Title Shot on Horizon for Duarte

Bantamweight Frankie Duarte, inactive for a year, will be back in the ring next week and probably back in a championship match in four months.

A tentative agreement has been reached for Duarte, 33, a member of the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood, to meet the winner of the July 9 International Boxing Federation bantamweight title fight between champion Kelvin Seabrooks and challenger Gaby Canizales.

The title fight involving Duarte would be held in late October in Las Vegas.

First however, Duarte (42-7-1, 32 knockouts) must beat Ron Cisneros (27-19-1, 18 knockouts) of Denver in Wednesday’s main event at the Reseda Country Club.

Duarte’s only other title shot was in February, 1987, when he lost a 15-round decision to World Boxing Assn. bantamweight champ Bernardo Pinango, a native of Venezuela, at the Forum.

Then, last June, Duarte returned to the Forum and beat Albert Davila on a 10th-round TKO to win the North American Boxing Federation bantamweight title. But instead of defending that crown, Duarte has elected to sit out the ensuing 12 months while his manager, Dan Goossen, sought another title fight.

Goossen apparently had one lined one up against Wilfredo Vasquez, the new WBA champion. Duarte was scheduled to fight him today, as a matter of fact, at the Country Club if Vasquez beat Khaokor Galaxy in May in Thailand. Vasquez, however, lost. And, thus, so did Duarte.