Boxing Notes : Middleweight Title May Never Be Unified

Ask fans what they hate most about modern boxing and a majority will tell you it’s split titles -- three and sometimes four fighters claiming championships in the same weight class, thanks to the corrupt and phony ratings organizations. Well, fans, the last thing the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO want to see is unified titles.

The latest example of the resistance to unification is the case of Sumbu Kalambay, the WBA middleweight champion who is about to lose his title by decree of Dr. Elias Cordova, president of the WBA. Kalambay’s crime? Signing to fight IBF champ Michael Nunn March 25 while ignoring a “mandatory” defense against Herol Graham, a fighter Kalambay beat two years ago. Graham has done nothing in the ring since to warrant reinstatement of his rating, but in many cases, ratings have nothing to do with ring accomplishments.

Now, the WBA title will be given to the winner of a bout between Graham and Mike McCallum, another fighter Kalambay has beaten, and soundly. The middleweight unification already had been dealt a blow when Roberto Duran unseated Iran Barkley for the WBC title Friday. As was widely known, Duran’s contract contained an escape clause that would allow him to leave the tournament if he could get a fight against Sugar Ray Leonard. That is an option Duran is expected to exercise if Leonard beats Thomas Hearns June 12.

“This title will never be unified,” said Bob Arum, rarely at a loss for a strong opinion. “These organizations are becoming an anachronism. They charge outrageous sanctioning fees, and then they pull something like this. The three of them collected something like $500,000 for Tyson-Bruno. What do they do with that money, anyway?”

It’s time someone found out.

The immediate beneficiary of the stripping of Kalambay is Barkley, who now is lined up to get the winner of Kalambay-Nunn. “He deserves it,” Arum said. ‘He fought great against Duran.”

Barkley’s close friends hope he will make the best of his second chance -- not like he did the first time around. Despite the denials of the fighter, his manager, John Reetz, and Arum, an intimate acquaintance of Barkley says the former Felt Forum club fighter went out of control after he knocked out Hearns in June, partying too hard and training too little. He even went into the Duran fight thinking it would go no more than two or three rounds, said the friend, and trained accordingly.

“He got caught up in the flash and razzle-dazzle,” the friend said. “When he won the title, he became a monster, spending money like crazy, staying out all night. In a way, he was victimized by winning that title. He couldn’t handle it.”

Said the friend: “Maybe this loss will wake him up and bring him down to earth.”

Here’s justice for you, Nevada State Athletic Commission style: On Saturday, the honorable commissioners allowed executives of the Las Vegas Hilton to get off with a contrite “We apologize” for violating Nevada law in the payment of Mike Tyson -- and then hit Lloyd Honeyghan with a $1,500 fine for taking a pain-killing injection in his right hand so he could go through with his bout against Marlon Starling, a fight in which Honeyghan took a brutal beating.

How hard is Sugar Ray Leonard training for his rematch against Thomas Hearns? So far, not very hard, but then the fight is more than three months away. Leonard did some leg training after the Tyson-Bruno fight, discoing until about midnight at a Vegas nightclub and sipping a pink concoction through a straw between rounds.

There is concern in Reno that Hector Camacho will not be able to make the 140-pound limit for his bout Monday against Ray Mancini. So the promoters, to quell the doubts -- their own and those of the public they hope to sell tickets to -- have set up an “unofficial weigh-in” Thursday afternoon, just to make sure.

n time, Aaron Snowell may turn out to be a great trainer for Tyson. But why in heck did he keep running off between rounds to complain to referee Richard Steele about Bruno’s holding, leaving an obviously confused Tyson sitting alone on his stool, without instruction, for about half of two rest periods?

Marty Cohen, the 91-year-old George Burns of boxing, is insisting to everyone who will listen that Michael Dokes will stop Evander Holyfield March 11. But then again, Cohen is Dokes’ manager-adviser-father figure and, need we add, a tad biased.

New York State Inspector General Joe Spinelli’s monthly anti-drug program attracted nine -- repeat, nine -- boxing figures to P.S. 384 in Brooklyn last week, despite a predicted snowstorm. Among the speakers were Aaron Pryor, Mark Breland, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Mike McCallum, Saoul Mamby, Renaldo Snipes, Art Tucker, Alex Stewart and commish Randy Gordon, all of whom came for free or, in the case of Pryor, at their own expense. How many athletes from the so-called “major” sports would do the same?

What They’re Saying:

--A former aide to Tyson on why Don King has been so vigilant in keeping Tyson from speaking to the boxing media: “It’s the same thing Robin Givens and Ruth Roper did. When you want to pull a con, you isolate the mark. Otherwise, he’ll find out what’s really going on.”

--Larry Holmes on Tyson’s decision to drop manager Bill Cayton and join forces with promoter King, a former Holmes nemesis: “You don’t get off the horse that brought you over the bridge to get on another horse. Especially not that horse. I know that horse too well.”

--A smirking Sugar Ray Leonard early Friday evening, before Duran upset Barkley, but after he heard Duran say he would “kick Leonard’s butt next”: “Yeah, sure. Tell Duran I’m praying for him tonight.”

Leonard on Duran again, later that night: “How old is Duran now? 38? Good. I’ll fight him again -- in about two more years.”