BOXING : In and Out of Ring, ’89 Was a Bust

Ring out the old, ring in the new. Some people like to look back at messy auto accidents and natural disasters. We here at Newsday settle for a look at the recent pugilistic past. In that spirit, here is a look at 1989, a year that will live in ennui, if not infamy, in the annals of boxing.

January: The year starts with a thud. No major bouts except for Tyson-King & attorneys vs. Cayton & attorneys in Las Vegas. On Jan. 10, Tyson knocks out six packs of peppermint tic tacs and a couple of rolls of Lifesavers while giving a deposition. The next day, however, he is stopped cold by a young female attorney whom he propositions during a break in the testimony.

February: The fighting returns to the ring Feb. 24 when Roberto Duran, ol’ Hands of Stone, trims down his belly of mush and out-hustles Iran Barkley to win the World Boxing Council middleweight crown, Duran’s fourth world title. Duran rocks Barkley early, survives a hook that spins him around in the eighth and drops The Blade in the 11th to edge out a split decision. The Fight of the Year -- sorry, it doesn’t get any better than this.

The next day, Tyson returns to the ring after an eight-month absence, against Frank Bruno, an opponent considered an even-money bet not to last the first round. But last he does. Despite being floored in the first 15 seconds, Bruno gets up to shake Tyson with a left hook but then raises the white flag. The bout ends in the fifth with Bruno’s back to the ropes and his eyes on the referee as Tyson pounds away.

Out of this sloppy mess comes the line of the year, from Tyson: “How dare they challenge me with their primitive skills.” Indeed.

March: A big month that goes out like a lion -- Michael Nunn-Sumbu Kalambay -- and starts with a sham -- Hector Camacho-Ray Mancini. On March 6, Boom Boom and The Macho Man do boxing’s version of the Road Runner vs. the Coyote in a bout appropriately promoted by Warner Bros., the cartoon factory. Camacho dances rings around Mancini to win a dull and unpopular split decision in Reno, Nev.

Five days later comes a real fight -- Evander Holyfield-Michael Dokes at Caesars Palace. The two heavyweights go toe-to-toe for 10 rounds until Dokes, depleted by years of drug abuse and inactivity, finally runs out of gas. By far Holyfield’s toughest test, and a game enough effort by Dokes that it earned him, for a time, consideration as a Tyson opponent. That is, until Don King found he could get other, easier opponents for Tyson a lot cheaper.

The month ends with the punch of the year -- the roundhouse left landed by Nunn on the jaw of Kalambay, ending their March 25 International Boxing Federation middleweight title bout after only 88 seconds. The cry goes up -- Nunn’s not a runner, he’s a puncher. Mirage of the year.

April: Busy month of mostly bad fights. WBC featherweight champ Jeff Fenech beats Marcos Villasana in a 12-round war but retires after the bout. The reason? Chronic bad hands, which break at the pre-fight handshake. World Boxing Association welterweight champ Mark Breland stops Rafael Pineda but tears up his knee and undergoes surgery. Orlin Norris sleepwalks past Greg Page. IBF welter champ Simon Brown swats Al “Bumblebee” Long in seven.

IBF lightweight champ Pernell Whitaker blasts out Louie Lomeli in three.

May: By WBA decree, Mike McCallum and Herol Graham, two fighters who were beaten by Kalambay, somehow are picked to fight for his title, which was lifted when Kalambay signed to fight Nunn. McCallum wins a decision. WBC-WBA lightweight champ Julio Cesar Chavez wins Roger Mayweather’s WBC junior welterweight title by TKO when Mayweather quits after round 10.

June: Sugar Ray Leonard kisses the canvas twice, Thomas Hearns kisses his sister and promoter Bob Arum kisses Mike Trainer’s aspirations in the wake of another closed-circuit blockbuster. “The War” is a draw as Leonard and Hearns fight 12 stirring rounds at Caesars Palace. Hearns deserves better but settles for the satisfaction of sprinkling Sugar on the canvas in Rounds 3 and 11 and surviving a furious Round 12. He also gets paid well -- $11 million to Leonard’s $12.5 million -- but there seems little left for him in boxing.

In the meantime, Leonard, Arum and Trainer are plotting to do Leonard-Duran III -- Uno Mas -- for mucho mas dinero.

July: Holyfield tries to upstage Tyson with a second-round KO of Brazil’s Adilson “Maguila” Rodrigues in Tahoe, but Tyson makes a monkey out of both of them a week later. Tyson needs 93 seconds to stretch “The Truth,” Carl Williams, in his second title defense of the year. That’s two full seconds longer than it took him to ice Michael Spinks in 1988, and the outcome thrusts referee Randy Neumann into the spotlight for stopping the bout with Williams on his feet, seemingly ready to continue. So what if he was answering Neumann’s questions in Latin?

August: The Flying Nunn returns. Nunn flees like a butterfly and stings like a flea against Barkley in winning a decision on the 14th in Reno. Afterward, promoter Bob Arum castigates Nunn and releases him from a promotional contract. Sally Field sues to regain her nickname.

September: Mismatch month: IBF junior welterweight champ Meldrick Taylor, in his first start after undergoing knee surgery in March, outpoints Courtney Hooper on the 11th in Atlantic City, N.J., and WBC welterweight champ Marlon Starling paints Young-Kil Chung for 12 one-sided rounds in Hartford, Conn., on the 15th.

On the 20th, IBF welterweight champ Simon Brown blasts out used-up Bobby Joe Young in two in Rochester, N.Y.

October: The return of Terrible Tim as former heavyweight champ Witherspoon, now aligned with Dennis “The Menace” Rappaport, knocks out Sweden’s Anders Eklund in one round and immediately calls for Tyson, Holyfield, George Foreman and a room-service menu -- not necessarily in that order.

November: Holyfield struggles to an eighth-round KO over Alex Stewart, who before the bout is given as much chance as Foreman in the Miss America Pageant. Tyson is KO’d again, this time by a “rib inflammation” that causes his scheduled Nov. 18 defense against Razor Ruddock to be postponed, and then canceled. Tyson, who fought 32 times in his first three years as a pro, finishes 1989 with just two fights -- the same as Leonard and Duran, who are 10 and 15 years his senior, respectively.

December: The year -- and the decade -- are supposed to end with a bang when Duran and Leonard meet for the third time, on Pearl Harbor Day, at a new Las Vegas hotel called the Mirage. But the only mirage is the fight, which is a boring 12-round waltz won easily by Leonard, who comes into the ring wearing a ski cap but would be more at home in top hat, white tie and tails. Duran messes up Leonard’s dance party with a right hand and a head butt that open two cuts in the 11th, but it is too late. Duran ($8 million) and Leonard ($15 million) cry all the way to the cashier’s cage as the crowd boos. Bust of the year.

Assessment: A poor year overall. One great fight: Duran-Barkley, some good ones (Holyfield-Dokes, Leonard-Hearns, Holyfield-Stewart) and no standout performers. A shaky Fighter of the Year vote to Holyfield, who won three fights but lost support among people who thought he might test Tyson. Holyfield’s trainer, Professor George Benton, deserves Trainer of the Year for his work with Evander and Meldrick Taylor. Manager of the Year is John Reetz, the madman behind Barkley, who raised the purses of the former clubfighter to world-class status. Promoter of the Year goes to Camacho, for continuing to make the public care about him despite declining performances.