Manny Pacquiao upped the ante Wednesday in his standoff with Floyd Mayweather Jr. by filing a lawsuit alleging that Mayweather and others defamed him by falsely accusing Pacquiao of using performance-enhancing drugs.
The suit filed in federal court in Las Vegas further complicates efforts to reach an agreement for a proposed March 13 fight between the boxers. The fight has been stalled by demands by the Mayweather camp that both fighters submit to random blood and urine tests leading up to the bout.
Pacquiao says in the suit he has never tested positive for any performance-enhancing drugs, but that Mayweather, his father and uncle, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions chief Richard Schaefer embarked on a campaign to make people think he used drugs.
AROUND THE HORN
Speedskating: American Shani Davis plans to skate in all five individual distances at the Vancouver Olympics in February and will not compete in the team pursuit. U.S. Speedskating confirmed that Chad Hedrick has declined the Olympic spot in the 10,000 and that the spot instead was given to Davis.
Baseball: Two-time All-Star righthander Justin Duchscherer agreed to terms on an incentive-laden, one-year contract to rejoin the Oakland Athletics after he missed all of the 2009 season. Duchscherer underwent arthroscopic right elbow surgery on March 31 and later was treated for clinical depression.
Action sports: Travis Pastrana, on New Year's Eve (11 p.m., ESPN), will try to shatter the world record (171 feet) for the longest jump in a rally car, from the Pine Street Pier in Long Beach, Calif., onto a barge anchored in the harbor.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
