BOXING : Why Does Lalonde Keep Getting Chances?

He bleached his hair platinum blond and cultivated the image of a California beach boy.

He spent more time in the sun than in the gym while “training” for his windfall bout against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1988.

He retired after that $6-million payday, claiming that his past as an abused child made him unable to hit people for a living.

He set up a foundation to serve other abused children, but then couldn’t find the time to visit children’s hospitals or the means to donate a nickel to his chosen cause. He did, however, set up a toll-free hotline for victims of child abuse to call. Problem was, no one ever answered the phone.

He unretired in 1989, saying it didn’t bother him to hit people anymore.

He retired again after suffering a fractured larynx in sparring that doctors said could jeopardize his life if he ever got hit on it again.

And now he’s back, his windpipe having undergone a miraculous recovery, just in time for him to pocket $125,000 for an undeserved title shot against Bobby Czyz.

Why do I get the feeling there is something phony about Donny “Golden Boy” Lalonde?

Probably just blind cynicism on my part. Then again, it may be the work of that old devil Dave Wolf, the former sportswriter who found the better way -- he also put over the spectacles of Too Tall Jones, Duane Bobick and Boom Boom Mancini.

A week from Friday, Lalonde -- having beaten four stiffs following his three-year layoff after the Leonard loss -- challenges Czyz for the World Boxing Association cruiser-weight title in Las Vegas, Nev., in a pay-per-view fight that will cost you $20 to watch. Now 32, Lalonde has gone back to his natural brown hair and has toned down his playboy lifestyle -- he was married last year and has a six-month old son -- but there is still something very brass-plated about the self-styled Golden Boy.

Wednesday, on a conference call with Czyz to hype the fight, Lalonde tried to explein some of the momentous events in his life since the night Leonard plucked him out of the chorus line and made him his co-star in November, 1988. In case you’ve forgotten, Leonard was knocked down in Round 4 but got up to pummel Lalonde and finally stop him in the ninth, winning both Lalonde’s WBC light-heavyweight title and the vacant WBC super-middle-weight title on the same night. According to a friend, Lalonde did not fully recover from the beating for the next six months.

Soon afterward, Lalonde fired his trainer, Tommy Gallagher, who negotiated most of the Leonard deal because the volatile Wolf could not get along with Mike Trainer, Leonard’s representative. Unfortunately, Lalonde has yet to tell Gallagher he is fired, but since they haven’t spoken in four years, Gallagher is safe in assuming he is no longer on the payroll.

Lalonde’s first retirement was motivated, he said at the time, by a desire to become more involved with abused children and by his inability to reconcile that with making a living through violence. Wednesday, Lalonde said the decision to retire was not entirely his.

“A lot of the agencies working in the field of child-abuse expressed concern about me being a professional boxer,” he said. “There was pressure, and that played on my mind.”

To which Jan Murray, a publicist who was involved in booking Lalonde’s appearances for various anti-child-abuse foundations, replies, “That’s preposterous. As a matter of fact, they were very happy that a boxer of his magnitude would want to be their spokesman. Why would they want him to give up that forum?”

It turns out Lalonde’s commitment to the helping of abused children was largely symbolic. According to Murray -- who describes Lalonde as someone “with the best of intentions initially who never followed through” -- Lalonde would promise to visit abused kids in the hospital but never make the visits.

“He never wanted to spend the time,” Murray said. “There was no hands-on activity at all. He thought that his visibility was enough. I was frustrated by his lack of commitment.”

He did, however, set up the short-lived Donny Lalonde Foundation with the 24-hour hotline -- with no one at the other end. “Kids would call and no one would ever answer,” Murray said. “It was connected to an unmanned tape machine.”

By February, 1990, Lalonde decided that “competition between two consenting adults was a lot different from the physical abuse of children.” So he decided to come back, signing to fight Dennis Andries for a light-heavyweight title. But then came the fractured larynx and another retirement.

“The doctors said I could never take the chance of fighting again, so I retired,” Lalonde said.

But Wolf said Lalonde got a second opinion last fall, and surprise! -- the injury healed in a way that was “unexpected,” according to Wolf.

“There’s been no adequate explanation,” Wolf said.

There is also no adequate explanation for why Lalonde is back in the ring, but rumor has it that he needs money, that he squandered the $6 million on bad real-estate investments recommended by his father, a Toronto realtor. Lalonde said his investments “have worked out real well, thank God,” but another friend recalled a conversation six months ago in which Lalonde said his investments had “gone sour” and left him “financially compromised.”

In any case, the charmed life of Donny Lalonde continues. Three years off a life-threatening injury, four fights into a comeback in which he has beaten no one ranked by the WBA, he somehow has been cleared to fight Czyz for a world title while Czyz’ mandatory, Al Cole, sits on the sidelines, ignored and uncompensated.

But when you’re a Golden Boy, you can make your own rules.