Bray Beats Alvarez to the Punch Once Again

John Bray of Van Nuys, the newly crowned national amateur heavyweight boxing champion, would like to say thank-you. He would like to thank the sparring partners who helped work him into great shape. He would like to thank Dan Goossen, head of the Van Nuys-based Ten Goose Boxing Club, for giving him a gym to work out in. And he would like to thank Joe Goossen, who has helped to train him.

But most of all, Bray wants to thank Javier Alvarez of San Antonio, Tex., the man he pummeled to win the title.

Bray, 20, won the heavyweight division in the U. S. Amateur Boxing Championships on Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo., by beating Alvarez in the final on an easy decision. It was not the first time Bray had whipped Alvarez. Or the second.

“Alvarez beat me in the 1989 national amateur championships, but then I beat him the same year in the Olympic Sports Festival and the World Boxoff,” Bray said. “This makes the third time. It is kind of helpful having him as an amateur.”

It also would be helpful, Bray noted, to fight without sneezing. Trailing behind him as he returned from Colorado was an overpowering fragrance. It was, he said, a combination of Ben Gay and cough drops.

“It was kind of funny,” Bray said. “Throughout the tournament I had a bad cold and also a hyperextended right elbow. I felt horrible. I really was sick as a dog, but this was too important not to fight.”

Bray has been ranked first among heavyweights by the U. S. Amateur Boxing Federation at other times in his career. But his victory Saturday gave him, for the first time, the official title as national champion.

He will carry that title this spring when he participates in tournaments in Germany and the Soviet Union in preparation for the 1992 Olympics.