Shields Outlasts Baynes to Win Comeback Fight

When a boxer has not fought in nearly eight years and insists upon making a comeback, he looks for an opponent that closely resembles a punching bag.

Randy Shields, once one of the premier welterweights in the world, thought he had found such a man in Stewart Baynes of Los Angeles. Baynes had all the credentials, most notably a 9-11 record.

But Shields, whose last previous fight was in 1983, had forgotten what such a long retirement does to a boxer.

On Tuesday night at the Country Club in Reseda in his first comeback bout, Shields, of North Hollywood, won a unanimous 10-round decision over Baynes. But he was stretched to the limit in doing so.

After nearly knocking Baynes out in the second round with blistering, jarring combinations, Shields took a beating in the fourth round of the junior middleweight bout as Baynes hammered him for three minutes. Shields sagged against the ropes.

But Shields, who fought the best welterweights in the world on fairly even terms during the 1970s and early 1980s, showed his toughness by regaining control of the bout in the fifth round.

The judges had Shields winning by scores of 97-93, 98-92 and 99-90.

Shields is 42-9-1.

In the co-main event, former North American Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Orlin Norris was knocked down in the fifth round by journeyman Greg Gorrell before he stopped Gorrell in the eighth round of the scheduled 10-round bout.

Gorrell, who has fought mostly as a light heavyweight and a cruiserweight, weighed a flabby 197 pounds. Norris, ranked 13th by the World Boxing Council, weighed 221.

After being pounded for four rounds, Gorrell shocked Norris with a heavy right hand late in the fifth round and Norris crumpled to the mat. He was up quickly, however, and in the eighth he battered Gorrell from the opening bell. Referee Lou Fillipo stopped the fight just 36 seconds into the round.

Norris, of Campo, Calif., is 24-2 with 11 knockouts. Gorrell, of Wichita, Kan., is 23-10.

In an earlier bout, Joey DeGrandis, a two-time Golden Gloves champion from Boston who fights out of the Ten Goose Gym in Van Nuys, pounded out an easy, unanimous decision over Fred Thomas of Los Angeles in a four-round bout.

DeGrandis, 166, unleashed a relentless body attack to pile up points and hurt Thomas, 165, inthe third and fourth rounds. DeGrandis is 3-1. Thomas fell to 3-3.