Boxing / Richard Hoffer : Court Ruling Excites Butch Lewis

Butch Lewis, Michael Spinks’ promoter, called. On a good day, Butch is merely excitable. But a New York Supreme Court justice just having cleared the way for a Spinks-Gerry Cooney fight, Lewiswas having better than a good day. He was positively manic.

“The judge finally said, ‘Butch, you’re between a rock and a hard place,’ ” Lewis said. “ ‘This ain’t no fault of yours, Butch.’ ”

This, according to Lewis, was the legal finding of Judge Elliott Wilk, who ruled Thursday that Spinks was no longer bound to a contract with either Don King or HBO to fight Mike Tyson in the heavyweight title unification series. And that he could indeed go ahead with a more lucrative Cooney fight outside the series.

How Lewis managed this was a matter of some small suspicion, as it was widely known that he preferred a fight with Cooney to a fight with Tyson, which after all would be for cable-TV dollars, fewer than closed circuit bucks.

The International Boxing Federation, which had previously honored the undefeated Spinks, had ordered Spinks to fight a mandatory defense against Tony Tucker. Spinks, through Lewis, of course, said no and was subsequently stripped of his title.

That seemed to remove any obligation Spinks might have had to fight Tyson. It was thought that Lewis had found a way out of the tournament, after all, however cagily. That’s what HBO charged in gaining an injunction against the fight.

“Judge said, ‘Butch, you didn’t orchestrate no such thing.’ ” Lewis said.

Reason the judge said that, according to Lewis, was that he was able to produce two letters to Bob Lee, IBF president, stating that Spinks would be willing to fight Tucker after the Cooney fight.

Furthermore, Lewis told the judge that he had tried to satisfy the aggrieved Tucker party by offering them $250,000, “more than he’d made in his life,” to stand aside for Spinks’ big payday.

“They told me $5 million,” said Lewis, now hoarse. “Judge asked, ‘That so?’ They said, ‘Well, we were willing to negotiate. We’d certainly take $4 million.’ ”

In addition, Judge Wilk learned from one of Tyson’s handlers that Tyson was receiving $500,000 from HBO on the side, for no particular reason.

“Man, I looked at (HBO vice president) Seth Abraham when that came out,” Lewis reported. “You ever seen the incredible shrinking man? Man, it was ‘Get me a cab. I’m outta here.’

“Judge said, ‘Butch, you done what you could.’ ”

And so justice was done as well and Spinks stands to make $7 million, Cooney $5 million off a closed-circuit bout sometime in June.

Lewis is already fielding offers for the site rights. Donald Trump, he says, might go as high as $5 million to get the bout for Atlantic City. But Lewis said Bob Halloran of Caesars Palace instructed him not to do anything until he heard back from him.

So that’s about it for the HBO tournament, although it is determined to plug along, possibly with Tyson vs. former champion Pinklon Thomas in May. A fight with the IBF champion, to be determined in a bout with Tucker-Buster Douglas, could follow. Former champion Larry Holmes, for that matter, could come back.

Meanwhile, Spinks is off to Sun Valley, Ida., to train, Cooney to Miami.

Ain’t the heavyweights great?

Boxing Notes Bantamweight contender Frankie Duarte, who lost a controversial decision to WBA champion Bernardo Pinango, may get another shot yet. Pinango is going to move up a division, leaving the title to the winner of the Chan Young Park-Azael Moran fight, sometime in May. There is discussion to include Duarte, who lost the title fight in the Forum, in an immediate defense. . . . Undefeated middleweight Michael Nunn, who fights out of the San Fernando Valley, will fight Charles Campbell April 4, on the undercard of the Donald Curry-Carlos Santos bout in Las Vegas. . . . Alex Ramos fights Ron Daniels at the Country Club in Reseda March 31. . . . Both Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard are scheduled to break camp at the end of March for their April 6 fight in Las Vegas. Leonard is at Hilton Head, S.C., Hagler in Palm Springs.

Maricio Acevas-Mark Fernandez headline at the Olympic Auditorium Thursday night. . . . Former bantamweight champion Albert Davila, angling for title shot No. 4, fights Edel Geronimo Monday at the Irvine Marriott. . . . On April 27, Greg Puente will headline there in a state featherweight bout against challenger Ramon Marchena. . . . Concluding the series at the Spruce Goose, Tomas Perez defends his state super-welterweight title against Derrick Kelly. Boxing at the Long Beach attraction is scheduled to resume in September.