BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Not Even Leonard’s Courage Was Enough

In the final rounds of his career last Saturday night, the only weapon in Sugar Ray Leonard’s arsenal that hadn’t deserted him was his courage.

In Rounds 10, 11 and 12, Terry Norris hit Leonard almost at will, albeit a bit cautiously, ever mindful that the swollen-faced, once-great fighter could still knock him out with one punch.

The Madison Square Garden crowd fell largely silent, as Leonard took a beating. In the opening rounds, Leonard couldn’t finish a combination. By the late rounds, he couldn’t start one. His feet were out of sync, his punches that did land had no effect and he wasn’t slipping punches.

In the 10th round, he threw three punches over the last 30 seconds, when Norris had stepped up the pace. In the middle of the 11th, Norris threw 31 unanswered punches.

Why? What was achieved? Why didn’t his loyal corner men stop it? Afterward, the question was put to his longtime aide, Ollie Dunlop.

“He was OK,” Dunlop said. “I could see Ray’s eyes. They were clear.”

Wonderful.

The one element in a great boxing match that no other sport can provide so clearly is courage. When two great athletes are matched on roughly even terms, one fighter’s superior bravery under fire is often enough to turn the tide. It is possibly that facet of boxing, more than any other, that explains why people enjoy watching men fight.

Leonard showed it in abundance on the greatest night of his career, April 6, 1987--the night he beat Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Several times that night, Hagler had Leonard in serious difficulty and each time Leonard bravely fought on. His courage pulled him through every crisis until he found a way to win.

In the fifth round that night, Hagler snapped Leonard’s head back and buckled his knees with an uppercut. How easy it would have been to pack it in at that point.

But he didn’t. He found a way to win.

Late that night, Pat Putnam, Sports Illustrated’s longtime boxing writer, said of Leonard’s courage: “If you could cut Ray Leonard’s heart up into little pieces, you could supply the entire First Marine Division.”

Unfortunately, courage is the last weapon a once-great champion needs when he is taking a beating.

On his final night under the hot lights, many at ringside cursed silently the courage that had fueled great victories so long ago, but was now serving only to provide his young opponent an upright target.

Michael Nunn, the Agoura Hills middleweight champion, is determined to defend his title in his home state, Iowa. Spurned by the University of Iowa when he asked for a one-night rental of its basketball arena, Nunn’s lawyer is now trying to put together a fight May 10 in a minor league ballpark in Davenport, Nunn’s hometown.

Ron May, Nunn’s lawyer, is trying to match Nunn with James Toney (21-0-1) of Detroit in 9,000-seat John O’Donnell Stadium, home of the Angels’ Class-A club in the Midwest League, the Quad City Angels.

The Forum will announce its biggest fight promotion ever Thursday, Virgil Hill vs. Thomas Hearns at Las Vegas. It will also announce a new date for the fight: Monday, June 3.

The Forum boxing staff originally wanted a Monday Las Vegas date in May or June, since Monday seems to be the most lucrative pay-per-view day of the week. But no Monday was available.

Then, after agreeing on Friday, May 17, with the host, Caesars Palace, a Monday opened and the fight was rescheduled.

As the feud between Ten Goose Boxing chief Dan Goossen and Forum matchmaker Tony Curtis continues, there are reports that someone else is unhappy with Curtis.

It seems that Kronk Boxing Team founder Emanuel Steward of Detroit is unhappy with Curtis, too. Curtis, Steward says, won’t use his fighters at the Forum.

“I don’t know what the problem is,” Steward said. “I’ve asked Tony for a year for dates for Jamal Hinton (Kronk’s promising bantamweight) and he keeps putting me off. I even offered to pay the purses for both fighters and to pay our own air fare.”

Curtis’ version: “Sure, Manny offered to do all of that. One problem, as I keep telling him: We pick the opponent, not Manny.”

Leonard’s retirement also concludes boxing’s most successful business relationship, Leonard and his longtime lawyer-manager, Mike Trainer. Leonard, largely because he rode out the occasional squabbles all fighters and managers have and stuck with Trainer, earned considerably more than $100 million in his career.

And much of that, Trainer is quick to point out, is still in Leonard’s bank account.

Trainer, by the way, says pro boxing, like the rest of the economy, is in a recession.

“The double-digit site fee is gone for a significant period of time,” he said last week, referring to the difficulty Donald Trump had in coming up with the $12 million he owed the promoters for obtaining the Evander Holyfield-George Foreman fight April 19.

“Shows are closing on Broadway, newspaper space is shrinking and boxing is getting hit like everything else,” he said. “The days when a newspaper would send a boxing writer to a big fight two weeks ahead of time are gone. Hey, even the networks can’t sell fights now.”

Tony Tucker, the onetime IBF heavyweight champion who tested positive for a small amount of marijuana after his recent Forum victory over Lionel Washington, also flunked his backup test.

Tucker later voluntarily reported to California Athletic Commission physician Bob Karns for a third test, tested clean, and Karns said he would testify on Tucker’s behalf before the commission.

Placed on indefinite suspension when he tested positive, Tucker must appear at the next commission meeting, in Sacramento March 15, to show cause why he shouldn’t be permanently suspended.

Tucker’s promoter, Ed Bell, explained Tucker’s positive drug test this way: “Part of the problem is that Tony’s been eating too many salads lately.”

Boxing Notes

Nori Takatani’s junior-lightweight, Genaro Hernandez, who improved to 23-0 when he beat Pedro Arroyo at the Forum Monday on a disqualification, also moved onto the disabled list. Hernandez broke a bone in his right wrist in the fight and will have surgery Tuesday that will put him out of action for at least two months. Next summer, Takatani wants to match Hernandez with junior-lightweight champion Azumah Nelson.

The Madison Square Garden boxing staff will hold a luncheon March 8 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of a Garden classic, the first fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Also on that date, a good heavyweight matchup in Atlantic City on pay per view: Tim Witherspoon vs. Carl Williams.

Terry Norris, recalling the night in San Diego he and his brother, heavyweight Orlin Norris, watched the 1987 bout between Leonard and Marvin Hagler: “It was the most exciting fight I’d ever seen. I’d just started my pro career then, and I never thought I’d get a chance to box at that level. So when Ray tapped me as an opponent, I remembered that night he fought Hagler.”