BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Palomino Brings Class Act to Commission

This is America, after all, so it is only fair that one of the regulated can once in a while be one of the regulators.

And so it seemed altogether fitting last week that Gov. Pete Wilson appointed former world welterweight champion Carlos Palomino, 41, to the California Athletic Commission. Palomino was a late-1970s champion who became even more famous for his beer commercials a few years later.

Palomino’s has been a class act, all the way. He was a champion who defended his title seven times. And when Roberto Duran beat him in 1979, Palomino abruptly quit at 29. And he made it stick. No embarassing, degrading comebacks for this guy.

Here’s a man who came from the streets of Tijuana, where he sold chewing gum and newspapers. But he became a world champion and now takes his seat on the eight-member State Athletic Commission (if confirmed, as expected, by the State Senate).

Palomino says he has two areas of interest he will pursue as a commissioner.

“A big problem I see in boxing today is mismatches, and a lot of them involve kids from Mexico who’ve turned pro without any amateur experience,” he said.

“A lot of young American pros turn pro after anywhere from 30 to 100 amateur bouts, and they’ve had some instruction. When I see a kid from Mexico boxing here with a 4-11 record, I think maybe with better matchmaking he wouldn’t be 4-11.

“I’d like to try to do something about that, before some young kid gets hurt.”

Palomino also wants the California commission to run pro boxing in California, not any of the half-dozen or so “world governing bodies.”

“I can’t understand how these groups can come in here and insist on appointing judges and referees. . . . That’s preposterous,” he said.

“I think we should have a national governing body. Now, all the states have different rules, and these state commissions aren’t standing up to these foreign-based organizations. Boxing is the oldest sport in the world, and it’s going backwards.”

In 1958, Pablo Palomino thought his family of nine (later to be 13) was going backward, too.

In the Sonoran village of San Luis, the Palominos had it better than most. They had electricity in their house and Pablo owned his own truck, with which he eked out a living hauling cotton. But everywhere he looked, he saw no opportunity for himself and his children.

He looked north. He moved his family to Tijuana and sought legal U.S. immigration. Unexpectedly, the process took two years, and he had to hire a lawyer.

Pablo Palomino worked as a part-time auto mechanic, and he also pushed an ice cream cart.

And if between 1958 and 1960 you were stalled in U.S.-Mexico border traffic, you might have been approached by an urchin with dancing, coal-black eyes who offered bubble gum or a Mexican newspaper through your car window.

It was Carlos Palomino.

“It was really rough,” Palomino recalled. “Dad never thought it would take that long. All of us had to help out. I walked the streets shining shoes and selling gum and newspapers.”

The Palominos held together. They entered the United States legally and settled in Westminster. Carlos Palomino attended Westminster High and Orange Coast College and later became the first member of his family to graduate from college, at Cal State Long Beach.

He learned to box in the Army and had 35 amateur bouts when he turned pro in 1972. Training in Orange County gyms, he quickly built a 12-0 record at the Olympic Auditorium before he met his first tough opponent.

Against the advice of his trainer, Jackie McCoy, Palomino took a San Diego fight against an 18-0 fighter, Andy Price.

“I lost a split decision, but it taught me a good lesson,” he said. “I was exhausted in the late rounds, and the reason was I’d been sparring against 16-year-old amateurs in the gym. I wasn’t extending myself.

“So at the same time I was carrying 18 units at Orange Coast, I started driving to the Hoover Street Gym in L.A. every day for tougher sparring.

“What a tough gym! I’ll never forget the first day I walked in. I was scared to death. One tough guy looked me up and down, turned to the guy next to him and said: ‘New meat.’ ”

Much improved, Palomino put together 11 consecutive victories, including one over Hedgemon Lewis. In 1976 Palomino was matched in London with England’s world welterweight champion, John Stracey.

“Stracey’s people didn’t know much about me, no one did,” Palomino said. “But I’d seen film of him, and I knew I’d beat him.”

