A LOOK AT THE HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION : THE YOUNG HEAVYWEIGHTS : A Legion of Former Olympic Fighters May Return Division to a Golden Era; Are You Ready for Biggs-Damiani II?

Hey! Boxing fans, wake up out there! The young heavyweights are here!

Boxing’s heavyweight division is undergoing a changing of the guard.

For a decade, the likes of Greg Page, Tim Witherspoon, Mike Weaver, Michael Dokes, James Tillis, Tony Tubbs (are you going back to sleep?), Bonecrusher Smith, John Tate and others too insignificant to mention have been lulling TV audiences, if not opponents, into a slumber. So many of them looked fat, out of shape, slow and uninteresting--only because they were.

It has been 10 years of watching grizzly bears wrestling, dancing and pawing at and with each other. The only thread of consistency in the division since Muhammad Ali’s reign was Larry Holmes, but he’s gone, too.

Take a look at half a dozen young lions; lean, trim graduates of the 1984 Olympic Games, eager to put some talent into boxing’s sad-sack division. They are, in alphabetical order:

--Tyrell Biggs, super-heavyweight gold medalist, 9-0 as a pro.

--Francesco Damiani, Italian super-heavyweight silver medalist, 8-0 as a pro.

--Willie deWit, Canadian heavyweight silver medalist, 11-0-1 as a pro.

--Evander Holyfield, Olympic light-heavyweight bronze medalist, 10-0 as a pro.

--Henry Tillman, heavyweight gold medalist, 10-0 as a pro.

--Mike Tyson, heavyweight alternate on the Olympic team, 20-0 as a pro.

Lou Duva, the New Jersey boxing trainer who works with Biggs and Holyfield among other ’84 Olympians, was talking about the heavyweight division recently and said:

“People are sick and tired of watching guys like Trevor Berbick, David Bey and Michael Dokes maul each other for 10 rounds. Remember how exciting it was in the 1970s, thinking about and waiting for (Joe) Frazier and Ali to meet?

“Well, I predict that kind of excitement is coming back. And the two guys who’ll bring it back are Biggs and Tyson. When those two meet in a couple of years, it’ll be the megabucks fight of the ‘80s. How about $15 million apiece?”

Not everyone in boxing, however, figures that the division is headed toward a Biggs-Tyson showdown. Opinions on Tyson, for instance, run the gamut, some calling him the division’s best young slugger since Frazier and others suggesting serious doubt that he can beat any of the other young hopefuls. The doubters were vocal even before his recent unimpressive 10-round decision over Tillis.

Veteran Detroit trainer Emanuel Steward, although agreeing that a wave of young, talented heavyweights is upon the division, doesn’t believe that a dominant champion will emerge.

“Based on what I’ve seen, the talent level is pretty close among them,” he said.

“They’re all talented fighters, but I don’t see any of them becoming a solid champion with continuity, the way we knew it in the years of Marciano, Patterson, Liston and Ali.

“I put Biggs a notch above Tyson and the others right now, but something is missing there (with Biggs) and I’m not sure what it is. Tyson? I have doubts about him. I think because of the pace he likes to fight at, he flattens out in fights over six rounds.

“Tillman is an excellent, smart boxer, but I don’t see him holding up against bigger heavyweights.

“Willie deWit is the strongest of them all, but he’s too mechanical and just hasn’t developed much since he was an amateur. He needs quality sparring against good sparring partners. If he gets that, he could improve.”

Promoter Bob Arum said that deWit has boxed in relative obscurity in Canada because he’s making too much money to leave Canada and box in the United States.

“The day they announced deWit would box for the Canadian heavyweight title against some guy I never heard of, they sold 8,000 tickets,” Arum said.

And where does 29-year-old Michael Spinks, who recently defeated Larry Holmes for the second time, fit in?

Steward said: “He still doesn’t have the structure, or the physical strength of a heavyweight. He won’t be a champion very long.”

Steward rates a heavyweight in his Kronk Gym stable, Tony Tucker, right up with the Olympic graduates.

“Tony is 30-0, but he’s like Tyson--he hasn’t fought any top-of-the-line heavyweights yet,” Steward said. “He has some legal problems he has to solve and he has to hurry, because he’s 27. If he can get back in the ring soon, people will see he deserves to be rated with these new kids.”

Morton Sharnik, CBS’s boxing coordinator, is among the observers who see boxing inexorably headed toward a Biggs-Tyson super bout.

“Yes, I see Biggs and Tyson going in that direction,” he said. “Tyson seems on a faster track right now. He has all the qualities you want in a heavyweight--drive, intensity, punch and desire. And he’s getting excellent handling.

“I put Biggs and Tyson on top of the pack right now, but I don’t dismiss Tillman. I’m not sure why he’s campaigning as a cruiserweight, but I still like him. His size (Tillman weighed 193 for his last fight, a surprise one-round knockout of No. 1-ranked cruiserweight Bash Ali) doesn’t bother me. I never did feel a heavyweight had to weigh 240. The best punchers I ever saw all weighed 190 to 205.”

