BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Intensity, Courage Highlight One Man’s Rankings of His Favorite Bouts

Driving home from the Forum the other night, I wondered where to rank the Paul Banke-Daniel Zaragoza fight among the bouts I have seen since I began covering boxing in 1982.

My top 10: 1. Hagler-Hearns, April 15, 1985. 2. Leonard-Hagler, April 6, 1987. 3. Chavez-Taylor, March 17, 1990. 4. Douglas-Tyson, Feb. 10, 1990. 5. Banke-Zaragoza, April 23, 1990. 6. Holyfield-Dokes, March 11, 1989. 7. Tyson-Berbick, Nov. 22, 1986. 8. Cruz-McGuigan, June 23, 1986. 9. Barkley-Hearns, June 6, 1988. 0.Chavez-Ramirez, Oct. 29, 1988.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns was a great fight, and their first round that night may be the best single round in the history of the sport.

Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvin Hagler, Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor, Steve Cruz-Barry McGuigan and Chavez-Jose Luis Ramirez were unforgettable for intensity and courage.

Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson was a good fight, not a great one. But it makes the list because of the magnitude of what Douglas achieved, and the excitement he generated. Evander Holyfield-Michael Dokes was a rarity--a heavyweight fight with no letup in action over 10 rounds.

Tyson’s domination of Trevor Berbick was no thriller, simply historic. Tyson was 20 when he knocked Berbick down three times with the same type of punch and became boxing’s youngest heavyweight champion.

Steve Cruz, a huge underdog, scored a stunning upset, getting the decision over champion Barry McGuigan of Northern Ireland on a hot summer night in Las Vegas. Iran Barkley, absorbing a beating by Hearns and about to lose on cuts over both eyes, knocked Hearns out with one dramatic punch, a desperate right hand that seemed at the time to have ended Hearns’ career.

Which brings us to Banke and Zaragoza, two super-bantamweights who brought a Forum crowd of 5,900 to its feet repeatedly Monday.

Sitting at ringside, I wondered how any of boxing’s acknowledged classics could have been any better. And I wondered also about the nature of courage and bravery in boxers.

I later talked with Banke about courage at his training camp, asking if during a fight he was conscious of courage and bravery.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything, to tell you the truth,” Banke said. “I remember when the crowd was making a lot of noise, that pumped me up. They call me a crowd pleaser, so deep down, maybe I responded to that. I never thought I was being brave against the guy . . . but I never thought about quitting, either.”

There’s a boxing “documentary” called “Bloody Noses” airing on cable channels. It’s a profile of one-time amateur standout Andy Minsker, of Milwaukie, Ore.

In the film, Minsker attempts to rewrite history; specifically, the 1984 U.S. Olympic boxing trials.

In June of 1984, Minsker, a featherweight, won the Olympic trials tournament at Ft. Worth, beating Meldrick Taylor in the quarterfinals on a 4-1 decision.

For Taylor to make the Olympic team, he later had to defeat Minsker twice in two days, and that’s exactly what he did, on two clearcut decisions, 4-1 and 5-0.

Now, Minsker would have us believe he was a victim of racial bias and some sort of monstrous plot. In the film, Minsker, who is white, tells an interviewer that the United States Amateur Boxing Federation wanted an all-black Olympic team that year and that cash was paid by Taylor’s future pro handlers to the USA/ABF to ensure that Taylor wound up on the Olympic team.

Boxing Notes

Mando Ramos, 41, is doing fine after having received a pacemaker at Harbor Peninsula Hospital in San Pedro Monday. Ramos, one of the Olympic Auditorium’s all-time box office champions, was 20 when he won the world lightweight title in 1969.

Michael Carbajal, the light-flyweight from Phoenix who won a silver medal at the Seoul Olympics, pulled out of his Sunday fight with Brazil’s Claudemir Diaz after spraining an ankle. Carbajal, 13-0, decided not to risk further injury, since he is signed to challenge Thailand’s Muangchai Kittikasem for the International Boxing Federation junior-flyweight championship Sept. 2 in Atlantic City.