Mancini Faces Haugen With Little on the Line

Ray Mancini has had two fights since 1984 and lost them both. Yet tonight, he is matched with Greg Haugen in a pay-per-view boxing show for which he could earn $550,000.

The reason has more to do with Mancini’s appeal to Reno fight fans than anything at stake.

Mancini is big box office here. His three previous Reno fights--and never mind that he won one of the three--grossed live gate totals of $2.2 million. The average attendance was 10,344, all at Lawlor Events Center at the University of Nevada.

Tonight, he meets Haugen in the 6,500-seat Reno-Sparks Convention Center arena, and a sellout is possible. Besides money, the only thing at stake for the two former lightweight champions is an all-but-meaningless title, the vacant North American Boxing Federation junior-welterweight championship.

And a side bet. Well, sort of.

Seems the two agreed on a $100,000 wager on the outcome, until the Nevada Athletic Commission reminded them that such bets were banned about half a century ago. The commission, however, allowed the promoter, Dan Goossen, to rewrite the contracts so that the winner will earn $550,000, the loser $450,000. Both were to have made $500,000.

On the undercard are three new boxing faces and an old football face. Olympic silver medalist Roy Jones, 16-0 as a pro middleweight, meets Art Serwano (17-4-1), Arleta lightweight Rafael Ruelas (29-1) fights Jesus Rojas (24-7-1), and junior-featherweight Richard Duran (21-0) of Sacramento meets Antonio Flores (20-10).

The old football face belongs to Mark Gastineau, the former New York Jet now campaigning as a heavyweight. At 8-0, he boxes Lon Liebergen (7-2).