BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Paez Might Still Be a Clown, but Now He Has a Serious Side

Lost on the undercard of the March 13 classic between Michael Carbajal and Humberto Gonzalez was an eight-round victory by Jorge Paez over Ramon Felix.

Paez, the zany clown-boxer from Mexicali who shaves “Use condoms” into his hair before his fights and then often throws condoms to the crowd, is actually, at 27, finally turning into a pretty good fighter.

For years, Paez has fought undisciplined, off-the-wall bouts, running out of gas at the finish, winning or losing close fights.

John Jackson, the Forum boxing president who has a promotional interest in Paez’s career, called one of boxing’s most respected trainers, Alex Sherer, the man who guided Thomas Hearns to his 1991 victory over Virgil Hill, and asked Sherer how he felt about working with Paez.

“I told John I felt Jorge had ability, but that I believed he’d never been in good boxing shape and that I’d never seen him fight with a game plan,” Sherer said.

In March, after five weeks in the gym with Sherer, Paez fought smoothly, purposefully, and seemed as strong in the eighth round, when he stopped Felix, as he had been in the first.

“He had never worked like I worked him,” Sherer said.

“I could tell that by looking at him. His arms and upper body were soft. Right now, after every boxing workout, I’ve got him doing 220 sit-ups, in sets of 30, with 25 seconds’ rest between each.

“Then he does 150 to 200 push-ups, 10 or 15 to a set.

“Jorge didn’t like me much at first,” said Sherer, who trains Paez at the La Habra Boxing Club.

“But he has since admitted to me he’d never been in good shape before this. To tell the truth, I don’t know how in the world he ever made featherweight (126 pounds).”

Paez (43-5-4) can get yet another championship match if he beats Jesse Torres (13-4-3) on Tuesday night at the Forum. (The fight was delayed from Monday because of a possible conflict with the Kings in the NHL.) He has been promised a July 17 bout with lightweight champion Freddy Pendleton at Caesars Palace.

Paez, who is also a clown in his family’s traveling Mexican circus, speaks only Spanish. Sherer speaks only English. The translator is Oscar Garcia, who often exercises discretion as to what is actually said.

Of the hundreds of sit-ups and push-ups, Sherer said: “I’m sure Jorge has blasphemed me a couple of times, but it wasn’t translated. If it had been, I would have had Oscar tell him, ‘I love you, too, Jorge.’ ”

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The silly gamesmanship between the managers of Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis continues. Dan Duva, Lewis’ promoter, faxed a “Top Ten Reasons Why Rock Newman and Riddick Bowe, a.k.a. the Brooklyn Dodger, Have Made Yet Another Bogus Offer for a Bowe-Lewis Fight.”

Actually, the smart guys might have outsmarted themselves on this one. Newman, Duva and Lewis’ London manager, Frank Maloney, should have made the fight months ago. Or, at least before Lewis got into the ring against Tony Tucker.

Lewis was exposed last Saturday in Las Vegas as a flawed pretender to the heavyweight championship. The World Boxing Council will continue to call Lewis its heavyweight champion, but nearly everyone else in the sport perceives Bowe as the undisputed champion, and Lewis as a very ordinary heavyweight.

All Lewis did Saturday in his 12-round decision over a strangely uninspired Tucker was establish himself as a big underdog to Bowe, should they ever meet with gloves on.

Lewis showed he had a serviceable right hand, and not much else. He didn’t even seem to like to fight much. He backed up at least half a step whenever Tucker even looked as if he was about to throw a punch.

Gone now is the luster Lewis acquired with his spectacular, two-round knockout of Razor Ruddock last October. Instead, he has been seen against a 33-year-old, fighting for his life at times, fighting passively, avoiding contact.

Bowe will take Lewis apart in sections. Call it a two-round fight.

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Norm Kaplan, the Los Angeles attorney who manages San Fernando heavyweight Alex Garcia, says Garcia might get a spot on the Lewis-Frank Bruno card planned for London in September.

“The hope is, Alex would then get a shot at Lewis’ WBC title late this year,” Kaplan said.

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Here is why boxing people believe the June 7 George Foreman-Tommy Morrison fight will be Foreman’s last:

ABC has bought 13 episodes of Foreman’s situation comedy, “George,” and the series will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturdays, beginning in November.

In the show, Foreman plays a retired boxer who begins an after-school program for troublesome students at a junior high where his wife is a guidance counselor.

Boxing Notes

The Forum has re-signed Genaro Hernandez vs. Raul Perez for June 28. Their match last month lasted 28 seconds. The two fighters hit heads and Perez suffered a cut over his brow that caused the bout to be stopped, Hernandez retaining his junior-lightweight title on a technical draw.

A bill may soon be introduced in the state assembly that would require pro boxers to submit medical documentation showing they are HIV-free in order to obtain a California boxing license. . . . Bill Cayton says his heavyweight, Jeremy Williams, showed he is ready for a top-20 heavyweight after his sensational two-round knockout of Dannell Nicholson at Stateline, Nev., last Saturday. Two other promising young heavyweights, Buster Mathis Jr., and Shannon Briggs, have refused to fight his 9-0 phenom, Cayton said.

Lennox Lewis didn’t sell many tickets last Saturday. Although about 15,000 were in the Thomas & Mack Center, paid attendance was actually only 8,988. Live gate: $2,551,406.

Many ringsiders, including this one, thought Nevada referee Mitch Halpern botched a count when undercard heavyweight King Ipitan knocked 266-pound Sam Adkins out of the ring last Saturday at Thomas & Mack. Adkins landed on top of pay-per-view announcers Ferdie Pacheco and Steve Albert, then hit the floor. He required about 20 seconds to crawl back into the ring, at which point Halpern began an eight-count. “The fight’s over!” many boxing writers yelled. Wrong. In Nevada and California, a boxer can use all the time he needs to climb back into the ring, where he then must receive a mandatory eight-count. However, the referee can begin a count at any time if he believes the out-of-the-ring boxer is stalling for time.

The Eddie Heredia Youth Boxing Club is conducting a USA Boxing Junior Olympic tournament today and Sunday at Eugene Obregon County Park in Los Angeles, at 4021 E. First St.