Negotiations Are Underway for Duarte to Meet WBA Champion Pinango at Forum

North American Boxing Federation bantamweight champion Frankie Duarte has been given a tentative date for a shot at a much bigger title.

If the proposed purses are approved, it would clear the way for Duarte to meet World Boxing Assn. champion Bernardo Pinango of Venezuela on Feb. 3 at the Forum.

“We are in the process of negotiating contracts at this time,” said John Jackson, the Forum’s director of boxing. “The WBA has not yet sanctioned the fight, but it is penciled in at this point.”

The WBA will only sanction a title fight if the challenger is ranked among its Top 10. Duarte, who won the NABF title in July, made that list this month, moving up to ninth.

The 32-year-old Duarte, who fights out of the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood, has a 41-6-1 record with 31 knockouts in a career that stretches back to 1973.

Duarte has been waiting all these years for this elusive title fight, but he almost lost it in October in the Reseda Country Club ring in what figured to be a tuneup bout against veteran Jose Torres.

Duarte suffered a bad cut over the left eye in the first round of a scheduled 10-rounder.

The bleeding was stopped, and so eventually was Torres, from a right to the body in the ninth round.