BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Mosley Eager to Make Name for Himself

For almost two years, Shane Mosley has been Southern California’s secret lightweight. He has fast hands, 17 knockouts in 18 fights, nimble feet, a light smile, but, because he has not yet signed with a major promoter, almost no profile beyond the gyms of this area.

For far too long, Mosley, a very talented fighter from Pomona, has been biding his time and fighting his way through what seemed like an endless stream of meaningless opponents.

While contemporaries Oscar De La Hoya and Gabriel and Rafael Ruelas fight for world titles, lead pay-per-view cards and regularly draw six-figure paychecks, Mosley has never made more than $10,000 for a fight and has never fought a ranked opponent.

On July 21, headlining a card at The Pond of Anaheim that drew only 504 paying customers, Mosley and his handlers, who have been debating among themselves about how to get him to a lucrative future, hit a crossroads.

At 24, does Mosley, whose top-10 rating by the World Boxing Council has so far gained him nothing, continue fighting on non-TV cards earning less than $5,000 against hopeless opponents who don’t come close to testing him?

Or should he and his local promoter, Patrick Ortiz, concede that they have to hook up with Bob Arum, who represents two of the local lightweights who have made huge money--De La Hoya and Rafael Ruelas--and risk his reputation against real competition?

During the cool moments in his locker room after his fourth-round demolition of Mauricio Aceves, who hadn’t won an officially recognized fight since 1989, the path seemed clear.

Mosley, who has been chafing under Ortiz’s contract for months, almost certainly will soon be headed to Arum’s Top Rank Inc., possibly for a bout against De La Hoya by the end of next year.

“It’s changed a little bit,” said Mosley, who pointedly reminded his interviewer that he has only 10 months left on the promotional deal he signed with Ortiz’s company, Ringside Ticket, in June 1993. “It’s really in Patrick’s ballpark, if he wants to make a deal.

“Bob seems like he’s ready for me now. It’s up to them if they want to go ahead and do it, or if they want to try to be vindictive and try to hold me back.”

This week, Ortiz, who, in part, staged the Anaheim show to see if he could promote Mosley on his own in a big arena, sounded like someone ready to turn the promotional reins over to Arum--as long as the deal was right.

“Hopefully, within a week, we’re going to be able to let the public know that we’ve created a situation where Shane is going to be able to fight for a world title within roughly a year,” Ortiz said. “Other than that, I really can’t comment too much about it.”

Arum said this week that although he isn’t sure when the deal will be solidified, he is willing to make sure Ortiz is compensated for the years he put in and the time left on the contract.

The move to Top Rank, which has plenty of TV slots on ESPN and CBS to offer Mosley as he moves toward a De La Hoya bout, might almost be happening too late. What took so long? asks local promoter Peter Broudy, who has staged Mosley fights in the past.

“He was a very good fighter turning pro, and he didn’t have to waste three years,” Broudy said. “They didn’t look at the whole picture, they looked at the immediate picture. There were better ways to approach this--he may have already been champion.

“Remember, Oscar’s 23; Shane’ll be 25 in September. It’s not that he’s old. But it’s time.”

Fights such as last July’s fifth-round KO of perennial opponent Narciso Valenzuela, whom De La Hoya beat nearly a year earlier, or victories over a washed-up Mauro Gutierrez, or Aceves, don’t do anything for a young boxer, Broudy said.

“You must test a kid, that’s the only way to find out,” Broudy said. “They were not willing to test him. Shane’s 15th pro fight, he fought a kid [Jose Luis Madrid, actually, it was Mosley’s 16th] with a losing record. In Oscar’s 15th, he’s fighting John John Molina.”

Mosley (18-0) said his real work comes in the gyms, where he has sparred with Zack Padilla before Padilla’s recent retirement, with Genaro Hernandez and with many of the other rising stars at the Brooklyn Gym.

“I’m telling them I want the people to see me, to let them know there’s a new guy in town,” Mosley said. “It’s real frustrating. It’s like you know how good you are, and I work on it. Yeah, it bothers me a lot because I get paid so little and I know that I’m a great fighter and I feel that I should be paid as a great fighter.”

Arum, for his part, said he sees Mosley as another in a list of local favorites lined up--first Rafael Ruelas, then Hernandez this Sept. 9, then Mosley--against De La Hoya.

“I don’t think Shane is even thinking that he’s going to be a big opponent right away,” Arum said. “We’ve got to build him up. Nobody around the country knows who he is.

“California is our big market for pay-per-view, and building up a local rivalry like that really works. We had Ruelas and De La Hoya, and then De La Hoya and Hernandez, and Mosley would fit very, very well with the winner of that fight.

“I’m always looking down the road, particularly for Oscar. You can’t just build Oscar up, you’ve got to build opponents for him. You don’t make major fights by accident.”

Boxing Notes

International Boxing Federation flyweight champion Danny Romero, who knocked out Miguel (Makito) Martinez Saturday night on a pay-per-view card, might have fought for the last time at the 112-pound limit. Romero, who walks around at more than 125 pounds, lost a huge potential opponent when light-flyweight Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez lost recently, and has never really been comfortable at flyweight. “I can’t stay here,” Romero said recently. “There’s a lot of great fights at 115. [IBF super-flyweight champion] Harold Grey, he’s tailor-made for me, and he’s tougher than nails.” . . . Promoter Bob Arum is pointing Romero toward a fall showdown with fellow Albuquerque native Johnny Tapia, an often-troubled 115-pound champion who has had a running feud with Romero. Tapia recently switched managers and is working with Robert Alcazar, alongside Oscar De La Hoya, in Big Bear.

It’s crisis time for the cable companies, as both Time Warner and Showtime insist on sticking with opposing Nov. 4 shows--TVKO with the third installment in the Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield series, Showtime with Mike Tyson’s second comeback bout, against an opponent not yet named. Although there are signs that saner heads will prevail and that negotiations are under way to avoid the double-dip, John Horne, Tyson’s manager, was adamant this week. “Mike Tyson will be fighting Nov. 4, and the only person that can stop that fight from happening is Peter McNeeley on Aug. 19,” Horne said. “Mike Tyson’s been waiting four years. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to think highly of sitting back and watching other guys decide what his schedule is going to be.”

Gabriel Ruelas, who has taken a long break after his tragic fight with Jimmy Garcia last May, has rejected offers to fight in September, and, according to Arum, might be back by October, then take a mandatory challenge against the World Boxing Council’s No. 1 contender, Azumah Nelson. . . . Rafael Ruelas is tentatively set for an Oct. 7 bout in the Bahamas against George Scott on CBS.