Duarte Gets Long-Awaited Title Shot in Historic Bout at Country Club

It is the place where he launched his comeback 4 1/2 years ago with the dream of fighting for a world title.

And now it will be the place where that dream comes true.

Frankie Duarte of the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood will face International Boxing Federation bantamweight champion Orlando Canizales in a nationally televised, 12-round title bout at The Country Club in Reseda on Jan. 15.

It is believed that this will be the first world title fight held in the Valley.

The match originally had been scheduled for the same day in Miami, but Dan Goossen, Duarte’s manager, was able to pull off a switch that favors his fighter.

It probably will still be difficult for Duarte to beat Canizales, the Laredo, Tex., fighter with a 21-1-1 record, including 18 knockouts. Canizales won his title in July with a 15-round knockout of Kelvin Seabrooks. He made a successful defense several weeks ago, knocking out Jimmy Navarro in less than a round.

It will be a day of firsts Jan. 15 because it is also believed that Duarte, at 33, will become the oldest man to fight in a bantamweight world title match. He will be facing a man 10 years younger in Canizales, a dangerous puncher.

This is the kind of fighter one does not want to go toe to toe with. Yet that is the only way Duarte (44-7-1, 33 knockouts) knows how to fight. His style is to take two or three punches to give one. Whether he can take too many of Canizales’ punches is another question.

But Duarte has taken his share of blows--outside the ring as well as in--in a career that began in 1973.

After a much-chronicled battle with alcohol and drug addiction, Duarte resumed boxing in May, 1984, at The Country Club and beat Luis Hernandez on a seventh-round knockout. At the time, Duarte had had only 1 fight in nearly 5 years.

Under Ten Goose management, the night he beat Hernandez and ever since, Duarte has prospered, winning 12 of 15 fights with 1 draw.

His only losses came at the hands of world champions. Richie Sandoval was the World Boxing Assn. bantamweight champion when he beat Duarte on a split decision in a non-title bout in 1985. Two years later, Duarte faced Bernardo Pinango, then the WBA champion, with the title on the line at the Forum and lost.

With a history as a bleeder, with scar tissue piled over both eyes, and with his 34th birthday coming just weeks after the fight, this could be Duarte’s last shot.

The Canizales-Duarte bout will headline a 5-fight card with the first bell scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tickets will range from $20 to $75.