Main Events Doing Relatively Well

In the cutthroat business of boxing, you’ve got to be careful on whom you turn your back.

But Lou Duva solved that problem by entrusting his business to five people he knew he could trust: his kids.

Boxing was always the prime topic around the Duva dinner table in Totowa, N.J. And all five Duva children--Dan, Dino, Donna, Deanne and Denise--were swept up in it.

Whether it was designing posters, making phone calls or helping with publicity, all the Duvas played a role in the career of their father, who has served almost every role imaginable in the sport from fighter to trainer to manager to promoter, and is still active at 76.

In 1977, boxing became the official family business when Main Events was formed.

Today, Main Events, with about 20 fighters and revenues estimated to be as high as $40 million, is a strong player in the elite promotional field so long dominated by Bob Arum and Don King.

So with Dino Duva, who has run the operation since Dan died of brain cancer three years ago, announcing that he is stepping down, at least temporarily, there have been rumors flying about the effect on the sport.

Dino, 40, is leaving for an undetermined length of time to deal with problems in his nuclear family.

Will Main Events survive?

Will a stable of fighters that includes Lennox Lewis, Fernando Vargas, Ike Quartey and Pernell Whitaker bolt free?

No way, insists Kathy Duva, Dan’s widow, who is stepping back in to run Main Events in Dino’s absence, along with Mike Boorman, Deanne’s husband, who already handled many of the chores at the company.

“We fear all the time that fighters will go elsewhere,” Kathy said. “But thus far, we don’t have any reason to believe anybody is leaving. We’ve had Lennox Lewis since before my husband died. I’ve known Pernell longer than I’ve known my own children.”

Kathy was heavily involved in Main Events when her husband was alive, specializing in publicity and marketing.

“That was our life, our discussions at dinner, our pillow talk,” she said. “We worked together at it for 18 hours a day.”

With three children to care for when Dan died and haunted by Dan’s memory in every nook and cranny of the Main Events office, Kathy decided to remove herself from the operation.

“It was hard for me to be here,” she said. “I tried to come back right away, but I wasn’t ready.”

So she raised her children, now 16, 14 and 10, and found time to go to law school.

And now, with Dino requiring time off, Kathy feels, at 45, she is ready for a second tour of duty.

“I am remaking old connections,” she said. “It’s good. It feels right. Maybe it will be good to have a fresh approach.”

She’ll need it. There are many questions to be answered in the coming months. Is there going to be a Lewis-Evander Holyfield rematch? Will Quartey get his desired rematch with Oscar De La Hoya? Will Whitaker, a shot fighter in the minds of many, keep going? What’s next for Vargas?

And what happens if and when Dino returns? Will there be a power struggle within the organization?

“This is not about power,” Kathy said. “This is a family. When I couldn’t be here, when I couldn’t be functioning properly, Dino was here. Now, he needs a break.

“I don’t know too many families that started a business and, 22 years later, are still together. And we are going to stay together.”

EIGHT IS ENOUGH

Felix Trinidad, the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion, says he wants

$15 million to fight De La Hoya in September.

Trinidad can get about $8 million from Arum, and he would be a fool not to take it. Trinidad would have to fight at least eight times to make that much without De La Hoya.

Besides, if Arum were to pay Trinidad that much, how much would De La Hoya require?

All the other obstacles to a De La Hoya-Trinidad fight, including King’s contract with the Showtime network, have been cleared.

The only obstacle now is Trinidad’s delusional demand.

QUICK JABS

Forum Boxing will stage a pair of featherweight bouts as co-main events Monday night at the Arrowhead Pond. Jesus Salud (59-9, 36 knockouts) and Amador Vazquez (11-2-2, six knockouts) will go in one 10-rounder, and Guty Espadas (28-2, 18 knockouts) and Oscar Maldonado (19-7-2, 14 knockouts) will meet in the other. First bell is at 7:15. . . . Front Row Productions will stage its first fight card Wednesday night at the Quiet Cannon in Montebello beginning at 7:30. The 10-round main event will match lightweights Carlos Hernandez (27-2-1, 16 knockouts) and Javier Lucas (47-11, 39 knockouts).

De La Hoya told a Times reporter that he is planning to write his autobiography in order to give his side of his story. The World Boxing Council welterweight champion was reacting to the publication of “Golden Boy: The Fame, Money and Mystery of Oscar De La Hoya,” by The Times’ Tim Kawakami. . . . Former two-time heavyweight champion George Foreman got an honorary PhD Friday at Pepperdine University. He was there to attend the graduation of his daughter, Georgetta.