Country Club Is the Site of Kinchen Renovation

Fighters understand that the road to the top is a two-way street. Nobody stays there forever.

And most learn that the road to the bottom is usually a one-way street. Few are able to come back once their career has started downward.

James Kinchen is trying to become one of the few.

For a while, the 29-year-old middleweight, who will fight in Tuesday night’s main event at the Country Club in Reseda, was cruising along in the fast lane toward a title shot. No obstacles. No detours.

His skills showed early.

“I know it sounds like I’m making it up,” Kinchen says, “but the first fight I had as an amateur was in the Golden Gloves tournament, and I won five straight fights to take the light heavyweight title. I really had little in the way of actual training at the time, but I guess that my street ability paid off.”

In all, Kinchen won five Golden Gloves titles in his native Texas in four separate weight categories.

He peaked at 188 pounds but still managed to beat a 230-pounder.

Kinchen went on to win the National Police Athletic League light heavyweight title in 1978, then reached the semifinals of the National Amateur Athletic Union Championships before losing.

In 1980, he signed with manager Bobby DePhilippis and trainer Wes Wambold, moved to their base of operations in San Diego and began a professional career, moving along just as smoothly as he had in his amateur days.

Nicknamed “The Heat,” he quickly showed opponents they’d better stay out of the Kinchen’s way.

By 1985, Kinchen was 34-0-2. He was the United States Boxing Assn. middleweight champion. He was near the top of the world rankings and was facing James Shuler in Atlantic City for the North American Boxing Federation middleweight title. A win, he had been told, would place him in the ring with world champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

It was all there, just down the road, nearly within Kinchen’s grasp.

But he made a sharp U-turn.

Kinchen lost a 12-round decision to Shuler and hasn’t recovered. In the ensuing two and a half years,he has had more lawyers in his corner than trainers.

It was assumed that Shuler was going to fight Hagler after his win over Kinchen. Instead, Hagler signed to meet John Mugabi of Uganda, then unranked among middleweights, while Shuler agreed to fight Thomas Hearns.

DePhilippis decided that wasn’t kosher. If Hagler wanted to meet Shuler, fine. But if Shuler was stepping aside, then Kinchen ought to be next in line, DePhilippis reasoned. So, he sued promoter Bob Arum, who was arranging the Hagler fight.

Eventually, a compromise was reached. DePhilippis and Kinchen agreed to leave their promoter, Dan Duva, to go with Arum. Arum, in turn, arranged two fights for Kinchen with top contenders. If he won those, he was back on the road to the top.

Kinchen’s first opponent would be Robbie Sims, Hagler’s half-brother. When Sims had to drop out because of an injury, DePhilippis was given a choice of substitutes. He picked Iran Barkley.

It was a poor choice. Barkley won a 10-round decision in a bout last October in Detroit.

“I think James was so discontented at not getting a title shot,” DePhilippis says, “that he fell asleep on us in his last few fights. Against Barkley, he had suffered a hyperextended knee and couldn’t run during much of his training. He was still OK for five rounds. Then, he ran out of gas.”

He hadn’t, however, run out of chances. Or, as it turned out, excuses.

Arum still was obligated to get Kinchen another fight. Doug DeWitt was to be the opponent for a bout on the undercard of the Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard fight. But when DeWitt lost before meeting Kinchen, DePhilippis again had a choice of substitute opponents.

Again, he chose incorrectly.

This time, he picked Juan Roldan. Additionally, DePhilippis hired veteran trainer Eddie Futch to try to make Kinchen more effective.

“The night before the fight, “ DePhilippis says, “James discovered he was five pounds overweight. It was too much to overcome.”

As were Roldan’s fists. Futch threw in the towel in the ninth round of the scheduled 10-rounder.

Futch has since departed. The Wambolds, father Wes and son Rich, are back. And so, they hope, is Kinchen.

Now 38-3-2 with 29 knockouts, Kinchen will face Larry Musgrove (9-7-3, six knockouts) of Los Angeles in Tuesday night’s 10-rounder. It will be Kinchen’s second fight since the loss to Roldan. Kinchen won a 10-round decision over Randy Smith two months ago in San Diego.

“Right now, everything is open,” Rich Wambold says. “If James can get a win over Musgrove and then beat a guy in the top five, we could be right back on our way to a title shot.

“But we’ve had to work with him to get him back to where he was. Futch wanted him to stand and fight more. What he did was to stop James’ movement. He slowed him down. We’ve got him jabbing more, back to moving more, back to being James Kinchen.”

Says DePhilippis: “Futch tried to change James into a banger, but it didn’t work out. He’s a boxer who has a big punch. He can’t just stand in front of people.

“I think he’s going to be better than he’s ever been. Before, we were trying to protect him. Now it doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be cautious anymore. James realizes what he had and he wants it back.”

And just who does DePhilippis see Kinchen fighting to get it back?

“Michael Olajide, Michael Nunn,” DePhilippis says. “We’ll fight any of those. We’ll fight Roldan in Argentina. We’ll fight Barkley for free. That’s how sure we are of a win. Everybody thinks James is on his way down. Let them think that. Maybe that way, we’ll get some fights.”