Boxing Notes : Iran Barkley Going to Jail So He Can Become Meaner

Iran Barkley is getting another shot at the middleweight title, but first he is on his way to jail.

Barkley, who briefly held the World Boxing Council title after knocking out Thomas Hearns last June, is going into the slammer to help get ready for his Aug. 12 fight against International Boxing Federation champ Michael Nunn, the darling of Hollywood.

Barkley plans to train among and spar with inmates at Rikers Island over the next couple of weeks before he leaves for training camp in California. The reason? To get meaner.

Of course, saying Iran Barkley needs to get meaner is like saying Dolly Parton needs a padded bra. It isn’t easy to find a more hard-boiled character than Barkley, even in boxing.

Wednesday, following his workout at the New York Boxing Club, “The Blade” was growling about his payday for the Nunn fight, a “measly $400,000” compared with Nunn’s $1 million.

“I should be getting close to what he gets,” said Barkley, who got short money, $200,000, for the Thomas Hearns fight, which turned into the upset of the year.

And then, he had to fight Roberto Duran in his first defense for $800,000, not considered major money in this era of multimillion-dollar paydays. Even worse, Barkley lost that fight, which could have elevated him to the million-dollar level. So Barkley is understandably burned when he sees Nunn commanding huge purses without having beaten any big-name opponents.

“I’m the guy who fought two legends,” Barkley said. “I didn’t see Nunn fighting Hearns or Duran. Who’d he ever beat?”

Barkley, of course, knows the answer. Although the classy Nunn had attracted plenty of attention with his wins over Frank Tate and Juan Roldan last year, it was his one-punch KO of Sumbu Kalambay, who outpointed Barkley in 1987, that has made it fashionable for a lot of boxing people to hang the old “best, pound-for-pound” label on him. But Barkley is quick to tear it off. “He just landed the punch of a lifetime, and he’ll never do it again,” Barkley said. “You’ll never see him hit me like that. To me, the guy ain’t nothing.”

Barkley has been burning for a piece of Nunn ever since he watched, uncomfortably, from a ringside seat as Nunn outclassed Tate in Las Vegas last July. Although Barkley was barely a month off his shocking KO of Hearns, the pro-Nunn crowd taunted him and booed his introduction.

And now, the Nunn talk has spread East. Lately, Barkley has been hearing it in his old Bronx neighborhood, and in his new Hackensack, N.J., neighborhood.

“Everybody is saying to me, ‘Nunn is this, Nunn is that, Nunn’s a tough fight for you, Iran,’ ” Barkley said. “That’s why I’m going into the jail. I need something to get me really motivated. While he’s training on those white California beaches, I need to be in an environment that will get me really mad. My whole purpose is to get into the mood to kill people.”

Notes

Mike Tyson began light training in Cleveland this week for his July 21 defense against Carl “The Truth” Williams. HBO’s Seth Abraham, who has said he would rubber-stamp Jose “No Way” Ribalta as Tyson’s next opponent, said Wednesday that he would prefer to see Tyson-Razor Ruddock or Tyson-Michael Dokes instead. ... Eddie Futch, boxing’s finest gentleman, was hoping to work the corner of WBA light-heavy champ Virgil Hill Saturday for his fight against Joe Lasisi, but, unfortunately, injuries the 76-year-old Futch suffered in a recent car accident will keep him on the sideline. ... Surprise, surprise. The WBC, in violation of its “rules,” is considering whether to allow Julio Cesar Chavez, a personal favorite of WBC president Jose Sulaiman, to keep both his lightweight and junior-welterweight crowns. Similar situations involving Leonard and Hearns were settled without discussion -- both had to give up one belt -- but Chavez’s request will be put to a vote. . . . Don King, a tough guy among the old and weak, dropped his 76-year-old publicist, Murray Goodman. “Don doesn’t have enough shows to keep him busy,” said King stooge Al Braverman, but most suspect the real reason is that Goodman told the truth about King and Tyson’s planned boycott of the Boxing Writers Association’s annual awards dinner on June 16, which is sold out regardless of whether its top honoree shows up. According to Braverman, Goodman will take “a sabbatical,” then work for King on a per-fight, per-diem basis. Goodman’s son, Madison Square Garden boxing director Bob Goodman, says it’s the best thing that ever happened to his old man.