BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Unusual Knockout Punch Was Final Blow to Perez

It used to be, in the days when Gillette used a parrot named Sharpie to push razor blades on its Don Dunphy-called fight shows, that everyone understood what a knockout was.

But in subsequent decades, the distinction between a knockout and a technical knockout has become muddled. These days, a boxer can quit on his stool, or quit on his feet, and some record-keepers put it down in their ledgers as a KO.

But there was nothing phony about the knockout last Monday at the Forum.

It’s actually rare to see a boxer actually counted out by a referee. It happens maybe once in a few dozen fights. But to see a boxer counted out after a body punch . . . that happens maybe once in a couple of hundred fights.

That’s why those in the Forum crowd of 5,298 who saw it Monday will long recall the left hook to the ribs thrown by Genaro Hernandez to not only knock out Raul Perez but finish off his career, too.

In the eighth round, Hernandez, defending his World Boxing Assn. 130-pound championship, seemed on his way to a comfortable decision over Perez, who had once been a dominant bantamweight champion.

Hernandez’s principal attributes as a champion are his work habits--he’s always in superb condition--and his boxing skills. But never has anyone called him a big hitter.

At least, not until 2:11 of the eighth round Monday.

As the two were about to clinch, with Perez ducking his upper body, Hernandez suddenly dropped his left shoulder and came around with a long, powerful left hook.

Perez seemed frozen for a split second. Then he collapsed, face down. He was not only counted out, he didn’t even arise to a sitting position until 1 minute 20 seconds later.

Later, his manager and father-in-law, Romulo Quirarte, and his promoter, Nacho Huizar, announced that Perez, at 26 and with a record of 50-4-3, was finished.

It was a sad sight, at about 11 p.m. Monday, to see the weeping Perez walking up the Forum tunnel. You wonder if Perez’s toughest fights still lie ahead. He is a third-grade dropout who began spending his days in Tijuana gyms when he was 8.

Hernandez (28-0-1), a Mexican-American from first South-Central L.A. and now Mission Viejo, stands to earn as much as $400,000 against Oscar De La Hoya (8-0) in October at the Forum.

Both are from the Brooklyn Gym in Boyle Heights.

“We’ve sparred maybe 50 rounds in the past couple of years,” Hernandez said. “I know Oscar in the ring very well, and he knows me.”

Hernandez has told his manager, Nori Takatani, he wants two things to happen:

“I want to make sure I make as much money, or more, than Oscar does, and I don’t want them scheduling the weigh-in 24 hours before the fight,” he said.

“Oscar will have trouble making 130, and I want us to weigh in on the morning of the fight.”

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The media, particularly New York fight writers, are having trouble accepting the recent indictment there of heavyweight Ray Mercer.

Mercer is accused of offering a bribe Feb. 20 to his opponent, Jesse Ferguson, during their Madison Square Garden bout, on the undercard of the Riddick Bowe-Michael Dokes fight.

Investigators say Mercer can be heard offering journeyman Ferguson “a hundred grand” to “lay down.” Mercer, a heavy favorite, was having difficulty with Ferguson, and he eventually lost a decision.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office bases its case on HBO audio recordings of the fight. HBO taped the fight, but it was never aired.

But many who have interviewed Mercer ask the same question: “Ray Mercer can hardly be understood when he’s talking right in front of you. How could anyone understand him when he’s wearing a mouthpiece and in a noisy arena?”

But those who have heard the tapes say Mercer can be plainly heard offering a bribe.

Offering a bribe? During a fight?

Come on, guys. Isn’t this merely a form of taunting?

I mean, if Ferguson were dumb enough to have accepted such a proposition during the fight, how certain could he have been that Mercer wouldn’t stiff him afterward?

Also, as Ferguson took command of Mercer that night, Ferguson had to know that he might blow a heavyweight title fight with Riddick Bowe had he thrown the fight.

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More on Bob Arum’s plans to reopen the Olympic Auditorium:

--He says he had a recent two-hour meeting with Olympic owner Jack Needleman and “we didn’t disagree on anything.”

--He plans to move much of his Las Vegas staff to Los Angeles, and set up offices in a two-story office building near the Olympic. He also plans to build a state-of-the-art gym near the old arena.

--The barn door-size entryway to the building from the parking lot side will be opened as an indoor-outdoor restaurant.

--In addition to putting on a dozen ESPN shows, some HBO and pay-per-view shows in the Olympic, Arum says he will also have a monthly Univision boxing show, televised to all of Latin America.

--Arum said his first hire at the Olympic would be “a top-flight building manager.”

--The grand opening? “Around January, when everything is finished and perfect,” he said.

Boxing Notes

The June 7 Tommy Morrison-George Foreman fight will be replayed by ESPN Wednesday, Saturday and July 12. . . . Also on ESPN, heavyweights Jeremy Williams (9-0) and Frankie Swindell (28-9-1) will box Thursday in Biloxi, Miss.

President Juan Antonio Samaranch of the International Olympic Committee has agreed to allow amateur boxing to continue in the Olympic Games through 2000, amateur boxing officials are saying. In 1988, Samaranch told officials of the sport that if it didn’t clean up its scoring and officiating, boxing would be dropped after 1992. But because far fewer problems were encountered at the Barcelona tournament last summer, officials say boxing will be included on the 1996 and 2000 programs.

Promoter Peter Broudy will stage an outdoor card July 10 at the Maywood Park baseball stadium in Maywood, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Main event: Rene Arredondo vs. James Rivas.

George Foreman’s longtime friend and adviser, Bill Caplan, on the former champion’s financial portfolio: “George made $7 million June 7 against (Tommy) Morrison, and he just got $3 million this week, up-front money for doing commercials for three major firms. Then he’s got a guaranteed 13 weeks for his ABC sitcom, ‘George,’ which goes into production in August and for which he’ll get several million. And the latest is, he has an offer from Japan for at least $7 million to fight anyone. Right now, I’d say George has about $30 million in the bank.”

The Navy is considering dropping boxing as an interservice sport. USA Boxing is asking the Navy to retain the sport, pointing out that one member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team was a Navy man, Julian Wheeler, and that Wheeler and Sean Fletcher, another Navy boxer, competed in the recent amateur World Championships in Finland.

Southland amateur boxers competing in the U.S. Olympic Festival at San Antonio July 23-Aug. 1: Frank Carmona and Carlos Navarro, Los Angeles; Guillermo Moreno, Beaumont; Lance Whitaker, Northridge; Reginald Blackmon, San Diego. . . . Undefeated Mexican national super-flyweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera will fight Elio Dominguez of Los Angeles July 12 at the Forum.