Thursday, March 12, 1998 | 12:02 p.m.
DEAN JUIPE is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His office phone number is 259-4084. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]
Alfonso Sanchez has won 18 fights and lost only one, but it's the one he lost that's most vividly recalled.
Dominating journeyman Mickey Ward last April 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center, Sanchez was suddenly hit with a kidney shot in the seventh round and -- just like that -- the fight was over. He was down for the full count and then some.
While Sanchez bounced back to defeat veteran Charles Murray in September, there's no escaping the impression he's vulnerable to the body. And that's where IBF junior welterweight champion Vince Phillips of Las Vegas will aim a few of his shots when the two square off Saturday in Atlantic City for a card to be televised by HBO.
"I know he's going to try and protect his body and keep it together," Phillips said from his Big Bear, Calif., training camp. "I plan on going from the body to the head and keep him on the defensive."
Phillips, 38-3, will be making his third title defense and is a 4-to-1 betting favorite in Las Vegas. This is a fight that has bounced around the calendar, as it was originally scheduled for March 14, then bumped to April 18 to accommodate an Oscar De La Hoya fight, then moved back to March 14 when De La Hoya's fight was postponed.
"Things happen," Phillips said of ever-changing dates. "Sometimes it caused me to lose focus for a moment or two but I'm OK with it now. It threw me off a bit but I'm back on course."
He said his weight, always a concern, is fine and that his health is excellent.
He expects a good test from Sanchez, who, at 25 years old, is nine years younger than the champion.
"They say he's strong and durable and not the typical Mexican fighter," Phillips said. "I heard he might run out of gas, though, and that's because he throws a lot of punches and isn't able to maintain his stamina.
"I also have to be aware of what he's capable of doing just in case he can punch."
Sanchez has 13 knockouts within the first two rounds of a fight, yet this is clearly a step up in competition for him.
"He's a lot better than I thought he was," Phillips' manager, Akbar Muhammad, said of Sanchez. "He throws a variety of punches and uppercuts and counters that you don't normally see from a Mexican fighter."
Yet it's Phillips coming in as the titleholder and Phillips who has the advantage in experiencing fights of this magnitude.
"I've been in the spotlight," he said, discounting the pressure of fighting on HBO. "I've done it enough now to know my only concern is to go in and take care of business."
Mullings, too
Sharing the bill with Phillips for HBO's Saturday card in Atlantic City is IBF junior middleweight champion Keith Mullings. He's in with Italy's Davide Ciarlante.
Mullings, 15-4-1, is coming off an upset victory over Terry Norris in December, and that was just one fight after a narrow and disputed loss to another champion, Raul Marquez.
"I always believed in myself," Mullings said during a conference call. "If there's one thing I can do, it's fight."
That mentality was built not only in the ring but during a stint in the U.S. Army that took him to the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Mullings was an artillery gunner in the service.
"You grow a lot when you don't know whether you're coming back or not," he said of his war experience. "It's a real test of endurance and strength. To overcome it only makes you stronger."
After returning to the U.S., Mullings renewed his interest in boxing and got off to a good start as a professional with 13 consecutive wins. Then he lost four of six.
"It was frustrating," he said. "I saw my record going to 13-1, 13-2, 13-3. I thought people would think I was a guy who put up a good fight but nothing else."
While many thought he deserved the decision against Marquez, Mullings removed the guesswork for his fight against Norris with a ninth-round knockout.
"At first it was a little numbing," he admitted. "The happiness of winning, of being a part of history, of setting a goal and achieving it -- that's monstrous for a man."
It's not known how much trouble he'll have with Ciarlante, who owns a perfect 23-0 record yet is without a victory over a significant challenger.
Charlie's card
Arizona Charlie's will host its monthly card Saturday and is using a potentially decent flyweight bout as its headliner. The seven-bout card is topped by Ysaias Zamudio, 44-6-1, vs. Alejandro Montiel, 35-3.
Zamudio is a former NABF champion who twice has lost world title fights. He was beaten by Yury Arbachakov in 1993 and is coming off a loss to Chatchai Sasakul last May in Thailand.
Likewise, Montiel is winless in world-title fights, having dropped a 12-round decision to Mark Johnson last year. He has since rebounded to win twice and will be looking to avenge his brother Francisco's loss to Zamudio in 1991.
Also scheduled: Francisco Espitia, 9-0, vs. Guadalupe Gastelum, 13-2-1, 10 rounds, junior bantamweights; Raul Franco, 9-0, vs. Gustavo Soto, 14-7-1, six rounds, welterweights; Willie Stewart, 1-0, vs. Ronald Jones, pro debut, four rounds, middleweights; Jesus Diaz, 3-2-3, vs. Augustin Montano, 0-2, four rounds, junior middleweights; Derrick James, 15-3, vs. an opponent yet to be determined, eight rounds, super middleweights; and Valory Troike, 4-0, vs. Copipsi Mendivil, 2-0, six rounds, women, super bantamweights. First bell is 6:30 p.m.
Oscar's outlook
His fight with Patrick Charpentier pushed back to June 13 and the site switched to El Paso, Oscar De La Hoya has time not only to let his injured wrist recover but to do television shows. He appeared last week on ESPN's Up Close and touched base on a number of topics, including his career goals.
"I feel I'll fight three more years," he said. "And my goal is to win seven titles in seven weight classes. I've added one."
