Boxing : Hagler’s Nose Is Just Latest of Bad Breaks That Have Postponed Bouts

If you follow boxing, you were not surprised when Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s nose got all out of joint and his middleweight title fight with John Mugabi was postponed. This happens all the time. Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago that Thomas Hearns backed out of a title fight with Hagler, claiming he hurt his little finger in training? And Hagler thought Hearns was such a sissy.

Boxing is full of such pre-fight complications. As Hagler presumably will have a scar on the bridge of his nose, he is above suspicion, although now that you think about it, he had been trumpeting a back injury in the days before his million-dollar head butt. You wouldn’t want Hagler to go into the ring ready to open up like a ripe tomato, but then, you wouldn’t want to be unnecessarily naive either.

Sometimes, boxers do pull out of important fights because of injury. As they do not train for fights by playing contract bridge, this is bound to happen. Rocky Marciano had to postpone his second Joe Walcott fight when the skin on his nose was peeled away. Gene Fullmer had to delay his Sugar Ray Robinson fight when he fell out of the ring during training and hurt his leg. George Foreman suffered a serious cut in Zaire, and his fight with Muhammad Ali had to be put off, not pleasing the press then in Zaire.

But in the annals of boxing, there are far more postponements than valid injuries. Sometimes, fighters acquire a timely disease. There was a title fight in Los Angeles some years back when the challenger had to pull out only three days in advance because of a reported groin injury. Well, it wasn’t long before the word was out as to how that “injury” was acquired.

Promoters couldn’t learn any more about rare and exotic diseases if they’d interned at UCLA Medical School. In one edition of the Ring Record Book, it is reported that Tony Zale was “seized with neuritis” and had to put off his fight with Billy Petrolle for a month. In 1946, before a fight with Rocky Graziano, Zale was again seized with neuritis.

Sometimes, promoters deserve the suspicion, though certainly not in the Hagler case, as huge sums stand to be lost due to the reshuffling of dates. A local promoter remembered a Ruben Olivares-Bobby Chacon fight that, sadly, had been scheduled for a Wednesday night in August. Ticket sales were awful. But then a Saturday concert in the Forum was canceled, and suddenly the better date was available.

“Well,” the promoter said, “the next day it rained, so the fight obviously had to be called off and rescheduled for that Saturday. There was no way we could have a fight in this downpour.” This offended the logic of at least one broadcaster. Jim Healy, mustering all the available incredulity, went on the air and tried to point out that downpours do not generally affect indoor fights, even before the invention of Astro-Canvas, and certainly not for periods of three days.

The promoter laughs. “We had pictures of Chacon holding an umbrella in the Forum,” he says. “Also, we had a better gate Saturday.”

To be fair, both boxers and promoters go on with fights even when their chances seem hopeless. Larry Holmes won his title from Ken Norton even though he had a badly torn biceps. Jerry Quarry was known to fight hurt. Others fought sick.

And sometimes, promoters make do. In the ‘40s, at the old Hollywood Legion, Fabela Chavez showed up sick for a fight with Bernie Calla. So, promoter George Parnassus looked into the stands, saw Chuey Figueroa, a local boxer. Figueroa was quickly outfitted and installed in the main event. Unfortunately, for this story, he was stopped fairly quickly. It is said that his shoes didn’t fit.

That’s Leon, Brother: One-time heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, though overshadowed by younger brother Michael these days, has not been inactive. Rather, he’s been spectacularly inactive. Here’s an update:

Leon, attempting one more comeback, signed to fight Gordie Racette near Vancouver last Friday night but then backed out at the last minute, claiming a rib injury. This was not a popular decision with either promoter Thad Spencer, who called Leon many things in print, or the town of Nanaimo, where black T-shirts with the word Chicken spelled in yellow were quickly available.

Up to that point, Leon had been something of a hero, and besides a promised purse of $10,000, he enjoyed the use of a $22,000 Pontiac during training. But as soon as Leon backed out, Spencer had Leon’s loaner towed away, and Leon and his entourage of five had to walk to the bus station, carrying their own luggage.

