THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 15 : U.S. Wins Two Golds in Boxing : Mercer, McKinney Triumph; Carbajal Loses on a Decision

United States boxers won two gold medals in the Olympic tournament Saturday morning and lost a possible third on a unanimous decision.

Kennedy McKinney earned the first U.S. gold medal of the day and the first for the United States in the bantamweight division since 1904, with a 5-0 decison over Bulgaria’s Alexander Hristov.

Heavyweight Ray Mercer, the 27-year-old, gold-toothed Army corporal stopped South Korean Baik Hyun Man with a left hook to the jaw in the first round for the second gold.

But Michael Carbajal, the light-flyweight from Phoenix, had to settle for a silver medal when he lost a 5-0 decision to Bulgaria’s Ivailo Hristov.

Sunday, the United States can tie the 1976 U.S. Olympic boxing team’s five-gold performance when light-middleweight Roy Jones, light-heavyweight Andrew Maynard and super-heavyweight Riddick Bowe box in consecutive bouts to close the final session.

Saturday’s other gold-medal results:

--132 pounds: Andreas Zuelow (East Germany) defeated Geroge Cramne (Sweden), 5-0.

--147 pounds: Robert Wangila (Kenya) defeated Laurent Boudouani (France), when the referee stopped it 2:16 into the second round.

--165 pounds: Henry Maske (East Germany) defeated Egerton Marcus (Canada), 5-0.

After McKinney’s victory Saturday, U.S. officials were questioning the judges’ scoring. In what appeared to be a rout to many, all five judges had McKinney the winner by only 1 point.

“We noticed during the introductions (of the McKinney bout) that three of the same judges who worked the Carbajal bout were working McKinney’s,” said Jim Fox, executive director of the USA Amateur Boxing Federation.

“So even though Kennedy won going away, I was a little worried when he didn’t stop him.”

Although the judges scored the Carbajal fight 5-0 in favor of Ivailo Hristov (no relation to Alexander), U.S. boxing delegation members thought it should have gone the other way, 5-0.

Carbajal lost, 59-58, on every judge’s card. The judging lineup: Pakistan, Thailand, Uganda, Argentina and Uruguay.

The judges from Argentina, Thailand and Uruguay also worked McKinney’s bout, and one of them, scored it only 59-58 for McKinney.

Mercer left no room for doubt against Baik.

Baik landed the first right hand of the bout, which brought a roar from the crowd. But after that, Mercer sent Baik into full retreat. Mercer first rocked with him with a short left hook to the side of the head, then began landing right hands.

With the outcome no longer in doubt, and the Americans in the packed Chamshil Students’ Gymnasium on their feet, Mercer closed in. He drove the South Korean into a neutral corner and finished him.

Afterward, Mercer said he was surprised that Baik came out swinging.

“He was trying to take me out in the first round, but he ran out of gas,” Mercer said. “His gas tank’s not that good.”

Baik did land several hard rights to Mercer’s head, but Mercer, in 2 minutes 16 seconds, landed dozens.

When he chased the South Korean across the ring and caught him with a right and then the finishing left hook, Baik went down.

He took the required standing-8 count, but rose shakily. Referee Larbi Hioquad of Morocco then stopped the bout. At that, Mercer leaped high six times, and the seventh jump was into the arms of his coaches, Ken Adams and Hank Johnson.

Teammates, in a break with protocol, jumped over curtained railings and ran to the ring apron to congratulate Mercer.

At least one pro boxing man saw the emergence of a challenger for Mike Tyson.

“He’s a prospect, a real prospect,” said Angelo Dundee, working here as a radio commentator.

“I’d love to have him. He’s strong, has great work habits, and hits a ton with both hands. And he’s in great shape. No, his age (27) is not a negative, it’s a plus. He’s mature, he knows what it takes to be a winner.”

Mercer has been in the Army the past 8 years, and even played high school football in Baumholder, West Germany, where his father was an Army sergeant.

A year ago, Mercer was relatively unknown. Most of his amateur career was spent in military tournaments in Europe.

Then, he made a pivotal decision.

“Ray contacted us at Ft. Bragg and told us had decided he was going to win the gold medal in the Olympics, and wanted to transfer to Ft. Bragg, to do some serious training,” said U.S. assistant coach Johnson, the Ft. Bragg head coach.

Mercer won at the U.S. national championships last April and then upset Michael Bent of Jamaica, N.Y., twice to make the Olympic team.

During the light-flyweight medal ceremony, there were boos from Americans in the audience when the gold medal was placed around Hristov’s neck, but later cheers when Carbajal received the silver.

The Bulgarian coaches knew their man had won before the public address announcer did. Emil Jetchev of Bulgaria, chief of the International Amateur Boxing Assn.’s (AIBA) referees and judges commission, views the scorecards first. He looked up and gave the Bulgarian coaches a wink.

At that, both coaches grabbed Hristov and began kissing him.

Afterward, Carbajal seemed to have accepted the loss.

“I’m happy, it’s no big thing,” he said.

“Silver ain’t bad. . . . I’ve come a long way.”

Indeed. Carbajal is the only member of Phoenix’s Ninth Street Gym, which consists of a 10-foot-square ring in the Carbajal garage.

Carbajal, who is coached by his brother Danny, works for a printing firm in Phoenix, and delivers business cards.

“To me,” Carbajal said, “I’m the gold medalist, and nothing will ever change that.”

Carbajal and McKinney passed each other near the ring’s red corner, as McKinney arrived for his bout with Alexander Hristov.

McKinney later told reporters that Carbajal told him: “They got me--don’t let ‘em get you.”

Carbajal backed up Hristov with scoring left jabs virtually all the way, and also scored heavily with straight, following right hands.

The first round was a particularly big round for Carbajal, with the second and third rounds somewhat closer. However, in the second, Carbajal landed several big rights on Hristov’s chin, once driving the Bulgarian into the ropes.

But Hristov never stopped landing left jabs. And since every landed blow, no matter what the velocity, is a scoring blow in amateur boxing, the judges ruled Hristov’s jab not only kept him in the bout but won it for him.

McKinney, who finished up without having a difficult bout in the 15-day tournament, started out like as if a one-round bout was all he wanted.

He snapped back the Bulgarian’s head repeatedly with short, chopping rights and lefts. Eleven seconds into the bout, he floored Hristov with a left hook.

But like Carbajal’s Bulgarian opponent, McKinney never stopped landing left jabs.

At one point in the second round, McKinney trapped Hristov in a neutral corner and pummelled him so badly, the Bulgarian head coach covered his eyes.

In the press seats, 80 feet away, McKinney’s punches could be heard.

Hristov had a good first half of the third round, but McKinney seemed to win that round, too, when he began backing up the Bulgarian with combinations over the last half.

“I knew if it was close, they’d take it from me,” McKinney said. “They weren’t going to give me nothing. If it was close, I knew I’d go home with the silver medal and a lot of bad memories.”

Maske, East Germany’s middleweight winner Saturdaystands 6-3 1/2 and still manages to make the 165-pound limit. He had little trouble with Marcus, the referee stopping the fight with 2:16 left in the second round.

In Maske’s last fight in the United States, he was throwing a tantrum at the world championships in Reno, in 1986. He had lost the gold-medal bout there, and began throwing everything he could find in the doping control area. Police were needed to subdue him.

The middleweight division was Anthony Hembrick’s--the U.S. boxer who was scratched in the preliminaries when he arrived late for his first bout.

Wangila’s gold medal is Kenya’s first gold in Olympic boxing.