Boxing : Nunn Couldn’t Afford to Be Aggressive

Michael Nunn must have felt as if he had accidentally punched one of the ring girls.

Why else was he being booed? All he had done was just score a decision over Iran Barkley, a guy everyone in boxing says is the division’s most dangerous fighter.

The boos began the moment Nunn’s trainer, Joe Goossen, lifted Nunn into the air after the last bell, and didn’t stop until Nunn had disappeared into the arena tunnel.

Nunn, the boo-birds felt, fought a battle of disengagement.

Monday night’s International Boxing Federation middleweight title bout in Reno was an example of how the huge sums of money in pro boxing tilt battle strategies toward the side of caution.

The people doing the booing Monday night, had they been in Nunn’s shoes, probably would have fought Barkley the same way Nunn did.

Nunn was going to earn his purse, $1.25 million, win or lose. But one mistake, just to please a crowd, could have been potentially ruinous to one of boxing’s bright young champions.

There was simply too much at stake for Nunn to turn macho and wade into the awkward, wild-swinging Barkley. On occasion, Nunn did very well in hot exchanges and probably would have stopped Barkley had he chosen to apply maximum pressure.

But Nunn often backed off, used his great speed to maintain distance and won a decision. At the end, it seemed to many as if one gallant fighter, Barkley, had expended every ounce of courage and energy he possessed, while the other, Nunn, had not.

And there was one other revealing element in Monday’s show at the 11,000-seat Lawlor Events Center: Nunn cannot attract big crowds. Only 5,900 people paid to see the fight.

And so while Nunn may very well be the world’s best middleweight, ready to challenge the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran, he is not yet a superstar.

James (Buster) Douglas isn’t a superstar, either, but since Don King is now promoting Mike Tyson’s fights, it doesn’t matter. Word is that Douglas will be Tyson’s next opponent, probably in October. If that’s right, then the heavyweight champion could get his elapsed knockout time down to less than half a minute.

For a while, it seemed as if Michael Dokes’ courageous effort against Evander Holyfield last March had earned him a title shot. But Dokes’ 92-year-old manager, Marty Cohen, told King he wanted Dokes to make $3 million for a Tyson fight, and Cohen said King told him, “We’ll get back to you.”

“He never called me back,” Cohen said. “When he called the first time, he asked if Dokes could be ready in October. I said he would be, then when Don mentioned $1 million, I said ‘That’s not enough, Don.’ I told him I felt the fight was worth $3 million, but that we could work something out. He also said he wanted options on three Dokes fights, should he beat Tyson. That was a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t heard from him since.”

Boxing Notes

Paul Gonzales has been added to the Forum’s Daniel Zaragoza-Frankie Duarte World Boxing Council title fight card. Gonzales, 1984 Olympic Games light-flyweight gold medalist now fighting at bantamweight, meets Jose Quirino of Tijuana in a 10-rounder. . . . Don King is trying to sell a November Tyson-Razor Ruddock fight to the Las Vegas Hilton.

Amateur lightweight Shane Mosley of Pomona, the only American to reach the finals of the World Juniors Championships this week at Puerto Rico, lost a close decision to Puerto Rican Anibal Acevedo in the gold medal bout Thursday. Mosley was attempting a rare double--he had already won the national amateur championship this year.

One of America’s best amateur boxers, the Army’s Brian Lonon, five-time national champion, was still in jail Thursday after police reportedly found cocaine in his Killeen, Tex., home. . . . Van Nuys amateur heavyweight John Bray, who made the U.S. team competing in next month’s World Championships of Amateur Boxing in Moscow, probably won’t box anyone tougher than his part-time sparring partner, Evander Holyfield.

Edwin Rosario defends his World Boxing Assn. lightweight championship against Lupe Suarez Aug. 27 at Madison Square Garden. NBC will televise the bout. . . . Marlon Starling meets South Korea’s Yungkil Chung Sept. 15 in Hartford, Conn., for Starling’s WBC welterweight championship. . . . Marvin Camel, one-time cruiserweight champion who underwent detached retina surgery in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, fought to a technical draw with Trent Surrat on a Great Falls, Mont., card last week.

Frankie Warren, who lost to Loreto Garza in Sacramento last Saturday, suffered a detached retina in the fight and will probably retire, according to his trainer, Lou Duva. . . . The WBC and the Virginia Boxing Commission settled a dispute Wednesday on judge assignments that had threatened Sunday’s lightweight title bout in Norfolk, Va., between Pernell Whitaker and Jose Luis Ramirez.