Newz Forum: BOXING: Mayorga under house arrest

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Former welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga returned home Wednesday after a loss to Felix Trinidad and almost immediately was ordered under house arrest.

Mayorga, knocked out in a middleweight bout Saturday in New York, surrendered in court to face sexual abuse charges. A 20-year-old woman last month accused the boxer of rape. He acknowledged having sex with her at a hotel but said it was consensual.

Accompanied by a dozen bodyguards, his mother and his lawyer, Mayorga walked into court as supporters cried "Let him out!" and critics shouted back at them: "Accomplices!" Judge Marta Lorena Martinez placed him under house arrest and posted a bond of $9,000 US.

Prosecutor Odette Leyton said Mayorga should have been sent to prison pending trial. Bertha Ines Cabrales of the Women's Network Against Violence said she was surprised by the number of people who came to cheer the boxer.

"It is a disgrace that so many youths have become accomplices of a rapist," she said. "It's a disgrace that our society covers up a crime depending on who commits the crime."

On Tuesday, Mayorga told Nicaraguan reporters who had accompanied him to New York that he was retiring from boxing. He has a record of 27-5-1.