Boxing : Zaragoza Is More Than Mere Morsel Amid the Alphabet Soup

Last time we checked, the alphabet-soup guys who run professional boxing from three different directions were listing 46 “world” champions in 51 weight divisions.

They can agree on only one champion, Mike Tyson. Three other boxers are recognized as champions by two governing bodies, but in 13 weight classes, each of the three organizations--the World Boxing Assn., the World Boxing Council and the International Boxing Federation-- has its own champion.

It’s so bad that a boxing follower almost needs a home computer to keep track of the champions and contenders. After all, how many know, for example, that Napa Katwanchai is the WBC’s strawweight (105 pounds or less) champion? Or that Katwanchai is from Thailand?

And if you can identify Kaosai Galaxi as the WBA junior-bantamweight champion, you’re world class.

Point is, with boxing being so poorly served by three feuding governing bodies, it’s easy to overlook an outstanding champion today, such as Daniel Zaragoza of Mexico City, who will defend the WBC (or is it the IBF?) super-bantamweight championship at the Forum Thursday night against Frankie Duarte.

One night in June, Zaragoza took on Southland favorite Paul Banke at the Forum and showed a crowd of 4,500 how a champion fights.

Banke is dangerous with his hook, but he is often off balance when he misses. He got caught twice in the first round by Zaragoza, and Zaragoza’s manager, Rafael Mendoza, says today that Zaragoza won that fight in the first round.

“Look at the video of that first round,” he said. “Daniel caught him twice on the inside with short shots to the head, and Banke never really got into a rhythm after that.”

But to many that night, it seemed that Zaragoza saved his championship late, under fire.

While Banke was taking shots from both inside and long range, Zaragoza was steady and cool. Steady? He was a rock--even in the ninth, when Banke floored him with a left hook.

Banke, trailing on nearly everyone’s scorecard, seemed to turn the fight around early in the 10th. Finally, he was throwing bombs, and connecting. Then Zaragoza dug a short right hand to Banke’s ribs and the challenger faltered.

At that moment, Zaragoza’s championship was on the line. He scored with a combination of his own, and Banke backed off. Zaragoza finished the 10th strongly. And he won the 11th and 12th rounds, too.

That night, at the end, it was so clear what had happened. A champion in distress had fought like a champion.

Unhappily, the alphabet-soup guys have cluttered up boxing so much it’s too easy to lose sight of a champion such as Daniel Zaragoza.

Luis Magana has been doing Spanish-language publicity work for Southern California boxing shows for more than 50 years. Herbert Hoover was president when Magana started at the Olympic Auditorium.

Last April, he says, promoter Don King asked him to help him with the Los Angeles Spanish-speaking media for his Julio Cesar Chavez-Roger Mayweather fight at the Forum.

“I told him I wanted $500 a week, and he agreed,” Magana said. “I worked on the fight for a month. In one stretch, I worked 22 days in a row. After the fight, he sent me a check for $500 and two tickets in the cheap seats. When I called to complain, he told me I’d agreed to do it for $500 total.

“I told him there were times during the Depression when I made $100 a week, but that I’d be a lunatic to offer to work for that today. I turn 80 next year--I don’t need this.”

Al Braverman, a spokesman for King, denied Friday that Magana had been stiffed.

“No such agreement ($500 a week) with Magana was ever made,” he said. “Don King has never stiffed anyone who ever work for him, ever.”

Oh? What about Tim Witherspoon, the heavyweight who fought Frank Bruno in London for, he said, a promised $900,000 from King and later said he wound up with $90,000?

Boxing Notes

Madison Square Garden’s twice-monthly boxing shows are going on the road. The Garden’s Felt Forum, hotbed of New York City boxing since 1969, is closing for remodeling for two years. In the interim, the Garden will stage its shows at the Beacon Theater in New York, in Upstate New York and Atlantic City. . . . Michael Dokes got in the last Felt Forum knockout before the closing, stopping Wesley Watson in the third round Thursday night. Dokes’ manager, Marty Cohen, met in New York with Don King Wednesday, but the two are said to be $2 million apart over what Dokes should earn for a Mike Tyson fight. King, meanwhile, said Friday that two promotional groups in Toronto and one in Edmonton want to promote a Tyson fight against Canadian Razor Ruddock.

Trump Plaza in Atlantic City says it has the Evander Holyfield-Alex Stewart heavyweight match but hasn’t picked a date yet. Stewart, like Holyfield, is unbeaten but has stopped all 24 of his opponents. . . . The Normandie Recreation Center in Los Angeles, 1550 S. Normandie, presents a 10-bout amateur boxing show Sunday at 2 p.m. NBC’s Sunday show: welterweights Buddy McGirt and Gary Jacobs, replacing Edwin Rosario-Lupe Suarez, after Rosario suffered a hand injury in training. . . . The United States’ amateur team for the World Championships in Moscow, Sept. 17-Oct. 2, is training at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz. . . . Official paid attendance for the Michael Nunn-Iran Barkley fight at Reno’s 11,000-seat Lawlor Events Center Aug. 14 was 5,453.

The Baldwin Park Hilton Hotel will have an invitational amateur boxing show Sept. 1-3. . . . Johnny Flores, 73, longtime Southland amateur boxing guru, has been inducted into the national Golden Gloves Hall of Fame. . . . Roy Jones, the middleweight thought by many to have been robbed of a gold medal at the Seoul Olympic Games, tries to move his pro record to 3-0 on an NBC show Sept. 3. . . . Gilberto Roman of Mexico defends his WBC super-flyweight championship at the Forum Sept. 12 against Santos Laciar of Argentina. . . . Hard-hitting unbeaten flyweight Michael Carbajal, who has knocked out his last two opponents, goes next in Tucson Sept. 5.