Mood Swing Packs Punch for Moorer

Michael Moorer, whose moods usually run along darker paths, put together a startling combination Thursday: bob, right jab, smile, straight left, giggle, right uppercut. . . .

“C’mon, Teddy!” Moorer called out to his oft-aggravated (with good reason) trainer, Teddy Atlas, between punches in a Van Nuys gym. “Where’s your smile? Smile for me, Teddy!”

Later, a little more than a week before his title defense Nov. 9 against Francois Botha, the International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion passed out candy in the gym, and acted 180 degrees different from the grumbling grump he has been in so many camps.

“It’s like we did something for Halloween,” Atlas said of his suddenly lighthearted fighter. “Like we got someone else masquerading as Michael.”

These are increasingly comfortable days for Moorer, who never seemed content during his six-month reign as the recognized heavyweight champion, and has often looked tight and cautious in the ring.

“That relaxed attitude you saw today, I know what you’re thinking about, maybe he’s lost the edge,” Atlas said. “I wouldn’t be scared of it.

“I think it has to do with some confidence gained with winning the title again. I think some of it has to do with he has faith and confidence in knowing he’s in shape and knowing he has done his ABC’s. He knows he’s still going to be nervous and apprehensive, but he’s done everything to be prepared, and that leads to a certain calm.”

Two years ago, Moorer became the first left-handed heavyweight champion when he defeated Evander Holyfield, but lost the title to 45-year-old George Foreman six months later.

After brooding over the one-punch Foreman loss, then seeing an agreed-to rematch fall apart, Moorer got a shot against German Axel Schulz in Germany for the IBF piece of the title earlier this year, and won.

Now, as he prepares for the Botha bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the Mike Tyson-Holyfield undercard, Moorer’s camp talks about this being the beginning of his boxing career’s “final act.”

Defend the title, which he couldn’t do against Foreman. Next, and perhaps last, is an already-signed $10-million payday against Tyson on March 15, the one fight that could end doubts about Moorer’s passion, talent and place in history.

Win, then Tyson. That’s your final act.

“He was on the way to being a very solid champion, and he didn’t get there,” said Atlas, who was Tyson’s first trainer, before walking away from the Cus D’Amato camp because Tyson was becoming uncontrollable. “And I think winning the second title in Germany is more significant than people know. You have to have a certain special quality to do that.

“It just gets missed on Michael because he’s an enigma, he doesn’t have that flamboyance. I think having won that title has put him on that same track that he was on going into the Foreman fight, becoming what I want him to become, a quality champion.

“If he had gotten that Foreman title, that would’ve completed the package. And if he gets this, I think he’ll come close to completing the package.”

Tyson, obviously, raises many other issues, among them the rancor continuously emanating from his camp from his assorted aides-de-champ.

For Atlas, a matchup with Tyson is both professionally and personally desirable. It would be the completion of his journey away from Tyson’s big-money, big-problem persona, then back to him, as an opponent.

For Moorer, it is all about staying focused--then getting out of the game. He will let Atlas handle the furor.

“I’m not worried about the Tyson hoopla and the people he has with him and things like that,” Moorer said. “I’ll do what I have to do Nov. 9, and afterward, whatever happens, happens.

“I think I’m starting to come into it right now. I tell people, ‘I ain’t going to be sticking around this game for a long time. In and out, boom.’

“Maybe two, three fights, and that’s it. I love the game, but there’s other things that I want. I’m going to try acting. I’m going to be there for my son [Michael]. I’ve always missed trick-or-treating, Halloween, for him. Four years in a row.

“And kids remember stuff like that. And I want to be there for him, take him trick-or-treating. He doesn’t really know, but I know. That’s what counts.”

*

Add 44-year-old Carlos Palomino to the list of formerly retired former world champions. Palomino, who happens to be on the California State Athletic Commission and has an acting career, says he has always stayed in shape, then for fun jumped into a sparring session with Hector Camacho and stayed on top of him for six rounds.

“All I can tell you is, come and watch me and make up your own mind about what I look like, and whether I can get hurt,” Palomino said this week. “That was my first thought, but I feel good and I’m not going to take any chances.”

Palomino already has had informal talks with some promoters, and was set for a meeting with Dan Goossen of the new America Presents company, looking for a few tuneups, then possibly a bout with the winner of the Sugar Ray Leonard-Camacho fight, or with Roberto Duran . . . what Palomino calls “that little circle of fighters from my era.”

Palomino and Richard DeCuir, the executive director of the commission, checked the rule book, and found no reason he couldn’t be an active fighter and remain on the commission.

Jackie McCoy, Palomino’s old trainer, will remain in his corner for the comeback, Palomino said.

“If a guy steps into the ring in shape, ready to fight, it doesn’t matter if he’s 44 or 22,” Palomino said. “You see a lot of guys in their prime step into the ring who are not in shape and don’t give their best. As long as he’s 100% mentally and physically ready to fight, I don’t see why not.

“I’ll tell you what, I know I’m in better shape than 90% who are fighting now.”

Boxing Notes

What’s going on here? In only a few weeks, some of the local boxing scene’s most popular fighters have suffered major defeats. From rising hopes Hector Quiroz, who lost to Johnny Avila, and Yory Boy Campas, who lost to Luis Lopez, to veterans Jorge Paez, who lost to Julian Wheeler, and to Carlos “Bolillo” Gonzalez, who just last Monday lost to Mark Lewis. Gonzalez’s apparently infuriated manager, Ricardo Maldonado, then left him stranded in the dressing room. All except Campas are Forum Boxing fighters.

For the second time in a year, local promoter Peter Broudy is pulling out of the Grand Olympic Auditorium, and this time is going back to the Reseda Country Club, where he has promoted before. His first card back in Reseda is set for Nov. 21. Why leave the Olympic again? Broudy’s last show there sold fewer than 50 tickets.

Top Rank Inc. is boasting a new signing: junior-middleweight prospect Raul Marquez, the 1992 Olympian who was considered a talent comparable to gold-medal winner Oscar De La Hoya. The undefeated Marquez only recently freed himself from his contract with Main Events, which Marquez believed failed to make him a star. Marquez will make his Top Rank debut Dec. 6 in Reno, on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez-Mickey Ward card. A Montell Griffin-James Toney rematch also is on that card.