The Pontiac sales manager, perhaps mindful of Leon’s driving record, later said, “We appreciate them looking after our interest.”

Boxing Notes Some local promoters are not too thrilled about the so-called neurological bill, which is scheduled to go into effect next year. The bill, which requires boxers to undergo a neurological exam each year when they renew their license to fight in California, requires promoters to carry the cost of the exam, estimated at $300. The means of assessment may be to tax promoters an additional $1.50 per ticket. New York, the only other state to require a neurological exam of its boxers, pays for it out of the state budget. . . . On that same subject, more or less: Chris Schwenke, the boxer who fell into a coma after his fight with Prince Mamah Mohammed at the Forum July 23, has made a sensational recovery, considering that 80% of the people who get operated on for traumatic head injuries do not survive. Schwenke, who continues to get out-patient care at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, is reported in the top 3% of the recovery curve that tracks those 20% surviving. Schwenke will never box again, but he will be able to live independently. He is up and about, jogging even, and though there will certainly be some residual brain damage, his speech is good enough that he was able to stand up in front of TV cameras and deliver a short talk at a hospital celebration. . . . The Prince, meanwhile, has had problems of his own. An elimination fight between the Prince and top-ranked Marvin Johnson for the World Boxing Assn. light-heavyweight title vacated by Michael Spinks has gone by the wayside. Johnson, for some reason, has elected to fight Leslie Stewart instead, putting off a fight with the Prince until at least Feb. So, the Prince decided to go after the World Boxing Council version, also empty after Spinks ascended to the heavyweight throne. The Prince, second-ranked there, too, was set to fight top-ranked Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. But a curious thing happened. At the recent WBC convention in Thailand, J.B. Williams, who happens to be promoted by Don King, was upgraded to No. 2 and the Prince to No. 1. Mustafa went to No. 3. So now the title elimination fight will be between the Prince and Williams, a somewhat less attractive, not to mention less lucrative bout. That fight, though not signed, could be in the Forum Dec. 4.

So you want to be a boxer, cont.: Preliminary fighters were getting $250 per four-round fight 30 years ago. Today? About $250.

At the Olympic Auditorium, Thursday: Mario (Azabache) Martinez vs. former junior lightweight champion Roger Mayweather, and Adrian Arreola vs. someone to be named. Interesting also is a scheduled bout between former bantamweight champion Albert Davila, of Pomona, and Roberto Ramirez. Davila had retired as WBC champion with a back injury and now returns after more than a year of inactivity. . . . At the Forum, Nov. 21: Lupe Suarez fights Refugio Rojas for the $50,000 first prize in the finals of Stroh’s Featherweight Tournament. . . . At the Country Club, Nov. 26: Charlie (White Lightning) Brown, former lightweight sensation, continues his comeback after his loss to Harry Arroyo, with an opponent to be named. Then Dec. 10, undefeated Michael Nunn headlines there. In the meantime, Nunn fights Jorge Amparo Nov. 13 at the Showboat in Las Vegas. The Country Club, incidentally, sold out Tuesday night’s Tex Cobb show, even with a higher-priced ticket, drawing more than $31,000. . . . On television, Nov. 26: The recently retired Ray Mancini appears on “Who’s the Boss.” . . . At the Irvine Marriott, Nov. 29: Junior-middleweight Tomas Perez vs. Ernie Rabotte. It’s Irvine’s 10th and final show of the year. . . . On television, Dec. 1: Mancini appears on “Amazing Stories.”

Last week’s World Boxing Hall of Fame awards banquet was a sellout, with the featured attraction being former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson’s stirring speech in defense of boxing.

Local hero Joey Olivo, the WBA junior-flyweight champion, goes to Seoul for a Dec. 1 fight with South Korean Myung Woo Yuh. . . . Other local heroes: WBA bantamweight champion Richard Sandoval is scheduled for a non-title bout with Diego Avila in Pomona, in the Cal Poly main gym next Sunday. That card had originally been scheduled for last Sunday at the Sports Arena but was canceled when the promoters failed to come up with a bond of $100,000. The card has been cut somewhat in the meantime, and Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzales is no longer on it.