BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Promoters Learn That L.A. Fans Will Pay to See Favorites

Boxing goes where the money leads it, and now, more than ever, as interest wanes across the nation, the cash path begins and ends in Los Angeles’ Latino community of rabid fight fans.

Who are the busiest pay-per-view fighters in boxing? Not Roy Jones Jr. or Pernell Whitaker or anybody else over 140 pounds.

The new PPV stars are three guys named Gonzalez, and probably only devotees have heard of or seen them. But unlike the higher-profile Americans or fading Mexican superstar Julio Cesar Chavez, they like to fight often, don’t demand seven-figure purses, draw crowds and prompt L.A. homes to order up bouts.

Jones and Whitaker are, pound for pound, the top two fighters in the world. But Jones’ destruction of Vinny Pazienza last month was his only appearance on PPV this year, and Whitaker won’t be on at all.

In contrast, Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez, the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council 108-pound champion, will fight in his second PPV main event this year at the Forum next Saturday, after leading the Forum’s successful promotion at The Pond of Anaheim on March 31.

And Alejandro (Cobrita) Gonzalez, a budding superstar who already has the World Boxing Council featherweight belt; Miguel Angel Gonzalez, the veteran WBC lightweight champion, and a few other bruising Mexican boxers have, among them, made several PPV appearances this year and will make many more.

Although the TV companies are based in New York and have long leaned toward East Coast attractions, boxing’s new realities are hard to ignore. Gradually, with the major networks unwilling to pay large rights fees and HBO and Showtime tied to other attractions, the PPV companies have realized that Los Angeles, with its 1.6 million PPV-ready homes and hunger for competitive fight cards, is a plum ripe for the picking.

Said Forum Boxing’s vice president, John Jackson: “What happens is, you put them on, deliver the numbers and they say, ‘Yeah.’ ”

Said Tony Walker, TVKO’s Western Region director: “In L.A., with the big Mexican American population, boxing is a part of the community, part of a life. Whereas boxing, in a lot of communities and across the country, is just dead.”

The Forum’s March 31 show, which also featured Cobrita Gonzalez, World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez, who would have been on the July 15 card if he hadn’t gotten the chance to fight Oscar De La Hoya in September, and World Boxing Organization junior-featherweight title holder Marco Antonio Barrera, had an attendance of 12,479 and drew about 100,000 PPV subscribers.

The L.A. market, alone, contributed about 40% of that TV cash.

“When we did that show, we realized we had something,” said Daniel York, TVKO’s general manager.

TVKO, which is also showing Top Rank Inc.’s July 29 card featuring Latinos Danny Romero and Jesse James Leija in separate bouts, followed the March 31 show with a June 2 card at the Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut featuring Miguel Angel Gonzalez and Alejandro Gonzalez.

With these cards, instead of going for the huge, one-time Mike Tyson-like PPV bonanza, everybody gets a slice of the action and moves on.

“I think everyone makes money on these shows,” Walker said. “You will continue to see these shows. There’s nowhere else to put these shows right now, either on the networks or on cable.”

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Somebody has to put on those shows, and the Forum, with deep ties to the Latino fight community and the array of solid fighters ready to fight in America, is uniquely positioned to become a PPV staple.

Chiquita Gonzalez is a Forum fighter, Barrera has fought on Forum cards for several years, and Cobrita Gonzalez and Miguel Angel Gonzalez both spend time in Los Angeles and have ties to the Forum.

“We have chosen to deal with the lighter weights in the first place,” Jackson said. “Our fans are kind of spoiled, and they like these action-packed fights that little guys give you.

“In doing that, we are positioned, I think, with some of the higher-profile Hispanic fighters. . . . If we don’t have a direct working relationship with them, we have a friendly one.”

So, look for many more Forum PPV shows featuring these mid-sized Latinos.

“Is it possible that there will be too many pay-per-view events? I don’t know,” Jackson said. “I think right now the draws are the heavyweights, Roy Jones and the lighter weights. Those are the niches in this total universe of 23 or 24 million homes.”

“I think Chavez and Chiquita Gonzalez created that. They do very respectable numbers, and that’s what it’s all about.”

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Boxing Notes

Free agent Evander Holyfield has had contact with Don King and Showtime, and may be moving toward an eventual bout with Mike Tyson. King suggested this week that Tyson, who fights Aug. 19 against Peter McNeeley, would like Holyfield to be the first major heavyweight Tyson fights in his comeback from a three-year prison term. Holyfield, meanwhile, is reportedly trying to arrange a November bout with Riddick Bowe.

King said that, depending on what Tyson decides after the McNeeley fight, Tyson could go immediately to a match with Holyfield or go after Oliver McCall’s World Boxing Council title, and wait for Holyfield to win the World Boxing Assn. version from Bruce Seldon.

Either way, the Tyson-Holyfield match, which was scrapped four years ago by Tyson’s rape trial and sentence, might happen by the end of 1996. “[Holyfield] wants to sit down and work out something for a championship,” King said. “And Mike wants to fight Holyfield.”

King says Tyson has looked brilliant during his recent workouts in Cleveland, but is less clear about who is or will be Tyson’s main trainer. “They have people there who are training him,” King said. “They have not selected a trainer. That decision rests solely with him because he is so far advanced beyond most of the people who are trainers.”

Reports that surfaced this week about HBO conducting a tournament of heavyweights--including Michael Moorer, Holyfield, Bowe, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis and Tommy Morrison--apparently were premature. Promoter Dan Duva, who has contracts with Moorer, Holyfield and Lewis, said that none of his fighters has committed to anything and that the reports were “absolute fabrications.”

King said that Julio Cesar Chavez, settling a longtime contractual dispute with a small-time promoter, will fight a 10-round bout in Chicago on July 29 against Craig Houk. Chavez will then defend his WBC super-lightweight title Sept. 16 against David Kamau at a site to be determined.

Oscar De La Hoya has settled the lawsuit filed by manager Shelly Finkel, who sued him for the money Finkel says he lent De La Hoya in the early 1990s, under the assumption that De La Hoya would sign with him, which he did not. De La Hoya is believed to have paid Finkel less than $100,000. “I’m just glad it’s behind me--it’s one less thing I have to worry about,” Finkel said.

Perennial lightweight prospect Shane Mosley will fight former World Boxing Organization lightweight champion Mauricio Aceves at The Pond of Anaheim July 21.

Pernell Whitaker, preparing for his Aug. 26 HBO fight against No. 1 contender Gary Jacobs, says he feels no pressure to perform especially well in the wake of Roy Jones Jr.’s knockout of Vinny Pazienza. “I don’t see why--we’re not competing for pound-for-pound best,” Whitaker said. “You already know who that title belongs to. Until I step out of this game, I will continue to be the best.”

The Forum, which brings a Jorge Paez-topped card to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas today, is in the final stages of a nine-show flurry between May 19 and July 24. It will put on three shows in seven days, ending July 15.