BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Keeping Up With Jones Also Hard Outside the Ring

As the sport continues to drift farther from the mainstream, Roy Jones Jr., a super-middleweight with an entertainer’s soul, has crossover dreams.

On the eve of his International Boxing Federation title defense tonight against decided underdog Vinny Pazienza, the people from Nike were in the last negotiating stages of a deal that would lift Jones into their kingdom--there to join Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and other pop-culture stars.

Boxers, of course, usually fit more comfortably into screaming headlines and probation terms than sponsorship campaigns. Anger sells fights, not sneakers.

But the combination of Jones’ hand speed and grace in the ring and his quick-witted public personality has set him apart from his more sullen compatriots.

“Well, somebody has to be different,” Jones said. “Michael Jordan plays basketball with creativity. That’s what I try to do. I fight with creativity.”

Just about Jones’ only problem, as evidenced by having to take a $3 million-$2 million split with Pazienza, who has almost no chance to even be competitive tonight in the Atlantic City Convention Hall, is the current lack of top, crowd-pleasing competitors.

Jones, 26, swept the ring with then-IBF champion James Toney in a lopsided unanimous decision victory last November. And even if Nigel Benn or any of the other middleweight or super-middleweight champions would agree to fight him, Jones is clearly the class of the class. HBO has a fall fight scheduled for him but has no idea who the opponent will be.

Possibly Michael Nunn, who is attempting another comeback? Or a rematch with Bernard Hopkins, whom Jones already has beaten?

Jones, who has separated himself from promoter Bob Arum and now basically promotes himself, says one of the main reasons he took this fight was to get his best friend, Derrick Gainer, onto the card and into “some kind of a title fight.” That turned out to be tonight’s bout against Harold Warren, North American Boxing Federation junior-lightweight champion.

Until a genuinely threatening opponent can be found, Jones can satisfy himself with the potential endorsement deals and his entry into television commentary. He was calling for the fight to be stopped long before referee Mitch Halpern prevented Jimmy Garcia from taking any more punishment from Gabriel Ruelas in May. Garcia lost consciousness seconds after the stoppage, went into a coma, and died 13 days later.

“The Nike contract is much, much better than anything in boxing,” Jones said. “Most boxers have bad images, for one. And Nike wouldn’t want to get anybody with that type of an image.

“Most boxers give off a selfish-type character and people don’t want to be involved. Disrespectful, rude . . . I wouldn’t want to deal with a person like that. But I’m not that way, I’m just the opposite.

“Most of the guys want to talk bad about people, talk on TV, do that kind of stuff. Nobody likes to lose, but if I did lose, you saw what happened to me in the Olympics. You’ve got to be able to win as well as lose. That’s a great champion. Sugar Ray Leonard lost, but lost as a great champion. One thing I didn’t like was [Julio Cesar] Chavez, because he didn’t lose as a champion.

“I think because of what I’m doing, maybe a lot of guys will start to follow. If I can get Nike, stay a free agent, that’ll encourage guys to act better.”

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Jones lost a major potential future opponent last February, when World Boxing Council super-middleweight champion Gerald McClellan was knocked out by Benn, then lost consciousness and for a few days was near death. McClellan is slowly recovering, but obviously will never fight again.

“McClellan had a great deal of respect for me and we both knew that fight could’ve gone either way,” Jones said. “He knew he couldn’t stop me from going in. I could get in and get what I want. It would’ve been a terrific fight.

“But after seeing what happened to him, I wouldn’t want to have been the one to do it to him. I liked Gerald McClellan. I’m glad I wasn’t the one who did that to him. I have to go to bed at night.”

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Jones, with a 28-0 record and 24 knockouts, is trying really hard to take Pazienza (40-5, 27 KOs) seriously, and has tied his motivation to Pazienza’s well-documented grit and comeback from the 1991 injury that nearly crippled him. Pazienza broke his neck in a car accident.

Pazienza’s most recent efforts included two decisions over 40-something Roberto Duran, who fights at a pace only three or four times slower than Jones’.

Even Pazienza does not deny Jones’ talent.

“Yes, Roy is a great talent,” Pazienza said. “He’s just naturally talented, that’s great. He can play the piano, he can dunk a basketball. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to beat me.”

Considering his earlier injury, and in the aftermath of Garcia’s death, concerns have been raised about Pazienza’s safety tonight.

“I’ve never worried about getting hurt,” Pazienza said. “It’s a crazy game. But there’s no more risk for me fighting Roy Jones than there was fighting Roberto Duran.”

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Boxing Notes

Just Genaro Hernandez’s luck. Because the World Boxing Assn. is mad at Bob Arum--who isn’t Hernandez’s promoter--Hernandez is likely to be stripped of his WBA junior-lightweight title. Hernandez has signed for a once-in-a-career payday, a fight Sept. 9 against Arum’s fighter and Hernandez’s longtime rival, Oscar De La Hoya. Hernandez, whose biggest purse has been in the $150,000 range, is set to make $500,000 plus a cut of the PPV buy for the De La Hoya bout. “I’ve defended my WBA title eight times--twice against No. 1 contenders,” Hernandez said this week. “If that isn’t good enough, goodby WBA.”

With Riddick Bowe, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Michael Moorer all under contract in some fashion, HBO is trying to put together a tournament to unscramble the chaotic heavyweight division, at least among those not tied to Don King. Unfortunately, given Foreman’s reluctance to take a challenging fight that does not promise him untold millions--he’s still hoping to retire with a $50-million payday against Mike Tyson--Holyfield’s reluctance to fight Bowe, Bowe’s desire to go straight to a Tyson bout and Lewis’ and Moorer’s proven soft-market appeal, any major deal is vastly unlikely. Figure on a Bowe fight, possibly with Tommy Morrison, in the fall, and total status quo until everybody figures out which way Tyson and King are headed after Tyson’s Aug. 19 fight against Peter McNeeley.

Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez, the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council light-flyweight champion, defends his titles July 15 in a pay-per-view show at the Forum against Thailand’s Saman Sorjaturong. Gonzalez will be making his 17th title defense, and said recently he would probably retire after his 20th. Gonzalez has been suffering from soreness in both elbows, which doctors say is being caused by calcium deposits.