Kelly Knocks Out Ramos, Keeps WBC Title

Kevin Kelley retained his World Boxing Council featherweight title Saturday with a second-round knockout of Jose Vida Ramos in Atlantic City, N.J.

Kelley, who boxed cautiously in the opening round, floored Ramos with a left cross and right hook midway through the second. After Ramos got up, Kelley dropped him again with a leaping left cross. Referee Tony Perez halted the scheduled 12-round bout at 1:58 of the second and did not issue a count when Ramos went down a second time.

Kelley, 27, of Flushing, N.Y., is 40-0 with 28 knockouts. Ramos, 27, of the Dominican Republic, is 24-2 with 17 knockouts.

Motor Racing

Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger of Austria won the pole for today’s Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril after a determined effort by Damon Hill of Great Britain fell short.

Hill, needing a victory today to close to within a point of suspended Formula One leader Michael Schumacher of Germany, drove his Williams-Renault to a speed of 121.462 m.p.h. But his time of 1 minute 20.766 seconds at the 2.725-mile Fernando Pires da Silva circuit was 1.58 seconds slower than that of the Austrian, who averaged 121.700 m.p.h. in preliminary qualifying 24 hours earlier.

*

Todd Bodine and Greg Sacks were the only qualifiers during the rain-delayed second round of time trials for today’s Goody’s 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Va. The top 20 qualifiers, led by Ted Musgrave’s track-record lap of 94.129 m.p.h., locked in starting positions in the first round of qualifying.

Tennis

Amy Frazier defeated fourth-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, 6-1, 6-3, in Tokyo and will play Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain today in the final of the Nichirei International Ladies Championship.

Top-seeded Sanchez Vicario outlasted Japan’s Nana Miyagi, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, in the other semifinal, which ended five minutes shy of two hours at Ariake Colosseum.

Yachting

Seven yachts from four nations have entered the International America’s Cup Class World Championship set for Oct. 28-Nov. 5 in San Diego.

The event is a prelude to the America’s Cup, which will begin in January and runs through mid-May.

Representing the United States in the world championship are the three America’s Cup defender candidates--Team Dennis Conner, the America Foundation and Pact 95.

Australia and France will each have one representative, and Japan will have two.

Australia will be represented by the one Australian sailing syndicate, led by John Bertand, who defeated Dennis Conner in 1983 to win the America’s Cup.

France will be represented by Defi France, sailing for the Yacht Club d’Antibes. Japan will be represented by the Nippon Challenge, which has been training in San Diego since last March, will enter two yachts in the world championship.

Pro Basketball

The NBA is considering following the leads of baseball and hockey by having work-stopping labor problems this season. NBA players have been without a collective agreement since the end of last season, and no talks have been held.

“Our plan is to open training camps, but if ultimately the union won’t talk to you, it’s tough to rule out any possibilities you might have to consider down the road,” deputy commissioner Russ Granik told the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune, quoting a source, said the league is considering a lockout of players, “probably around Thanksgiving, if no agreement is reached by then.”

Bob Ferry, former general manager of the Washington Bullets, told the Sun-Sentinel of Ft. Lauderdale he was interviewed for the position of general manager of the Miami Heat.

Name in the News

Don Klosterman, former pro football executive who now is president of Pacific Casino Management, will be honored at Loyola Marymount’s Pride of Lions dinner Saturday.