Gastineau is Fighting for Respect in the Ring

Please, no giggling.

Ladies and gentleman, in this corner, weighing 255 pounds with a record of 7-0, the next heavyweight champion of the world, Mark Gastineau.

“I think if people watch me fight,” Gastineau said, “they are going to say, ‘He really can box.’ ”

Mike Katz, boxing writer for the New York Daily News, made this assessment after watching Gastineau’s first fight: “Mark Gastineau is a circus sideshow.”

Gastineau, the Jet defensive end who inspired the NFL to outlaw the sack dance, will fight a four-rounder on the Terry Norris-Carl Daniels undercard in the Sports Arena Saturday. Little Rock’s Kim Adamss had been the scheduled opponent.

“Ah, it won’t be Kim Adamss,” said Dan Goossen, the fight’s promoter. “Even though USA Today correctly recorded Mark’s knockout in his most recent fight, they incorrectly reported that it came in 15 seconds. Since it appeared that it came so quickly, Kim decided not to come.”

Remember, no giggling.

Oklahoma City’s Jaime (Troy) Berg will now put his 1-2 career record on the line against Gastineau.

“Berg’s a tough guy, not much for skills, but then Gastineau hasn’t much skill either,” said Pete Susans, an Indianapolis promoter who has provided most of Gastineau’s opponents. “We’ve treated Mark exactly as what I think he is, a novelty.

“He’s not to be compared with fighters who do this for a living. He gets a lot of criticism for the opponents he’s fighting, but we’re talking club boxing. He’s not fighting anybody with any less experience or ability. Let’s face it, he’s a football player, and looking at it from that perspective, he’s done all right.”

Susans said that Gastineau has been battling “barroom guys, truck drivers and winners of tough-man contests” and he has been successful because he has dedicated himself to training for each fight.

“He works hard, but I don’t want to overmatch him,” said Jimmy Glenn, owner of Times Square Boxing Club in New York and Gastineau’s manager. “I don’t want him to fight a guy with a lot of experience, who can box and move and who has knowledge. That would worry me because Mark doesn’t know how to chase those guys yet.

“But a guy who just comes at him, that’s great. Sooner or later during four rounds, Mark’s gonna hit him on the chin and it will be all over.”

Circus sideshow or knock-out showstopper?

Lyle Alzado drew snickers as a slugger. Ed (Too Tall) Jones returned to football after taking off the gloves. Wilt Chamberlain reconsidered the idea of challenging Muhammad Ali.

Picture Don King doing a sack dance to promote Mark Gastineau’s next fight.

“I know what people are saying, but it would be frustrating to think I could change everybody’s thinking,” Gastineau said. “I’d be setting myself up for years of disappointment. I’m working hard, and let me tell you, I don’t look like a football player in the ring. People just have to see for themselves.”

After giving skeptical fight fans and reporters a knock-out performance just seconds into his first fight, there were suggestions in The National, which has since gone out of business, that his opponent, former wrestler Derrick Dukes, had taken a dive.

“Whether Dukes did or didn’t, let’s face it, Mark has no control over that,” Goossen said. “The key thing is that he prepared as if everybody wanted to come out there and punch. What happens from there, who knows, you may have a guy take a look at Mark taking off his robe and say, ‘Boom, I thought he was only that big in shoulder pads.’ ”

Gastineau, 6-5 and 275 when he played for the Jets, installed a $6,000 regulation ring in his Scottsdale, Ariz., backyard when he began prepping for his boxing career. He has worked seven days a week and several hours a day, but respect comes hard.

“By himself in the ring, he doesn’t look all that bad,” Katz said. “He drops his left hand a little bit; his jab is straight.

“But there have been too many 15-second knockouts. Too many stiffs. I’ve heard of a lot of these four-round fighters--I’m not even talking top 80 here--and I’ve not heard of any of these guys that he’s fighting. It all smells bad.”

In Bradenton, Fla., recently, Gastineau took on unemployed construction worker Chuck Nail, and well, he nailed him . . . in 21 seconds.

“It’s unfortunate that he’s been blasted in the press,” Susans said. “That’s a situation they can’t win. You put him against guys within his reach and he’s fighting all bums. You match him with a great fighter because he was a great football player and he gets drilled and then look what boxing has done to the poor dumb son-of-a-bitch.”

The boxing community may not take Gastineau seriously, but he continues to take swipes at the speed bag like a man who is waiting to hear from Evander Holyfield.

“He’s learning,” said Glenn, a former cornerman for Floyd Patterson. “Right now he’s a four-round fighter. When a kid that’s 12 to 14 years old first comes into the gym, he doesn’t know anything about boxing, so you work with him, teach him and he develops.

“That’s where Mark is. People thought he was a great football player and expected him to be a great boxer right away. He’s not a great fighter. He’s not a good fighter. He’s learning.”

He’s 35. He played in five Pro Bowls for the Jets, compiled 107 1/2 sacks in nine years in the NFL and led the league with seven midway through the 1988 season when he retired. Gastineau walked away from a contract, which called for an $800,000 base salary, to spend time with Brigitte Nielsen, his fiance, whom he thought had cancer of the uterus.

Nielsen later learned that she was not suffering from cancer and recovered. Gastineau considered returning to the NFL, but elected instead to play for the Canadian Football League British Columbia Lions.

“I wouldn’t give up those four months for the 10 years I played with the Jets,” Gastineau said. “People would invite me over to their house. They didn’t care if I was just another football player or if I had signed a $50-million contract.”

Although he has lost four teeth while boxing, the scars from football are more noticeable. He crossed the picket lines during the 1987 NFL strike, and thus widened the gap that already existed between himself and his teammates.

“I have so many bad memories in football that the thought of going into a locker room turned my stomach,” Gastineau said. “That’s what I like so much about boxing. There was so much animosity on the Jets. In football, you can be busting your butt and you can have teammates not putting out and you lose. But the thing about boxing is I’m on my own.”

After training as a boxer as a way of staying in shape during the strike, Gastineau returned to the ring in earnest two years ago.

“After he and Brigitte broke up, he called and said he seriously wanted to try this,” Glenn said. “I said, ‘Let’s see how serious you are.’ I put him in the ring one day with a tough guy and there was a war. I said afterward, ‘He ain’t coming back tomorrow.’ But then he did.

“Now he’s fighting, he’s 7-0 and in his last fight he got nailed with a right hand. It budged him a little bit, but he didn’t give up. That’s when you know a guy is going to fight. He’s got a chance. I think he’ll be a good fighter. I think he’ll be a good 10-round fighter.”

Gastineau, however, hasn’t had to go three rounds. In his most recent encounter, in Carthage, Mo., he knocked out Memphis’ Kevin Barch 1:50 into the first round.

He has knocked out Schoolboy Jimmy Baker twice. Mike Ackley hit Gastineau so hard in an earlier match, “that I thought there was a power shortage and the lights had gone out,” Gastineau said. Ackley suffered a ruptured ear drum, however, and he was unable to leave his corner for Round 3.

“I’m trying to become a great boxer and, to do that, you have to put yourself back in time and start with the basics,” Gastineau said. “I was successful in football and I’m applying the same standards.

“When I was playing football, I couldn’t run a mile without stopping. Now I run five miles and I’m laughing because I can’t believe it.”

Gastineau said his confidence is growing and the hard work is paying off. But contrary to his bombastic reputation as a football player, there will be no grand boxing pronouncements.

“If I lost a fight, I’d be out money,” he said. “In football, I made more in one game than what I’ve made in seven fights. It’s just a big challenge and I love it.

“I don’t know how far I can go. But I’m going to take it as far as I can.”