BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : These Anniversaries Deserve a Ring

A couple of memorable battles jump off the history pages this month.

It was 100 years ago Sept. 7 that America went crazy over its first big-time sports event--John L. Sullivan vs. James J. Corbett at New Orleans.

In the 21st round that night, Sept. 7, 1892, Corbett, the onetime amateur champion from San Francisco, knocked out Sullivan, known then as “the Boston Strong Boy.”

In the sporting history of America, Corbett-Sullivan is important on three counts:

--It was the first U.S. sports event to galvanize Americans coast to coast.

--It was the final appearance in the ring by the country’s first sports superstar, Sullivan.

--It was the first major boxing match in which both contestants wore gloves.

No pay-per-view or closed circuit for that one. Then, you either bought a ticket or you went to a telegraph office. Across America, every telegraph office had a mob scene, where men shouted out round-by-round bulletins through megaphones.

In Los Angeles, boxing fans gathered at all telegraph offices, the Los Angeles Theater and the city’s cultural center, Hazard’s Pavilion, where Mark Twain, Enrico Caruso and John Philip Sousa had performed.

At Hazard’s, now the corner of Fifth and Olive Streets, 1,500 people watched quietly while a telegraph operator, on stage, jotted down descriptions of the fight and another made announcements through a megaphone.

Eventually, a small boy walked on stage, waved a white handkerchief for quiet, and said, “Corbett’s won.”

In New Orleans, America’s first sports superstar foundered, then fell. A 4-1 favorite, Sullivan, at 34 and 212 pounds, couldn’t handle the speed and quickness of Corbett, who was 26 and 187 pounds.

Corbett knocked Sullivan out in the 21st round, but people who were there that night said all their lives that it was apparent in Round 1 that Sullivan was outclassed.

Later, in his dressing room, Sullivan broke down and cried--and for good reason. It was a winner-take-all match. Later, in New York, Sullivan’s friends passed the hat at a testimonial and gave him $6,630.37.

Corbett earned a purse variously reported at $35,000 and $45,000.

Sullivan died in 1918, Corbett in 1933.

*

Forty years ago Wednesday, one of boxing’s most famous punches came rocketing out of the night in Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium. An instant later, in shocking suddenness, the heavyweight championship changed hands.

Rocky Marciano, 28, was an unbeaten, 7-5 favorite when he met champion Jersey Joe Walcott, 38, on Sept. 23, 1952. But the Brockton, Mass., challenger was behind on all cards when they started the 13th round.

Walcott had been hurt by his younger, stronger opponent, but was still the clear leader as the fight neared its finish. In the first round, the old champion had knocked Marciano down, with a short left hook, for the first time in his career.

But 30 seconds into the 13th, Marciano, at 184 pounds, maneuvered Walcott, at 196, into a corner. For an instant, the champion dropped his left hand just as Marciano had rocked back on his heels and launched a shoulder-high right hand with everything he had on it.

The punch exploded at the tip of Walcott’s jaw. His head wobbled briefly, then the champion dropped limply to the canvas.

Walcott was unconscious for a full minute, as jubilant Marciano partisans poured through the ropes.

The two fought in a rematch eight months later, but Marciano won much more easily, knocking out Walcott in the first round.

Since Marciano-Walcott I, you can count on one hand the major fights in which one punch ended a close battle with such unexpected suddenness.

Sugar Ray Robinson’s 1957 knockout of Gene Fullmer with a left hook was one such match. Another was Ingemar Johansson’s “toonderbolt” right hand that beat heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in 1959.

Marciano retired undefeated (49-0) in 1956. He died in an Iowa small-plane crash in 1969. Walcott is 78, in poor health, and lives in New Jersey.

Boxing Notes

Southland boxing publicist Bill Caplan had a few minutes alone with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield recently during Holyfield’s and Riddick Bowe’s cross-country promotion tour and got a new, interesting response to an old question. Caplan said he asked Holyfield if he’s tired of taking the rap that he fights only old men--George Foreman, Larry Holmes--or broken-down young men, such as Bert Cooper. The response, according to Caplan: “No, I’m not tired it. It’s recharged me. I want to beat every one of those young fighters--Bowe, Lewis, Ruddock. That’s my new goal, I want to beat ‘em all.”

Alex Sherer’s heavyweight project, Dave Dixon, is showing marked signs of improvement. Dixon, the onetime St. Louis and Los Angeles homeless person who walked into the Broadway Gym about 18 months ago, is thought to have all the tools to become a big-time heavyweight. Only problem is, the 6-4 Dixon likes to eat too much. He weighed 244 last Monday at the Forum when he flattened some nobody from North Carolina, but he has been as high as 255. Even so, he looked trim topside, and his quickness and balance seemed better. Sherer, who is also Thomas Hearns’ trainer, said: “I can’t be with David 24 hours a day, and he knows that. I suspect he eats a lot when I’m not around. So to make up for it, I make him work harder than anyone else. He has to do 200 sit-ups a day, 125 pushups in sets of 25, neck bridges, and a lot of jump rope. If I’m mad at him, he has to do 300 sit-ups. He runs three miles every day, and I have a guy run with him. Dave has reached the point now where he knows how much work is involved to get him to where he wants to go. Over the next six months, I’ll want to match him with people who will give him a lot of quality rounds, maybe some guys on the way down. A year from now, we may be ready to make a big move.”

Giggle of the week: Don King’s assertion that Julio Cesar Chavez will make $8 million fighting Greg Haugen. He must have meant $800,000. Or $80,000.

Raul Marquez, the Houston amateur standout who was the light-middleweight on the U.S. Olympic team, turns pro on the undercard of an NBC show in San Antonio, Troy Dorsey vs. James Leija. Marquez is also down for the Oct. 24 NBC undercard of Joey Gamache-Tony Lopez, and the Nov. 13 Holyfield-Bowe undercard. His Barcelona teammate, Oscar De La Hoya, still doesn’t officially have a pro debut date, but it’s still expected to be Nov. 23 at the Forum. De La Hoya’s managers, Steve Nelson and Bob Mittleman, say it should become official next week.

Pernell Whitaker, pulled out of his Oct. 16 Paris title defense with junior-middleweight Valery Kayumba. Whitaker sprained a wrist early this week and an orthopedist told him he couldn’t spar for four weeks. . . . Middleweight Reggie Johnson, now fighting for Dan Goossen, meets Lamar Parks Oct. 27 in Houston on USA Cable. . . . Junior-welterweight Hector Lopez, another of Goossen’s fighters, meets Donald Stokes Wednesday in Las Vegas. A victory for Lopez, Goossen says, might get him a “battle of the Hectors.” He wants to match Lopez with Hector Camacho.

San Fernando heavyweight Alex Garcia meets Mike White on Tuesday on USA from El Paso. A Garcia-George Foreman match, which Garcia once turned down, is now back in the talking stages.

Sudden thought: Since Don King falsely promoted Camacho as an unbeaten fighter before last week’s Camacho-Chavez fight--Camacho was beaten by Haugen--will he now promote Haugen as “the man who first defeated Camacho?” during the Haugen-Chavez buildup? Just wondering.

Jury selection begins Monday in Los Angeles in former boxer Dio Colome’s long-delayed court case against the California Athletic Commission. Colome claims in the lawsuit that he lost considerable income and much of his career because he failed the state’s required neurological exam for pro boxers.