BOXING : Hill Will Try to Extend Reign in Bahrain

LAS VEGAS —  Virgil Hill, whose light-heavyweight title defense here April 29 was canceled Wednesday when he suffered a broken thumb, might soon become the next 1984 Olympian to join the $1-million payday club.

Hill will be offered $1 million-plus to defend his World Boxing Assn. championship in October at Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf.

Hill was to have fought Australian Guy Waters at Caesars Palace in two weeks. But his sparring partner, Desmond Fingers, ducked during a sparring session the other day at Hill’s Fountain Hills, Ariz., training camp. Hill wound up hitting Fingers on the top of the head, breaking his right thumb. Hill’s hand will be in a cast six weeks.

Friday, Hill’s manager, Gary Martinson, was trying to move the Hill-Waters fight to Hill’s hometown, Bismarck, N.D., July 7. But also on Friday, Martinson was pondering an offer presented to Hill’s promoter, Bob Arum, by New York businessman Bob Nargusson.

“Nargusson, who has promoted sports and entertainment in the Persian Gulf countries, was asked by some people in Bahrain to put together an important fight for them,” Arum said.

“We’ll do it, in late October. We’re at the contract stage now. Hill will meet Prince Charles Williams in a light-heavy unification fight.”

Bahrain is an island nation, linked to Saudi Arabia by a 15-mile causeway. At 258 square miles, the Moslem country is smaller than New York City, with a population of only 483,000.

Martinson and Hill are agreeable to a Bahrain fight, but their first priority is Tommy Hearns.

“We want a Hearns fight for Virgil more than anything, because that would be a very lucrative fight for him,” Martinson said.

Hill, who has defended the WBA title eight times, would have received his third consecutive $300,000 purse against Waters. A Hearns fight would earn him more than $1 million; a Williams unification bout would earn him $1 million.

Hill, a silver medalist in the Los Angeles Olympics, would become the fourth member of the class of ’84 to hit the million mark--with Evander Holyfield, Tyrell Biggs and Meldrick Taylor.

Ben Lopez, who was suspended for taking a prescription medication before losing to Manuel Medina March 26 at the Forum, survived a knife attack two weeks before the fight.

The 130-pound Lopez and his girlfriend were accosted by three men as they walked out of a City of Industry restaurant. Lopez knocked one of them cold, but another produced a knife and stabbed the boxer in the face and back before police arrived.

Lopez’s wounds healed quickly, but he then came down with flu. To lessen the pain of the knife wounds, he took a prescription barbiturate that later showed up in his postfight urine sample.

The California State Athletic Commission has the weakest drug-testing policy of any of the major boxing states. But in addition to being soft on testing for illegal drugs, the commission doesn’t supply managers and trainers with a list of banned medications for which fighters can be suspended.

Lopez is only the latest of a series of California boxers who have innocently taken prescription medications before a fight, then been caught in the drug test. Some asthma, sleeping and pain medications are on the banned list, but for some reason, the commission doesn’t seem to want to share the list with anyone.

John Branca, like almost everyone in boxing except the promoters, would like to see the sport’s alphabet-soup organizations--the WBC, WBA and IBF--sent packing and replaced by a U.S. federal boxing commission.

Branca, former chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, has been prowling the halls of Congress seeking support for the idea.

Support for the idea has increased markedly, he said, since the Feb. 10 Buster Douglas knockout of Mike Tyson in Tokyo. President Jose Sulaiman of the World Boxing Council, after a closed-door meeting with Tyson’s promoter, Don King, “suspended recognition” of Douglas as the new champion.

“I just blew up when I heard about all that, and a lot of other people did, too,” said Branca, older brother of former Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca.

“It’s time that pro boxing was controlled by a U.S. federal commission. These foreign-based organizations are interested only in the sanction fees they get from these championship fights, 80% of which are here in the U.S. And with that being the case, they’re all in the hip pockets of the promoters.”

Boxing Notes

President Bob Lee of the International Boxing Federation recently ruled that Julio Cesar Chavez must defend his junior-welterweight championship against Meldrick Taylor, whom he defeated March 17 at the Las Vegas Hilton. Referee Richard Steele, he said, erred in not directing Chavez to a neutral corner after Chavez had decked Taylor in the fight’s final seconds. Lee didn’t study the fight closely enough. The reason Steele didn’t see Chavez leaving the neutral corner during the count was because he was distracted by Taylor’s trainer, Lou Duva, who was on the ring apron during the count, yelling at Steele. Taylor, ahead on two cards, lost when Steele stopped the fight with two seconds left.

The Forum’s co-main event Monday night features Argentina’s unbeaten junior-middleweight, Mario Gaston, against Elio Diaz. Middleweights Reggie Johnson and veteran Sanderline Williams are matched in the other feature. . . . Raul Perez, the WBC bantamweight champion from Tijuana, will defend his title against Gerardo Martinez May 7. . . . Former heavyweight champion Tony Tucker will return to the Forum May 21 against an opponent to be determined.

Top Rank, Bob Arum’s promotion firm, has scrambled since the injury to Virgil Hill and the loss of the May 13 junior-flyweight title fight in Atlantic City, N.J., between Michael Carbajal and Muangshai Kittikasem, who has suffered a hand injury. Now, the Nigel Benn-Doug DeWitt fight, which was under Hill-Guy Waters, goes to Caesars Atlantic City April 29, and Carbajal and fellow Olympian Andrew Maynard will also fight on the card.

Welterweights Ernie Chavez and Juan Villa will fight at the Irvine Marriott on April 23. . . . About 100 amateur boxers, 8 to 15, are expected to fight in a Junior Olympic tournament at Santa Fe Springs High May 11-12.

If you think Dan Goossen absorbed a major business loss when his middleweight champion, Michael Nunn, walked out on him, consider the case of Kevin Rooney, former trainer of Mike Tyson. Rooney was earning 10% of Tyson’s purses, including 10% of Tyson’s $21-million payday against Michael Spinks in 1988, and then was fired by Tyson. Rooney recently filed for bankruptcy protection in New York, after one of his homes was seized. He listed more than $1.4 million in debts and no assets in his Chapter 11 petition. Rooney blamed his lost fortune on unreturned loans to friends, bad investments in thoroughbred horses, child support payments and financial obligations to friends. Rooney owes $703,308 to the Internal Revenue Service and $499,000 to three Atlantic City casinos.