BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Forum Bout Evokes Tyson-Douglas

It was the Forum, not the Tokyo Dome, and it was the night of Dec. 19, not the afternoon of Feb. 11.

Nevertheless, flashbacks from the Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson bout came to mind during the third round of Wednesday night’s light-flyweight bout between Mexico’s Humberto Gonzalez and Rolando Pascua of the Philippines.

The fight was similar to the Douglas-Tyson shocker, when an unafraid boxer/puncher, Douglas, first outboxed then knocked out an unbeaten slugger who was champion, Tyson.

This time, you had Gonzalez, a 5-foot-1, 108-pound unbeaten champion with a Tysonesque knockout record--23 in his 29-0 career. Pascua, who had never fought in the United States, was 24-5 with only eight knockouts.

Gonzalez was said to be looking at a million-dollar payday down the road, against another unbeaten light-flyweight, Michael Carbajal. All he had to do was beat the little-known Pascua.

Remember, all Tyson, a 42-1 favorite, had to do to earn a $20-million payday against unbeaten Evander Holyfield was beat Douglas.

And so by the third round Wednesday, when Pascua hadn’t retreated a step in the face of Gonzalez’s pressure, and when Gonzalez began bleeding badly from an accidental butt-caused cut over his left eye, images of Tokyo came flickering back.

Gonzalez was greatly bothered by his bleeding brow, pawing constantly at the wound. He also picked up the pace of his big punches, apparently fearful the fight would be stopped. When Pascua suddenly finished him off in the sixth round, Gonzalez was beginning to appear exhausted.

Remember also: Tyson, too, was hindered against Douglas by an eye injury. By the time he was knocked out, his left eye was swollen shut.

Really, the only important difference in this fight besides the money at stake and the size of the participants, is that there was no evidence Gonzalez came to battle overconfident and out of shape, as Tyson had.

Yet Gonzalez, like Tyson, was counted out. It rates as boxing’s biggest upset since Douglas-Tyson. At the Forum late Wednesday night, as had Don King and Dan Duva 10 months ago in Japan, disbelieving promoters wore long faces.

“We watched one tape of him,” Forum matchmaker Tony Curtis said of Pascua. “He looked like a good boxer, but we didn’t think he could punch worth a damn.”

Pascua, whose real name is Rolando Tomondong--in the Philippines, it is customary for a boxer to fight under the name of his manager--has been the toast of the Southland’s Filipino community since Wednesday night. Friday, he met with the consul-general of the Philippines in Los Angeles.

His conquest of Gonzalez was the sports story of the year in the Philippines, according to his U.S. agent, Pol Tiglao of Los Angeles.

“It was a very big story, and our phone still hasn’t stopped ringing from Filipino sportswriters,” Tiglao said. “Everyone wants interviews. When he flies home on Christmas Eve, he will have a huge welcome in Manila.”

Tiglao sees Pascua’s upset as a great event for Asian boxing, too.

“South Korean and Japanese boxers don’t do very well when they fight in the States, so maybe this will make up for some of that,” he said.

Meanwhile, plans are under way for Pascua to defend his championship at the Forum Feb. 17 against Hector Patri of Argentina. After that, there could be a May rematch against Gonzalez. And for that, one thing is certain--Pascua won’t be fighting for $6,500, his purse Wednesday night.

On Thursday, creative publicity people in Don King’s New York office and folks at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas were whispering to the media that the long-awaited rematch between Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor would occur Feb. 2 at the Mirage.

Hey, wait a minute. What about Jan. 19? Didn’t Taylor sign with HBO to fight Aaron Davis then? Are they saying Taylor will take on Chavez with two weeks’ rest?

“I think,” said Dan Duva, Taylor’s promoter, “that Don King is losing his mind.”

Duva said Chavez-Taylor II will almost certainly happen in 1991, but definitely not Feb. 2. “If Taylor beats Davis, he would love to fight Julio again, but it won’t be Feb. 2,” Duva said. “King knew perfectly well we’d signed for the Davis fight. I have no idea why he announced the Feb. 2 thing.”

One reason might be that King is contractually required by Chavez’s people, they say, to provide a Taylor fight in the first quarter of 1991. If he doesn’t, they say, Chavez becomes a free agent.

That might explain the premature birth of Chavez-Taylor II. Whatever, the story flew pretty high--for about two hours.

It began to unravel when Mirage President Steve Wynn called Chavez’s attorney, Leon Pizante of Los Angeles, and congratulated him on coming to terms for a Feb. 2 Taylor fight at his hotel.

“What are you talking about?” the attorney responded.

Pizante said Chavez is eager for a Feb. 2 fight with Taylor, but King can’t deliver Taylor. Meanwhile, King announced Friday afternoon another fight--Chavez vs. Hector Camacho, on pay-per-view, at the Mirage, April 22.

This one doesn’t ring true, either. April 22 is three days after the Holyfield-George Foreman pay-per-view showdown in Atlantic City, N.J. What happens if Holyfield stops Foreman in a one-round stinker, and citizens are in an uproar over another pay-per-view mismatch?

Stay tuned.

Boxing Notes

Oscar de la Hoya of East Los Angeles, Shane Mosley of Pomona and John Bray of Van Nuys were selected this week to the USA Amateur Boxing Federation’s All-American team. . . . Hector Lopez of Glendale, who got all the way to a No. 1 ranking among world featherweights before drawing a prison term in 1989 for assault and kidnapping, expects to be released from prison in August or September, says his former trainer, Gordon Wheeler, who added: “Hector has stayed in good shape, weighs about 145 pounds and wants to fight at 135 when he gets out.” Lopez won an Olympic silver medal for Mexico in 1984 while a student at Glendale Hoover High.