Pay-Per-View Boxing Attractions Will Be Fighting Over Viewers

Since boxing was first tried on pay-per-view television with a Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran fight in 1980 at a cost of $15, the concept has been basically good for everyone. Viewers get to see major fights in the comfort of their homes, and the promoters, middlemen and fighters make a lot of money.

But now we may have a case of too much of a good thing--two pay-per-view attractions 3 days apart, one tonight at the Las Vegas Hilton that has Thomas Hearns facing a replacement opponent, James Kinchen, and the other Monday night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, matching Leonard against Donny Lalonde.

Tonight’s card also has unbeaten Michael Nunn facing Juan Roldan and Matthew Hilton taking on Robert Hines--two good title fights that help justify the $19.95 asking price. Monday night’s card, mainly because of Leonard’s name, is going for $29.95. And that price will go up to $39.95 on Monday in some areas.

Some cable systems are offering a package deal--both cards for $44.90. Most cable companies are offering tonight’s card, and about half are offering Monday night’s. SelecTV is offering both.

A number of cable companies passed on the Leonard fight because promoters were asking for an up-front guarantee in addition to a 50-50 split.

Closed-circuit showings are limited to a few sports bars. The Strand in Redondo Beach, the Sports Deli in Century City, Don Enrique’s in Santa Monica, Yankee Doodles in Long Beach and Harry C’s in Riverside are offering both fights.

Among the places showing only one of the cards are C.J. Brett’s in Hermosa Beach (tonight’s) and Legends in Long Beach and Champions in Huntington Beach (Monday night’s).

Add fights: Scheduling two pay-per-view fights so close together obviously fragments the market.

How did it happen? Call it the battle of the promoters.

In one corner is Bob Arum, the Hilton and United Cable, all promoters of tonight’s card. In the other corner is Leonard and his business manager, Mike Trainer, and Caesars and Titan Sports, which is wrestling promoter Vince McMahon’s company.

Arum originally wanted to group the Leonard-Lalonde fight with Nunn-Roldan and Hilton-Hines, and he reportedly offered Trainer and Leonard $9 million. Arum’s plan was to put Hearns and Fulgencio Obelmejias--who 2 weeks ago dropped out of tonight’s fight because of an injury--on a December pay-per-view card.

But Trainer and Leonard threw a monkey wrench into Arum’s plans by rejecting his offer. They went out on their own and brought in Titan Sports and more middlemen than you can count to help promote their fight and distribute the pay-per-view telecast.

Leonard’s people say Arum scheduled his card purposely to damage theirs, and others in boxing agree that was the case. But Arum says, “Check the newspaper clippings to see who had the date first.”

In any event, there has been plenty of name-calling and back-stabbing. The infighting has been more intense than probably anything that will happen in the ring.

Arum likes to point out how “stupid” it was for the Leonard fight to be scheduled opposite Monday night’s pro football game, particularly with Cleveland and Houston, two hot teams, playing.

And on and on it goes.

Basketball beat: The Clippers finally have a commentator for their Channel 5 telecasts, and he’s a good one--Kevin Loughery, a former Washington Bullets player and coach who also coached the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Nets, the Atlanta Hawks and the Chicago Bulls. Loughery has at times worked playoff telecasts for CBS.

Channel 5’s first Clipper telecast will be on Nov. 19 from Denver.

Keith Erickson, the Clippers’ Z Channel commentator, told friends that he was not interested in also doing the Channel 5 telecasts because of the travel involved. Z Channel will televise only home games.

Hubie Brown, whom the Clippers lost when he took the job as No. 1 pro basketball commentator for CBS, apparently was not the network’s first choice. A source said that Brown was hired for $210,000 a year, but only after three others--Pat Riley, Chuck Daly and Julius Erving--were offered the job for $350,000 and turned it down. The source also said Dick Vitale was considered, but he is locked into contracts with ABC and ESPN.

Vitale was in Los Angeles Monday to tape a “Sportslook” program and went out to watch a UCLA basketball practice. “This is a rejuvenated, enthusiastic team,” he said. “The person who really impressed me was (new assistant coach) Paul Landreaux. The way he handled the players was something to see.”

The Lakers’ season opener tonight at Dallas will be televised by Channel 9, delayed, at 6 p.m. but will be shown live at 5:05 by TBS.

At 6 p.m., before the Clippers’ delayed KRTH broadcast from Philadelphia tonight, Ralph Lawler will take an in-depth look at the team in a special that, for some strange reason, is called “Los Angeles Clippers ‘88-89: Candidates for Greatness.” Greatness just doesn’t seem to be the right word when talking about the Clippers.

Kudos Dept.: Terry Bradshaw, who worked last Sunday’s Ram-New Orleans game with Verne Lundquist, has become an excellent commentator. His homespun style, a la Don Meredith, is appealing, but unlike Meredith, he is well-prepared. And many of his comments are insightful.

For example, when Aaron Cox caught a key pass to keep a late Ram drive alive, Bradshaw said that maybe Jim Everett was passing to Henry Ellard, who was in the vicinity.

Actually, Everett was passing to Cox, and Ellard just went a little too wide on his pattern. But at least Bradshaw picked up on the mistake.

TV-Radio Notes

NBC, which will televise the Breeders’ Cup races Saturday beginning at 11 a.m., PST, gets a break this year. Last year, the Breeders’ Cup was on the same day as USC-UCLA, Oklahoma-Nebraska, Penn State-Notre Dame and Michigan-Ohio State. The horses didn’t stand a chance in the ratings race. . . . NBC announced Thursday that it has reached a 5-year agreement to continue televising the Breeders’ Cup through 1994.

A team of major league players, including Orel Hershiser, is in Japan for a 7-game series with Japanese stars, and ESPN will televise two of the games--Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and next Friday at 11:30 p.m. The announcers will be Jon Miller of the Baltimore Orioles and Don Sutton. . . . Add Sutton: He reportedly has applied to replace Dave Campbell, the fired San Diego Padres broadcaster. . . . WABC sportscaster Corey McPherin, who filled in for Al Trautwig on ABC’s college football scoreboard show last Saturday, did a nice job. Unfortunately, though, someone initially gave him the Notre Dame-Navy score as 33-7, when actually it was 22-7.

Tonight’s Garfield-Roosevelt high school football game at East Los Angeles College will be televised by Channel 52 at 8 with a bilingual play-by-play. The telecast, with announcers Arley Londono and Fernando Lopez, will be repeated Saturday at 2 p.m. . . . “The History of College Football,” a syndicated, hourlong special narrated by Curt Gowdy and produced by Rasha Drachkovitch of San Francisco, will be televised by Channel 2 Saturday at 4 p.m. An all-time team will be named with Roger Staubach at quarterback and O.J. Simpson and Red Grange in the backfield. The top two wide receivers are Don Hutson and, somewhat surprisingly, Lynn Swann. Swann had a good career at USC, but not that good.

Dick Stockton and Dan Fouts will work the CBS telecast of the Rams’ game at Philadelphia Sunday. . . . The Raiders are at San Diego for a 5 p.m. ESPN telecast. At the top of the telecast will be a clever 1-minute run-through of the Raiders’ personnel changes since 1985. John Moschitta, the fast-talking guy in the Federal Express commercials, handles the task. At halftime, in a feature appropriately called “Raiders of the Lost Bark,” Roy Firestone will ask: Have the Raiders gone soft?