BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : A No-Man Would Enhance Tyson’s Entourage

In the summer of 1988, a couple of reporters in Atlantic City, N.J., sneaked into Mike Tyson’s last sparring session before his 91-second fight against Michael Spinks.

Officially, Tyson’s workouts were closed to the media. But a rear door was unattended, and the two reporters sat in chairs at a discreet distance from the ring, where Tyson was beating up a $1,000-a-week sparring partner.

As was his custom, Tyson was wearing the scaled-down headgear amateurs use in international competition, as opposed to the traditional, more heavily padded gym headgear. In the first few years of his career, Tyson would sometimes spar without any headgear.

Kevin Rooney, Tyson’s trainer at the time, was asked that afternoon if Tyson wasn’t putting a $50-million fight at risk with such skimpy protection against a training cut.

“Mike just don’t cut, and he don’t like the big headgear,” Rooney said. “In fact, he don’t like any headgear. He thinks headgear defeats the purpose of sparrin’ . . . like, if the other guy’s punches ain’t hurtin’ you, what’s the point?”

You would think that a pro who has been boxing half his life would have pondered the odds of a serious gym cut occurring at some time during his career if he used improper headgear. But let’s give fighters the benefit of the doubt, because as a group they are generally not considered to be excessively smart.

The point is, Tyson has had two trainers who did not insist on his using the big headgear and that’s inexcusable. The result is that the inevitable has occurred. Tyson and sparring mate Greg Page hit each other with their heads a week ago, Page opening a 48-stitch cut over Tyson’s right eye. It forced a postponement of his Sept. 22 fight against Alex Stewart until Dec. 8.

Rooney never seemed to be bothered by the risk of this happening, nor apparently was Tyson’s new trainer, Richie Giachetti. There was no way to ask Giachetti about this because Tyson prohibits his speaking with reporters.

So, this question arises: Does Tyson also prohibit his trainer from speaking to him? Are trainers of big-money fighters today making so much money, they’re afraid to open their mouths, reluctant to lay down the law? Remember, a trainer pulling down a standard 10% of a fighter’s $10-million purse is looking at $1 million.

He should risk that kind of money simply to sound off like a drill sergeant?

When Tyson desperately needed corner help in Tokyo last February, as Buster Douglas was relieving him of the heavyweight championship, there was no one home in Tyson’s corner. Just a bunch of yes-men.

With Tyson’s eye swollen shut, we were treated to the spectacle of the heavyweight champion’s cornermen not only lacking ice but also end-swell--a flat piece of stainless steel, kept frozen, which is applied to facial swellings.

The effort of Tyson’s cornermen that afternoon in Tokyo should go down as the worst sports foul-up of 1990. Even at amateur boxing tournaments, there’s ice in the corners.

Now, the former champion is temporarily sidelined on the road back to the championship. Tyson didn’t want to fire his Tokyo cornermen, so his promoter, Don King, did. It appears that King and his pugilist need to have another long talk.

Rafael Ruelas, the unbeaten Ten Goose Boxing junior lightweight, has secured an important appointment: a televised bout on the Sept. 22 Tony Lopez-Jorge Paez NBC card in Sacramento. Ruelas (20-0) will fight veteran Mexican lightweight Felipe deJesus in a 10-rounder. Ruelas’ manager, Dan Goossen, is bragging a bit over this one.

“It’s a great opportunity for Rafael,” Goossen said. “Network TV dates this late in the year aren’t easy to come by, and this one will be the top-rated TV boxing show of 1990.”

Arco Arena officials are saying they have a shot at a 17,000-seat sellout for Lopez-Paez, with more than 10,000 tickets sold.

The word late Friday was that Julio Cesar Chavez’s Sept. 22 fight against South Korean Ahn Kyung Duk, which was to have been part of the Tyson-Stewart undercard in Atlantic City, will be moved. A King spokesman said the fight will be shipped to Chicago, Las Vegas or the Forum.

The Forum boxing staff is talking with King about taking on Chavez-Ahn, but it doesn’t want it too close to its Oct. 8 Paul Banke-Daniel Zaragoza III bout.

King doesn’t want Chavez headlining an Atlantic City card. Last time that was tried, he sold fewer than 2,000 tickets.

Boxing Notes

The Oct. 18 Michael Nunn-Donald Curry middleweight title fight in Paris won’t be televised live on Showtime but will instead be a five-hour delayed telecast. . . . Julian Jackson will meet Herol Graham of England in Monte Carlo on Oct. 13 for the vacant World Boxing Council middleweight championship. On the same day, Azumah Nelson and Juan LaPorte will fight in Sydney, with the winner meeting Australian Jeff Fenech in early 1991. . . . That “Only in America” ad Don King placed in The Times and the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Amsterdam News of New York cost him well over $225,000, based on prevailing display advertising rates.

John Reetz, manager of former middleweight champion Iran Barkley, plans to follow through with his protest of referee Carlos Padilla’s work in last month’s Barkley-Nigel Benn Las Vegas fight. It appeared to many that Benn twice fouled Barkley in the first round, but Padilla awarded Benn a one-round TKO. “I’m not saying Padilla should have disqualified Benn, but he certainly should have given Iran a rest period to recover from the fouls,” Reetz said. “The Nevada commission is telling me it was a referee’s judgment call and it will stand. I can live with that, but I don’t want it swept under the rug. I want a full hearing, and so does Iran.” There will be no hearing, said the commission’s executive director, Chuck Minker, who would not comment on Padilla’s work.

If WBC super-bantamweight champion Paul Banke defeats Daniel Zaragoza on Oct. 8 in their third fight, Banke might fight WBC bantamweight champion Raul Perez of Tijuana next. . . . The chances for a Thomas Hearns-Virgil Hill early-1991 showdown for Hill’s World Boxing Assn. light-heavyweight title are growing, sources say.