He Hasn’t Needed Three Rounds Much : Boxing: Robert Allen of the Marines overcame early rap to become Olympic contender.

The calls from boxing promoters and managers average about six a week, and Jimmy Troy says they all want the same thing--a piece of Robert Allen, his 23-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine.

Troy, Allen’s adviser of six months, said the phone in his Stamford, Conn., office began ringing after Allen won the U.S. championships in February by knocking out all six of his opponents in the 156-pound division.

“The vultures were really out there,” said Troy, who played in the NHL for eight seasons.

There figure to be even more of them in Worcester, Mass., on Thursday night at the U.S. Olympic boxing trials. Allen, a lance corporal whose four-year enlistment is up in December, will fight No. 1-ranked Raul Marquez of Houston during the first round.

It’s not hard to understand why Allen (42-3) is attracting attention. During his current string of 10 knockouts, only one opponent, Germany’s Torsten Schmidtz, has lasted into the third round. There is little wasted movement in his methodical, left-handed style.

“He’s got a real advanced pro style for just being a three-round fighter,” said Abel Sanchez, who trains world junior-middleweight champion Terry Norris. “He’s a mix you don’t find too often. He’s extremely smart in the ring for an amateur.”

While preparing for the Olympic trials, Allen has been sparring with professionals at Murphy’s Gym. Lately, he has been working out with Ramon (Yori Boy) Campos, who is 41-0 and ranked No. 3 by the International Boxing Federation as a welterweight.

Sanchez, who also trains Campos, said it has been difficult to tell who is the amateur and who is the professional.

“For three rounds, he’s been making Campos look silly,” Sanchez said. “He definitely has a bright pro future, depending on direction and management. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t reach the top echelon of his division in a couple of years.”

Yet it was only nine months ago that Allen appeared to have reached the lowest echelon of the amateur game.

After spending 18 months in Camp Lejeune, N.C., with the Marine boxing team, Allen was dismissed by his coach, Roosevelt Sanders.

Allen said Sanders had unfairly labeled him a two-round fighter and a slacker. Allen acknowledged having stamina problems, but he blames them on Sanders’ training techniques.

“We used to run around the base like horses, looking like we were Ethiopians or something,” Allen said. “We weren’t eating the right foods. But they thought that was the right way to train a boxer.”

Although Allen had won the All-Marine championship in 1989 and finished second at the Armed Forces Championships in 1990 and 1991, he thought his boxing career might be over when he left Camp Lejeune.

“I was demoralized as a fighter,” he said. “I thought I didn’t have what it took. When I left Camp Lejeune, I think they thought they’d never hear from me again.”

But when Allen returned to Camp Pendleton, he realized he didn’t need anyone to train him.

“I had to look within myself,” Allen said. “I had to motivate myself to be the best I could be. I didn’t need anybody treating me like I was a Boy Scout or something. Here, I was given the opportunity to do my own training. It turned all the way around for me.”

Allen’s life took its first turn in 1988, after he had graduated from high school in Houma, La., about 60 miles south of New Orleans. He was a star basketball player in high school, but at 5 feet 9, he figured there wasn’t much of future in the sport. He also had tried boxing, but that, too, looked like a long road to the top.

So that summer Allen, the youngest of nine children, moved to Los Angeles in search of work and better living conditions.

But he couldn’t find work and lived in a car with his sister and two nieces. Finally, after a month of street life in the Tent City area of Los Angeles, Allen found a job and a place to live. But he wasn’t happy merely surviving. So on the advice of a friend, Allen joined the service in December of 1988.

“I felt like I needed some discipline and this was a good way to continue my boxing career,” Allen said.

Three and a half years later, Allen’s career is finally flourishing. But most observers believe that Marquez will determine how far Allen will go.

Allen said he is ready for the challenge.

“I’m a way better athlete than he is,” Allen said. “I’m a lot faster, a lot stronger and I’m a lot smarter. So heart is going to be the deciding factor. I’m not going to fight his fight. Everybody is expecting me to brawl, but I’ve got something for him.”

Jimmy Connolly, Allen’s trainer, said he hopes Allen has something that interests the judges. Lately, Connolly said he isn’t sure what that might be.

“I haven’t liked the amateurs for 10 years,” said Connolly, who mostly trains professionals now. “The judges and the people have changed. These guys that run amateur boxing know nothing about boxing. They’ve never paid their dues.

“The judges don’t understand what they’re looking at. You see a lot of guys throw 10,000 punches and 9,999 of them don’t land. It doesn’t mean a thing, but they’ll see a lot of hand movement and they’ll vote for the guy.”

Allen acknowledges that the current scoring system, which emphasizes punches landed and aggressiveness, could hurt him, a powerful counterpuncher. He remembers the controversial decisions against Roy Jones and Michael Carbajal during the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

“It’s real spooky to think of,” Allen said. “People who fight hard get decisive wins, but don’t get decisions.”

Allen said a perfect example of amateur boxing’s apparent preference for style over substance occurred at the U.S. Championships, where he was beaten out by Chris Byrd of Flint, Mich., as the tournament’s outstanding boxer.

“They don’t really glorify knockouts,” said Allen, who floored Cassius Matthews in 1:10 of the first round in the 156-pound final. “They’d rather see a guy get in the ring, pat away and win by points. I don’t think boxing originated as that. I go in the ring to simply take care of business, to beat another fighter out of condition.”

But Allen said he believes he will find a way to win, regardless of scoring methods.

“It bothers me whether I’ll have to knock every opponent out to win,” Allen said. “I know that won’t happen. But I feel like I have what it takes to beat somebody decisively.”

Connolly agrees.

“A guy like (Allen), most of the time he’ll take his guy out,” he said. “He’s got a devastating left hand and he sets you up with a right hand.

“If Robert had different attributes, I’d say go after people. But why be aggressive when you don’t have to be? He’s excellent at what he does and he doesn’t get hit.”

But if he does happen to get hit or lose a decision, Allen believes he will survive.

“I know this amateur boxing is just a steppingstone for me to get out there and make a name for myself as a professional,” he said. “I’m real with that and I understand that. That’s also what makes me a better fighter.

“This boxing is not a dream to me. It’s reality. I never dreamed about the Olympics, but it would be nice.

“But I also know that Terry Norris never won a gold medal and he’s a world champion. It will boost your status as a fighter and get you on the circuit quicker, but a lot of guys who won gold medals never wound up as world champions. I don’t want to get caught up in that. I’m in this game to win.”

And if it means leaving the sport of boxing before he’s a world champion, so be it.

“I’m going to use boxing like a shovel,” Allen said. “I’m just going to dig. I’m not going to be emotionally caught up in it. Like, ‘If I can’t fight, I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ I’m going to use the game as well as the game’s going to use me.”

Racquel Williams, Allen’s fiancee, doesn’t have any doubts that Allen will work everything out in his mind.

“He thinks all the time,” she said. “It’s hard for him to relax.”

Even at an early age, Allen said he often spent hours thinking about his life.

“I didn’t know exactly what I would do, but always told my mom that I would put my family name on the map,” Allen said. “I just wanted to be known. It seems like the prophecy is about to be fulfilled.”