BOXING / RICH TOSCHES : Extra Weight Results in Extra Cash

If you think Jenny Craig has a pretty good thing going in the pay-per-pound weight-loss business, wait until you get a load of Marty Jakubowski.

In Craig’s program, you pay her for the weight you lose.

But Jakubowski was paid $10,000 to let someone else keep a few pounds.

Of course, Craig isn’t involved in boxing.

Jakubowski, a little-known lightweight from Whiting, Ind., was chosen a few months ago to be a punching bag for World Boxing Council super-lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez last Sunday night on a card that featured a bunch of great fighters beating up on “opponents.”

The contract called for a 141-pound weight limit for the non-title fight. Jakubowski, who normally fights at 135 pounds, agreed. The $20,000 payday--about $18,000 more than he had made in any of his previous 37 fights--probably helped him reach that decision.

So he bulked up a few pounds and prepared for the thrashing of a lifetime.

Friday, two days before the fight, Chavez stepped on a scale.

And the scale read 150 .

Rather than punish himself for a day in a sauna and steam room, Chavez and promoter Don King had a better idea.

They would change the contract.

Shortly, there was a knock on Jakubowski’s door in the Mirage hotel. Standing in the hall were two of King’s representatives, new contract in hand. The new weight, they said, would be 146 pounds, five more than the original contract called for.

Jakubowski, no fool, told them to forget it.

“I pulled out my suitcase, started throwing clothes in it and told them I was going home,” Jakubowski said. “I wasn’t, but I convinced them I was.”

Within minutes, Jakubowski said, he had an extra $10,000. And Chavez got to keep an extra five pounds.

But now, there was another problem.

“I didn’t want to be embarrassed, weighing in 10 pounds lighter than Chavez,” Jakubowski said. “So to make it look good, I put four rolls of quarters in my socks and drank three milkshakes a half-hour before the weigh-in.”

The scale said 142 .

“I really weighed about 137 or 138, maybe,” Jakubowski said. “But I got an extra $10,000, so I’m not complaining. As it turned out, Chavez was just too big for me. Too strong. Too powerful.”

Before stopping Jakubowski with some devastating punches during the sixth round, Chavez was forced to chase the wildly circling Jakubowski for 15 minutes.

At least Jakubowski had the good sense to take the quarters out of his socks.

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Also on the card, along with nine minutes of WBC super-welterweight champion Terry Norris thumping Pat Lawlor on the head, Greg Haugen--who will fight Chavez in February--was matched against Armando Campas (16-7-2) of Bocobampo, Sonora, Mexico.

And whereas Chavez trained lightly for Jakubowski, Haugen trained not at all for Campas. Their contract called for a weight limit of 145 pounds. Haugen checked in at 150 at the weigh-in, and Campas, who had already been told the story of Jakubowski and his $10,000 bonus, figured it was his turn. He was getting only $4,000 to fight Haugen, and figured the figure was about to climb much, much higher.

Promoter Dan Goossen, who handles Haugen, sent one of his representatives to give Campas the bad news.

“I told him we’d give him an extra $200 to revise the contract to 147 pounds,” Goossen’s representative said. “He heard about Jakubowski and figured he’d try it. He said ‘Jakubowski gets $10,000. I want an extra $3,000 or I go home, too.’

“I told him to have a nice drive.”

But before Campas could pack for the return trip to Bocobampo, Haugen was hauled away, locked into a sauna and a steam room for three hours and emerged looking a bit hollow-eyed. Haugen weighed 145 pounds and defeated Campas, but it wasn’t easy.

Any sympathy for Campas?

“Jerk,” said the Goossen representative. “He blew $200.”

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Lightweight Oscar De La Hoya might get his first pro test on Jan. 3 when he fights Paris Alexander of San Francisco in a scheduled six-round bout at the Hollywood Palladium.

In his first two fights, De La Hoya overwhelmed Lamar Williams and Clifford Hicks, both of whom are accustomed to being overwhelmed. Williams (6-3) didn’t land a punch against De La Hoya before falling to the Forum canvas during the first round and staying there until the danger had passed. Hicks (13-7) did little more with De La Hoya last Saturday in Phoenix, also being stopped during the first round.

But Alexander’s 15-6-2 record has been against tough opponents. Alexander got one of his draws recently against highly regarded Frank Pena (14-0-1), who is No. 5 in the North American Boxing Federation rankings.

De La Hoya’s managers, Robert Mittleman and Steve Nelson, say they will not rush the 19-year-old Olympic gold medalist from East Los Angeles, but De La Hoya said he wants some tougher competition.

“The harder the opponents, the better I fight,” De La Hoya said. “I want the undefeated guys, the guys who think they’re going to beat this young kid. Then you’ll see the real Oscar De La Hoya.”

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WBA middleweight champion Reggie Johnson of Long Beach will fight No. 8 contender Kiyong Song of Seoul Jan. 19, possibly in Boise, Ida. Heavyweight Lionel Butler, managed by Lee Michaels of San Pedro and Bob Schoenbrun of Sherman Oaks, will seek his ninth consecutive knockout when he takes on former cruiserweight champion James Warring on the undercard.

Also fighting, in separate bouts, will be heavyweights Jimmy Ellis and former New York Jet defensive lineman Mark Gastineau. Promoter Dan Goossen hopes to match Ellis and Gastineau later in the year.