Boxing / Earl Gustkey : Commissioners Should Attend to Attendance

In the 1960s, when Roosevelt Grier was a member of the Rams’ famed Fearsome Foursome defensive line, his National Football League opponents respectfully referred to him as a load.

He still is.

In April, 1986, Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Grier to the State Athletic Commission, the 8-member body that oversees professional boxing in California. Grier accepted the appointment, which carried with it the minimum responsibility of attending the monthly meetings.

Since then, other commission members say, Grier has attended 1 or 2 meetings. At best, that’s 2 for 30.

In other words, Grier has turned the Athletic Commission from an 8-member group into a 7-member group.

“I go to almost every meeting, and I can remember seeing him once,” promoter Don Fraser said. “But I’m told he actually made one other meeting.”

Last August, The Times asked a commission staff member for Grier’s exact attendance record at commission meetings but was told it would require “too much research.”

Grier may rank far ahead of the seven other commissioners in absenteeism, but he isn’t the only one who misses meetings. In fact, the last three commission meetings have been canceled because of lack of quorums, and boxing folks aren’t happy about it.

There was a meeting scheduled for last Friday. Fraser showed up. So did boxing manager Benny Georgino. So did a 36-year-old boxer named Len Petigrew, who had driven from San Francisco so he could appear before the commission to apply for a license.

Unfortunately, there was no meeting.

“I called the attorney general’s office (which provides legal counsel for the commission) afterward, and I was told the meeting had been canceled on Wednesday, 2 days before the meeting,” Fraser said.

“There was plenty of time to inform everyone.”

Said Georgino: “The commission doesn’t have any credence to it anymore. I’m training three fighters now. I have to break appointments to get to the commission meetings. So do a lot of other people. We count on those commissioners showing up.

“They ought to have standby commissioners for situations like that.”

Or, better yet, commissioners who care.

“We feel we’ve got a winner with this one. We figure anyone who buys it who knows anything at all about Mancini or Camacho knows they’re not going to get a Punch and Judy show.”

That’s San Jose insurance man and sometime boxing promoter Joe Gagliardi talking about his 2-years-in-the-making match of Ray Mancini and Hector Camacho at Reno March 6.

The Mancini-Camacho bout has been shopped around since late 1985, but it kept unraveling in the homestretch--usually because Camacho backed out.

Those connected with the promotion aren’t predicting anything, but they hope that it will make a run at the pay-per-view dollars that the Sugar Ray Leonard-Donny Lalonde telecast earned.

Mancini, who has been retired for 4 years, had to be inspired by the reported $15 million that oft-retired Sugar Ray Leonard earned for his knockout of Donny Lalonde, who got $5 million.

The Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority put up $650,000 in site-fee money and will receive the first $750,000 in gate receipts at the 12,000-seat Lawlor Events Center at the University of Nevada Reno.

In addition, Reno hotels and casinos are committed to buying at least $200,000 worth of tickets to the show.

Gagliardi said that Lou Falcigno, a New York cable television syndicator and co-promoter, is putting together the pay-per-view syndicate.

“I think we’re looking at something like a $19.95 . . . show (Leonard-Lalonde was $29.95) and exposure to 8 to 9 million homes,” Gagliardi said.

“Mancini has always done well (at the gate) in Reno, and he wants Camacho. He told me once the only fight he’d come out of retirement for is Camacho.”

Boxing Notes

The Irvine Marriott’s last 1988 boxing show matches state super-welterweight champion Tomas Perez against Toby Flores Thursday night. . . . Evander Holyfield will weigh 207 to 208 pounds for his match against Pinklon Thomas Dec. 9 in Atlantic City, trainer Lou Duva says. Holyfield, being carefully trained for a 1989 title bout against Mike Tyson, weighed 202 when he defeated James Tillis last summer at Lake Tahoe.

Billy Dove, the upset winner of the USA Amateur Boxing Federation’s presidential election, is a civilian employee of the Army who oversees its sports programs. He had been a USA/ABF board member for 4 years. Wylie Farrier, the hand-picked candidate of the embattled outgoing president, Col. Don Hull, was rejected by the 113-member board of governors in St. Louis last week.

Alex Garcia, an unbeaten San Fernando heavyweight, fights Dee Collier Tuesday at the Reseda Country Club. . . . Barry McGuigan, a former featherweight champion, meets Julio Miranda Thursday in a London bout scheduled to be shown on FNN:SCORE at 7 p.m.