Tillman, many like to point out, beat Tyson twice on decisions in the 1984 Olympic team selection process. Tillman also beat deWit on a decision in the Olympic gold-medal heavyweight bout.

Tillman’s trainer, Mercer Smith, said that his Los Angeles heavyweight is following a game plan established shortly after the Olympics.

“Henry will go after the cruiserweight championship as soon as he can get it,” he said. “That’s been the game plan since Day 1. Right now, we’re looking at a cruiserweight title fight with Carlos DeLeon, maybe in June.

“Whatever the rest of the heavyweights do, hold a tournament or whatever, Henry will win the cruiserweight title and then challenge the heavyweight champion.”

In such an event, Smith sees his guy fighting none other than Spinks for the title one day. “If all the heavyweights go into a tournament, I see Spinks beating them all, and Henry and Spinks fighting for the title,” he said.

One of Tillman’s major boosters, not surprisingly, is his Las Vegas promoter, Mel Greb, who promoted the Tillman-Bash Ali bout.

“Henry Tillman will be heavyweight champion of the world sometime in 1987,” Greb said.

For the moment, Biggs, 25, seems to be the candidate most likely to succeed among the new heavyweights. Biggs’ stock jumped markedly with his victory March 23 over Jeff Sims, an unranked but tough opponent. Biggs suffered a broken collarbone in the second round, yet went the distance with one hand, his left, and easily won a decision.

The significance of that? There had been whispers that Biggs was not long on courage. Affable, pleasant, friendly, open and always smiling, Biggs seemed to many to lack the personality of a heavyweight fighter. Boxing traditionalists feel more comfortable with scowl-and-growl types like Sonny Liston.

Another red flag went up over Biggs when it developed shortly after he had signed a rich ABC contract in 1984 that he had a drug-alcohol problem.

Biggs entered a drug-rehabilitation program in Orange County, however, and Duva says that his 6-foot 5-inch, 220-pound heavyweight hasn’t had a problem since.

“Ty’s problems are behind him,” Duva said.

As for the no-heart rap? Bum rap, says Duva.

“I know his heart was questioned all along,” Duva said. “But it was his personality--he’s so easygoing outside the ring, some guys had a problem taking him seriously as a fighter. But he put aside all that with that courageous performance against Sims. Believe me, he was in real pain.

“And you know what? No one would’ve questioned his heart if we’d stopped that fight because of a broken collarbone. But he didn’t quit. He went out there and beat a tough guy with one hand.”

Courage aside, Duva said that he and another trainer, George Benton, have put more power into Biggs’ game.

“When Ty came out of the amateurs, he ran all over the ring like a ruptured flamingo,” Duva said.

“George has got him now where he stays in the pocket, shortening up on his punches and slipping punches. He’s hitting with power now.”

As for a Biggs-Tyson showdown, Duva said: “Ty can’t wait to fight him. But we won’t fight him until the time is right.”

Duva said that Tyson’s unanimous decision over Tillis on May 3 was probably a lesson for the 19-year-old slugger. It was the first time in 20 fights that Tyson hadn’t stopped an opponent.

“That was a good experience for Mike,” Duva said.

“Now he knows that everyone he hits isn’t going to fall down. Now he knows he’s going to have to learn some other things, like how to solve problems during a bout.

“Tillis showed him a style he hadn’t seen before, and it confused him for 10 rounds. He knows he’ll have to learn a little ring generalship, to learn how to do things other than hit guys on the chin.”

Duva said that his people are trying to put together two big-guy rematches from the Olympic finals, possibly in Los Angeles.

“We’re trying to make Biggs-Damiani (the Olympic super-heavyweight gold-medal bout) and Tillman-deWit (the heavyweight gold-medal bout) for L.A.”

Damiani, the Italian now campaigning as a pro on the East Coast, is a throwback, according to Duva.

“He reminds me of a heavyweight Gene Fullmer,” he said, referring to the one-time middleweight champion. “He’s very strong, has a style similar to Fullmer or Marciano. These kinds of fighters excite the public and give good boxers a hard time.”

Holyfield, who developed rapidly in 1984 as an amateur and even more quickly after turning pro, is the first ’84 Olympian to land a pro title fight, but he may not be the first to fight one.

He is signed to meet Dwight Qawi for the WBA cruiserweight championship July 12, but Tillman is negotiating for a June 22 WBC cruiserweight title match with DeLeon.

Tillman is 6-3, strong and likely able to move up to the heavyweight class comfortably. But at 6-1, some wonder if Holyfield will ever grow out of the cruiserweight class.

That, of course, is what they said about Michael Spinks, and a year ago he was a light-heavyweight.

As a long-range possibility, a fighter who might one day challenge the best of the ’84 Olympians, Duva likes a Puerto Rican heavyweight named Isaac Barrientos.

“I really like this kid a lot,” Duva said. “Barrientos is 6-5, 240 and only 19. He’s turning pro right now. He has a future, I think.”

Barrientos unluckily drew Biggs in the first round of the Olympic tournament and was beaten decisively.

Among the current U.S. amateurs, the hot topic of conversation is a 218-pound Mexican-American from Van Nuys, Alex Garcia, who came from nowhere to win the national amateur heavyweight championship in March.