BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Gray Resigns as Head of Athletic Commission

Ken Gray, chief regulator for professional boxing in California the last six years, startled those attending a state Athletic Commission meeting Friday by announcing his retirement.

Gray, 59, was well into describing to commission members budgetary problems facing the commission’s staff, explaining that budget cuts could result in personnel layoffs.

Then, midway through the 4 1/2-hour meeting, he said, “ . . . I can alleviate some of that because I intend to exercise my retirement (benefits) in July.”

Charles Westlund, chairman of the commission, said the eight-member commission would begin a selection process to find Gray’s successor as the commission’s chief executive officer.

Gray is a 32-year state employee who has served 18 years with the commission staff. He was appointed executive officer in 1985.

One commissioner, Jerry Nathanson, has questioned not only Gray’s leadership of the commission staff, but has cited alleged budget irregularities and asked for justification of state-paid travel.

Nathanson, in fact, had attempted unsuccessfully to place a letter he had written to Gray containing the allegations on Friday’s agenda.

But early in Friday’s meeting, chairman Westlund pushed the issue aside, saying that answering Nathanson’s questions would “require a considerable amount of Mr. Gray’s time and his main responsibility is seeing to the health and safety of boxers in California.”

Westlund then said he would appoint a committee of commissioners to examine issues raised in the Nathanson letter. The commission will not meet again until May 17.

Afterward, Gray said that only two people knew beforehand of his plan to retire, his wife and commission staff secretary Angie Zamora. He also said he wanted to discuss publicly the charges in the Nathanson letter.

“I can’t comment--I want to, but (the commissioners) won’t let me,” he said.

Gray said he expected to discuss the letter at the meeting May 17.

Immediate speculation on Gray’s successor centered on the commission’s No. 2 man, Steve English, assistant executive officer in charge of the Los Angeles office, and Don Muse, a Washington state boxing administrator who was briefly California assistant executive officer until he resigned last year. One source close to the commission suggested that commissioner Raoul Silva of Garden Grove might be a candidate, since his commission term expires later this year.

In another commission move Friday, former heavyweight champion Tony Tucker was all but exonerated by the commission after testing positive for marijuana following his one-round knockout of Lionel Washington at the Forum Jan. 28.

Tucker, who was present Friday, denied smoking marijuana before the Washington fight, but said he did attend a party where marijuana had been smoked “and I may have inhaled the smoke and eaten food that was laced with marijuana.”

Testifying for Tucker was state ringside physician Robert Karns, who said the amount of marijuana found in Tucker’s urine was “minuscule.”

Further, Karns said Tucker has been voluntarily tested three times since the Washington fight and been found clean each time.

“It would serve no purpose to set (Tucker) down for a longer period than he’s already been suspended, because he’s clean now and has offered to submit to random testing at his expense,” Karns said.

Tucker, 32, was automatically suspended for 60 days and fined $500 when he tested positive. Friday, the commission voted unanimously, on a motion by commissioner Robert Wilson, to define Tucker’s suspension as 60 days starting Jan. 28 but not to rescind the fine.

Later in the meeting, the commission was told the state auditor general’s office is investigating the state’s boxer pension plan.

Jorge Paez, the colorful Mexicali circus clown and boxer, finds himself in a power struggle this week between one pay-per-view boxing powerhouse, the Duva-Arum-HBO group, and the newcomer on the block, the Forum.

The Forum wants Paez, who has clowned in his parents’ circus when not preparing to defend his International Boxing Federation featherweight championship, to fight on the undercard of its June 3 Thomas Hearns-Virgil Hill pay-per-view fight at Caesars Palace.

But Time Warner Sports, which has formed a pay-per-view boxing network called TVKO with the Duvas and Bob Arum as partners, wants him to fight Lupe Suarez April 19 on their Evander Holyfield-George Foreman show.

It’s not likely he would do both, so his manager, Nacho Huizar, feels like a man on a tightrope. Huizar also revealed that Paez officially relinquished his IBF featherweight title Thursday because he can’t make the weight.

“I want to do what’s right for the Forum, because they’ve been awfully good to not only Jorge, but my other fighters, too,” said Huizar, who also manages former bantamweight champion Raul Perez, among others.

“We haven’t signed anything,” Huizar said. “But I told the Duvas Jorge would fight for them on April 19 only if he is guaranteed a title shot with Pernell Whitaker if he beats Suarez.”

Does TVKO really need Paez on the card to hit a home run with Holyfield-Foreman? Or is Time Warner executing a small power play here, trying to dampen Jerry Buss’ plans to get into the big-time boxing pay-per-view market?

The talk in Las Vegas is that if Julio Cesar Chavez tries to walk away from his three-year, $15-million contract with Bob Arum and sign with rival promoter Don King, Arum will be an off-the-board favorite in a Las Vegas courtroom.

Says a longtime Las Vegas boxing observer: “There’s no way Arum would lose in a suit against Don King in a Las Vegas trial. Arum is an economic force in the city. He contributes to all the right charities. He’s Mr. Solid Citizen.”

Arum signed Chavez in December, and gave the Mexican champion a $300,000 bonus. But Chavez, who will fight on King’s Mike Tyson-Razor Ruddock undercard Monday in a previously agreed-to bout, has told friends he has changed his mind, will give Arum back the $300,000 and re-sign with King.

Arum says he is waiting to see what happens after Monday.

Add Arum: USA Today reported Wednesday that Arum told suspended and fined boxer Greg Haugen that if he signed a new deal with Arum, punishment meted out by the Nevada Athletic Commission for the fighter’s recent marijuana rap would be lessened.

“Absolutely untrue,” Arum said. “I have not even talked to the kid . . . about anything.”

Boxing Notes

Southland national amateur champions Oscar de la Hoya, Pepe Reilly and John Bray are training at Colorado Springs this week, hoping to make the U.S. team that will fight the Soviet Union April 2 in Rapid City, S.D. . . . A rematch of the Feb. 23 Greg Haugen-Hector Camacho bout was ordered after Haugen, who won, later tested positive for marijuana. Haugen-Camacho II might be held May 13 in Las Vegas or Reno.

Former welterweight champion Carlos Palomino will preview his new film, “Fists of Steel,” at Eddie Hopper Chevrolet in Garden Grove at noon today. Palomino will also make an anti-drug presentation to youth groups.