Curry Is Facing a Challenge

Donald Curry wore the fighter’s cloak of invincibility comfortably. Undefeated. World welterweight champion. Pound for pound, etc. Not to mention Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s heir apparent as richest man in the whole wide world. The ol’ cloak seemed hand-tailored.

And then, nearly a year ago, inside a ring with a lightly regarded Lloyd Honeyghan, the aforementioned cloak came apart like a cheap suit in a rainstorm. Curry couldn’t have returned it any quicker if it had been Rent-a-Tux. So much for invincibility.

Worse: Ever since that night, which reads, “KO by, 6,” in Curry’s ring diary, there has been a lingering suspicion he was the emperor with no clothes all those years. It was a cellophane cloak!

Boxing can be cruel, all right. But it does offer the occasional forum for appeal. Tonight at Caesars Palace on an HBO telecast, Curry will get another shot. In his first real test since his defeat, he will fight Mike McCallum for McCallum’s World Boxing Assn. junior-middleweight title.

This is known as a crossroads fight in boxing. McCallum, merely the longest reigning champion in the game today--his era dates from 1984--can use Curry’s name as a springboard into national consciousness.

“This is the big time,” the Jamaican native said. “I always dream of the big time.”

Until now, he has enjoyed very little of it.

For Curry, a Texan, McCallum is the hump he must get over if he is ever to be taken seriously again. Either he is a great fighter who just happened to have a bad night (Sugar Ray Robinson?), or else he’s a once-great fighter who will forever be tainted by defeat, forever attended by the lingering odor of self-doubt (Billy Costello?).

Curry, even after two inconclusive victories--he won both by disqualification--is pretty sure he knows where he stands on that score. He lost that fight amid a welter of excuses: Confusion in his corner, the recent death of his grandfather and, most of all, his problem making welterweight. His manager said he had to come down 21 pounds, 10 of those in the last three days, to make the 147-pound limit.

Now fighting at 154, Curry (27-1) claims the ol’ cloak will not strain at the shoulders or waist but will fit nicely once more. As for suffering defeat, Curry claims to be unchanged.

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought,” he said. “I thought I’d go off the deep end. In fact, I’m surprised I took it so well. It was because I knew I had problems in that fight and I knew I would get the opportunity to justify myself.”

The example of the latest bad loser, Hagler unhinged, was mentioned. After his defeat by Sugar Ray Leonard, Hagler went incommunicado, emerging briefly in a well-publicized marital spat.

“That’s a different story,” Curry contends. “He knew he was in shape for that fight, had everything going for him. With me, I had problems in my mind, legitimate excuses. You look at most fighters’ careers, not too many people retire undefeated.”

Of course, there’s a big difference between Sugar Ray Robinson and Billy Costello.

Lou Duva, McCallum’s manager, apparently thinks that Curry aligns himself with the latter.

“Curry didn’t show me anything in the two fights (since Honeyghan),” Duva said.

Duva also suspects that the defeat will have a more profound effect than Curry suspects.

“With a mental fighter like Curry, you start having less and less confidence,” he said. “Maybe you don’t gamble on a risky combination. What if McCallum puts the pressure on? How does he react? Now what does he do if he gets beat up in the first round and goes back to his corner?”

Duva claims that Curry always did get by more on his athletic skills than on any self-confidence. Bringing up the Honeyghan fight, Duva noted that Curry quit in his corner.

That is not how Curry remembers it, but enough people were surprised at the conclusion of the round--Curry sitting on his stool, having told his corner he was through--to go along with Duva’s version.

“He’s just one of those young guys who enjoy the glory of being champion but, in defeat, lose that mental condition.” Duva said. “It’s a tough thing. You’re strong until you hit that ring and then something snaps on you. You get hit, you see somebody in the audience.” And it comes apart again.

Duva presents a convincing argument but not so convincing that Curry is not a 2-1 favorite to regain his superstar status tonight. But the odds may have to do with Curry’s exposure during that time he was being groomed for Hagler’s middleweight title. He fought in Las Vegas nine times to McCallum’s two. After five title defenses, McCallum (31-0) remains one of boxing’s better-kept secrets.

McCallum, who claims to be 30 but is rumored to be older, has used this as smoldering motivation.

“Now, I tell you, the road is slippery,” he said, describing his career. “No respect, they give me no respect. Now, Donald Curry, he wants to redeem himself. He’s unfortunately going through what I been through, over the years. Over the years! “

McCallum had once been in the famed Kronk Gym stable but thought he was being overlooked in the concentration on the development of Thomas Hearns. It is only now, at this advanced stage of his career and with the re-emergence of Curry, that he can command a purse as great as the $475,000 he will reportedly earn.

Even with Duva, he has been a dim light in the galaxy. “My Olympians get $100,000,” Duva said of a stable that includes many members from the 1984 team. “But Mike gets $75,000 for his TV fights.”

Presumably, that is the difference between being on the 1976 Jamaican Olympic team and the 1984 U.S. team.

McCallum, however, remembers other slights.

“I’ve never told this to anybody, but I remember when Donald Curry was on his road, some fight at the Garden,” he said. “I was champion myself then. I tried to shake his hand, and he slight me. Maybe if I’m Leonard, he try to hug me. I never forget that. Oh, it’s trivial, and I do not hold a grudge because of it. But I will never forget it. You just don’t forget.

“I will look at him in the ring: I am somebody, Don. Same guy you looking at now.”

Question is, who is Donald Curry? Same guy we were looking at then, before his defeat, or now?