BOXING : Hearns Is Fond of Holyfield’s Style

How does this sound: Evander Holyfield vs. Thomas Hearns?

Far-fetched? Maybe, but that’s the match light-heavyweight champion Hearns wants these days. After Hearns’ upset victory over light-heavyweight champion Virgil Hill on June 3, there was talk of a rematch with Hill, and also of Hearns moving up in weight again and trying for a cruiserweight championship.

A Hill rematch looks like a dead issue, but Hearns might still get a shot at a cruiserweight title, and a sixth championship. Word is that Hearns will challenge the winner of next month’s James Pritchard-James Waring match for the vacant International Boxing Federation cruiserweight title.

But Hearns really wants a fight with Holyfield.

Believe it or not, the 32-year-old Hit Man, who as recently as 1988 looked like a washed-up middleweight when Iran Barkley knocked him out, wants to fight Holyfield, according to both his adviser and trainer.

“Tommy’s ultimate goal is Evander Holyfield,” said adviser Harold Smith. “When you think about it, it’s not the mismatch, size-wise, many people think it is. Tommy walks around at 185, 190 pounds. He really thinks he can beat Holyfield.”

Holyfield has another opponent on his mind these days. He is supposed to fight Mike Tyson on Nov. 8 at Caesars Palace, but Tyson has been accused of rape and no one can say for certain if the fight will be held as scheduled.

Alex Sherer, the trainer who got a lot of the credit for Hearns’ victory over Hill, says his fighter matches up favorably with Holyfield, less so against Tyson.

“I’ve been watching Holyfield since his amateur days and he’s had one problem throughout his career, upright guys who can box and who have quick right hands,” he said.

“Look at his career. Holyfield has had problems with guys like Michael Dokes, Carlos DeLeon and Alex Stewart. Tommy can box and everyone knows he’s got one of the best right hands in boxing. On paper, no one in boxing right now matches up as well with Holyfield as Tommy does.

“Tommy right now is 185, 186 pounds. He’d come in at 190 for a heavyweight fight. . . . If Tommy wins a sixth world championship (at cruiserweight) and Holyfield is still the heavyweight champion, that’s a very big fight.”

And if Tyson beats Holyfield?

“Tyson would present a different set of problems for Tommy,” Sherer said. “You’d better ask him.”

Things are pretty much normal these days with the State Athletic Commission’s staff, what with chaos, bickering and whispering campaigns in full flower.

Even worse, the staff has no leadership. Ken Gray retired as the staff’s executive officer in June and no one has any idea when the commission will replace him. Steve English was put in charge temporarily after Gray left, but a sex harassment charge has been filed against him by a woman in the staff’s Sacramento office.

English said the charge was manufactured by a rival staff member.

Another candidate for the position, longtime California referee Rudy Ortega, got into a beef with English at both the rules meeting and the weigh-in at last weekend’s Terry Norris-Brett Lally fight in San Diego.

English is also at odds with his deputy in the Los Angeles office, Dale Ashley, who is on stress leave.

Said a discouraged staff member this week: “Every time I think things can’t get any worse around here, they do.”

Guess who has recently--and undeservedly--appeared in the World Boxing Council’s heavyweight ratings? Former champion Larry Holmes.

Background: During the entire time Michael Nunn was the International Boxing Federation’s middleweight champion, the WBC never rated him among the top 30 middleweights. Now, all of a sudden, he is No. 2.

Conclusion: Nunn must have a WBC fight in the hopper, for which the WBC stands to earn a fat sanctioning fee.

The WBC is the same organization that sent out a news release worldwide some months back, threatening to strip Holyfield of WBC recognition as champion and spelling his name “Hollyfield.”

So Holmes, 42, who has looked pathetic in recent comebacks against a couple of journeymen, Tim Anderson and Eddie Gonzalez--neither of whom is rated in the top 30 by the WBC--is suddenly a contender?

A likely scenario:

Promoter Don King, whose heavyweight empire is falling apart, sized up Holmes as an easy payday for his former champion, Tyson, a few months from now if Tyson’s legal troubles in Indianapolis force a cancellation or postponement of the Nov. 8 Holyfield fight.

King probably called his ally in Mexico City, WBC president-for-life Jose Sulaiman, and passed the word: “Pssst. Jose, I need you to bump ol’ Larry up a few pegs. Got plans for him . . . “

Boxing Notes

Hiroyuki Ebihara, one of Japan’s greatest champions, died at 51 in Tokyo recently. Ebihara, who boxed from 1959 to 1969, twice held the world flyweight championship. He won it the first time when he scored a one-round knockout over Pone Kingpetch in 1963, then lost a decision to Kingpetch four months later. Ebihara fought several times at the Olympic Auditorium, once touching off a riot. When he won a disputed decision over Efren Torres in 1964 before 10,400, enraged Torres partisans ripped up seats and threw them, started fires and threw cherry bombs. Don Chargin says his Tony Lopez-Brian Mitchell rematch Sept. 13 at Sacramento’s Arco Arena has already sold 5,000 tickets, which means the show could break the California live-gate record of $601,000 (15,006 paid) for Lopez-Jorge Paez on Sept. 22. “I’m sure we’ll go over $500,000 at the gate,” he said. The first Lopez-Mitchell fight, March 15, was possibly California’s fight of the year. Also boxing on the card are Meldrick Taylor, Mark Breland and John John Molina.

Announced this week: Pernell Whitaker vs. Paez on Oct. 5 in Reno. . . . A series of amateur bouts is scheduled for Aug. 31, beginning at 11 a.m., at the Alhambra Youth Boxing Club. . . . Longtime Southland boxing manager Lou Celaya died recently at 79. . . . Bert Sugar, editor of Boxing Illustrated, is recovering from a stroke.

Three members of the Golden State Boxers & Wrestlers Assn.--Jimmy McLarnin, Georgie Levine and Joey Dorando--will be honored Sept. 18 at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. . . . Last Saturday’s Terry Norris-Brett Lally fight at the San Diego Sports Arena drew 5,000, leading some to believe that major boxing might become a fixture there.