BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Foreman Friend Worries About Fight

Next Saturday night, in Reno, George Foreman will fight Pierre Coetzer of South Africa in the 75th fight of Foreman’s career.

So far, the promotion is going smoothly. Almost everyone is saying the right things.

Certainly Foreman, who will turn 44 on Sunday, is saying all the right things. He says he is in the best shape of his career.

Foreman’s manager, Ron Weathers, is saying all the right things, too. Weathers says Foreman did not train properly last April, which is why he barely defeated Alex Stewart in Las Vegas.

But Foreman’s close friend, Bill Caplan, isn’t saying the right things.

Caplan says he is worried about his old pal in this fight, and minces no words.

Caplan, who works in Los Angeles for a dental insurance firm, goes back to almost day one with Foreman. On a December night in 1967, Caplan was the ring announcer at the Oakland Auditorium when Foreman, then 18, fought a three-round amateur match--and lost.

“I walked back to the dressing room after the card that night, and Foreman was sitting on a rubdown table, slumped over with his head hanging down,” Caplan recalled.

“I slapped him on the shoulder and told him: ‘Don’t worry, George, you’re going to be a good fighter some day.’

“At the time, I had no idea he’d be a heavyweight champion. I’d never heard of him until that night. No one had ever heard of him then. Well, the following summer he won the Olympic gold medal with about 18 fights under his belt.”

Caplan and Foreman became pals and Caplan has been sort of a publicist-aide de camp during Foreman’s career. But Caplan is markedly different from most in any boxer’s retinue. He has never been a yes man. He tells Foreman what he thinks.

And he thinks there is “great Angst “ among those close to Foreman over the Coetzer fight. “I’m very concerned about George in this fight,” he said.

“Here’s how I see it: George hasn’t fought since April, and that was physically the most demanding fight of his career. He turns 44 soon. And he recently put most of his energy over a 2 1/2-week period into a TV pilot project.

“He trained during that time, at the studio, but I watched him and my observation is he didn’t train as hard as he normally would.

“I think George will win the fight, but I think it’ll be a tough fight for him. He’s my friend, and I’m concerned about him. And I told him so.”

Not to worry, advises Foreman.

“I’m in better shape now than I was for the Holyfield fight (April 19, 1991, when he lost a unanimous decision),” he said.

“I made a commitment to myself after the Holyfield fight to get myself one more title shot,” Foreman added. “I thought it’d come before now, though.

“Holyfield fought around me. Rock Newman (new champion Riddick Bowe’s manager) made a verbal commitment to fight me, but now they’re fighting around me.

“We’ll see what happens. I won’t wait any past this year, though.”

Opinion: By feeding Oscar De La Hoya a steady stream of outclassed opponents, the handlers of the young Olympic champion are running a risk.

De La Hoya’s concentration might soften before co-managers Steve Nelson and Bob Mittleman decide to match him with someone who can challenge him.

De La Hoya, 19, is a rare talent, whose ability so far overmatched his first three opponents that the bouts were closer to theater than competition. Already, ringsiders are booing the opponents at De La Hoya’s fights. They should be booing Nelson and Mittleman.

At this stage of his pro career, De La Hoya should be challenged, not given a false sense of his ability. That’s exactly what cost Mike Tyson the heavyweight championship in Tokyo three years ago.

“I had too many easy fights and it got to my head,” Tyson told The Times three months later. “I got to the point where I thought all of those guys were going to keep falling over for me.”

It’s also instructive to remember that 1976 Olympic champion Leon Spinks, in his eighth pro fight, defeated Muhammad Ali and won the heavyweight title.

Lesson to be learned: Most Olympic gold medalists are world-class pros, coming out of the blocks.

Come on, guys. Knock it off with the preliminaries. Put the kid in there with a champion, or at least someone who can fight.

Handlers of Frank Pena, the Las Vegas lightweight who had that exciting six-round draw with Ben Lopez at the Palladium last Sunday, have filed a complaint with the California Athletic Commission.

