Boxing / Earl Gustkey : Nunn’s Success Brings Manager Into Limelight

Dan Goossen used to be humble.

In 1984, when his middleweight, Michael Nunn, was making $1,500 per fight, Goossen never seemed to have much to say.

Now Nunn is the middleweight champion and making $1 million-plus per fight. He gets $5,000 for a personal appearance. And Goossen has become cocky.

The other day, he was talking about a British promoter who was paying for Nunn and Goossen to fly first class to London for the Nigel Benn-Michael Watson middleweight fight May 21.

Benn, who has reached the superstar level in England, will probably win. Then British tabloids will shriek for a Benn-Nunn bout.

“How much would Nunn get for a Benn fight in London, Dan?”

“Oh, I hate to talk about money figures,” he said.

“What about $3 million?”

“Three million? Well, OK, that would certainly take care of our travel expenses. But there’d be other considerations, too.”

“Like what?”

“Well, we’d want some seats in the Royal Family’s box . . . “

These days, Goossen has to find things for Nunn to do during the countdown for Nunn-Sugar Ray Leonard in 1990. Or is it ‘91?

Goossen says he has all but wrapped up an August HBO appointment for Nunn against Iran Barkley, probably in Reno, with Atlantic City, N.J., still bidding.

“Barkley is definitely Michael’s next opponent, and Reno looks like the place,” he said.

Nunn will make slightly more than $1 million and Barkley somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000, Goossen said.

Nunn’s dance card filled up quickly after his stunning 88-second, one-punch knockout of Sumbu Kalambay in March.

Last week, Nunn was inducted into the Iowa Hall of Fame. Monday, the Desert Inn sent a jet to Iowa to take him to Las Vegas for a personal appearance--fee: $5,000--at a banquet honoring a Japanese businessman who donated $1 million to a children’s hospital in Philadelphia.

And then there’s the media, Goossen goes on, you have no idea how tough it is--the demands on Michael’s time by reporters . . .

With heavyweight Frank Bruno having gone the way of all British heavyweights with his defeat by Mike Tyson, British boxing fans are focusing on Benn, a hard-hitting middleweight from London’s suburbs.

The London tabloids have worked themselves up to the froth level (“Boom Boom Benn,” they call him) over Benn, who has knocked out all 22 opponents, 19 in the first or second round.

Benn’s May 21 bout in London will be his first U.S. television (NBC) appearance.

Boxing Notes

Five boxers are in the top 10 in Sport Magazine’s annual survey of the 100 highest-paid athletes. Mike Tyson ($22,133,333), Michael Spinks ($13,500,000), Sugar Ray Leonard ($11,700,000) and Donnie LaLonde ($3,846,667) are ranked first through fourth. Larry Holmes ($2,800,000) is sixth, behind fifth-ranked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ($3,000,000), the highest-salaried team sport athlete, according to the survey.

The Forum plays host to two attractive boxing shows within 48 hours next week. Saturday night, Julio Cesar Chavez and Roger Mayweather meet for Mayweather’s World Boxing Council super-lightweight championship. On May 15, the card features a 12-round, $225,000 Forum super-lightweight tournament championship bout between Sammy Fuentes and Rodolfo Aguilar.

Boxers from the Soviet Union may arrive in the United States to turn pro as soon as June. Bruce Silverglade, who runs Gleason’s Gym in New York, said Thursday that his gym may be the training center for the Soviet boxers. New York promoter Lou Falcigno announced recently he has signed an agreement with the Soviet sports federation that would permit Soviet boxers to turn pro in the United States.

Canada’s Lennox Lewis, who scored a mild upset at Seoul when he defeated American Riddick Bowe in the gold-medal bout of the super-heavyweight class, will turn pro in England. The London-born Lewis, 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, signed with British manager Frank Maloney and will debut as a pro in London in July.

Saturday night’s outdoor boxing show at Santa Ana Stadium recalls the heyday of outdoor boxing here, the late 1950s and early 1960s. The last major outdoor boxing show in the Southland was the 1967 Floyd Patterson-Jerry Quarry draw at the Coliseum, before 23,000. In 1958, when Patterson was the heavyweight champion, he defeated Roy Harris at old Wrigley Field. In the same park, three weeks later, 22,500 turned out to watch L.A. favorite Art Aragon get hammered by Carmen Basilio.