Rosario Wins Title, Rocks Division : Bramble Flattened in 2nd; Camacho Takes Decision, Hike

Livingstone Bramble, the dreadlocked Rastafarian with a dog named Snake and a snake named Dog, may have gone the way of all colorful fighters who fail to support their legend in the ring. And Hector (Macho) Camacho, whose childish vainglory is plenty legend enough without his marvelous fists,, may have gone the way of all lightweights who can no longer fit into an iridescent suit of lights.

In any event, Friday night’s so-called Preamble to Bramble, a presumed tuneup for an eventual unification of Bramble’s and Camacho’s lightweight titles, produced the usual chaos instead in boxing’s most exciting division.

Edwin Rosario, a former champion who was brought in for purposes of credibility, brutally flattened Bramble in two rounds, after 45 straight punches, thereby immediately blowing the title showdown angle. And Camacho, though he easily decisioned the veteran Cornelius Boza-Edwards later in the Miami Beach humidity, has evidently decided he’s leaving the lightweight division, and arch-rival Rosario, behind.

This means, of course, the lightweight division is thrown wide open, with contenders and champions aplenty. A title unification, while a generous idea, will not be seen in your lifetime after all.

The whole scenario quickly unraveled in the second round of the World Boxing Assn. title fight when Rosario, coming off a disputed loss to Camacho earlier this year, knocked out the widely favored Bramble. Bramble immediately offered grounds for a rematch, saying he had been thumbed at the beginning of the round. The reason he didn’t get up, he said, was he couldn’t see.

Also, he couldn’t support himself. At the count of 10, he tried to rise and tipped right over.

But, whatever the explanation, don’t count on Rosario, or “Chapo,” as the largely Hispanic crowd chanted for him, giving Bramble any breaks. Bramble earned precious little consideration from Rosario earlier in the week when he banged garbage-can lids outside Rosario’s hotel room door.

The second fight of the doubleheader went according to form, although in this one too the loser was left complaining. Camacho, whose Macho nickname belies his defensive style of fighting, had the plodding Boza-Edwards missing spectacularly, throwing wide punched into areas of the ring no longer inhabited by Camacho.

Except for a first round knockdown, after Camacho had engaged Boza-Edwards in some middle-of-the-ring violence, it was a showcase of defensive wizardry. Some fight fans appreciate that. But the crowd that watched it on an outdoor tennis court booed. Boza-Edwards hated it, too. “Flick and run,” he muttered. “Like a rabbit.”

Still, at the night’s conclusion it appeared that the lightweight division could move on, even without the anticipated Bramble-Camacho fight. A Camacho-Rosario rematch, while not as attractive, would draw nevertheless. Certainly Rosario, who had been tentative in the Camacho fight, failing to finish the World Boxing Council champion off when he had opportunities, was re-annointed as an attraction with this knockout victory over Bramble.

But then Camacho spoiled that when, immediately after his fight, he said this 135-pound business was too much. He said he had been as much as five pounds overweight two days before the fight and had to go 36 hours without eating, and then rise at 5 a.m. the day of the weigh-in to run the remaining three pounds off to make weight.

“On Wednesday,” he was saying, “I had one piece of fish and one cup of water for my vitamins. One skinny fish. The vitamin was stronger than the fish.”

To Camacho, this explained his inability to do more than counterpunch after the fifth round. “My legs was gone,” he said. “My legs was leaving me.

So, that’s the end of making this kind of weight, even if Rosario remains to taunt him. “I don’t want to give anybody any edge,” Camacho said. “I mean, don’t you think next time I might get knocked out?”

So Camacho will take his colorful ring wardrobe, a fantastic array of sequins, let it out a little and move up to junior welterweight. Let Rosario find him there. Certainly he’ll be visible enough.

The boos did seem to sting Camacho, though, not that he’ll ever fight differently. Still, he is satisfied that the ladies still scream Macho Man to him. “The poison comes from the men,” he says, locating the awful envy at ringside.

Surely his pre-fight performance would have been cheered. Between the first title fight and his own, Camacho stood outside the motor-home that served as his dressing quarters. Dressed in a black-and-white striped jockstrap, he danced and whirled, the pre-fight commotion turned into a kind of block party.

Every two seconds somebody asked, “What time is it?” And about 50 others, a splinter group in his entourage, shouted, “Macho time.”

You had to wonder if that isn’t where he left his legs. You have to wonder, seeing him fight, if he wouldn’t really rather dance anyway. He just wants to be center of attention--that’s the name of his game from round one. When it was suggested that Rosario, in coming back to eminence, overshadowed his nemesis, Camacho bristled. “I was the main attraction, I was the showman,” he said. But Rosario, who had held the WBC title himself before losing it to Jose Luis Ramirez, was the puncher Friday night. And no wonder. Ever since he failed to put Camacho away in their summer match when he had Camacho hurt in two separate rounds, people have complained that Rosario couldn’t finish anybody off.

“So I looked back at my fights,” he said, “and I saw that, that I wasn’t following through.”

He followed through this time. Of course, Bramble, 26, is more of a stand-up fighter whose skills are more concussive than subtle. So Rosario waded in fearlessly, never backing up, just moving side to side. In the second round, he attacked Bramble against the ropes and nailed him with two right hands.

Bramble said one of them thumbed his eye and blinded it. “The replay will show that,” he said confidently. Actually, the replay does not show that, although Bramble can be seen wiping at his right eye after Rosario nailed him with a left hand.

But even if that never happened, the course of that early round suggested Bramble would be in for a long night and a short and exciting title career.

Bramble’s only chance was at the opening bell as Rosario genuflected in his corner. Bramble had charged out to hammer him as he prayed except for the referee catching him hin the middle of the ring.

Boza-Edwards, 30, had a longer night and has had a longer career. But the former junior-lightweight champion (1981, briefly), did little to discourage the notion that Camacho, 24, is the master boxer and the iridescent light of whatever division he chooses. So leave the lightweight division to Rosario and let some other brave promoter plot a title unification. Camacho, meanwhile, will satisfy his appetite elsewhere.