A Rusty Gonzales Gets Up and Gets a Win : After Knockdown in First, Olympian Outpoints Nolasco in 10-Rounder

Paul Gonzales performed a quick self-evaluation on the way to the dressing room. “Aw, Pops,” he said to long-time trainer Al Stankie, “Was I bad. Man, I was (bleep).”

He was nearly inconsolable beneath his hooded robe.

“But you won,” Stankie said, pleading in the hallway.

“But I looked bad.”

Both were correct. Gonzales, the 1984 Olympic hero, had indeed won, scoring a unanimous, somewhat unpopular, decision over journeyman Lucilo Nolasco at the Forum Tuesday night. And Gonzales indeed looked bad in what was presumed a mismatch.

Gonzales, inactive for nearly a year, was largely unimpressive in winning his sixth fight in an intermittent career. As he was the last time he fought, Gonzales was down in the first round, wondering for the rest of the night what hit him.

“You say an uppercut?” he asked a cornerman after the fight, still mystified by the knockdown. “I was on Cloud Nine for a while. An uppercut?”

The 1984 gold medal winner rallied to outpoint Nolasco (7-7-2) the rest of the way, even though Nolasco was the harder puncher, making the sweat fly off Gonzales’ brow consistently, and causing him to “slip” in the fourth round with a short left. However, the judges apparently liked Gonzales’ more accurate jab and the sheer number of his punches.

Judge John Thomas scored it 95-94, Larry Rozadilla had it 98-92 and Dick Young saw it 96-92.

Considering that Gonzales was penalized a point for a rabbit punch in the sixth round, that meant that Rozadilla scored the knockdown round only 10-9 in Nolasco’s favor, instead of the traditional 10-8, giving every other round to Gonzales.

No wonder Nolasco was left to wonder about the game.

“This isn’t a sport,” he complained afterward, “it’s a business. They didn’t want me to win, they wanted him, because I’ve already lost.”

Some in the crowd booed the decision, perhaps thinking it was at least closer than the judges thought. The Times scored it, 96-94, in Gonzales’ favor.

That aside, the boy-wonder--he’s just 22--of the Olympics had something to apologize for. And he did.

“I have to give the public a better show,” he promised. “But I’ve been inactive for a year, had only five fights, and this guy’s a veteran.

“The inactivity played a big factor. And I hadn’t fought a left-hander professionally. I have to get more active.”

If he were any less active, he’d be retired. After winning the flyweight division in the Olympics, Gonzales laid off for a year, nursing an injured right hand. Then he boxed a year, finally winning the North American Boxing Federation flyweight title in a tough bout with Orlando Canizales last July. Then, with a variety of non-boxing injuries (hurt foot hopping into Corvette, hurt finger playing flag football), he laid off another year.

In addition to time, he also lost some of his allure and, after appearing on network TV consistently, was looking for work in local shows. Part of the reason for that was his image as a boxer, when TV wants a puncher. With Tuesday night’s 10-round decision in the non-title bout, Gonzales has run off 58 rounds--his entire professional career--without a knockdown of his own.

Still, he can be a brilliant boxer, and he was briefly brilliant Tuesday night. Although he could not hurt Nolasco (115), he certainly could hit him. And from the fifth round on, hit him he did.

Gonzales, unsure of victory, even fought desperately and spectacularly in the final round, swarming Nolasco for a furious 30 seconds. The crowd response, if nothing else, cheered Gonzales.

“Everybody was on their feet, right?” he said. “They were. If I’m lying, then I’m dying.”

He was cheered enough in his dressing room, his previous gloom dispelled, to proclaim his hold on five world titles, eating his way up to welterweight greatness. Stankie, the cop who took Gonzales under his wing when the kid was 10, said maybe five titles.

Still, Gonzales was aware that however many titles he will hold will not come automatically. After a year of public appearances, as opposed to ring appearances, he knows which is the better preparation for even journeyman fighters.

“Maybe I played a little bit too much with the people,” he said. Then: “I’m still learning.”