Currently the WBC welterweight champion, De La Hoya has four world titles in his pocket and obviously expects to move up to 154 pounds, then 160 and then 168 if he's to reach seven. If all goes well, he'll retire and return to school to pursue a degree in architecture.
Until then, he's enjoying his status as an undefeated champion and role model.
"It's been a fun ride," he said. "I have fun with boxing and I'm in this position for a reason. I was brought into this world to be a role model, so why not take advantage of the situation?"
He takes pride in his professional approach to the sport and says "I'll never, ever go into the ring if I'm not 100 percent," which is why the fight with Charpentier has been postponed twice.
"I'm a very experienced prize fighter," De La Hoya said. "I pinch myself, remind myself that every fighter wants to beat me. I train to overcome any obstacle and try to give an exciting fight every time out."
That said, he knows his clean-cut image results in some boxing fans rooting against him.
"There's always that little group that wants me to lose," he said. "It doesn't matter where I fight, I get fans and writers who are for me and fans and writers who are against me. Some people don't like the fact I have a good image."
De La Hoya, 27-0, won all five of his 1997 fights and earned $33 million during the calendar year. He'll be coming off a six-month layoff, however, when he fights Charpentier in a bout once targeted for Las Vegas before being moved to Atlantic City and, finally, El Paso.
Tyson legal update
Just in the last week, ex-heavyweight champ Mike Tyson has filed suit against promoter Don King in New York; filed suit against co-managers John Horne and Rory Holloway in Los Angeles; had a harassment lawsuit filed against him in Baltimore by two women he allegedly accosted in Washington D.C.; and is due to give a deposition today in Las Vegas regarding a suit brought against him by an animal trainer who says Tyson owes him $100,000.
To date, Tyson has ignored the latter suit and failed to show for an earlier deposition, Dec. 19. He's being sued by Karl Mitchell, who alleges Tyson broke a two-year contract that paid Mitchell to care for three tigers Tyson had at his Las Vegas home.
In a related item, a man who once served as a bodyguard for Tyson and who wrote a book in 1995 -- "The Inner Ring" -- about the people surrounding the fighter, said Wednesday he believes King is behind the harassment suit filed in Baltimore. "King will do everything he can to keep Tyson in court," said Rudy Gonzalez, by phone from Miami. "It's no coincidence that less than a week after Tyson files suit against King, Tyson is sued by two women claiming harassment."
Gonzalez added that Tyson only recently became aware of how much he was being exploited by King when Tyson's wife, Monica Turner, read him Gonzalez's book.
King attempted to stop publication of the book but it remains available and Gonzalez said he has sold 19,000 copies. "It sells a hundred copies a month at the Borders in Las Vegas," he said.
Around the ring
It isn't logical or fair, yet the WBC has decided to call the Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Miguel Angel Gonzalez fight last Saturday in Mexico City a draw -- as was announced in the ring that night. The trouble is, the scoring wasn't tabulated correctly and, in truth, Gonzalez should have been declared the winner as the card of judge Chuck Hassett was misread following the sixth round. Hassett scored the round for Gonzalez yet the WBC official wrote it down as 10-10. Two good reasons the WBC failed to amend the final result: Its close association with promoter Don King, who will now rematch Chavez and Gonzalez in June, perhaps in Las Vegas; and the uproar within Mexico by Chavez fans, who felt he deserved the victory. ... Showtime will rebroadcast the Chavez-Gonzalez fight Saturday at 10:15 p.m. ... Criminal fraud charges have been brought against six Las Vegas bars that intercepted the signal and illegally showed the Chavez-Gonzalez fight to their patrons. ... The Nevada Golden Gloves championships will be held Friday and Saturday at the Golden Gloves Gym, with a 6 p.m. starting time each night. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children. ... Las Vegas amateur sensation Jason Ingwaldson, ranked No. 1 in the U.S. at 125 pounds, competes Saturday in the U.S. vs. Ireland dual meet in Spokane. He'll go from there to Colorado Springs for the U.S. Championships next week. ... Las Vegas heavyweight Renard Jones suffered his second pro loss in seven outings when he was knocked out in the first round by David Bostice, 9-0-1, last week in Idaho.
There's talk of an Evander Holyfield vs. Henry Akinwande fight June 6 in Las Vegas. ... Forum Boxing will use Jorge Paez to headline its March 28 card at the Tropicana. ... Promoter Bob Arum on former IBF junior middleweight champ Raul Marquez, who was badly beaten by Yory Boy Campas last December: "He's out until June or July, then we'll get him a fight and try to make a match with (Keith) Mullings in September." ... Suffering an injured neck while sparring, WBC junior lightweight champ Genaro Hernandez had to ask for a postponement of his April 4 fight in California with Carlos Gerena. They're now rescheduled for May 16 in Indio. ... NABF welterweight champ Derrell Coley may have won his Tuesday fight with Willy Wise in Maryland, yet the decision victory did little for his career. Coley, 32-1-2, had been hoping to look good and perhaps slide into a fight later this year with De La Hoya. ... Former Caesars World Sports director Rich Rose has gone to work for HBO as a consultant. ... The under-construction Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas will have a 12,000-seat arena and has expressed an interest in doing boxing. ... A fighter of some repute, Hipolito Saucedo, was found dead in Texas. He had been shot in the back of the head. ... Former junior welterweight world champion Antonio Cervantes, 52, is scheduled to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June, yet he was recently arrested for slashing a woman with a knife in his native Colombia. He's confined to a psychiatric hospital.
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