Referee Lou Moret penalized Pena a point because his handlers couldn’t find his mouthpiece shortly before the sixth round began, delaying the start of the round.

But Akbar Muhammad, Pena’s manager, says it was ESPN’s fault, not that of Pena’s trainer, Ken Adams.

“The ESPN woman who was holding that boom microphone hit Frank on the shoulder with it, then it bounced off him and hit Kenny’s hands and made him drop the mouthpiece,” Muhammad said.

“It landed in Frank’s lap, but the mouthpiece was black and his trunks were dark purple. They just couldn’t see it. When Frank stood up to start the round, it fell on the floor.”

The one-point deduction, as it turned out, cost Pena a victory.

If Muhammad is right and the commission awards Pena the victory, it will be because of a miscue by a network that has given not only Pena and Lopez valuable exposure, but hundreds of other young boxers as well.

Boxing Notes

In the aftermath of Riddick Bowe’s shedding his World Boxing Council heavyweight championship title--the WBC tried to take it, but Bowe beat them to the punch by dumping his WBC belt in a trash can--WBC president Jose Sulaiman says that his organization was “the first to rate Bowe in the first 10 of the world.” Nonsense. The sport’s most objective rankings, published by Boxing Illustrated, had Bowe in the top 10 in 1990. And for Sulaiman to trumpet his ratings over anyone else’s is hypocrisy on the order of Jesse James campaigning for gun control. The WBC, to cite one example, does not rate Pernell Whitaker--perhaps the world’s greatest boxer--in its junior-welterweight rankings--not even in the top 30.

Joe Maffia, the onetime accountant for Don King who last fall accused his former boss of ripping off Mike Tyson and fellow promoter Murad Muhammad for $11 million, says a statistical analysis of promoter payouts shows King doesn’t measure up to his competition when it comes to boxers’ purses. In payouts from domestic TV and live-gate ticket sales in 1991, Bob Arum promotions paid 101.5% to boxers, Dan Duva 92.1% and King 54.2%. Maffia said his data are from official purse sheets from 95 shows filed with commissions in Nevada and New Jersey.

USA Boxing has posted a job opening. It is looking for a full-time national coach to oversee U.S. Olympic boxing developmental programs and to supervise international competition selection procedures for boxers and coaches. The position was formerly held by three-time U.S. Olympic Coach Pat Nappi, who resigned last summer.

The International Boxing Federation apparently didn’t learn a thing from California’s attempt to establish a pension plan for boxers. Years after it started, the California plan became a hopeless mess. In the California Athletic Commission offices in Sacramento, there is a box full of returned pension mailings, all marked “addressee unknown.” Nevertheless, effective March 1, boxers in IBF title fights must contribute to a mandatory pension fund.

Upcoming: David Kamau vs. Tim Brooks, and Ysaias Zamudio vs. Abner Barajas, Monday at the Forum; George Foreman vs. Pierre Coetzer and Tommy Morrison vs. Carl Williams, Jan. 16 at Reno; Victor Rabanales vs. Dio Andujar, Jan. 25 at the Forum; Riddick Bowe vs. Michael Dokes, Feb. 6 at New York; Oscar De La Hoya vs. Curtis Strong, Feb. 6 at San Diego; Iran Barkley vs. James Toney, Feb. 13 at Las Vegas; Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Greg Haugen, Gabe Ruelas vs. Azumah Nelson, and Terry Norris vs. Maurice Blocker, Feb. 20 at Mexico City; Michael Carbajal vs. Humberto Gonzalez, Oscar De La Hoya vs. Jeff Mayweather, March 13 at Las Vegas.

The scheduled Jan. 30 Hector Camacho-Edwin Rosario rematch at San Juan, Puerto Rico, was canceled. Camacho changed his mind after signing for the match, telling King he would fight anyone in the world except Rosario. The Michael Nunn-Victor Cordoba rematch, also scheduled for that San Juan show, was moved to Memphis and will be held Jan. 30.