Tuesday, April 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
THERE are aspects of his life story that are all too typical for a professional boxer.
Managerial troubles ... a drug bust ... incarceration ... lack of desire ... a street fight ... the earning of some $5 million in prize money, only to have lost it all.
Yet Donald Curry stands apart from the mainstream problem-child fighter. At least he does today, a year after a short prison stint and eight years since he was last a world champion.
"To me, I've underachieved," he said Monday at the Aladdin Hotel, where he'll fight in Wednesday's main event of a Top Rank boxing card. "That's why I'm back. This time I'm looking for greatness."
Curry is 35 years old and no one knows for sure if he's kidding himself when he says he wants to regain a world title, or if he still retains enough of his pure athletic ability to actually make it happen. He's 34-5 in a pro career that began in 1980 and included two or three years in the mid-1980s when he was the sport's unofficial "pound for pound" champion.
He has fought once since a five-year layoff, defeating journeyman Gary Jones Feb. 20 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
He'll get a good test at the Aladdin when he faces a man 10 years his junior, Emmett Linton, who was also once trained by Curry and who is the protagonist in Curry's current melodrama.
This is actually fight No. 2 in the Curry vs. Linton series. Bout No. 1 was on a street in Fort Worth, Texas, about 18 months ago.
"We did have a street fight, I'm a little embarrassed to say," Curry admitted. "I was immature and he was immature. He let some information out about me that eventually led to me going to prison, and I confronted him about it.
"He hit me and I hit him. Then he and his brother left to get a gun. What does that say about him?"
The Lintons were intercepted before they could return with a weapon. But, in an emotional sense at least, the damage was already done.
"That hurt me," Curry said of his hostilities with Linton. "I had taken Emmett in, like a first-born kid. I had some compassion for him. I gave him money. I gave him energy. I gave him time.
"Then he wants to pull a gun on me?"
It was also Linton's tip to the authorities that at least indirectly led to Curry receiving a six-month prison sentence for failing to pay child support. He served two weeks behind bars and another four weeks in a work-release situation in which he had to return to the prison every night.
"January 15, 1996, was the day I went into jail and I've been focused on fighting Emmett ever since," Curry said. "I've been fixated with fighting him since that day. I started working toward this Wednesday fight with him since that first day in jail.
"I've always felt that once I get him in the ring, he's going to have some problems."
One thing leads to another in the Curry-Linton saga, as Curry's wife divorced him after she learned he had a child out of wedlock with another woman. As it presently stands, Curry is now paying child support to two women -- Gladys Mack and Valerie Cooper -- for the three children he has fathered.
"That's why I'm fighting," he said. "To support my kids."
Intermingled with the delinquent child-support payments that landed him in jail in Texas, Curry was also held on a drug-conspiracy charge in Detroit. He was later acquitted, saying now "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. I didn't have a drug problem."
Nevertheless, freeing himself from the drug charge further drained his bank account. For a man who made $5 million in the ring fighting the likes of Marlon Starling, Milton McCrory, Lloyd Honeyghan, Mike McCallum, Gianfranco Rosi, Michael Nunn and Terry Norris, Curry wound up broke.
"I did the best I could," Curry said, prefacing his ultimate explanation. "I was just some country guy out of Fort Worth. I made some bad investments. I loaned some money. I messed off some money.
"When people know you've got it, they expect you to give it to them. I blame nobody but me."
Well, he would also blame ex-manager Akbar Muhammad, saying "I trusted the guy and he took my soul from me. He gave me a lot of bad advice."
Curry's manager of record now is Neil Torring, and his new trainer is Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. But it's Curry's self-motivation that has him back in the ring and pursuing bigger fights at 154 pounds.
"When it comes to natural talent, you've either got it or you don't," he said. "The fights I lost (to Honeyghan, McCallum, Nunn, Norris and Rene Jacquot) I was training wrong and wasn't motivated. I lost touch with myself. I didn't like the business side of boxing and I stopped doing the things that got me to the top.
"I was going through the same thing (IBF heavyweight champion) Michael Moorer is right now. I wasn't putting out any more effort than I thought it would take to win.
"I was looking for excuses to get out of fights. I was confused and a little fearful, and I suffered for it."
Driven by the desire to fight Linton and reclaim a prosperous career, Curry keeps a daily diary in which he charts his progress. It's a log he has kept since July 22, 1996.
Among the entries: A day in December in which Linton -- who is 22-2 -- walked into the Top Rank Gym, where Curry trains; and a fall phone call from movie maker Howard Bingham, in which the idea of a film of Curry's life story was discussed.
"I let Emmett know I wanted him," Curry said of the December confrontation. "I told him, 'I'll be giving you a call.' I made sure he knew I wanted to fight him."
As for Bingham, Curry said: "He offered me $100,000 and I certainly need the money. I mean, when I got out of prison, I didn't have a car. I had to run to where I wanted to go.
"But I told him 'No.' My life isn't through. I'm still going to make a whole lot of money. I told him he could do the movie after I come back and become a world champion."
Boxing notes
Wednesday's Aladdin card will be on DirecTV and has a 6 p.m. opening bell. Former light heavyweight contender Donny Lalonde, 37-4, will open the show against Joe Stevenson, who is 13-3-1 in an unimpressive career to date. Also scheduled: David Kamau, 27-1, vs. Juan Rodriguez, 32-7-2, eight rounds, junior welterweights; Raul Terrazas, 7-1, vs. Miguel Ruiz, 4-4-1, six rounds, junior welterweights; Steve Forbes, 2-0, vs. Sergio Benitez, 0-1, four rounds, junior lightweights; Steve Musacchio, 1-0, vs. Ron Hasbrouck, 0-5-1, four rounds, light heavyweights; and Cody Koch, 17-0, vs. Rick Phillips, 2-6, six rounds, heavyweights. ... For those who have a DirecTV system, the fee is $14.95. ... Linton was a slight favorite in the Aladdin sports book at a --130 to Curry's --110. ... As for Saturday's fight at the Thomas & Mack Center, Pernell Whitaker worked out Monday at the Ringside Gym, with local junior lightweight Jeff Mayweather serving as sparring partner. ... Oscar De La Hoya arrives Tuesday night by private bus from his home in Big Bear, Calif. Neither De La Hoya nor Whitaker have scheduled any public workouts. ... Top Rank vice president Todd duBoef said around 15,000 tickets have been sold and that a sellout or near-sellout is expected. ... Outside of Nevada, De La Hoya vs. Whitaker is on pay per view and its buy rate may exceed the non-heavyweight record of 740,000 households, achieved for the Whitaker vs. Julio Cesar Chavez fight in 1993.
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