Designs on a Title : Liles Staying Course to Eventual Bout With Nunn, With Whom He Often Is Compared

Frank Liles has studied architecture at Syracuse University. He hopes one day to make a career of designing things. But in the meantime, he hopes to make truckloads of money by redesigning things.

Like faces.

Liles, a middleweight boxer who left the famed Kronk Gym in Detroit and recently signed a contract with the Ten Goose Boxing Club of Van Nuys, might not be far from his immediate goal. A brilliant defensive fighter with a knack for evading punches, he has piled up a 17-0 record with 11 knockouts. In the vast majority of his bouts his opponents have not so much as landed a clean blow.

Last month in Las Vegas he knocked out a decent fighter by the name of L. J. Canty in the fourth round. Neither of Canty’s gloves even grazed Liles’ face. It was not an unusual occurrence for the 6-foot-2 Liles, who worked with and became close friends with five-time world champion Thomas Hearns during his 2 1/2 years at the Kronk Gym.

The left-handed Liles’ style and speed in the ring have brought steady comparisons to a former Ten Goose fighter, Michael Nunn, now the International Boxing Federation middleweight champion.

“Long before I came out here people said that about me,” said Liles, 26, who will shoot for his 18th victory Tuesday night at the Country Club in Reseda against an opponent to be named.

“Anyone who watched me fight in the past few years mentions it. Michael and I are identical in size and we have a lot of the same moves and we’re both left-handers. I guess we do have similar styles.”

A sterling 285-14 amateur record and the ease with which Liles has dispatched all 17 of his professional opponents makes some observers believe that Liles also has as much natural talent as Nunn. Some think that Liles might be even better than the unbeaten Nunn.

One who thinks that is Joe Goossen, Nunn’s former trainer who now is working extensively with Liles.

“Anyone who watched Frank in Las Vegas last month had to be impressed,” said Goossen, whose brother, Dan, is Liles’ new manager. “Anybody who knows even a little about boxing can see the talent in this kid.”

Nunn will fight in June in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa, against Anthony Toney. Goossen said that fight will be a strong indication of just how Liles might stack up against top competition because Liles and Toney sparred earlier this year and . . .

“Let’s just way Frank did real well . . . real well against Toney,” Goossen said, smiling.

Goossen’s confidence in Liles goes beyond that, however.

“Frank’s hand speed is just as good as Nunn’s, and he is a more accurate puncher than Nunn,” he said. “Frank also has a better right hand. Nunn has that great left hand, and we’re working with Frank on developing his better, especially to the body. But his right hand is definitely a better weapon right now than Nunn’s right hand.

“Frank Liles could beat any of the top 10 middleweights right now if he just wanted to box and win a decision. Right now, he could fight Nunn on even terms. No question in my mind. He’s three years younger than Nunn and better conditioned, and Frank is hungrier than Nunn.”

In the meantime, Goossen wants to bring Liles into fights with other ranked middleweights such as Doug DeWitt and Donald Curry. And against World Boxing Council middleweight champion Julian Jackson, Goossen said Liles might throw a no-hitter.

“I honestly don’t think Jackson would be able to hit Frank Liles,” Goossen said.

Nunn, who still lives in Agoura Hills, left the Goossens last year for reasons he has never explained. The Goossens had nurtured Nunn for several years, bringing him along slowly, then putting him into million-dollar fights. At that point, Nunn departed.

There is no doubt that Joe Goossen would love nothing more than to bring a fighter like Liles into the ring against Nunn.

“Frank has the same uncanny ability to evade and duck punches long before they arrive that Nunn showed,” Goossen said. “And, he’s a much better counterpuncher than Nunn ever was. I’d love to see that fight.”

If it happens, however, it probably would not be for a year or more. In the meantime, Liles knows he must keep winning against lesser opponents. At 26, Liles has come to understand how the game works.

“I get along so well with Dan and Joe, and I really like them,” Liles said. “But I also know that I am here right now because of my boxing abilities, not because of me as a person. If I lose a few fights, I’m out of here. That’s the business. And that’s how it should be.”

It is a lesson he said he learned during his stay at the Kronk Gym, after gym mentor and Hearns trainer Emanuel Steward made lots of promises that Liles said Steward did not keep. Liles finally left Steward and Kronk because he was seldom fighting, once going more than six months without a bout.

“I was upset and frustrated,” Liles said. “During the part of my career when I should have been fighting very frequently, I was hardly fighting at all. They deceived me. My manager told me about the Goossens and I had a few conversations with Dan and decided this was my best move.”

Not everything went smoothly at first. There was instant friction between Joe Goossen and Liles as Goossen tried to mold Liles into the regimented program followed by all Ten Goose boxers. Liles told Goossen to get off his back.

“After a few weeks I had to tell Joe how I felt,” Liles said. “We had to start communicating. So I told him that I am 26 years old, not a kid, and I had been on my own for a long time and learned to be very independent. But I also told him I was responsible, that I knew how to handle myself. I don’t think Joe was used to dealing with someone like me, someone who had already learned how to take care of himself and who felt independent.”

Goossen, as you might guess, has a different view.

“At the Kronk Gym, they ignored him,” Goossen said. “Frank had to learn to be independent because no one cared about him. When he came with us, all of a sudden he had people who really cared, cared about everything he did because we think he’s important. Frank had to adjust to that, to someone keeping an eye on everything he did. Believe me, I haven’t changed anything I’m doing. Frank has learned to blend in and become part of the system here instead of bucking my system. I guarantee it will pay off for him.”

Liles hopes so. But he also has other plans tucked away.

“I always loved boxing just for the sport,” he said. “When I turned pro, that changed. It became a business and it is not as much fun. There is too much pressure, pressure to win, pressure to look good while you win, the pressure of knowing that if you lose a fight or two, there isn’t really much of a future in the sport any more. So I will put everything I have into it, absolutely everything. And I think some day I’ll be a world champion and then I can take care of my family financially and take care of myself.

“And then, I’ll get out. I won’t fight for more than six more years, whatever happens. I never got my thrills in boxing from the roar of the crowd. My thrills came from within myself. I don’t need the glory. I honestly don’t.”

A return to college is planned. And a career, he said, in architecture.

“I like to envision things and create things,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid, I liked to make things.”

Liles and the Goossens hope, however, that for the next few years he can concentrate on making other boxers groggy.