BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Carbajal Won’t See His Father, but He Will Feel His Spirit

They took down the wooden ring in Michael Carbajal’s back yard last weekend.

Now, stacks of lumber lie against the back wall and the ring’s outline remains etched into the ground where it stood.

“It took a long time to take down,” says the man who built it, Danny Carbajal, Michael’s brother and trainer. “I made sure it would last.”

The sun-baked ring behind his house was part of the Carbajal legend, put up years ago in this crime-infested downtown neighborhood, and used almost continuously through heat and hard times.

Along with a tiny ring jammed inside a back-yard shack, this was where the Carbajals worked to make Michael an Olympian and International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council light-flyweight world champion.

But, only days before Carbajal’s defense of his titles against Domingo Sosa tonight at the nearby America West Arena, the ring came down.

“It was just too painful to see it there,” Danny Carbajal says. “We’d look at it and see Dad. That’s where Dad was, where he’d sit every day, right next to the ring. Every day. He’d always be there.”

“I couldn’t look at that ring without remembering he was gone. I had to take it down.”

Manuel Carbajal, the man who taught all nine of his children to box--including the girls--died of a heart attack a few months ago, leaving Michael and Danny to continue without him.

And they do that, despite the money and the titles, much as they always have. They live in side-by-side houses, right where they grew up. They stay in Phoenix unless it is absolutely necessary to leave--this will be Carbajal’s 12th Phoenix-area fight. They still train close by, having recently transformed an abandoned church across the street into the Carbajal 9th Street Gym.

But, for the first time, the brothers are facing a fight without their father in the crowd shouting for them, and they are not exactly sure what to expect.

“It’s going to be a little strange that he’s not going to be there,” Michael Carbajal says. “He’s always been there. But I think it’s something that’s going to make me a lot stronger.

“When I’m working out, it’s something where there’s a surge of energy that comes into me when I think of him. It seems like he’s there, inside, just pushing me, like he did when he was alive. He’s there for me.”

Says Danny Carbajal: “I was kind of worried when we started training. I told (Michael) if I see something different, if I don’t see enthusiasm, if I don’t see you keeping your head in it, I’m calling this fight off.

“I didn’t know how it was going to affect him. None of us did. I didn’t know how I was going to be. Could I concentrate? Could I concentrate on Mike?

“If there was a lack of concentration, we weren’t going to go through with it. But when we started the training, it was the same. It didn’t change.

“It’s like he was always there, but now, he’s there even more so because you know you’re not going to see him but he’s still here in your heart. That means a lot more.”

Oscar De La Hoya, who is fighting on the undercard and knows Carbajal well, says he has no doubt that the light-flyweight will fight spectacularly.

“He has that look in his eye that he wants to destroy the person he fights,” De La Hoya says. “When I went into the ring for the first time after my mother died, I had this anger. I wanted to go right through the guy in front of me.

“I think he has that now after his father died.”

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Carbajal, though he plays down the suggestion, already is fighting for his piece of history as one of the best and most popular fighters the lighter weight divisions have produced.

When he emerged from the 1988 Olympics, Carbajal wanted to be a multi-division champion, moving up to the 112-pound division and possibly higher. But, at 26, he still isn’t comfortable at more than 108 pounds and is happy to continue dominating that division.

According to his promoter, Bob Arum, Carbajal’s purse tonight will be more than $1 million--the highest ever for so light a fighter.

Should he succeed tonight against Sosa and record his 30th victory without a defeat, Carbajal hopes to move quickly into a rematch of his pulsating seventh-round knockout of Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez last March.

Preliminary talks are under way for a February rematch, probably in Las Vegas, the Carbajals say.

Boxing Notes

After a lot of bombast and some tentative plans to put Oscar De La Hoya’s first title shot in the Sports Arena, promoter Bob Arum has switched gears and said he is all but committed to staging it at the renovated Olympic Auditorium. The HBO card, set for Feb. 4 or 5, would reopen the Olympic and feature De La Hoya fighting Genaro Hernandez, World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion, providing a deal can be struck with Hernandez, and another world title fight.

Arum, who had been complaining that renovations at the Olympic were not happening fast enough, says recent indications are that the building will be ready. Arum believes he can make up for the smaller capacity by charging higher prices for premium seats at the Olympic.

“I really believe now that it’s going to get done,” Arum said. “The chemistry of Oscar’s first title fight and the reopening of that great building makes it a magical event.” Olympic owner Jack Needleman, whose three sons have recently taken over most of the responsibilities for the building, said new seats are scheduled to be installed in December.

Hernandez, though, still is far from agreeable to the terms offered by the De La Hoya camp. Los Angeles’ only current world champion is unhappy with his proposed purse--apparently less than $500,000--and demands that De La Hoya’s handlers have options on him if he defeats De La Hoya. Hernandez is asking for about $650,000 and no options. His manager, Nori Takatani, said that a final decision on whether to pursue the February fight will probably be made by Wednesday.

Paul Gonzales, 1984 Olympic gold medalist, won his first fight in two years Thursday night with a 10-round unanimous decision over Henry Lopez in a super-bantamweight bout at the Irvine Mariott. Gonzales improved to 17-4 with three knockouts. He weighed 123 pounds.

James Toney, International Boxing Federation super-middleweight champion who won a unanimous decision over Tony Thornton on the Tommy Morrison-Michael Bentt undercard Friday night in Tulsa, said he hopes to fight IBF middleweight champion Roy Jones Jr. in May or June. Toney and Jones are scheduled to share a card Jan. 14, Jones possibly fighting the recently deposed WBA champion, Reggie Johnson.

At the Forum last Monday, Troy Waters’ devastating sixth-round knockout of Wangila Napunyi, who won the welterweight gold medal in the 1988 Olympics when his name was Robert Wangila, was a major setback for Napunyi. He was a glittering prospect after knocking out everybody he faced in Seoul, but has struggled recently. His record fell to 21-4. Waters (21-3) displayed the same power he showed when he stunningly put Terry Norris on the canvas last June--Norris got up and later knocked Waters out--and badly wants rematch with Norris.

Ten Goose Boxing is mourning Sarah Watson, 35, who died of cancer last week. She was an assistant to Dan Goossen, president of Ten Goose, which is seeking to set up a trust fund for her children.