Fans Can’t Take Too Much <i> Mas </i> of This

Boxing, if you can call it that after the Roberto Duran-”Surgery” Ray Leonard meeting in Las Vegas, has pushed professional wrestling into second place as a spectacle. It now is featuring ancient retired ex-boxing rivals pumped up like giant Macy parade balloons for the biggest public ripoff in sports.

It isn’t a sport that it once was but has become Grade C entertainment with pre-fight dialogue like warmed-over toast.

What a gullible public.

There are two suggestions to cure the ills of the “fight” game:

1. Have a giant, legal lottery, since these fights are held in either Las Vegas or Atlantic City. A numbered ticket is issued to everyone who pays an admission for the live performance or for the poor souls who purchase the high-price video coverage, so-called “live.” A drawing is held at the beginning of the first round. The person with the winning number gets half the gate gross. The loser of the fight gets, say, 2% over expenses.

2. If that won’t do, then I want to be the promoter of the next multimillion-dollar bout to be staged at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium or the Coliseum in Los Angeles.

I propose to have as the two heavyweights in the ring, George Burns and Bob Hope. It would put the whole boxing mess in correct perspective.

NICK J. PODGURSKI, San Diego