Notes on a Scorecard - Feb. 3, 1993

Now we segue from a Super Bowl that was decided by 35 points to a heavyweight championship fight that might not be that close. . . .

Riddick Bowe’s handlers can’t be blamed for lining up a “gimme” for his first defense of the title Saturday night, but it should have been someone a bit more formidable than Michael Dokes. . . .

Dokes is 34, overweight, and unranked among the top 10 contenders by the World Boxing Assn., World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation. . . .

Next up for Bowe, unfortunately, could be Ray Mercer, who fights Jesse Ferguson on the HBO undercard from Madison Square Garden. Mercer is the guy whose plans to challenge Evander Holyfield were foiled by youthful Larry Holmes. . . .

There might not be another competitive heavyweight title fight until Bowe-Lennox Lewis, whenever that comes off. . . .

Tickets for the Feb. 20 extravaganza at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City are priced from $850 to $1.50, U.S. currency. . . .

“The contracts for my fighters stipulated that their trunks had to be a different color from their opponents’,” Dan Goossen said. “Otherwise, the fans in the cheap seats in a stadium that holds 120,000 wouldn’t be able to tell the fighters apart.” . . .

Goossen’s interests include WBC super-welterweight champion Terry Norris, who defends his title on the pay-per-view TV card against Maurice Blocker; Greg Haugen, who challenges WBC super-lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez; and Gabriel Ruelas, who challenges WBC super-featherweight champion Azumah Nelson. . . .

Haugen and Ruelas are training in the high altitude of Big Bear along with Rafael Ruelas, who will fight North American Boxing Federation lightweight champion Jorge (Cocas) Ramirez Feb. 23 at the Country Club in Reseda. . . .

“Also, to get the fighters accustomed to the air quality in Mexico City, I’m having my brother Larry smoke in the gym,” Goossen said. . . .

Carlos Palomino Jr., son of the former welterweight champion, is having a good season for the basketball team at Albertson College, formerly known as College of Idaho. . . .

*

CBS, NBC, and ABC are thinking about getting back into the boxing business regularly. . . . The Anaheim and Miami NHL expansion franchises, neither of which have signed arena leases yet, have until March 1 to inform the league whether they will be ready to begin play next season or not until 1994-95. . . .

Awarding Las Vegas an International Hockey League expansion franchise is a real crapshoot. . . .

Luciano Borsato sounds more like the name of an opera singer than a Winnipeg Jet center. . . . Chances of Boomer Esiason being traded to the Raiders increase as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers insist they have no interest in Esiason, even though Tampa’s Sam Wyche coached him at Cincinnati. . . .

UCLA sports information director Marc Dellins has only fond memories of Troy Aikman. “He did everything we asked of him, but he never insisted upon being the center of attention,” Dellins said. . . .

Former Falcon coach Leeman Bennett is executive director of the host committee for Super Bowl XXVIII in Atlanta. . . .

After a disappointing season with the New York Mets, Bobby Bonilla has shed 20 pounds. . . .

The late Hank Iba, who made his mark as a basketball coach, coached the Oklahoma A&M; baseball team to a 79-37 record from 1935 to 1941. . . .

That reminds me that John Wooden, who loves the sport, might have made a terrific major league manager. . . .

Eric Karros, Shane Mack, Todd Zeile and Tim Leary will be among those playing for the UCLA alumni against the 14th-ranked varsity in a five-inning game Saturday at 1 p.m. at Jackie Robinson Stadium. . . .

San Francisco Giant Manager Dusty Baker plans to put Will Clark third, Matt Williams fourth and Barry Bonds fifth in the batting order. . . .

The Oakland Athletics, who signed third baseman Kevin Seitzer, are still making some of the good smaller moves that keep teams winning. . . .

Arnold Palmer, 63, has earned more prize money, $650,000, in four Senior Skins games than he has in the last four years on the senior tour. . . .

Before Tuesday night’s action, former Georgetown centers had blocked 352 shots in the NBA this season--Alonzo Mourning 141, Dikembe Mutombo 134, and Patrick Ewing 77. . . .

Former UCLA guard Gerald Madkins of the Grand Rapids Hoops was named Continental Basketball Assn. player of the week. . . .

Speculation that the Detroit Pistons will trade Isiah Thomas to the New York Knicks for Charles Oakley and Greg Anthony makes some sense, although there are the usual salary-cap problems. . . .

The next time the Chicago Bulls fall behind the Jazz by 20 points in Utah during the final minute of the third quarter on TNT, don’t touch your remote control.