Mullen’s New Career Carries a Footnote

A wave of pride swept over Jim Mullen. He just had to let everyone within earshot know.

So, on his way home from a fight in Bakersfield 16 months ago, he rolled down the passenger-side window of the car in which he was riding, popped his head out into the dry night air, and proclaimed himself, “Heavyweight champion of the world!”

And he was. To be exact, he was World Kickboxing Assn. amateur heavyweight champion.

Not bad for a guy who doctors once said would be wheelchair-bound with rheumatoid arthritis by the age of 30. Next on the agenda was a professional kickboxing career, one Mullen was convinced would provide comfort and financial security for himself and his toddler son, Trace.

He didn’t know then that his professional kickboxing career would last one bout.

“There’s no money in (kickboxing) and the abuse on your body is tremendous,” Mullen said this week from the comfort of the living room of his Simi Valley townhome. And so he started a new career, one he says is potentially more lucrative and also easier on his chronically arthritic knees.

He is a professional boxer. Gloved fists only. No kicking allowed.

Tonight, Mullen boxes professionally for the fifth time, meeting Obed Sullivan (4-1, three knockouts) in a scheduled six-round event on the undercard of a six-bout show at the Warner Center Marriott. P.J. Goossen (12-0, 11 knockouts) of Palmdale faces Irish Pat Lawlor (20-5, six knockouts) in the 10-round main event.

“Same goal, little different sport,” Mullen said. “But I still see myself going right to the top.”

Six feet and 212 pounds, Mullen, 25, lacks the dominant physical presence of many top heavyweights.

His pectoral muscles need tuning and he is flabby around the middle, remnants he said, of an adolescence in which he weighed as much as 280 pounds.

“When my parents divorced, I turned to food,” Mullen said.

Martial arts, which he studied for five years, took off some of the excess weight and provided a much-needed boost to his self-confidence.

Since turning to boxing, Mullen has won his first four bouts--three by knockout.

“People look at me and think I’m out of shape and slow, but the next thing they know, they’re getting hit six or seven times and they haven’t hit me,” Mullen said.

Mullen has plenty of work to do in boxing before he enjoys the respect he earned as an amateur kickboxer.

When organizers last month announced tonight’s card in a news release, Mullen was introduced as “Jimmy Mullins.”

A few days later, at a press conference, he went out of his way to spell his last name--an obvious dig at the show’s promoters.

“If it didn’t bother me, I wouldn’t have come out and said what I said,” Mullen said. “I’m out there fighting my heart out and they can’t even get my name right.”

Notes

An eight-round super-middle-weight bout between Robert Allen (9-1, eight knockouts) and Chris Sande (17-8-1, six KOs) of Kenya was added to the card last week when an opponent could not be found to face undefeated lightweight Sugar Shane Mosley.

And in This Corner . . .

* Who: P.J. Goossen (12-0, 11 knockouts) meets Irish Pat Lawlor (20-5, six KOs), 10-round super-welterweight main event.

* What: A six-bout professional boxing card. Undercard fights feature junior welterweights Anthony Johnson (9-1, four KOs) vs. Tony West (6-9-1, three KOs), six rounds; welterweights Santiago Negro Franco (3-3, three KOs) vs. Juan West (0-1), four rounds; super-middleweights Robert Allen (9-1, eight KOs) vs. Chris Sande (17-8-1, six KOs), eight rounds; cruiserweights Arthur Saribekyan (9-1, nine KOs) vs. Brad Powell (7-5, four KOs), six rounds; heavyweights Jim Mullen (4-0, three KOs) vs. Obed Sullivan (4-1, three KOs), six rounds.

* When: Tonight. First bell at 8.

* Where: Warner Center Marriott, 21850 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills.