BOXING : Douglas Took Wraps Off a Secret Weapon

Notebook leftovers and random comments from a never-to-be-forgotten shocker in Tokyo:

A championship jab: One major reason we have a heavyweight champion named Buster today is because he effectively employed boxing’s most under-used and underrated weapon, the left jab. Almost from the outset, Buster Douglas--in the Douglas camp, only his manager, John Johnson, calls the new champion by his first name, James--was finding his target, Mike Tyson’s face, with regularity. Over the years, most great fighters have had great jabs, although there have been some who didn’t.

Douglas has a great jab.

Spend an evening at any fight emporium and it’s startling how many boxers you will see who can’t, don’t or won’t use the simplest, most effective punch of all.

Douglas knocked out Tyson with a four-punch combination. But the foundation for one of sports’ biggest upsets was laid in the early rounds, when Tyson was driven to distraction and at times hurt by the best jab seen in a heavyweight title fight since the reign of Larry Holmes.

Rank rankings: Guess who isn’t ranked among the top 10 Ohio heavyweights by the Ohio Boxing Commission? You got it.

It seems Johnson got into a beef with the commission a few years ago over a canceled fight in Columbus and Douglas hasn’t been seen in the rankings since.

The emotional champ: Douglas, who minutes after the fight nearly broke down at the mention of his mother, who died three weeks before the fight, keeps his emotions close to the surface. In Columbus last week, he was asked if he was aware of taking his place in a century-old chain of champions including Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, James J. Jeffries and John L. Sullivan.

He hesitated a moment, and answered, quietly: “Yes, it has--and it brings tears to my eyes.”

A softer, gentler Tyson: Since he left Kevin Rooney, the trainer who took him to the championship, Tyson’s entourage has grown steadily. Four days before the Douglas fight, the champion talked with half a dozen writers in his hotel suite.

In mid-sentence during a conversation about athletes with drug problems, and without missing a beat, he directed that a nearby yes-man pop another movie cassette into the VCR. In a twinkling, it was done. And the master hadn’t even had to look at his yes-man.

What a difference from the 1984 U.S. Olympic team trials in Ft Worth, where Tyson’s late trainer and mentor, Cus D’Amato, made sure the 17-year-old Tyson washed his own socks and underwear every night. Just four years later, his gross income approached $50 million. In 1988, his New York limousine tab alone was more than $50,000.

And so whether he was aware of it or not, the young champion had been weakened by a measure of softness that had descended upon his life. And on an unforgettable afternoon in Tokyo, it buried him.

Taking stock: It’s said that Douglas could wind up with 100,000 shares of Golden Nugget, Inc., stock if his deal with Steve Wynn’s Mirage Hotel survives Don King’s lawsuit.

At the close of trading Friday, 100,000 shares of Golden Nugget stock was worth $2.275 million, or roughly one-twelfth 1/12th of the $25 million Wynn has promised to pay Douglas for his first title defense. The downside is that Golden Nugget, Inc., hasn’t paid a dividend since 1978.

The King Wall: Las Vegas matchmaker Bruce Trampler, on late 1989 and early 1990 world events: “It’s fantastic, what’s going on in the world today. Imagine, the Berlin Wall and Don King coming down in the same year.”

The mad mogul: Wynn issued this statement Friday through a hotel spokesman, after reports on Douglas’ promised paydays for two Mirage fights, $25 million and $35 million:

“I admit that I am demented when it comes to heavyweight champions. I am equally crazy about leading contenders. After the fight, I promise to seek professional help. Currently, I am being treated by Dr. Buster Douglas.”

Jimmy’s view: An 82-year-old former champion from Glendale, Jimmy McLarnin, was asked what he thought of 23-year-old former champion Mike Tyson.

“I think he’s a shot champ, and I feel sorry for him, because he’s so young and he’s devoted his life to boxing,” said McLarnin, twice world welterweight champion in the 1930s.

“I don’t think he went in there in shape, and if his trainers knew that they should have called off the fight. Boxing’s a dangerous sport--he could’ve been badly hurt in there.

“Buster seems like an intelligent fighter. If other fighters fight Tyson like he did, move a lot and keep a good jab in his face, they’ll beat him, too. That’s what won him the fight, that jab--it’s the safest and most effective punch in boxing.”

On Courage: Tyson might not have come to battle as fit as he should have, but as the tide of battle slowly turned against him he fought bravely.

He certainly can be faulted for whining about the result, citing the referee’s long count on his knockdown of Douglas.

But no one should question Tyson’s courage.

Douglas was magnificent, climbing off the deck late in the eighth round after a right uppercut to his chin by Tyson and then winning the ninth round. Had he stayed down, he would be saluted today as Tyson’s toughest, bravest opponent and probably still would have had his parade in Columbus.

But Douglas wanted it all.

Tyson took a beating but in the end came back for more. Few heavyweights have been hit with four harder punches than Douglas’ final combination.

Boxing Notes

Friends say one-time heavyweight contender Lou Nova of Las Vegas is seriously ill, battling cancer. Nova, 76, was knocked out in the sixth round by Joe Louis in 1941. . . . Featherweights Edward Parker, 19-3-2, and Refugio Rojas, 32-15-1, will fight in the Forum’s main event Monday night. A $225,000 Forum tournament quarterfinal bout features Gilbert Baptist, 17-1, and Quincy Taylor, 11-1. . . . Welterweights Hedgemon Robertson, 21-7, and Javier Moreno, 12-7, headline Don Fraser’s card at the Irvine Marriott Monday. Moreno will replace unbeaten Ernie Chavez, injured in training.

Dan Goossen’s junior lightweight, Gabriel Ruelas, 19-0, steps up to 10-rounders Tuesday night at Chuck Landis’ Country Club in Reseda in a main event with Dana Roston, 15-11. Younger brother--by 11 months--Rafael Ruelas, 13-0, will box Roberto Rios, 16-8, in a featherweight bout. . . . On a card March 1 at the Hangar, near the Palm Springs charter air terminal, San Diego veteran James Kinchen, 46-7-2, the IBF’s fifth-ranked light-heavyweight, will box Jorge Amparo, 11-12-1.