BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Goossens Are Battered, but Remain Unbowed

Dan Goossen sat slumped at his desk the other day, bearing no cuts over his eyes nor any bruises. But he still looked like one of his fighters after a bad beating.

“I feel like a guy came in here with a sledgehammer, tied my hands down on the desk and pounded on them for about 10 minutes,” he said.

“But remember this: The Geese will be back. The Geese are still smiling today.”

Maybe so. But right now it looks like open season on the Geese.

Ten Goose Boxing, the Van Nuys boxing management-promotion firm that Goossen heads, has had a rough couple of weeks:

--Sept. 26: Goossen is about to leave his Caesars Palace hotel room for the Caesars Pavilion to watch the junior-middleweight champion he promotes, Terry Norris, fight Simon Brown.

But the phone rings and the caller tells him Brown has been in the hospital most of the afternoon, being checked for chest pains and vertigo. The fight is canceled.

--Oct. 6: At home, Goossen is informed that his lightweight, Rafael Ruelas, has just lost a major Forum fight scheduled Oct. 19. Jorge Paez, Ruelas’ opponent, was injured in a motorcycle accident. Fight postponed.

--Oct. 7: Gabe Ruelas, Rafael’s brother, has a $125,000 payday coming Nov. 7 at Lake Tahoe, against Azumah Nelson. Another phone call. Goossen learns of a letter Nelson has faxed from his home in Ghana to his promoter, Don King, saying he wants $2 million instead of the previously agreed-to $500,000 to fight Ruelas. No way, he is told. No fight.

Since that run of bad luck, the Norris-Brown match has been rescheduled for Dec. 5, and the Rafael Ruelas-Paez bout is back on the calendar for Nov. 6.

The Goossens have a track record for bouncing back from troublesome times. In 1990, they had a world champion middleweight, Michael Nunn. They had taken him from a $500 preliminaries fighter to a million-dollar-a-fight champion.

Yet weeks before his title fight with Marlon Starling, Nunn walked out on the Goossens, later accusing them of mishandling his money.

Then, on the day of the Starling fight, Nunn all but begged Joe Goossen, his trainer and Dan Goossen’s brother, to work his corner.

Joe Goossen probably wanted to tell Nunn to take a hike, but instead he worked Nunn’s corner and Nunn won. When it was over, Goossen walked out of the ring and didn’t look back.

And it was difficult, but life went on without Nunn.

Since then, the Ruelas brothers have become hot properties, the Goossens have become Norris’ promoters and next spring they will promote fights at a renovated Olympic Auditorium.

Also, the Geese hope for a 1993 Norris-Julio Cesar Chavez match, outdoors in San Diego--a fight projected as possibly the richest non-heavyweight fight ever.

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HBO has to be kidding.

The cable network that has brought us Sugar Ray Leonard, Julio Cesar Chavez, Mike Tyson, Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield and practically every other major fighter over the last decade is now thinking about bringing back Vinny Pazienza ?

It’s true, folks. Here comes “the Paz.”

Not only that, but HBO is calling the proposed Dec. 5 Pazienza match with Julio Cesar Vasquez a co-feature with a James Toney bout.

Pazienza is a Providence, R.I., boxer with a large, vocal New England following--for reasons no one outside the region has ever fully understood.

In December of 1990, Pazienza was easily defeated by Loreto Garza in Sacramento, the usual result whenever Pazienza has a big fight.

Garza, who will never make anyone’s hall of fame, had a huge lead on all scorecards in the 11th round. Moreover, referee Larry Rozadilla had deducted two points from Pazienza for fouls.

That didn’t sit well with Pazienza’s father, Angelo, who sat at ringside and cursed Rozadilla throughout the match.

During the 11th round, a frustrated Pazienza picked Garza up and body-slammed him to the mat. Rozadilla disqualified Pazienza.

At that point, Pazienza had lost four of his previous 10 fights and two of his previous three. Pazienza had lost to Greg Haugen--he later beat Haugen twice--Roger Mayweather, Hector Camacho and Garza.

Then he decided not to retire. Having to make the junior-welterweight limit, 140 pounds, had been too tough, Pazienza said.

So he moved up two weight classes to junior-middleweight, 154 pounds. He won a piece of the junior-middleweight title, beating Gilbert Dele of France.

Then, nearly a year ago, Pazienza suffered a broken neck in an auto accident. He recovered, and doctors cleared him to fight on. HBO says it will build its show Dec. 5--that’s the same night as Don King’s triple-title fight pay-per-view show--around a 30-minute “life and times of Vinny Pazienza” theme.

Please. We’ve already seen the life and times of “the Paz.”