ANALYSIS : If They’re Going to Fight, Do It Right

Sooner or later, hockey people will have to come to grips with the fact that repeated, concussive blows to the head can result in neurological impairment. If the violence gets any worse than it was Wednesday night at the Forum, the ban-boxing proponents will have a new target.

On hockey’s most combative night, the sport was shown to be the kind of activity where neurological exams should be required of all participants.

In California, all professional boxers must pass a yearly neurological exam before they’re issued a boxing license. And boxers get hit with gloved fists. Hockey players get hit with bare fists, elbows and, occasionally, sticks.

Craig Simpson of Edmonton went down from seemingly every elbow thrown by the Kings Wednesday. If he were a licensed California boxer, he’d be on the 60-day suspended list today, forbidden even to spar.

Also, National Hockey League referees and linesmen should be sent to clinics where real fight referees--such as Richard Steele, Larry Rozadilla or Mills Lane--can show them how to separate fighters in a clinch. NHL referees are hopeless at this.

On second thought, boxing referees might be passing up some steady work here. If Mills Lane, who is about 5-feet-7 and 140 pounds, can separate, say, Bonecrusher Smith and Buster Douglas, he can surely pull apart a couple of exhausted hockey players, once he gets the skating part down.

As for the skill level of the pugilism-on-ice Wednesday, we saw a mix of some surprisingly adept boxing and some very bad boxing.

So, to beat even Ring magazine to the punch, here are the preliminary Times boxing ratings, ice hockey division:

1. Petr Prajsler, Kings.

2. Kelly Buchberger, Oilers.

3. Jeff Beukeboom, Oilers.

4. Dave Taylor, Kings.

5. Mark Messier, Oilers.

Comments:

--Prajsler gets the top spot, despite a suspect chin, on the strength of landing two main-event right hands. Prajsler, you suspect, has watched Rocky Marciano fight films--he loves coming straight down on top of a crouching opponent’s head.

--Buchberger makes the top five on instincts alone. Simply put, he loves to fight. If you’re a boxing trainer, you take a long look at this guy. He’s excellent inside, particularly at holding and hitting. You can get away with that in the pros. He needs work on defending against counters but has a good short left hook to the liver.

--Beukeboom is what is called in the fight game “a good finisher.” Like Carlos Ortiz, once Beukeboom gets his man in trouble, he never lets him off the hook. He has a first-rate sneak right hand.

--Taylor is a solid fighter, mainly because he understands that the left jab is boxing’s simplest, most effective punch. Does anyone want to back up a wildly swinging, out-of-control hockey player? He should watch Taylor, who understands that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. He has a good, quick elbow, too.

--Messier showed probably the best patience Wednesday night. He doesn’t rattle under fire, goes into a clinch when in trouble, fights well inside and slips punches very well. Generally, he displayed impressive ice generalship.

A word about the Kings’ bench: Trainer Peter Demers seemed slow to react all night and didn’t appear to have any Enswell--a frozen, contoured piece of stainless steel used to reduce swelling between rounds. And like Mike Tyson’s corner in Tokyo, he didn’t appear to have any ice. Oops, scratch that. There was plenty of ice.

Edmonton’s Esa Tikkanen nearly made the list for aggressiveness alone, but he launches so many cheap shots that even a pro boxing referee might disqualify him.

The same goes for Oiler Steve Smith. Once Wednesday, he punched a referee on the arm. This is not a guy you’re going to see in a main event at the Mirage Hotel. However, Smith does own a good right uppercut, particularly effective against hockey players, who tend to come at you with their heads down.

The worst pugilist was the Kings’ Bob Halkidis. His plodding, leading-with-his-chin style reminds one of an old, eminently unsuccessful 1960s heavyweight, George (Washer Woman) Chuvalo.

And someone needs to teach the Kings’ Brian Benning to keep his feet on the ice when he throws a punch. He’s strictly an arm puncher.

Finally, Marty McSorley of the Kings is not alert defensively--he was tagged all night with sucker punches.

Summing up, Angelo Dundee’s heart rate would not have been raised by anything that occurred Wednesday. Or, not to worry, Buster.