Boxing / Earl Gustkey : Banke Is Getting to Payoff Punch 5 Years After Turning Professional

Paul Banke, sweat still streaming off his body, stripped tape from his hands and marveled at the little warrior he had just beaten.

“I couldn’t believe that guy,” he said. “The harder I hit him, the more he kept coming. I was beginning to wonder if I could get him out of there.”

But you knew that deep down, he knew he would. You could see it in his eyes, even in the one under the long, open cut.

Banke is a hot super-bantamweight. He improved his record to 18-3 after taking out Ramiro Adames in 6 rounds one recent night at the Forum, in what might stand up as Los Angeles’ fight of the year. Or, at least until Banke fights again, which could be in May.

Five years after turning pro, the hard-hitting Banke, who earned $4,500 for the Adames win, is finally closing in on some medium-big money fights, and the boxing people at the Forum would just as soon they be held in Inglewood.

“We’re tired of developing talent here in our tournaments and then having them move on to Las Vegas or Atlantic City as soon as they have big names,” said Forum matchmaker Antonio Curtis.

Curtis is trying to sign Banke to a 2-fight deal that could make him a double world champion and earn him $100,000 or more. Banke, who fights for Bob Richardson’s All-Heart Boxing Club in Quail Valley, Calif., has already earned $100,000 at the Forum by winning its bantamweight championship tournament last year.

But here’s how the Forum is trying to map out his immediate future. Banke, who entered the Adames bout ranked ninth by the World Boxing Council, won a Mickey Mouse title by beating Adames, something called the WBC Continental Americas super-bantamweight championship.

But there’s nothing Mickey Mouse about his next two projected bouts.

Curtis wants to match Banke next with Mexico’s Daniel Zaragoza for the latter’s WBC super-bantamweight championship. At roughly the same time, May, the Forum would also like to match Jesus Poll of Venezuela against Juan Jose Estrada, champion of the World Boxing Assn.’s junior-featherweight class, which is the same weight class as the WBC’s super-bantamweight.

Banke, if he beat Zaragoza, would then get the Poll-Estrada winner, and an opportunity to add a second marquee title.

Five years ago, no one except Banke would have predicted any of this. A youngster from Azusa, he was a competent amateur, though never a headliner. In a 175-bout amateur career, he was sometimes a regional champion, but never a national-class boxer. He was not in the 1984 Olympic team picture, for example.

Banke, though, surprised everyone by blossoming as a pro.

“In the amateurs, in 3-round bouts, the idea is to throw as many scoring punches as possible,” Banke said. “People didn’t know I could hit hard until I was a pro, when I could set up my weight right, and really deliver a punch.”

Banke, setting up in the ring, looks like a mini-Tyson, with his fists carried high against his jaw, his feet flat and spread apart. He wings in blows like cannon shots. He also has a set-up punch that collapses defenses.

It’s a short, hard left hook, delivered low to the rib cage. It has a way of exposing chins. Within a week after stopping Adames, Banke was back in the gym.

“He’s in the gym and back on the road,” said his trainer, Wes Ramey.

“Paul, like our other fighters, does 6.2 miles every day in 40 minutes or less. Paul was in great shape for Adames. He’s doing a lot of things correctly right now--he’s throwing short, hard punches; his legs are bent just right, and he’s keeping his weight on top of his feet. Believe me, his best fights are all ahead of him.”

Thomas Hearns was right. The Hit Man tossed out the following at a press conference here last week to announce the Sumbu Kalambay-Michael Nunn fight March 25: “I know Marvin Hagler is in the gym, training, so I know he’s at least thinking about coming back.”

Hearns’ tip was confirmed by a call to Hagler’s former co-manager, Pat Petronelli, who said Hagler is indeed back in the Petronelli Gym in Brockton, Mass., but isn’t talking.

“Marvin is running and working out in the gym every day,” Petronelli said.

“He’s been in here regularly for about a month. He weighs about 169. He hasn’t said anything to us about wanting to fight again, and we haven’t asked him. He’s pretty busy with his sportswear business. After he works out, he goes into an office he uses here to work on business.

“Our feeling is, if Marvin feels he can get back into shape, he’ll sit down and talk to us about his plans.”

A comeback by Hagler would require promoter Bob Arum to add another bracket to his middleweight “tournament.” Hearns-Sugar Ray Leonard II is close to being made--June 12 and 22 are the working dates--and Kalambay vs. Nunn and Roberto Duran vs. Iran Barkley, Feb. 24, are set.

Boxing Notes

Correction: The Weaver triplets--Floyd, Lloyd and Troy--are Mike Weaver’s brothers, not his sons. . . . Paul Gonzales of East Los Angeles, still pursuing a world flyweight title fight, has signed to meet unranked Abe Garcia in Sacramento Jan. 25. If Gonzales wins, and doesn’t get a title fight after Garcia, there’s talk of a Southland “King of the Flyweights” battle at the Irvine Marriott between Gonzales and Ricky Romero of Torrance.