Boxing : Latest Trend Is a Half-Century Old

Irving Rudd just checked in. The veteran fight publicist, now thumping tubs for Bob Arum, reported a trend to remote fight camps. Not since the ‘30s, he said, have so many fighters trained in such distant boonies.

“I’m in Laughlin, Nevada,” he said cheerfully. “Of course you know where Laughlin is. You pass it on the way to Searchlight.”

Rudd is publicizing the Dec. 6 title unification fight between Milton McCrory, the World Boxing Council welterweight king, and Donald Curry, the World Boxing Assn. champion, in Las Vegas.

Specifically, he is publicizing McCrory, which is his tough luck because McCrory’s manager, Emanuel Steward, has decided that the bright lights are as hazardous to a fighter’s health as a right hand.

“Manny thought he made a big mistake with Tommy Hearns, let him out of his control (for the Marvelous Marvin Hagler fight),” Rudd said. “The camps in Miami Beach and Las Vegas were amok. Had one guy for the left bucket, one for the right. It was like when Ali was training and we’d all look at each other and say, ‘What do he do?’ ”

So Laughlin is where Steward took Hearns to train for James Shuler and where he has taken McCrory to train for Curry.

“It’s not so bad,” Rudd said. “A little quiet. Sort of like Ma and Pa Kettle Come to the Craps Table. Sign says there’s an arthritis clinic next week--learn about hip implants. Also the hotel is offering a chicken and fish buffet. ‘Try our Cluck and Hook,’ it says.”

Rudd reported that Laughlin, named for casino-and-everything-else owner Dan Laughlin, is rustic enough to remind him of the old days, when he publicized fights at Doc Biers’ camp in Pompton Lakes, N.J. Fighters always trained in the woods, which was a good thing, Rudd recalled, because of all the wood they chopped and all the maidens they saved.

“It used to be a hell of a thing, the regularity of it,” he said. “Fighter would be doing his roadwork at 6 a.m. and he’d hear through the distant woods the cry of a maiden in distress. Usually she was in a lake. I never knew what a maiden would be doing in a lake at 6 a.m. but in those days there were a lot of them and our heroes always saved them.

“And all the wood that got chopped. Those were about the only pictures you ever saw from the fight camp, the hero chopping wood. Curious thing, if you looked close, our heroes were always wearing patent leather shoes. I once asked Ray Arcel if his fighters chopped wood and he said, ‘So they could fight on one leg?’ ”

McCrory has neither saved a maiden nor done much logging but he has trained without distraction. “No hangers-on,” Rudd said. “Not like when Tommy trained in Miami and there were all these policeman from Detroit--best protected camp in history--going in and out. This is different, because No. 1, how do you find Laughlin, and No. 2, why?”

Rudd, who once ran his office out of a room under a ring in an upstate New York forest, said it’s all deja vu, this retiring to distant outposts. But he’s not sure he likes it.

“It reminds me of the publicist, Francis Albert Tanty, who worked back in the ‘20s. He was at another of those remote camps, damn crickets chirping, and he said, ‘I wonder what the boys in the slammer are doing tonight.’ ”

Boxing Notes Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzales apparently is gearing up his career after a year’s wait to turn pro. The mini-flyweight will take on Joey Roach Dec. 5 at the Hollywood Paladium, then, if all goes well, return for promoters Don Chargin and Dr. Phil Young in February. Gonzales hadn’t fought at all until Aug. 11 this year. . . . Local champion Tony Tubbs will defend his World Boxing Assn. heavyweight title Jan. 7 in Atlanta against Tim Witherspoon. . . . The Forum is preparing for a title fight Dec. 10, with Prince Mohammed and J.B. Williamson fighting for Michael Spinks’ old World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title. Spinks abandoned it after defeating Larry Holmes for the International Boxing Federation heavyweight title. Also on that card is Michael Nunn and Bimly Robertson in a middleweight fight and Oscar Muniz and Tony Montoya in a super-bantamweight bout. . . . Looking ahead, Alexis Arguello is being mentioned for title No. 4. Coming back from retirement--he quit the ring after two losses to Aaron Pryor--Arguello will fight Billy Costello, former WBC junior lightweight champion, Feb. 9, possibly in Reno, in his second fight since returning to the ring. On Friday the Irvine Marriott closes out the boxing year with a junior middleweight bout between Tomas Perez and Ernie Rabott.