Columnist Dean Juipe: ‘Historical site’ for sale in downtown

Dean Juipe

Thursday, June 5, 2003 | 9:04 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

When James Pollins acquired the late Johnny Tocco's Ringside Gym, he was awash in sentimentality.

Like many in Las Vegas, he enjoyed the old man's presence and marveled at the facility Tocco left behind when he died at the age of 87 in 1997. Great fighters -- Sonny Liston, Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson among them -- trained regularly at the gym, capitalizing on the building's stark qualities and utilizing Tocco as a cutman and confidant.

Pollins immediately refurbished and upgraded the gym, which was a bar when Tocco purchased and expanded it in 1950 after he moved here from St. Louis. Pollins went so far as to add an outdoor mural near the parking lot, portraying his own favorite fighters.

He also simplified the gym's name, calling it Johnny Tocco's in homage to its longtime caretaker.

Today a "For Sale" sign adorns the front of the building on East Charleston, and Pollins, distraught over the recent loss of his own father and unsure of his relationship with boxing, has the property up for bids. He's asking $595,000 for the 3,500-square-foot parcel, which is rightfully advertised as a "historical site."

"Right now I just don't want to be tied down to the gym," he said Wednesday from Atlanta. "I still have a great feeling for the place, but I just need time for myself."

He said he would return to Las Vegas later this month and assess the situation.

"I make my money selling real estate, not sitting in a gym," he said, adding that he would not be adverse to keeping the building if a partner or associate could be trusted to run it for him.

One such potential person, trainer Luis Tapia, is rumored to be interested in obtaining the gym, but Pollins said "that might be nothing more than gym talk. I don't see it happening."

The "For Sale" sign has brought some inquiries.

"I've had a lot of people call," Pollins said. "A few are more serious than others. But I do have people who understand the value of the property."

That property also has an intrinsic value, located as it is near downtown and along the projected path of a monorail from McCarron International Airport. If the monorail proceeds as currently mapped, it would pass by the area of the gym at Charleston and Main en route to the Stratosphere.

Hence, a developer could buy the property on the premise that it might be of greater value at a later date.

Pollins said he could not commit to keeping the gym intact and operational, but he was hopeful that it wouldn't be discarded.

"Maybe something can be worked out where this can be a historic site and a boxing museum," he said.

Pollins, who also had a short-lived run as a promoter and did a card at the Stardust, said that despite appearances he has not lost interest in the sport.

"I think I'll still be involved," he said. "I'm just not too sure about things right now."

While Vargas has enjoyed a lengthy career, he is best remembered locally for giving Johnny Tapia a rough time in a 1995 fight that ended after eight rounds as a technical draw. Despite the indecisive conclusion, Vargas was never given a rematch.

He's 34-9-3 with 11 knockouts and owns the United States Boxing Association bantamweight title. He's scheduled for 12 rounds with Ali Baba, who is 20-3 with 16 KOs.

Also scheduled: Robert Guerrero, 10-0, vs. Jose Luis Tula, 15-8-2, 10 rounds, featherweights; Miguel Espino, 8-0-1, vs. Rigoberto Plascencia, 5-2-1, six rounds, middleweights; Ian MacKillop, 15-3, vs. Anthony Bowman, 6-5-2, six rounds, junior middleweights; and Eduardo Vasquez, 1-0-1, vs. Jose Cuevas, 2-2, four rounds, featherweights. First bell is 2:15 p.m.

Also scheduled: Dannell Nicholson, 41-4, vs. Ken Murphy, 21-10-1, eight rounds, heavyweights; Malcolm Tann, 6-0, vs. Alexis Mejias, 7-0, six rounds, heavyweights; Aristeo Perez, 7-5, vs. an opponent yet to be determined, six rounds, featherweights; Layla McCarter, 14-9-4, vs. Claudia Valenciana, 4-0, six rounds, women, junior welterweights; and Oliver Foy, 1-1, vs. Jesse Culver, pro debut, four rounds, middleweights.

IBF strawweight champion Miguel Barrera lost his belt Saturday and his career is also apparently over. Despite leading by 7, 2 and 1 points on the judges' cards through nine rounds of a fight in Tijuana, Mexico, with Edgar Cardenas, Barrera was knocked out in the 10th round and lapsed into a coma. He underwent surgery the following day to relieve a blood clot on the brain. ... The Castaways hotel/casino and promoter Richard Steele will host a card June 28. ... Steele is recovering at home after back surgery at UCLA. ... Laila Ali's opponent June 21 in Los Angeles is, once again, Valerie Mahfood, who she defeated last November in Las Vegas. Ali is 14-0 and Mahfood 13-5. ... Promoter Lou DiBella has broken ties with former U.S. Olympian Ricardo Williams, a junior welterweight who dropped a fight in Las Vegas earlier this year.

Kevin Cunningham, who manages new IBF welterweight champion Cory Spinks, says a fight with undisputed junior welterweight champ Kostya Tszyu is on the drawing board. Tszyu will move up in weight to face Spinks. ... Super middleweight contender Antwun Echols was arrested Sunday in Rock Island, Ill., and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was also shot in the armpit 11 days earlier in Davenport, Iowa. ... Jesse Brinkley, the junior middleweight from Yerington who was profiled in this space last week, won his Monday fight with Cleveland Corder in Worley, Idaho, by first-round knockout. He's 20-1. ... Former lightweight contender David Sample of Las Vegas is back in the gym, some 18 months after a second surgery on his left shoulder. "I feel I'm a young 34," he said at Nevada Partners. "I never took any abuse, I wasn't in any real wars a nd I'm not a big partier." He plans to fight at 147 pounds, having struggled to make 135 for many years.