Tinley Manages to Go It Alone : New Jersey Middleweight Serves as His Own Manager

Mike Tinley’s manager believed it was important that the New Jersey middleweight take some time off after losing a tough decision last December.

Mike Tinley’s manager felt that it was important that Tinley get away from the sport for a while, so Tinley took a job officiating basketball games and giving tours at a recreation center in his hometown of Camden, N.J.

Mike Tinley’s manager picked tonight in Atlantic City for his fighter to resume his career, because he felt that the nationally televised (ESPN) 10-round main event against Michael Nunn at the Resorts International Hotel-Casino was the ideal bout for a comeback.

So Tinley will be here. Because he always listens to his manager. He has no choice.

Mike Tinley is Mike Tinley’s manager.

In an era when fighters are sometimes governed by an army of managers, strategists, business advisers, agents and various other followers, Tinley marches alone.

It’s not that he has anything against a good manager, he says. It’s just that he hasn’t found one yet.

“You give up a lot of rights when you have a manager,” Tinley said. “Before I give anything up, I want to know I’m going to get a lot back. There’s a lot of added pressure in running my own career, but I don’t want to make a mistake and pick the wrong management.”

He already did that once, selecting a manager, Steve Holmes, with whom he severed relations after an unhappy year.

Tinley, 26, thinks he’s done a good job with his career. He has amassed a 19-3-1 record, including seven knockouts. He is best known for beating Robbie Sims, who is the half-brother of Marvin Hagler. Sims also was a winner earlier this summer over Roberto Duran and is one of the top contenders in the tough middleweight division.

Most managers wouldn’t take a rematch after beating a highly ranked fighter such as Sims. Yet Tinley, the manager, did. And Tinley, the fighter, beat Sims even more decisively the second time.

Another manager might have talked Tinley out of his temporary hiatus after a 12-round, split-decision defeat to Iran Barkley in New York last December. At that point, Tinley was ranked No. 10 by the World Boxing Council and No. 6 by the International Boxing Federation. He slipped from both positions after he slipped out of sight.

Now he has reappeared in a fight that pits boxers heading in different directions. The 23-year-old Nunn (17-0, 11 knockouts), out of North Hollywood, has risen to the No. 10 spot in the World Boxing Assn. rankings and is thought to be a man moving upward.

Nunn is a 3-1 favorite tonight. He has fought seven times during the period Tinley was inactive, his last fight ending in a 10-round unanimous decision over Charlie Boston in Las Vegas last July. At 6-2, Nunn enjoys a three-inch height advantage over Tinley.

Nunn discounts the disadvantage of fighting in Tinley’s home state.

“I’ve fought in a guy’s backyard before,” Nunn said. “It’s no big deal. It’ll be just him and me fighting, not me and the whole state of New Jersey.”

Said Tinley: “I have never lost two fights in a row. If I do, I will go into the journeyman category. I don’t want that.

“Michael Nunn is rolling hot right now. The question is, ‘Should he go higher in the top 10 or should I go back in?’ ”

Tinley thinks he has a few answers.

“There are ways to fight Michael Nunn. You’ve got to make his height and reach work against him. I’ve studied films of him. Others have tried to get aggressive with him, but they kept running into his punches. I know how to cut the ring off. He’s got quick hands, but no heart.”

Now that’s the kind of statement you probably don’t want to make the day of a fight. It could fire up an opponent.

Just another advantage of having a manager. He’s around to keep your foot out of your mouth.