Names in the game for August 23, 2005

Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

Lance Armstrong

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong denied drug-taking allegations published by L'Equipe and accused the French sports newspaper of joining "a witch-hunt" against him.

The article, headlined "The Armstrong Lie," said that six of the American's samples from the 1999 Tour de France showed traces of the banned hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, in tests carried out by a French laboratory since 2004. The newspaper published what it said were the test results and copies of certificates naming Armstrong, and included comment by doctors who conducted the analysis.

Armstrong, 33, who quit cycling after winning last month's Tour de France, has refuted allegations of drug-taking which surfaced since he returned from life-threatening cancer to become the sport's most successful rider.

"Yet again a European newspaper has reported that I have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs," Armstrong said in a statement on his Web site. "I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs."

L'Equipe said the tests on frozen samples were carried out by the national doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry near Paris. It said the test didn't exist in 1999 and was validated by the International Cycling Union only in April 2001.

Winky Wright

If Winky Wright were putting together a list of who he wants to fight Dec. 10, it would go something like this: Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, Felix Trinidad, Floyd Mayweather.

A veritable Who's Who in the sport of boxing.

The list of who he probably will fight is more like a Who? Who?: Felix Sturm, Daniel Santos, Ike Quartey, Roman Karmazin, Ricardo Mayorga.

"They can't all be megafights," Wright said.

Promoter Gary Shaw is seeking an opponent after negotiations for a pay-per-view with Mayweather on Nov. 12 fizzled last week. Quartey and Sturm are on the short list, two solid fighters who present interesting matchups and are on a list of four HBO will accept for the TV date.

-- Sun wire services