BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Chavez’s Contract With Arum Upheld

The self-inflicted legal wounds of Julio Cesar Chavez, said by many to be boxing’s greatest performer but a man who has signed every contract put in front of him, might have been healed Friday.

In Washington, a three-lawyer panel of the American Arbitration Assn. (AAA) ruled in favor of Las Vegas promoter Bob Arum in Chavez’s contract dispute with Arum and rival Don King.

The panel ruled that the contract Chavez signed with Arum in December of 1990 was valid, that Chavez breached it by signing with King, and that Chavez must pay Arum $450,000 in damages and $50,000 to the AAA in arbitration expenses.

The contract Chavez signed with Arum called for a $300,000 bonus and $15 million for six fights over 18 months. Yet Chavez, after accepting the $300,000, signed with King shortly afterward.

Why? Chavez never explained.

“It’s a mystery to me,” said his American adviser at the time, Alberto Gonzales. “The way the Arum contract was set up, if Julio had fought and lost three times, he would have earned $7.5 million. It was the greatest contract in the history of boxing.”

Chavez wasn’t available Friday for comment, but Arum was and he wasn’t happy. He had sought nearly $3 million in damages, revenue he never realized from Chavez fights.

“I’m not happy with this,” Arum said. “It is vindication that (Chavez) breached the contract, but obviously I’m disappointed in the award.”

Will he seek to sign Chavez again?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll have to think about it. If he wants to fight for us, he knows how to find us.”

The junior-welterweight is an idol in Mexico but has never been a hot ticket in the United States. In recent years, he has been essentially an undercard fighter on King’s Mike Tyson shows.

The only time that he was a major attraction on American TV was more the result of his opponent’s popularity, when Chavez scored a last-second victory over Meldrick Taylor at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1990.

Former world champion Alexis Arguello of Nicaragua returned to his homeland last December, hoping to recover his two houses, a yacht, a boxing gym, a utility vehicle, two luxury cars, a motor home, a chicken business and a large sum of cash--all seized by the Sandinista regime.

He is still there, still hoping.

While he waits for the new Nicaraguan government of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro to process his claims, he is training boxers in Managua.

Arguello says that one of his cars apparently has passed through several hands and at one time was being driven by Tomas Borge, former interior minister.

And a Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa, said that another of Arguello’s cars was shipped to Cuba and presented to Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother and chief of Cuba’s armed forces.

Lon Liebergen didn’t look as if he had been beaten up too badly when he was stopped during the first round by Mark Gastineau on the undercard of the Greg Haugen-Ray Mancini bout in Reno earlier this month.

He was on his feet when the bout was stopped, after Gastineau had rocked him with a hard right hand.

But when he fainted in a hotel hallway at 2 a.m., his wife called an ambulance. At a Reno hospital, doctors found three facial fractures.

Treated with painkillers, Liebergen went home to Bennett, Iowa, the next day and shortly underwent surgery.

“They put in a two-inch titanium plate over my left eyebrow with four screws in it,” he said Friday.

“Then they had to pry my cheekbone up and reset it. It had been depressed a half-inch. And there was another cheekbone fracture.”

It was a bout that never should have been approved by the Nevada Athletic Commission. Liebergen says his record is 7-6. But more important, he’s a cruiserweight, not a heavyweight.

“My walking around weight is about 192, but I weighed 206 for that fight,” he said.

Gastineau, who is 6-5 and weighed 256 in Reno, has a 9-0 record and it is time for him to begin fighting legitimate heavyweights.

“I wasn’t out-classed, I was just out-sized,” Liebergen said. “He just caught me with a good punch, that’s all. He’s a nice guy. He called me when he heard how bad I was busted up and apologized.

“I told him there was no reason to apologize. I invited him to my gym to spar with me any time he’s in the Midwest.”

There was a second mismatch on the Haugen-Mancini undercard, the Roy Jones-Art Serwano fight. Serwano, once a prominent main event boxer, had regressed in recent fights. In another one-round fight, Serwano went into convulsions briefly when he was felled by one of Jones’ punches.

After being down for more than a minute, Serwano quickly recovered and left the ring unaided.

Winners of the San Diego-Los Angeles Golden Gloves regionals tonight at Lincoln Park Recreation Center conceivably can go on to U.S. amateur boxing’s biggest prize--the Olympics.

Eleven bouts in all weight classes except flyweight are scheduled tonight, starting at 7:30. Winners advance to the California Golden Gloves championships at the same site next Saturday.

Those winners move on to the national Golden Gloves championships in Chicago May 4-9, with winners qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team trials at Worcester, Mass., June 10-14.

Boxing Notes

The Forum’s boxing show for Tuesday night was originally scheduled for Monday, but the Kings’ NHL League playoff game with the Edmonton Oilers forced the switch. The co-features are a bantamweight match between Cecilio Espino of Monterey Park and Antonio Ramirez of Los Angeles, plus flyweights Ysaias Zamudio and Richard Clarke of Jamaica.

At the Irvine Marriott Thursday, James Kinchen (48-8-2) will fight Ernie Magdaleno (12-0) in a light-heavyweight bout. . . . The latest former heavyweight champion said to be considering a comeback: Michael Spinks.

Possible opening-night show for Goossen’s planned reopening of the Olympic Auditorium in late summer: Greg Haugen vs. Jorge Paez. . . . Hector Lopez will fight Juan LaPorte on May 8 in Las Vegas, on the Bobby Czyz vs. Donny LaLonde card. . . . Orlin Norris will fight Mike Dixon at the San Diego Sports Arena on April 29.