BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Ex-Olympian Jones Finally to Emerge

Roy Jones sat on a chair in a dark hallway, trying to make sense of what had happened to him.

It made no sense, of course. A worldwide audience had seen probably the biggest fraud in the history of Olympic boxing. Three judges ruled that South Korean Park Si-Hun had beaten Jones, not the other way around.

He didn’t cry, didn’t shout. He stayed cool. It was a classy act by a 19-year-old, one who had every right to send his fist through a door.

Then a reporter asked what he would do now with his life. His response best summed up the Roy Jones story from Seoul, in the summer of 1988:

“I’m going to go home and try to find a better sport to get into,” he said.

Jones went home to Pensacola, Fla., but he stayed with boxing. In fact, he was courted by nearly every prominent boxing manager and promoter.

But the boxer’s father, Roy Jones Sr., decided he would handle everything, and the boxing community’s reaction was uniform: “Uh-oh.”

Normally, a big talent from the Olympics signs with one of the sport’s two major promoters, the Duva operation in New Jersey or Bob Arum in Las Vegas.

But the Joneses decided to forgo the signing bonus, the guaranteed purses and the high-profile years of the young Olympian turning pro. Relatively few have seen Jones the last four years. He has boxed almost exclusively in Pensacola, building a 19-0 record.

He is high in everyone’s middleweight rankings, but many in the sport say that if Jones had been brought along by a big-time promoter, he would have a piece of the middleweight title by now.

He might get a second chance. The other day, Jones signed a three-fight deal with Arum. Finally, the boxer many called the most talented of the 1988 Olympians will receive exposure.

Arum will use Jones on his Dec. 5 tripleheader from Las Vegas, against Percy Harris (15-3). IBF middleweight champion James Toney will fight Doug DeWitt on that card--at super-middleweight--and Arum hopes to have a Toney-Jones title match in June.

“If Toney beats DeWitt, and he still wants to fight at 160, then we could have a Toney-Jones title fight,” Arum said.

Jones’ father apparently is out of his son’s career. Arum said the fighter’s father took no part in his recent negotiations with Jones, who was advised by Bernie Dillon, onetime executive for Donald Trump’s boxing operations in Atlantic City.

“Roy’s career was drifting,” Arum said. “It needed direction, and now he’s got it. If he’d made a deal with us in ‘88, he’d be more advanced by now. He definitely would have had a middleweight title by now. But he’s only 23. At most, he lost maybe a year.”

Jones’ biggest purse since turning pro was $50,000. Now he will earn, in order, $160,000, $210,000 and, for a June title fight, $800,000. If Jones should win his title fight, the contract will be extended for three more fights.

Jones’ career contrasts starkly with that of Oscar De La Hoya, the East Los Angeles Olympic champion of last summer who also signed recently with Arum.

De La Hoya will make his pro debut at the Forum Nov. 23. But after that, he goes to work for Arum: Dec. 12 in Phoenix and Jan. 3 in Mexicali, on an ESPN show.

There is also talk of De La Hoya appearing on a network telecast on Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 31.

De La Hoya, 19, had previously signed a management deal with Steve Nelson and Bob Mittleman of New York, one that paid him about $1 million, including a new house in Montebello, cars and cash.

Boxing Notes

Evander Holyfield’s manager, Shelly Finkel, on the pay-per-view prospects for the Nov. 13 Holyfield-Riddick Bowe heavyweight title fight: “The universe is between 20 and 21 million homes, but the first 16 to 17 million homes in that number will have a much higher buy rate than the last 4 or 5 million. Of the newer cable households, many of them don’t even know they have pay-per-view, or if they do, don’t know how to order it. We’re hoping for a 5% buy rate.”

Finals of the Diamond Belt amateur boxing tournament will be held tonight at Lincoln Park gym, 3501 Valley Blvd., Los Angeles. On Sunday, the Westminster Boxing Club, 14042 Locust St., Westminster, will put on an amateur boxing show. . . . Larry Ramirez’s San Bernardino super-heavyweight, David Bostice, is on the U.S. team that that will face a team from the Commonwealth of Independent States on Nov. 17 at Hershey, Pa.

HBO’s “heavyweight eliminator” fight, Razor Ruddock vs. Lennox Lewis, is set for Oct. 31, from Earl’s Court in London. The winner, according to plan, will fight the Holyfield-Bowe winner. But if that results in a Bowe-Ruddock bout, and Ruddock chooses to be represented by his promoter, Murad Muhammad, all bets are off--if you believe Bowe’s manager, Rock Newman.

“I don’t like Murad Muhammad and I will not do business with him,” Newman said, in a conference call this week with boxing writers. “Every time we’ve dealt with him in the past, he’s lied about everything. I’m saying this out front--we will not deal with him. If Bowe becomes the champion, and Ruddock wants a fight with Bowe, then he must send someone else to the table. Murad is a buffoon con man. Besides that, he’s a bum.”

Reggie Johnson will fight Lamar Parks in Houston on Tuesday for the WBA middleweight title on USA Cable. . . . Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Luis Villanueva, Harold Johnson, Sean O’Grady and George Latka will be the inductees at the World Boxing Hall of Fame’s banquet of champions Nov. 7 at the Los Angeles Marriott. A salute to former light-heavyweight champion Billy Conn is planned, featuring Carlos Palomino, Gene Fullmer, Joey Giardello, Willie Pep and Art Aragon. Conn is ill and will not attend. . . . Closing arguments are tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday in Dio Colome’s monthlong suit against the state of California in Los Angeles Superior Court. Colome, onetime prominent Southland welterweight boxer from the Dominican Republic, is suing for $25 million, claiming that flunking the state-required neurological exam for boxers in 1988 unfairly deprived him of substantial income in lost purses.

The New York Daily News has reported that, according to Don King’s former accountant, Joe Maffia, King short-changed Razor Ruddock’s promoter, Murad Muhammad, by as much as $6 million for Mike Tyson’s last two fights, both against Ruddock. . . . Former three-time champion Jeff Fenech of Sydney suffered a broken breastbone during a sparring session and will be unable to fight until January, his manager says. Fenech had been training for a Sunday featherweight match with Jimmy Garcia of Colombia when injured.

Eric Griffin, the U.S. light-flyweight whose quarterfinal defeat in Barcelona was the biggest upset at the Olympic boxing tournament, had a successful pro debut in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Griffin swarmed all over Sebastian Lopez in a scheduled four-rounder and Lopez didn’t answer the bell for the third round. Griffin, 108 pounds, earned $3,000. . . . WBA lightweight champion Joey Gamache will fight Sacramento’s Tony Lopez on NBC today in Lewiston, Me. . . . Costa Mesa junior-featherweight Rudy Zavala (17-1-1) will fight Freddie Hernandez (13-10) of Mexicali on the Todd Foster-Kelcie Banks ESPN card from Missoula, Mont., next Wednesday.