BOXING : Girded for a Legal Battle, Duarte Instead Will Wear Championship Belt

Frankie Duarte will receive a belt Tuesday night. Not a belt to the head or to the midsection, but a belt for the midsection.

Duarte, who is managed by Ten Goose Boxing of North Hollywood, will be formally presented with the North American Boxing Federation bantamweight championship belt during the fight card at the Country Club in Reseda.

Actually, the belt has belonged to Duarte--the NABF champ--all along. But there were some anxious moments when a statutory scrap ensued after a June 27 fight with Albert Davila.

The fight ended when Duarte recorded a technical knockout in the 10th round of the scheduled 12-rounder, but Davila’s handlers filed a protest, maintaining that a gash over Davila’s left eye was caused by a Duarte head butt. The bout was stopped after physicians said the gash was too severe for the challenger to continue.

California State Athletic Commission rules state that when a fight is terminated because of a butt, the boxer ahead on points shall be declared the winner. The NABF deferred judgment on the matter to the state commission, which voted last Friday to uphold the Duarte victory.

But the vote wasn’t without a few ifs, ands or butts.

One member of the seven-man board failed to appear and the vote ended in a 3-3 deadlock. A majority vote was needed to overturn the victory, so Duarte retained the title.

“I’d like to think that if they’d showed up, they would have seen things our way,” Goossen said. “We felt all along that we were on good legal ground.”

Had the commission overturned the Duarte victory, Goossen said they might have butted heads in court.

“I had my attorney, Davila had his attorney, and we were ready to go at it.”

Tuesday is bruise day: The fight card at the Country Club on Tuesday night includes middleweights Harvey Hester and Russell Mitchell in a 10-round bout. Six-round fights include undefeated heavyweights Nate Houser against Ramon Vallejos and middleweights Granger Korff against Drafton Bunch.

Four-round fights include bantamweights Hector Diaz against Mickey Bates, junior middleweights Mike Galarza against Todd Millard, featherweights Rayford Smith against Fernando Garcia, and featherweights Dino Garza of North Hollywood against Martin Juarez.

The bouts begin at 8 p.m.

Add Gosling: Middleweight Dave Kilgour (3-1) of North Hollywood will fight Anthony Holt (3-3) of Long Beach in a four-round bout on July 27 at the Marriott Hotel in Irvine.