He defended his title seven times, losing it on a decision to Wilfred Benitez in 1979.

“Benitez didn’t have enough power to knock your hat off, but he was an absolutely brilliant defensive fighter,” Palomino said.

Then, one more fight: Duran.

“Jose Sulaiman (president of the World Boxing Council) told me it would be an elimination bout for a Benitez bout, but my attitude was I deserved a rematch. Why did I have to fight Duran?” Palomino said.

“Then, two days before I fought Duran (in New York), Benitez signed to fight Sugar Ray Leonard. I was completely discouraged. I decided right there Duran would be my last fight.”

Duran won a decision that night. He is still fighting. Palomino hung it up and misses only the paydays.

He is involved in a film project about a South African boxer. His acting career has moved at a slower pace than his boxing career did. But he retains his family’s unbreakable trait--optimism.

When asked if he’s had an acting job that paid as well as his biggest fights, he said: “Not yet.”

Of the Duran fight, he remembers being surprised that Duran’s power wasn’t as advertised.

“Duran didn’t hit as hard as some other welterweights I’d fought,” Palamino said. “When he moved up in weight, he lost a lot of his punch.

“The hardest puncher I ever faced was Armando Muniz. I fought him twice, and he had that stinging kind of power. He had short arms, and when he hit you, you’d go numb for a few seconds.”

Palomino earned $250,000 for the Duran fight, his biggest boxing purse. For beating Stracey three years earlier, he was paid $15,000.

A few years after his retirement, a promoter offered him $500,000 to fight Thomas Hearns. Palomino refused.

Said Palomino: “I told him: ‘Sorry, but money’s the wrong reason to come back.’ ”

Boxing Notes

The California Athletic Commission, meeting Friday in Sacramento, was to have chosen its new executive officer. It declined to do so, extending instead the application deadline to Sept. 5. However, it did elect a new chairman: Ara Hairabedian of Fresno. The delay in choosing a new executive officer to replace the retired Ken Gray might be because of a late entry for the job--John Branca, former chief of the New York State Athletic Commission.

James (Bonecrusher) Smith, who lost his share of the heavyweight championship to Mike Tyson in 1987, fights Kimmuel Odum Monday night at the Forum. And Smith already has made his Tyson-Evander Holyfield pick: “I think Tyson will stop him. He’s going to get in excellent shape because this is a fight he really wants. His power and speed will be too much for Holyfield.”

Crown City Boxing has scheduled an Aug. 1 amateur show for the Pasadena Elks Lodge. . . . Remember Rogelio Tuur, the Dutchman with the dynamite right hand who pulled off the biggest shocker at the 1988 Olympics? Fighting out of New York, Tuur is 22-1-1 as a pro and meets Jose Sanabria Tuesday at Kutsher’s Country Club in the Catskills. Tuur knocked highly touted American Kelcie Banks cold on the first day of the Seoul boxing tournament.

Showtime will air the controversial Jeff Fenech-Azumah Nelson fight Wednesday at 10 p.m. . . Olympic Festival boxing wrapup: Named coach of the U.S. team for the August Pan American Games in Cuba was Ken Loehr of St. Louis. Larry Ramirez of Fontana is an alternate assistant coach. . . . Named coach of the U.S. team at the November World Championships in Sydney was Richard Pettigrew of Chula Vista. Alternate assistant: Joe Zanders, Long Beach. Pettigrew, 53, is the head coach for the Miramar Naval Air Station boxing program in San Diego. He was a two-time U.S. Armed Forces heavyweight champion.

The Forum’s next major title fight is an International Boxing Federation featherweight match between Troy Dorsey and Manuel Medina on Aug. 12. And the Forum also is hoping to pit its light-flyweight meal ticket, Humberto Gonzalez, against Domingo Sosa, for Sept. 16. . . . Ten Goose Boxing’s July 30 show at Reseda Country Club, featuring the brothers Rafael and Gabriel Ruelas, will be shown on USA Cable.