BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : He Takes a Licking, Keeps Ticking

Dan Goossen pondered the question thoughtfully, then said, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

He had shamelessly stolen a famous line from Mark Twain, but it made his point.

Fast-moving rumors had the Van Nuys boxing manager and promoter all but semi-comatose.

One had him broke, bankrupt, out of boxing and about to get into the vegetable-processing business.

Goossen says he has survived hard times before and will again. Goossen was knocked flat in 1990, for instance, when his middleweight champion, Michael Nunn, stiffed him.

Goossen has been reeling since junior-middleweight champion Terry Norris signed a seven-month contract with Don King and Showtime. Goossen had been promoting Norris’ fights, but Norris bolted when King offered him $5 million for four fights.

Norris could rejoin Goossen after his King deal expires, but what’s important to Goossen now is now.

“Sure, we’re hurting right now,” he said.

“We’ve had to lay off some people. It’s tough. But we’ll be back. I don’t like to lose. I want to be the top boxing promoter in the business--and while the other guys are still breathing, not when they’re retired.”

Things have been worse, though.

“Losing Nunn was much tougher than this,” he said. “When Nunn walked, we had no other fighters. Now, we still have the Ruelas kids (brothers Rafael and Gabe), Reggie Johnson (one of the middleweight champions), Hector Lopez (a ranked junior-welterweight), Frank Liles (a ranked super-middleweight) and, if he cleans up his act, a top-10 heavyweight, Lionel Butler.”

Butler, a Mike Tyson look-alike, was rolling along with a 12-bout winning streak, then tested positive for marijuana after his last fight. He is on indefinite suspension and if he returns to Goossen, he will be subject to random testing.

Goossen’s blue chips are the Ruelas brothers. Pay-per-view boxing people use terms like Super Bowl to describe the pull of Latino boxing champions fighting one another.

“The numbers that Chavez-Camacho and Carbajal-Gonzalez did was a revelation to everyone in boxing,” Goossen said.

When Michael Carbajal and Humberto Gonzalez fought in March, the telecast was bought by 147,000 households at an average price of $21. The buy rate was just under 1%. Their fight ranks 27th on the all-time PPV rankings, as compiled by the industry Bible, the Pay Per View Newsletter.

Good numbers for heavyweights . . . and these guys are 108-pounders.

The Julio Cesar Chavez-Hector Camacho fight last September nearly filled the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. It ranks ninth, all time, with 740,000 buys and a 3.7% buy rate.

Rafael Ruelas is rated the No. 1 lightweight contender by nearly everyone and will get a championship match in the fall.

And Gabe Ruelas is ranked the No. 1 junior-lightweight contender by the World Boxing Council, even after losing last February to champion Azumah Nelson . . . and even while recovering from a stubborn hand injury suffered during that fight.

He’s like his manager-promoter--down but not out.

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Speaking of Goossen, his World Boxing Assn. middleweight champion, Reggie Johnson, will fight Julian Jackson in the fall, date and site to be determined. The winner gets Terry Norris, Goossen said.

And almost as soon as the announcement was made that a hand injury had pushed Oscar De La Hoya off next Saturday’s pay-per-view show in Las Vegas, Goossen moved Rafael Ruelas into the spot to box tough veteran Darryl Tyson.

And the International Boxing Federation has notified Jorge Paez and Freddie Pendleton that the winner of their match on that card must sign to fight Ruelas within 90 days or be stripped of the title.

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Giggle of the Week Award to promoter Dan Duva: “Waiting for Riddick Bowe to fight a legit contender is like leaving the porch light on for Jimmy Hoffa.”

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Lennox Lewis’ manager, Frank Maloney, says his heavyweight has agreed to scrap plans for a British showdown with Frank Bruno and instead will fight Tommy Morrison in Las Vegas in the fall.

Maloney said the two-fight deal also assures Lewis a match with Evander Holyfield in the spring. And a title unification match with Bowe is another possibility.

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The state Attorney General’s office is taking a look at the Boxers and Wrestlers’ Fund, a trust set up in 1939 to aid injured or otherwise troubled boxers.

Both California Athletic Commission Chairman Bill Eastman and his executive officer, Richard DeCuir, say the trust, which has a balance of $252,622, should be used to help boxers such as Johnny Chavez. The Azusa boxer suffered torn retinas in both eyes in a match last November and has medical bills now approaching $70,000.

Contributions to the Boxers and Wrestlers’ Fund by boxers, promoters and managers, stopped in 1984 when the state required promoters to carry insurance to protect boxers.

“The trustees of that fund are still under the obligation to use that money for professional boxers,” DeCuir said.

“Just because boxers no longer contribute to the fund does not negate the obligation of the trustees to use the money for the reasons originally intended.”

Said Eastman: “I’m taking the approach that it’s boxers’ money, and we have legal counsel looking at it.”

The fund’s president is Gordon del Faro, a former state boxing commissioner. He said he and the other officers of the fund want to use the money for a youth amateur boxing club.

He also denied assertions that the fund has done nothing but accumulate interest since 1984.

“It’s just not true,” he said. “We helped out (boxer) Bobby Chacon when he was down and out and we helped out Harry Kabakoff (promoter and manager) when he was going through a rough time, too.”

Boxing Notes

He’s 6 feet 6, 235 pounds--and 34 years old. So why turn pro now? “It’s time to see what I’m made of,” says Mark Connolly, who will make his pro debut in a four-rounder Monday at the Forum. He’s the son of Hal and Olga Connolly, who both won Olympic gold medals, Hal in the hammer throw and Olga in the discus. Says Mark’s manager, Larry Williams: “Mark’s only weakness is he hasn’t had any pro fights. Guys who’ve held mitts for him tell me he hits as hard as (George) Foreman.”

Kennedy McKinney, still unbeaten (23-0-1) as a pro since winning a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics, will defend his International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight championship July 17 against Costa Mesa’s Rudy Zavala (21-1-1) in Memphis. McKinney won the title by knocking out Welcome Ncita in Italy last December and defended it once, against Richard Duran in April in Sacramento. Zavala has lost only to Jesus Salud.

If you’re wondering what happened to the Thursday ESPN boxing show from Biloxi, Miss., it’s kind of a windy story. Red-hot heavyweight Jeremy Williams (9-0) of Long Beach was to have boxed on the card, in a 4,000-seat tented arena at the President Casino. But three hours before the telecast, a windstorm blew through Biloxi, taking the tent with it. The show was canceled.

Charles Murray makes the first defense of his IBF junior-welterweight championship July 24 against Juan La Porte at Atlantic City. . . . Sacramento rumor: Look for a “big name” boxing figure to land a seat on the Athletic Commission soon. . . . The Nevada legislature has found money to pay an executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. Salary: $53,000. Mark Ratner, who has held the post as a part-timer since the death of Chuck Minker in 1992, is believed to be the leading candidate. . . . Los Angeles trainer Art Miles is raving about his two new prospects, heavyweight Damon Saurberry of St. Louis and junior-lightweight Juan Lazcano of El Paso. Saurberry, 23, will make his pro debut July 21 at Reseda. Lazcano, 18, is “the perfect prospect,” Miles said.