Duarte Survives Beating to KO Torres in Ninth

After the first round of his scheduled 10-round match against Jose Torres on Tuesday night at the Country Club in Reseda, Frankie Duarte lay back on his stool in the corner and felt the blood stream down his face.,

Torres’ head had smashed into Duarte’s, opening a large cut above the left eye. Torres had also smashed his right hand into Duarte’s forehead above the right eye, opening a smaller cut. Duarte’s blood was everywhere--on the stool, on trainer Joe Goossen’s shirt, even on the shoulder of Torres, who calmly waited in the other corner to finish off the North American Boxing Federation bantamweight champion.

In his ringside seat, Marty Denkin of the State Athletic Commission was asked if Duarte’s title was at stake in this fight.

“No,” Denkin said, “just his career.”’

Duarte had taken this match as a tuneup while his manager, Dan Goossen, wraps up negotiations for a title fight against World Boxing Assn. champion Bernardo Pinango. The fight, planned for February or March, would be held either in Los Angeles or Las Vegas.

But now there might not be a title shot for the 31-year-old Duarte, who had fought through addiction to drugs and alcohol, not to mention 47 opponents. Duarte had won 40 of those fights, drawn in another and knocked out 30 of his opponents.

The biggest of those fights came in July when he beat Jesus Salud at the Forum to win the NABF title.

Biggest until now, that is. Suddenly 30-year-old veteran Jose Torres (31-13, 12 knockouts) of Tucson, Ariz., stood between Duarte and his dream title shot. Torres and all that blood.

Duarte’s vision was blurred, but he could still look into the future.

“I was scared to death,” he said. “I saw that title shot going out the window.”

Duarte, who fights out of the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood, answered the bell for the second round, but the quick patch job by Joe Goossen on the cut over the left eye didn’t last long. The cut broke open again and with 10 seconds remaining in the round, it was Torres who motioned at the steady stream of blood flowing down Duarte’s face, indicating he thought the fight should be stopped.

Duarte’s eye was examined, examined again in the seventh round, but the fight was allowed to continue, a decision accompanied by cheers from the sellout crowd of 900.

Given the chance to fight, Duarte did. He began to take over the fight in the third round and suddenly it was Torres who was taking most of the punishment.

“I had a lot of energy left,” Duarte said. “I was bleeding, but I wasn’t hurt. The only thing that kept Torres in there was courage.”

But courage or not, the steady barrage of left hooks and straight rights by Duarte began to wear Torres down. Torres went down from a straight right to the head in the seventh round, but got up.

He went down again from a right to the body with 2:03 gone in the ninth round and couldn’t make it back to his feet.

Duarte’s title shot was still alive.