Payne Won 1 Fight, Then Lost 6 Years : Comeback Continues Tonight Against Butler

Craig Payne was pain to anyone who stepped into the boxing ring with him, a huge, swift and powerful heavyweight whose career seemed headed for the stars in 1983 after he whacked around and defeated young amateur Mike Tyson and then knocked off amateur legend Teofilo Stevenson of Cuba, a three-time Olympic gold medalist.

He lost a close decision to Tyrell Biggs in the final match of the 1984 Olympic boxing trials and turned pro as the U.S. team went on to fame in the Los Angeles Games. In his first pro fight, Payne battered Cleveland Ingram, knocking him out in the second round. At the same time, Tyson and Biggs and other heavyweights with great promise were launching their pro careers. But Payne was thought to be better than any of them, a 240-pound monster and a solid bet to rise quickly and challenge for the heavyweight championship of the world.

In 1991, on a steaming-hot Midwestern day six years after his first pro fight, Payne drove up to trainer Paul Soucy’s gym in Livonia, Mich., in a big pickup truck loaded with construction tools and concrete blocks.

Weight: 380 pounds, nearly one-fifth of a ton.

No, not the truck.

Craig Payne.

“I had let myself go,” Payne said.

Where he went mostly was to the front of the buffet line and through the door of the bakery several times a day. Six years after Payne’s first pro fight and the start of a much-anticipated career, his record stood at 1-0. After knocking out Ingram in his pro debut, Payne walked away. He intended never to fight again. Boxing politics, he says, drove him away. Too many trainers, managers and promoters swarming around him, lopping off chunks of him at every turn, wanting too much.

“I was fed up with it all,” Payne said. “Too many people. Too many demands. So I retired and started a construction company.”

But in 1991, at age 30, six years after he walked away, he walked back. Well, he waddled back . . . to Soucy, the only trainer he ever trusted.

“He dropped out of life, really,” Soucy said. “There were too many hands in the pot and he didn’t know which way to turn. We drifted apart. When he came back, I was shocked. He weighed 380 pounds! I couldn’t believe it. But I know that underneath all of that weight was a great fighter, a huge amount of talent. And he started fighting again.”

The road back winds through Reseda tonight as Payne takes on a heavyweight with perhaps an equally odd story, Lionel Butler of Van Nuys, in the main event at the Country Club.

Butler began his career in 1989 and, unlike Payne, never lost interest in boxing. What he did lose, however, was most of his fights. After five pro fights, Butler was 1-4 and had been knocked out three times. After 16 fights he was 6-10 and if his career were headed downhill any faster, it would have needed a parachute larger than the one that slows the space shuttle on the runway after its return to Earth.

But Butler signed a contract with Ten Goose Boxing of Van Nuys late in 1991 and, under the training of Joe Goossen, has reeled off nine consecutive victories, eight by knockout, including a first-round demolition of former world champion Tony Tubbs last year. Despite his 15-10 record, his extraordinary recovery from a career gone wrong prompted the World Boxing Council to rank Butler No. 14 in its most recent ratings and, according to promoter Dan Goossen, Butler might fight either George Foreman or Tommy Morrison (who fight each other in May) during the summer.

But first, there is Payne, who will weigh about 290 pounds in tonight’s fight. Butler, who will enter at about 235 pounds, says the bigger the better.

“I wish the guy weighed 400 pounds,” Butler said. “I love fighting the big guys. I remember Craig fighting long before I ever boxed, back when he beat Tyson and Stevenson. But that was a long, long time ago. Now he’s just another guy I’ve got to knock out to get where I’m going. He’s 290 pounds? Or 300 pounds? Bring him to me. Those guys are so easy to hit. I’ll whack him out in a few rounds.”

Payne could get knocked out by Butler, a heavy puncher with 11 knockouts in his 15 victories, but in his interrupted 10-fight career Payne has not even been knocked down.

He is 7-2-1, having lost decisions to unknown Tyrone Evans a year ago and to former world champion Pinklon Thomas in his most recent bout, in November.

“What I have going for me is that I still have the skills I had when I quit boxing, and I’ve never done drugs or anything like that,” Payne said. “I feel so much stronger than ever before, and as I drop the weight the speed will come back too.

“The thing is, I never got to see what might have been. I never found out how good I could have been or how far I could have gone. Now I’ve got a second chance.

“I gave away some good years, but they weren’t wasted years, all drugged out like a lot of fighters. I just went in another direction.”

Another advantage to having lived the working man’s life for six years, Payne said, is that boxing money will be much appreciated.

“I found out what it was like to have to work hard and earn an honest dollar,” he said. “If I get back into the heavyweight picture and start making some good money, you better believe I won’t blow it. I’ll invest it and take care of it. But first, there’s Lionel Butler. I know that I can’t afford any more losses.”

In another bout on tonight’s card, North American Boxing Federation flyweight champion Miguel Martinez (22-5-1) of Tijuana will defend his title against Eduardo Ramirez (24-10-1) of Mexico City.

Also scheduled to fight is bantamweight Wayne McCullough of Belfast, Northern Ireland, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist, along with middleweight P.J. Goossen (7-0) and lightweight Chuck Goossen (1-0) of North Hollywood.

P.J. and Chuck Goossen are nephews of Dan and Joe Goossen.

The card begins at 6:15.