Poll Watchers : Unbeaten Venezuelan Boxer Prepares for First Fight Under Ten Goose’s Wing

It was not the kind of thing trainer Joe Goossen normally does. But when he saw Jesus Poll sitting ringside at a workout before last year’s Frankie Duarte-Bernardo Pinango title fight, Goossen just had to say something.

He had been in the opposing corner for a Poll fight at the Reseda Country Club and he liked what he had seen.

“He did a number on Daniel Garcia that night,” Goossen recalled. “I thought Jesus was a real good fighter. He was fast, hard to hit and had a good punch, everything you like to see in a fighter.”

So when Poll, a Venezuelan junior featherweight, showed up to watch his countryman, Pinango, train, Goossen could not resist.

“I just went up to Jesus,” Goossen said, “and told him, ‘You are a great fighter and I think you are going to be a champion of the world.’ ”

A year later, Goossen likes what he sees of Poll even more. Because he is now watching from the Venezuelan’s corner.

The admiration, it turns out, is mutual. The 23-year-old Poll, admiring the way Goossen and his brothers in the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood handle Duarte and their other fighters, has signed a multi-year deal with the group.

His first fight under the Ten Goose banner will come Tuesday night at the Country Club when he faces Victor Paredes (12-5, 7 knockouts) of Los Angeles in the 10-round co-main event.

Poll is the first fighter Ten Goose has signed in nearly four years, since fight manager Dan Goossen spotted a middleweight at the 1984 Olympic trials by the name of Michael Nunn.

“They care about their fighters,” said Poll of Ten Goose through an interpreter. “They worry about them. That’s what I like about their system. Most managers have so many fighters they can’t pay attention to them all.”

His new handlers are paying attention to Poll. He has moved into a house next door to the Ten Goose gym in North Hollywood and has learned enough English to understand Goossen, who also speaks a little of Poll’s language.

“I can speak enough Spanish,” the trainer said, “to get by in any ring or any Mexican restaurant.”

Poll, ranked 13th among featherweights by the North American Boxing Federation, comes to Ten Goose unbeaten at 14-0-2 with five knockouts.

His draws were in 1986 against Julio Gervacio, who has since won the World Boxing Assn. junior featherweight title, and last year against Jeff Franklin, who also drew with Bernard Taylor, the current NABF featherweight champion. Last August, Poll won the California featherweight title via a seventh-round knockout of Paul Banke at the Forum and has had one fight since, winning a 10-round decision over Antonio Tanaka Gonzales in September.

“My first impressions of him are the same as those I have now,” Goossen said. “For him to get those draws against that level of opponent with only eight or nine fights behind him is impressive. I can see him dominating the junior featherweight division.

“What I can offer him is conditioning and that can make the difference in his becoming a champ. He’s a combination puncher. I feel I can bring out in him more punching and more confidence. In those draws, when he had his opponent hurt, he didn’t always follow up. Maybe he didn’t have the conditioning to follow up. He will now.”

So Poll has proven he belongs in there with the big boys. He used to dream about it as a youth. But the big boys he dreamed about competing against in those days wore gloves with webbing in them. Or batting gloves. Poll grew up in Venezuela wanting to be a baseball player.

His father, Jesus Sr., changed that. When Jesus Jr., was 14, his father convinced him to start boxing.

And the results were spectacular. He amassed a 93-14 amateur record, won a bronze medal in the 1982 World Games and had a shot at the 1984 Olympic squad before a hernia killed that dream.

So Poll followed a new dream. He turned pro and followed close friend Engles Pedroza to America a year ago after discovering that his native Venezuela did not offer much in terms of professional boxing. Veteran fight handler Jimmy Montoya arranged Poll’s fights for him, but the Venezuelan was very cautious in choosing a manager.

“I wanted to see who was here,” he said of his new career in Los Angeles.

Then he went to see Pinango and found what he was looking for.

Also on Tuesday night’s card will be NABF heavyweight champion Orlin Norris (15-1, 8 knockouts) of San Diego. He was to have met Dwain Bonds (14-13-2, 8 knockouts) of Los Angeles in the co-main event, but Bonds has pulled out, claiming a rib injury. A search is under way for a substitute opponent.

Norris is scheduled to defend his NABF crown next month in Las Vegas against Renaldo Snipes as part of the four-fight card that will include Nunn defending his NABF middleweight title against Doug DeWitt and a George Foreman-Dwight Muhammad Qawi heavyweight matchup.

Tuesday’s prelims consist of three four-rounders: junior welterweights Steve Lewis (2-2, 2 knockouts) of North Hollywood and Jose Rodriguez (2-4) of Bakersfield; featherweights Tony Olivas (3-1, 2 knockouts) of Pasadena and Javier Macias (5-3, 4 knockouts) of Pacoima; and junior featherweights Juan Hernandez (2-3-2) of Los Angeles and Pulga Franco (2-1, 1 knockout) of Oxnard.