BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : This Comeback Ends Quickly

The spirit and the memories were still there, both for the crowd and for Danny (Little Red) Lopez, the 39-year-old former featherweight champion whose comeback ended Thursday night at the Irvine Marriott.

But one year’s training, more than a decade after his last fight, went for naught. Seconds into the first round, a very ordinary, hand-picked opponent, Jorge Rodriguez, was hitting Lopez at will.

And so after he had been stopped in the second round, Lopez decided he would keep his day job, working for a cement contractor.

“I think I don’t belong in (the ring) anymore,� he said.

If Lopez had won, promoters would be on their way to Diamond Bar, where Lopez lives. Old names still sell. George Foreman’s TV ratings, even early in his comeback, were record-breakers. Larry Holmes, a grandfather who is three years older than Lopez, has gone from quiet retirement to a $7-million purse for a match with Evander Holyfield.

Lopez didn’t deny it. He wanted a slice of that pie, too. But when it was over Thursday night, only memories were left.

One spectator was Benny Georgino, his manager when he was champion in the 1970s.

“Danny was a natural born puncher, the kind of kid who never had to be taught how to hit,� he said. “I still say he was the greatest featherweight puncher of all time.

“And he had that great ticker, like no one else had. When he was hurt, that’s when he was at his best. No one fighting today has the determination that Danny had.

“But he had too many tough fights. It’s always the little guys who have too many tough fights, it’s hardly ever the heavyweights.�

There are hopes for an all-city matchup between World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez (25-0) of South-Central Los Angeles and Gabe Ruelas (28-1) of Arleta.

The Forum wants it, and so does Ruelas’ manager, Dan Goossen. But Ruelas first will face the winner of tonight’s fight in Melbourne between Jeff Fenech and Azumah Nelson for the WBC junior-lightweight championship.

“Gabe will be the WBC’s mandatory challenger for the Nelson-Fenech winner,� Goossen said. “I’m interested in a Hernandez fight for Gabe, and we’d have no problems doing it at the Forum. But right now, we’re not looking beyond the Nelson-Fenech winner.�

Hernandez, too, will have at least one committment before such a fight. His next defense will be in Japan in late May.

Art Miles, heavyweight Razor Ruddock’s former co-trainer, sent in a video tape with a note that read: “The new story appears to be Ruddock never learned to box--but the truth is (as this tape shows) he was one of the most skilled boxers in any weight class.�

Did he mean Razor Ruddock, who stumbled his way to a TKO recently over washed-up Greg Page?

At one time, before he fought Mike Tyson, many felt Ruddock was the heavyweight division’s future. But for all the courage he showed against Tyson, Ruddock was exposed as a one-punch fighter.

How is it possible, many wondered, that the 6-foot-4 Ruddock, never learned to set up opponents with a left jab?

Fact is, he did--as we were startled to see on Miles’ tape.

There was Ruddock on Oct. 26 and 28, 1988, at Los Angeles’ Broadway Gym, sparring with Mike White and Bernardo Mercado. Ruddock was moving like a light-heavyweight, landing one jab after another.

Not only left jabs, but following rights, or jab-straight right-left uppercut combinations. Also, in about 10 rounds, there wasn’t one out-of-control left hook or uppercut. His balance and movement were excellent.

So when Miles saw a Times story recently quoting former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, Ruddock’s new trainer, as saying that none of Ruddock’s trainers “ever taught him how to box,� he took umbrage.

“The worst thing that happened to Razor was that he knocked out a couple of guys with the left hook,� Miles said. “After that, we couldn’t teach him anything. He wouldn’t do the roadwork, he wouldn’t do much of anything in the gym. His attitude was: ‘I’ll get ‘em with the smasher.’

“That, plus he was surrounding himself with cheerleaders instead of people who wanted to help him. The result was the Razor Ruddock you saw against Greg Page. And this is a guy who only a couple of years ago had as good a jab as you’d want to see.�

Boxing Notes

Light-heavyweight Bonami Parker tested positive for amphetamines after his Forum bout with Ernesto Magdaleno on Monday night. Magdaleno was scoring freely during the fifth round, when Parker suddenly turned his back on Magdaleno, crawled through the ropes, tripped, and fell onto his back on the ring apron. After about 10 seconds, Parker crawled off the apron, walked into the press room and sat down on a table. The two were fighting for the vacant California light-heavyweight title, and Magdaleno was awarded a fifth-round TKO.

Lightweight Jose Castro’s manager, Herb Stone, took his fighter’s record from 16-3-1 to 16-2-1 at the commission meeting in Sacramento Friday. Castro lost on a TKO to Mauro Gutierrez on Jan. 13 at the Forum. But Stone played a video of that fight for the commission, showing that referee Larry Rozadilla failed to see that his boxer was not only hit when he had one knee on the canvas, but also four times after the seventh round ended. Rozadilla then stopped the fight, awarding Gutierrez a TKO. Friday, the commission changed it to a no-decision, erasing it from the records of both fighters and ordering a rematch--if Castro wants one. “It was a very fair process--we knew that Larry made an honest mistake, and we proved our case,� Stone said.

The Forum’s next card is March 30, for the vacant WBC bantamweight title: Victor Rabanales (29-10-2) vs. Lee Yong-Hoon (20-0). On the same night, Armando Castro (33-10-1) meets Esteban Ayala (15-4-1) for the championship of the Forum’s super-flyweight tournament, and $65,000. . . . Add Lopez: Athletic Commission staffers Steve English and Dale Ashley were vindicated by Danny Lopez’s performance Thursday in Irvine. They were the ones who originally screened him in a gym sparring workout and recommended he not be licensed. But Lopez appealed directly to the commission, which chose to ignore its staff’s recommendation. The commission, after ordering that Lopez be rescreened, gave him his license, on a motion by William Malkasian that was seconded by Jerry Nathanson.

Junior-middleweight champion Terry Norris and his wife, Kelly, engaged in a 30-minute domestic argument early last Sunday morning, San Diego police reported Friday. Police said they were summoned during a victory celebration, after Norris had beaten Carl Daniels in a fight Saturday afternoon. Joe Sayatovich, Norris’ manager, said Friday that the fighter and his wife were in Georgia on vacation and unavailable for comment.

The International Boxing Federation has agreed to sanction a middleweight title fight between James Toney and challenger Glenn Wolfe because Dave Tiberi wouldn’t accept terms for a rematch with Toney. Toney-Wolfe will be held April 11 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, on the undercard for George Foreman-Alex Stewart.

Don King said in a Black Entertainment Television interview that Mike Tyson’s legal team, headed by Vincent Fuller, had been fired after the former heavyweight champion was convicted of rape. King said Fuller had been fired because “a lot of things that could have been done weren’t done.� King said Tyson’s expected appeal would be handled by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Tyson is scheduled to be sentenced March 26.

Add heavyweights: London-based European heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, the 1988 Olympic super-heavyweight champion, is about to challenge world champion Evander Holyfield with a $25-million offer to fight him instead of Larry Holmes, a fight said to be close to being finalized.

Ten Goose Boxing chief Dan Goossen is considering a pay-per-view TV network for his planned monthly shows at the Olympic Auditorium. He would call it--are you ready for this?--GooseVision. “Gives you goose bumps just thinking about it, doesn’t it?� he said.