BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Scary Incident at Fontana Could Have Been a Disaster

It is not clear whether the incident was related to the violence elsewhere in Southern California, but two shots were fired Thursday night at the Fontana Boxing Club gym in Fontana, shattering the front windows.

“It was a miracle that no one was hit,” said Larry Ramirez, who coaches amateurs at the small gym.

The shots were fired from a car about 7:30, as four boxers were preparing to lock up. Ramirez had left moments before; when he arrived at his home, two blocks away, his phone was ringing.

“I was shocked when the kids told me what happened,” Ramirez said. “Thirty minutes before the shooting, the gym was full of about 25 little kids.”

Ramirez, an assistant coach on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team, added: “No one got a license number, no one saw who it was. We filed a police report. It was just someone driving by. Whoever it was fired two shots and one of them just missed one of my senior boxers.”

John Bray is a Van Nuys amateur heavyweight who hopes to box for the United States at the Barcelona Olympics.

But he maintains that USA Boxing, amateur boxing’s governing body, is stacking the deck against him. The federation denies it.

Bray makes some strong points on his behalf.

Last January, in a Times article, Bray charged USA Boxing’s coaching staff and unidentified boxers with racism, saying he believed the coaches wanted a black heavyweight to represent the U.S. in Barcelona.

Bray, who is half-Anglo and half-Latino, said in the article that USA Boxing’s international-level boxers and coaches “are filled with racism. . . . I get racist stuff all day when I train with my own team. . . . I’m the only white guy on the team and all I hear all day is: ‘Hey, Honky. Hey, white boy.’ ”

USA Boxing denied Bray’s charges, but the U.S. Olympic team’s head coach, Joe Byrd, who is black, partially backed him up.

“John has talked to me about this problem and I told him to write a report, to name the coaches and boxers who are doing this sort of thing, but he didn’t,” Byrd said.

“But I will say this: I know a lot of coaches, our coaches, who would do things like that, who would say things like and behave like that. They’re out there. . . . I know it happens. If I find the people doing it, they will be fired.”

Bray isn’t some sorehead also-ran, sounding off. He is demonstrably America’s best amateur heavyweight. Since 1989, he has not only been a national champion, but has been the U.S. heavyweight in five major international competitions, including the World Championships in November.

Even so, USA Boxing told Bray recently that he would not be exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team trials June 10-14, even though 24 other boxers in the 12 weight classes were given at-large berths.

Bray was told he had to box at the Ft. Huachuca (Ariz.) Western Olympic trials to qualify for the U.S. trials.

In the heavyweight class--201 pounds--of the five boxers already qualified for the Olympic trials, Bray has beaten four. He hasn’t faced the fifth, Jeffrey Wooden of the Army.

One of those already in the trials, Melvin Foster, was knocked out by Bray at last summer’s Olympic Festival at the Forum.

“It’s ridiculous,” Bray said. “They’re trying to make it as hard as possible for me to make the Olympic team. If any heavyweight is going to be excused from qualifying for the trials, it has to be me. I’m the best guy, and they know it.”

Bruce Mathis, associate executive director of USA Boxing, denied that the federation was stacking the deck against Bray.

“In order to be one of the eight boxers in each weight class at the Olympic trials, you must place first or second at the national championships, win the national Golden Gloves, win a U.S. Armed Forces championship, or win the Eastern or Western Olympic trials,” he said.

“In addition, we have two ‘select team’ berths for boxers who were participating in events for us that conflicted with preparation for any of the other qualifying tournaments.”

And there, according to Bray, is the rub.

He says he could not compete in the February national championships because of an injured hand. USA Boxing says Bray told no one he was injured, that he was even mailed an airline ticket to the nationals, but never showed up.

“That’s a lie,” Bray said. “My trainer, Angelo Dundee, called Pat Nappi and told him himself.”

Nappi is USA Boxing’s national coach and a two-time U.S. Olympic coach. He said Friday that he was informed of Bray’s injury, but that the federation had ruled Bray must still qualify for the trials.

A check of the 60 boxers already in the trials shows 10 boxers “qualified” who finished third or lower at the national championships, a tournament Bray won last year.

“The Olympics mean everything to me,” said Bray, 21.

“I’ve worked since I was 9 years old for this. I gave up college for this, I gave up a social life. My problem is I’m opinionated. I say what I think is right, and sometimes it doesn’t sit well with some people.”

One of the great fights of the 20th Century is making a return engagement here--at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

At the museum’s George Bellows exhibit, running through May 10, the featured oil painting is his classic of American sports art, “Dempsey and Firpo.”

It’s the massive--51 by 63 1/4 inches--rendering of that instant in the 1923 Jack Dempsey-Luis Angel Firpo fight when Firpo knocked Dempsey through the ropes and out of the ring with a left hook.

Many boxing historians have ranked Dempsey-Firpo as boxing’s most exciting fight.

A crowd of 82,000 at New York’s Polo Grounds saw Dempsey knock Firpo down seven times during the first round and twice more in the second--all in 3 minutes 57 seconds. Dempsey was down twice himself before winning on a knockout during the second round.

Dempsey landed on his back on reporters’ typewriters when Firpo knocked him out of the ring during the first round. He climbed back into the ring with the help of reporters, but barely beat the count.

Bellows’ rendering, which is on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, captures the electricity of the moment. Among the ringsiders that night was Babe Ruth.

Boxing Notes

Rioting in Los Angeles prompted the cancellation of boxing news conferences Thursday and Friday. One was scheduled for West Los Angeles on Friday, for the Terry Norris-Meldrick Taylor title fight May 9 in Las Vegas. Thursday, the Forum canceled a news conference for Monday’s card, featuring Mexico’s Carlos Gonzalez. Forum boxing spokesman John Beyrooty said no decision would be made on the status of Monday’s card until todaySunday. . . . If Norris beats Taylor, his manager, Joe Sayatovich, wants to match his junior-middleweight champion against Julio Cesar Chavez in San Diego Stadium.

Dan Goossen, Ten Goose Boxing chief, is talking to Don King about a possible match between Ten Goose super-middleweight Frank Liles and Michael Nunn, the former middleweight champion who started out with the Goossens. . . . The VIP Boxing Club of Venice will conduct a clinic for inner-city amateur boxers May 9 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at the club, 1625 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice.