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Mayorga quits after knockout and arrest

Former welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga returned home on Wednesday after a loss to Felix Trinidad and almost immediately was ordered under house arrest before a crowd of fans and foes.

Mayorga, knocked out by Trinidad in a middleweight bout on Saturday in New York City, turned himself in to a court to face sexual abuse charges shortly after arriving back in Managua.

Accompanied by a dozen bodyguards, his mother and his lawyer, Mayorga walked into the 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 US$9,000.

A 20-year-old woman last month accused Mayorga of rape. He acknowledged having sex with her at a local hotel, but said it was consensual.

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

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

On Tuesday, Mayorga told Nicaraguan journalists who had accompanied him to New York that he was retiring from boxing.

Mayorga has record of 27-5 with one draw.
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