Tyrone Frazier Sees That He Is Underdog

There’s a party planned on Long Island this weekend, and it goes on rain or shine, win or lose.

The friends and relatives of Tyrone Frazier (nee Mitchell) will turn out at the Wyandanch Community Center Saturday to watch their neighbor fight Virgil Hill in Bismarck, N.D., for the world light heavyweight title. They will see more than just a local kid get the chance of a lifetime. They also will see a young man who has battled back from the threat of a prizefighter’s worst fear: blindness.

“Three months ago, my vision was just about gone,” Frazier said. “I thought it was all over, I really did.”

Frazier, 27, had fallen victim to a torn retina in his right eye, an injury he believes he had for more than two years.

“For years, I could see out of my eye, but it was like looking through a dirty window,” Frazier said. “I always had a lot of floaters in my eye, too. Sometimes I would see what I thought was someone in the corner of my eye, but no one would be there. But I always passed my eye tests in New Jersey and New York, so I thought nothing serious was wrong.”

But in February, just before he was scheduled to fight Hill, Frazier’s vision drastically deteriorated. He had a perpetual shadow in the corner of his eye, and he began getting headaches. An examination revealed the torn retina. The fight was postponed, of course, and Frazier underwent conventional surgery -- no laser for this one -- to try to correct the injury. Two weeks of inactivity followed, and then slowly, Frazier (17-1-3, 9 KOs) began to work his body back into shape.

“I got massively fat, 202 pounds,” he said. “But I was just happy to be able to fight again.”

Now, he says his vision is 20-30 uncorrected. But it will take more than good vision to beat Hill (27-0, 11 KOs), a slick fighter who showed some punch in his one-round KO over James Kinchen last year. Plus, Bismarck is Hill’s hometown, so there will be no breaks from the crowd or the judges.

“I know I got to knock this guy out, and that’s what I’m going to do,” Frazier said. “He doesn’t have the best chin in the business.”

Chin and heart are two of Frazier’s main attributes. A standout guard on the championship Wyandanch basketball teams of the early 1980s, Frazier -- a distant relative of Smokin’ Joe,now his manager -- took up boxing in his early 20s. He moved to Philadelphia to train with Uncle Smoke, but still calls himself “The Wyandanch Warrior.” He started as a middleweight, but his muscular frame rebelled at making 160 pounds. He moved up to 168 and suffered a loss to Tony Thornton, and then settled for a draw against Vincent Boulware that was almost criminal. Now training under Marvis Frazier, Tyrone feels comfortable at 175.

“I’ve had four fights at light heavyweight and no one’s come close to beating me yet,” he said.

The odds will be against him -- Hill is an out-bet with the Vegas bookmakers -- but Tyrone Frazier has beaten bigger odds just to get here. And, he believes he has it in him to beat the odds one more time.

“My secret weapon is Hill can be hit with overhand rights,” he said. “I can launch that like a torpedo.”

A torpedo whose effects will be felt all the way back home.

A Marvelous performance: So now we know why Marvin Hagler spurned Sugar Ray Leonard, why he walked away from all that money and a chance for sweet revenge. The reason is called “Indio,” and it’s in a video shop near you.

There was buzzing a few weeks ago that Hagler, now an actor living in Milan, Italy, would succumb to temptation and end his three-year retirement to fight Leonard, who dealt Marvelous that controversial defeat in Las Vegas on April 6, 1987. There was even a meeting in Brockton, Mass., between Hagler and his managers, Pat and Goody Petronelli, to discuss that very topic. But in the end, Hagler decided to fly back to Italy and leave boxing behind.

The reason is that Hagler, 36, has found the better way. “Indio” was his first starring role -- he gets top billing over Brian Dennehy and the real star of the film, Francesco Quinn -- and in 94 minutes, he never even has to throw a punch. Heck, he never even makes a fist. As Sgt. Iron, he does get to strip his shirt off in two scenes, and looks fit enough to fight tomorrow.

How’s his acting? Well, he is no Lou Gossett. He’s not even Jim Brown, not yet, anyway. But he’s not bad, and he’s a lot better than Bob Arum, his former promoter who made his acting debut 15 years ago playing a drug agent gone wrong in a low-budget stinker, “The Marijuana Affair.”

At one point in the film, art imitates life when Dennehy -- who plays a villain you just know is going to lose in the end because he wears a Yankees cap -- says to Hagler, “Have it your way. You’re throwing away a lot of money.”

You could almost hear Arum and the Petronellis saying the same thing. But in the film -- and in real life -- Hagler just shrugs his shoulders and walks away, smiling. Maybe he has had the last laugh, after all.

A weight-and-see attitude: While Hagler has found peace, the other two members of the trio that dominated the middleweight division over the last decade, Leonard and Thomas Hearns, insist on fighting on. But not against each other.

Unable to reach an agreement on weight, Leonard and Hearns are expected to embark on “world tours,” Leonard fighting the likes of Carlos Elliott and other European middleweights, Hearns going after the same ilk at 168 pounds.

A point to ponder: One of Leonard’s stops is expected to be Italy. Might he try one more time to coax Sgt. Iron back into his battle fatigues?

Around the ring: Get ready to play remote-control roulette this weekend. On Sunday, CBS has Riddick Bowe-Art Tucker, NBC has the rematch between Jorge Paez and Troy Dorsey for Paez’ IBF junior lightweight title and ABC has Mark Breland-Aaron Davis for Breland’s WBA welterweight title.

George Foreman is said to be holding out to fight Francesco Damiani for the WBO title on that proposed Sept. 21 Trump Plaza doubleheader with Mike Tyson-Alex Stewart. Unless HBO -- or Don King -- withdraws its objection to Damiani, it is unlikely Foreman and Tyson will share that double bill, saving Trump a chunk of cash but probably killing a lot of interest.

Meanwhile, Tyson-Stewart is not set, either.

Foreman will take Ken Lakusta as an appetizer July 31 in Edmonton, on USA Network.

Mitch “Blood” Green is a late scratch for Tuesday night’s USA show. Green was supposed to fight journeyman Mike Cohen in his first fight since losing to Mike Tyson more than four years ago, but new business adviser Roy Innis wants Green to free himself of his various business entanglements first and start his comeback in September.