State Title Is Ramos’ Objective

For 12 rounds last November, middleweight Alex Ramos chased Michael Nunn around the Reseda Country Club ring in pursuit of the state middleweight championship.

When the final bell had sounded, Ramos, loser of a unanimous decision, looked like Wile E. Coyote after a long Saturday morning in hapless pursuit of the Roadrunner.

On Tuesday, the chase will start anew for Ramos.

Not in pursuit of Nunn. The North Hollywood middleweight is off and running for a bigger prize--the North American Boxing Federation middleweight championship. Nunn will meet Darnell Knox for that title Oct. 29 in Las Vegas.

But Nunn has left his state title belt behind, having voluntarily relinquished it in the hope of getting a bigger belt, one bearing the inscription “world champion.”

That leaves the 26-year-old Ramos (27-6-2, 18 knockouts) with another shot at the state middleweight title. His opponent in Tuesday’s 12-round championship bout at the Country Club will be Tim Williams (12-3-1, 10 knockouts) of San Diego.

“I feel great,” says Ramos, who fights out of the city of Bell. “I’m in excellent shape. It’s time to go out there and do it.”

Tuesday is actually only the first chapter of a three-act drama to crown a new state champion. Next month, Larry Musgrove and former world middleweight contender James Kinchen will stage a rematch of their Country Club fight last month. That fight ended with Musgrove winning a technical decision because of a head butt.

In November, the winner of Ramos-Williams is obligated to defend his title against the winner of the Kinchen-Musgrove rematch.

Tuesday’s Country Club card also will include a former world champion, S.T. Gordon of Los Angeles, who won the cruiserweight title from Carlos De Leon of Puerto Rico in 1982. Among those whom Gordon (24-6, 21 knockouts) beat was former heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick. Among those who beat Gordon was heavyweight Gerry Cooney.

Gordon, 28, lost his cruiserweight crown to De Leon in 1983 and walked away from the fight game. Tuesday night’s fight will be his first since the De Leon defeat.

Gordon will be facing Mike Hunter (8-1-2, two knockouts) of Encino in an eight-round heavyweight match. After several lackluster performances, Hunter, who is managed by actor James Caan, finally got his act together in a Country Club bout last month, knocking out Gary Lightborne in the first round of a scheduled eight-round fight.

Light heavyweight Nate Hauser (3-0, two knockouts) of Long Beach meets Milford Kemp (9-3-3, three knockouts) of Venice in a six-round bout Tuesday. Kemp is coming off a win over Jeff McCracken (24-3) last month.

The other two six-round bouts will feature lightweights Danny Garcia (9-2, five knockouts) of Oxnard and Johnny Clouden (7-1, two knockouts) of Los Angeles, and featherweights Abe Gomez (6-0, one knockout) of Arleta and Amos Cowart (4-1, two knockouts) of Las Vegas.

In a four-round bout, junior welterweight Steve Lewis of Van Nuys, a first-round knockout winner in his pro debut last month, will meet Bernardo Hurtado, who will be making his pro debut.

The first fight is set for 8 p.m.