Matchmaker, Matchmaker . . . Forget It

The old guys aren’t the only ones who want to fight these days; it only seems like it.

George Foreman is ruminating about two or three more fights, maybe finishing up against Mike Tyson, who, of course, postponed another bout this week when he came down with what amounts to a bad cold.

Sugar Ray Leonard is dropping teases again about his billionth comeback--but also denying it privately to others--this time against the always-irritating but never-dominating Hector Camacho, who at least has done a fine job of stirring the pot.

Roberto Duran lost a disputed bout to Camacho a while back--after saying he’d retire if Camacho beat him--but still goes and goes and goes.

Roy Jones Jr. is the best fighter on the planet, but is tied up in negotiating battles with HBO and either can’t or won’t find a way to get into the ring against an opponent who has a chance against him, which is freezing his rise into history.

Oscar De La Hoya originally balked enough at the $25 million promoter Bob Arum offered him for his next three fights--starting with a September date against Miguel Angel Gonzalez at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas--that Arum halfheartedly offered to step aside from his promotional contract for a few fights for the cool price of $5 million.

Riddick Bowe, after dropping his lawsuit against HBO, and Lennox Lewis, after suing to force Tyson to fight him then walking away from the court’s order, have the talent to potentially defeat Tyson and the media influence to earn gobs of money, but neither can make a deal with him because their TV contracts conflict with his.

Bowe fights a less-than-sizzling bout against Andrew Golota this Thursday in Madison Square Garden on HBO, and Lewis apparently has opted to fight Oliver McCall for the soon-to-be-vacated World Boxing Council belt.

See a pattern here?

“I fear for all these young fellows who get tied up in the comfort of the big companies--that’s not how to do it,” said Foreman, who was in Los Angeles recently trying to put together a consortium of smaller pay-per-view distributors to broadcast a series of his fights, possibly beginning at the end of this summer.

“They all want these huge TV deals, that’s all they want, to sign with HBO or Showtime or whoever. And then because of all the money they’re guaranteed, they don’t want to fight this guy or that guy; they start getting involved with the fights between the networks.

“Look at Roy Jones, he’s in this big struggle, HBO’s telling them what they want him to do, he’s telling them what he wants to do,” Foreman said. “Riddick Bowe, he sits and waits for HBO, what are you going to give me?

“Mike Tyson, same situation with Showtime. And now every guy who’s someone is waiting to see what the big companies are going to do. While you wait for the big paydays, your skills don’t get better.”

In Tyson’s case, some are speculating that his pullout last Wednesday was suspiciously timed, given the public $45-million offer by Lewis’ manager, Frank Maloney, to Tyson to fight Lewis.

Even though the offer was only a public relations ploy, perhaps Tyson now believes he is worth far more than the $15 million he was to earn against Seldon, causing him to pull out in protest.

Hard to make that conclusion, given the statements of Robert Voy, Tyson’s physician and a world-recognized sports-medicine expert.

Tyson’s camp insisted it definitely will continue with plans to fight Seldon, probably sometime in September or October, and then rearrange his plans to fight Evander Holyfield, which was supposed to happen in October.

After that, Jay Larkin of Showtime suggested possible bouts against Foreman (there’s crazy money to be made) or a rematch against Buster Douglas (who recently returned after a long layoff). Which pushes any potential Tyson-Bowe or Tyson-Lewis bout deep into the future, maybe 1998 at the earliest.

“Clearly, we want to get the fights to a more competitive level,” Larkin said of the Tyson series. “The problem we’re facing is a large element of the press will not accept anyone against Tyson except Riddick Bowe.

“Well, I’m sorry, the Bowe fight cannot be made, as much as we’d like to see it be made.

“What we have to do is find opponents who have some credibility as legitimate challengers to him, and I believe there are a good three or four out there who have that credibility, or who make a big enough attraction, like a George Foreman, that people want to see.”

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Arum says that De La Hoya, through business advisor Mike Hernandez, has given the final go-ahead for the three-fight deal, starting with Gonzalez, moving to a winter rematch against Julio Cesar Chavez, and finishing up with a spring bout against welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker.

Hernandez acknowledged earlier this week that at least one unnamed promoter-hopeful was telling De La Hoya he could guarantee him double the $25-million figure.

“I don’t want him to walk away from Bob,” Hernandez said of De La Hoya. “I won’t allow Oscar to make that mistake. I think Bob Arum has treated us fairly.”

Meanwhile, Hernandez said that the almost-$500,000 deal for De La Hoya to buy Resurrection Gym in East Los Angeles from former congressman Edward Roybl has been completed, and that its refurbishing as the Oscar De La Hoya Boxing Youth Center--with former head trainer Robert Alcazar in charge--is already under way.

Boxing Notes

Local promoter Peter Broudy, who is trying to draw the elusive Westside boxing audience to the Rafael Ruelas-led card at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday, also says he plans to return to the Grand Olympic Auditorium, which he left earlier this year, probably with smaller shows than he staged during his first tenure. “I think the primary reason he’s coming back, is there’s no finer place to see a boxing match,” said Olympic owner Steve Needleman, “if we can scale it back, close off the balcony, to where the numbers can make sense to him.”

For the Beverly Hills show, Broudy has enlisted a huge boxing fan--the hotel director of catering, Shaun Robinson--who grew up in a fighting family in Liverpool, England. “When Peter brought this idea to me, I said, ‘Peter, the only way to do it is if we brought in the upscale crowd, served dinner, brought boxing back to what it used to be in years gone by,’ ” Robinson said. “When I watched my brother fight, 32 times professionally, it was always black tie, a dinner show, very much a society event. It really hasn’t been done like this here.”

Mexican featherweight Juan Manuel Marquez, who fights at the Forum on Monday, is, in a career move similar to that of junior-featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera, making his eighth consecutive appearance in Southern California. Marquez has won 15 in a row. . . . Barrera will defend his World Boxing Organization title for the seventh time July 14 on CBS against Orlando Fernandez.

Calendar

Monday--Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Freddy Cruz, featherweights; Antonio Pitalua vs. Orlando Hollis, junior-welterweights; Forum, 7:15 p.m.

Wednesday--Rafael Ruelas vs. Michael Walsh, lightweights; Carlos Hernandez vs. Isagani Pumar, junior-lightweights; Beverly Hilton, 7 p.m.