Bray Lands Another Fight Despite Past : Boxing: The former U.S. amateur champion will box in Las Vegas.

The on-again, off-again professional boxing career of John Bray is on again--for now.

Bray, the former U.S. amateur heavyweight champion from Van Nuys, is scheduled to fight John Kiser Thursday night in the co-main event on a seven-bout show at the Silver Nugget Casino in Las Vegas.

Getting Bray on the card wasn’t easy. He was placed on indefinite suspension last week by the California State Athletic Commission after backing out from a commitment to fight King Ipitan in the main event of a May 10 show at the Warner Center Marriott.

Peter Broudy, who since last fall has promoted monthly cards in the Marriott’s Grand Ballroom, asked the Commission to sanction Bray until he was reimbursed by the fighter for advertising expenses.

“I don’t like advancing a fighter for a main event and then not have it happen,” Broudy said. “He hurt me. This was the only way I could get revenge.”

Broudy got his money late last week--from Al Rodriguez, who promotes twice-monthly boxing cards at the Silver Nugget.

The State Athletic Commission, whose sanctions are recognized in Nevada and several other states, released Bray from suspension at Broudy’s instruction.

Rodriguez said Tuesday that Bray’s manager--a man known to him only as ‘Whitey’--has promised to reimburse him.

“It wasn’t important for me to have him fight here, but Whitey believes John is the next heavyweight champion of the world,” Rodriguez said.

Bray has been training in Las Vegas for the past month. Before that, he was working as a sparring partner for heavyweight contender Lennox Lewis.

Rodriguez said the first time he saw Bray in a Las Vegas gym, the 1991 U.S. amateur champion weighed about 270 pounds.

“Two weeks later I go back and he’s down to about 235,” Rodriguez said. “I said, ‘OK, let’s make the fight.’ ”

Bray, 24, has a record of 13-2-1 with four knockouts as a professional. Kiser, from Denver, is 8-8-2 with three KOs.

Less than a week before he was supposed to fight Ipitan, Bray’s handlers contacted Broudy and said the bout was off.

Bray has not returned telephone calls to his home. His trainer, John Hernandez, has refused comment and an adviser, Joe Bradley, said last month that the fighter had a “valid medical excuse.”

Prior to suspending Bray, the State Athletic Commission allowed the boxer an opportunity to prove that he was physically unfit to box Ipitan. A source inside the Commission said no evidence of injury was provided.