a split-decision loss to David Rodela in June 2009 at Club Nokia.

USC basketball: Could senior guard Jio Fontan be a Trojan for two more seasons?

In his first public comments since suffering a season-ending ACL tear in Brazil last week, USC senior guard Jio Fontan said Tuesday that he plans to apply for a medical hardship waiver that will allow him to play an additional season at USC.

Not that surprising. Here's where it gets interesting:

In January, Fontan told The Times he planned to file an appeal with the NCAA for an additional season of eligibility for his sophomore season in 2009-10 at Fordham in which he played five games before deciding to transfer.

If the NCAA grants him a waiver for his injury this season and grants his appeal for an additional season for his shortened sophomore season, he could be at USC for two more full seasons.

"There's a possibility, you never know, I could end up with two more years, I could end up with one more year," he told school officials Tuesday. 

Loyalty means something to Jered Weaver, now an Angel through 2016

Jered Weaver endeared himself to a legion of sports fans, if not his agent, on Tuesday when he acknowledged granting a considerable hometown discount to sign a five-year, $85-million contract extension with the Angels.

The 28-year-old right-hander and two-time All-Star, who grew up in Simi Valley and played college baseball at Long Beach State, would have become a free agent after 2012.

With another standout season like the one Weaver is having—he’s 14-6 with a major league-leading 2.10 earned-run average—he might have been in line for a contract like the seven-year, $161-million deal CC Sabathia signed with the New York Yankees before 2009.

Angels fans were skeptical Weaver would remain in Anaheim after he became a free agent because Weaver’s agent, Scott Boras, prefers his clients go to free agency, where they can earn maximum dollars.

Samuel Eto’o takes the money and runs to Russia

The world’s highest-paid soccer player now plays for a club that is only 20 years old, has never won anything and that no one outside the beleaguered and violence-ridden Dagestan region in Russia has ever heard of, let alone seen play.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o, formerly of Barcelona and Inter Milan, has taken the money and run off to join FC Anzhi Makhachkala of the Russian Premier League.

Who could blame him? Eto’o is 30 and on the downward slope of a superlative career that has seen him win European Champions League titles with Barcelona in 2006 and 2009, among many other honors.

If a Russian oil mogul named Suleiman Kerimov is willing to pay him a reported $29 million a year after taxes on a three-year contract, as London’s Financial Times indicated, why not grab the gold and hope for the best?

Inter Milan was thinking much the same thing when it agreed to terms with Anzhi Makhachkala that will net the debt-laden Italian Serie A team $36 million.

“There are other valuable players in the team and we’ll start building again,” Inter Milan Coach Gian Piero Gasperini said of losing the prolific Eto’o, who scored 37 goals last season.

USC football: No sanctions for Lane Kiffin, according to report

USC football Coach Lane Kiffin will not face sanctions for NCAA violations allegedly committed during his tenure at Tennessee, according to this report posted on the Knoxville News Sentinel's website.

Kiffin appeared before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions in June as part of a broader hearing into Tennessee's athletic department.

The NCAA is expected to announce its ruling on Wednesday.

Citing "multiple sources," the report said, "The two major violations levied against the football program were found to be secondary violations and no further penalties were levied against the UT program, former coach Lane Kiffin or former assistant David Reaves."

More later at latimes.com/sports.

-- Gary Klein

Ryan Says He Gave Gholston a Chance

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The underachieving former Jets lineman Vernon Gholston, now with the Chicago Bears, told reporters after Monday’s preseason game against the Giants that Rex Ryan did not give him a “fair chance” to succeed. Not surprisingly, Ryan felt differently.

Ryan, the Jets’ coach, said he was “confused” why Gholston, released in March after three sackless seasons, would blame him for his stalled career.

“I don’t agree with him on that,” Ryan said after Tuesday morning’s walk-through. “My job’s not just to make one player better and to feature one player. When I came here, I thought my job was to build the best defense we could possibly build. And I think when you look at statistically whether we were successful or not, I think it’s hard to argue that we weren’t successful.”

Ryan inherited Gholston, the sixth overall pick in 2008, after taking over for Eric Mangini. Ryan reiterated Tuesday what he has said several times before, that he did not think as highly of Gholston coming out of Ohio State as others in the organization; in his book, “Play Like You Mean It,” Ryan called Gholston’s workout at the scouting combine “phony.”

Gholston told reporters that he thought Ryan had already formed an opinion of him, which Ryan did not deny. “That could be accurate that I prejudged him,” Ryan said, “But trust me, when I came here, I was his coach, he was one of us, and I became a Jet.”

Ryan used to rave about Gholston, twice predicting a breakout season that never happened. The Jets moved him last spring from linebacker to defensive end, his natural position, but the switch did not help. He did not suit up for any of their three playoff games.

“I would have liked to have had Vernon back because I thought he was getting better, I really did,” Ryan said. “I thought he was getting better. Do I ever think he’s going to be Deacon Jones? No.”

Asked directly whether he felt he gave Gholston a fair shake, Ryan was unequivocal.

“I think I’m fair, I think I’m more than fair, I think I give plenty of opportunities,” he said. “If I wasn’t viewed that way, then that’s it.”

Video: Drawbacks of an Elite Moment

Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress will likely never reach the same high as they did in Super Bowl XLII says William C. Rhoden.