Boxing Notes : Camacho Says He May Be Hanging Up His (Driving) Gloves

News item: Hector Camacho is hanging up his gloves.

“I think I’m going to retire,” said a weary-sounding Macho Man Wednesday from his home on the “Indian Reservation” in Clewiston, Fla. “I think it’s about time.”

He then said something about letting his license expire. But before you go into Macho Panic, the gloves Camacho was referring to were his driving gloves, and the license is his oft-suspended driver’s license, which has been on tje police hit list almost as often as Mitch Green’s.

The reason? Camacho’s latest brush with mortality, when he flipped over his recently customized jeep while exiting a highway in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Aug. 1, banging up his head, arms and legs and causing him to pull out of an Aug. 27 bout against club fighter Bobby Nunez in Sacramento, Calif., another $50,000 workout.

“This shook me up a bit,” said the 27-year-old Camacho. “Look at (former WBC featherweight champ) Salvador Sanchez. He only needed one accident to get killed. You know how many cars I crashed up already? Nine.”

He then rattled them off. The Lotus; two Ferraris, one of which crashed and burned on FDR Drive a few years ago; a Caddy; a ‘Vette, a couple of rentals, and now the jeep that he had just put $16,000 of customizing into, including a cellular phone and stereo system. “This has cost me a fortune,” Camacho said. “I always had to have my cars to be cocky and all, but I think I’m going to take limos from here on. This is getting too dangerous.”

A lot more dangerous than being in the ring, where Camacho is unbeaten in 36 fights. He was hoping to toy with Nunez, as he had last month with former sparring partner, Tommy Hanks, before taking on Vinny Pazienza in a money fight Nov. 30. But his injuries and the Dec. 7 Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran fight ended those plans.

“Nothing serious, but I got a bump on the head with two big holes in it, and some cuts on my crms and legs,” Camacho said. ‘bI didn’t want to get punched around with big holes in my head.”

Camacho was driving with his brother, Felix, in the passenger seat when the jeep caught a curb and rolled over on the Florida Turnpike. According to Camacho, the jeep rolled over three times and came to rest upside down. Felix, a young featherweight who was scheduled to fight three days later in Jacksonville, Fla., escaped without injury.

“He jumped out of the jeep, the little (jerk),” Camacho said. “He’s younger than me, so I guess he’s a little quicker.”

Felix won his fight. Hector still hopes to fight twice this year before fighting Aaron Pryor, recently operated on for cataracts, in February. Camacho said the fight would happen “in Europe” and pay him some $1.75 million. Then, he wants Pazienza and a showdown with WBC junior welterweight champ Julio Cesar Chavez, a fight for which he might have to bury the hatchet with Don King. Camacho and King have been talking about such a reconciliation. Camacho has also given up plans to challenge welterweight champ Marlon Starling after seeing how carrying 145 pounds slowed him against Hanks.

“I looked a little bulky and my reflexes weren’t sharp,” Camacho said. “I’m not that crazy about fighting welterweight anymore.”

Or about driving. If nothing else, the roads in Clewiston, Fort Lauderdale, Spanish Harlem, and who knows where else should be a bit safer.

Starling and trainer Eddie Futch have parted. According to Mort Sharnik, Starling’s adviser, the reason was Futch’s desire to bring heavyweight Riddick Bowe to train at Starling’s camp, a request Sharnik refused. According to Starling, the real reason was that the 77-year-old Futch is no longer physically capable of doing the job.

“Eddie’s the best in the business, but he can’t face the fact that he’s getting old,” said Starling, who will defend his WBC welterweight title against Chung Yung-Kil in Swan Lake, N.Y., Sept. 15. “Eddie hasn’t been doing the everyday training anyway. Freddie Roach (Futch’s assistant) has been training me and Eddie has just been the mouthpiece, the strategic adviser.”

Futch, who could not be reached Wednesday, recently suffered a broken kneecap in a traffic accident near his Las Vegas home. He was unable to climb the ring steps to work the corner for another of his fighters, WBA light-heavyweight champ Virgil Hill, in June, and was still on crutches two weeks ago. Futch began training Starling 18 molths ago for his rematch with Mark Breland, and Starling (44-5-1) has shown marked improvement since, culminating with his destruction of Lloyd Honeyghan in February.

“Eddie is a great man, an encyclopedia of boxing, a class act,” Starling said. “But it’s time for him to step down. Freddie will train me now, but it doesn’t really matter. I’m no walk in the park for anybody.”

Iran Barkley is ignoring the restraining order obtained in Texas last week by his ousted trainer, Il “Potato Pie” Bolden, which forbids Barkley from training for his challenge Monday to IBF middleweight king Michael Nunn. Bolden claims he had a “verbal agreement” to train Barkley for the Nunn fight, for which he was to be paid 10 percent of the purse, or $40,000. According to the order, Barkley would be guilty of contempt of court if he continues to train for the bout.

“We’re training anyway,” said the Blade’s renegade manager, John Reetz. “If we’re in contempt, so be it. We’ve acted contemptuously before.”

Some of Don King’s people were saying Monday that Mike Tyson’s next opponent would be Buster Douglas, not Michael Dokes, because of Dokes’ $3 million salary demand. But that same night, King himself told HBO’s Seth Abraham the Dokes-Tyson fight was “within hailing distance.” HBO will televise it on one of three Fridays in October -- either the 13th, 20th or 27th -- when there is no postseason baseball,

Now it looks as if Alex Stewart, the unbeaten heavyweight no one seems to be taking seriously, will be the next opponent for Evander Holyfield, instead of Big Art Tucker, to whom Holyfield’s brain trust was leaning last week.

The absolute last show at the Felt Forum will be Sunday, Aug. 27 -- Edwin Rosario-Lupe Suarez for Rosario’s WBA lightweight title.

Patrick Flannery, who was once Hector Camacho’q schoolteacher and now is the Macho Man’s friend, adviser and confidant, on their 10-year relationship: “I was a schizophrenic when I met him. I soon found out he was a schizophrenic, too. The four of us have gotten along fine ever since.”