BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Fine Print Says Chavez Can Expect to Be in Court

When Julio Cesar Chavez walked out of Bob Arum’s Las Vegas office Thursday night, he had a contract calling for $15 million for six fights spanning 18 months, and a bonus check for $300,000.

On Friday, New York promoter Don King claimed that Chavez still owes him four fights under their old contract, and said that he would put together a multifight package for Chavez worth $30 million.

Also on Friday, Burbank attorney Mark MacCarley said that U.S. District Court Judge Consuelo Marshall, in a suit against Chavez, had entered judgment in favor of Azteca Promotions of Los Angeles, for $880,000.

Chavez fought Roger Mayweather at the Forum in May of 1989 and Azteca sued, claiming that Chavez had unlawfully backed out of a contract with them to fight Mayweather for King. Chavez’s deal with Arum doesn’t take effect until May. In the meantime, it looks as if Chavez’s next fights will be in courtrooms.

The embattled King, meanwhile, reacted angrily to news that Mike Tyson’s estranged manager, Bill Cayton, would try to block King’s proposed Tyson-Razor Ruddock fight next spring.

“This man (Cayton) is a bad dream,” King said. “What he doesn’t understand is that Mike fired him. Managers can be fired. Hollywood people fire their managers every day. Mike doesn’t want Cayton in his life, yet here’s a guy who’s been making 20% off every one of Mike’s fights.”

Cayton also charged that King will sign a deal with Ruddock’s promoter, Murad Muhammad, that will give King multiple options on Ruddock’s fights as champion, should he win. Muhammad confirmed last week in Atlantic City that he had agreed to sign over options to King.

“Murad has all the options on Razor, he’s his promoter,” King said. “I’m in this with Murad. I don’t need any options, but I will have some.”

In other words, King can’t lose in a Tyson-Ruddock matchup. He would co-promote Ruddock championship fights with Muhammad if Ruddock defeated Tyson.

Cayton, a New York businessman who owns the world’s most extensive boxing film library, was Tyson’s co-manager with Jim Jacobs until Jacobs’ death in 1988. Tyson and Cayton had a falling out shortly afterward.

Cayton says he stepped in only once to block a King move with Tyson.

“A couple of years ago, King wanted him to appear in an undercard exhibition fight at the Julio Cesar Chavez-Roger Mayweather card in Los Angeles,” Cayton said. “I told them absolutely not. Everything else King’s wanted to do, I’ve stayed quiet. But not this. I will stop this.”

Randy Gordon, executive director of the New York State Boxing Commission, said commission lawyers are examining the Cayton-Tyson contract, which runs to Feb. 12, 1992.

“Our contracts all have a clause preventing any fighter from taking a fight without his manager’s approval,” Gordon said. “We’re looking closely at it. I would think that if we decide Cayton is within his rights to block the fight, then other state commissions would abide by our decision. After all, all states cooperate in the case of medical suspensions, why not this?”

Cayton also objects to attempts by King and World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman to strip Evander Holyfield of the WBC’s portion of the championship, thereby making Tyson-Ruddock a title fight.

Holyfield’s handlers, Lou and Dan Duva, have since obtained a court order preventing the WBC from taking the title from Holyfield, and they also agreed to submit the case to the American Arbitration Assn.

Light-heavyweight champion Virgil Hill will know by Monday if his long-sought match with Thomas Hearns will take place, according to his manager.

The unbeaten Hill wants a pay-per-view fight with Hearns in 1991. Hill’s manager, Gary Martinson, said Hearns and his adviser, Harold Smith, had a Friday deadline on deciding if they wanted the Hill fight, but asked if the deadline could be extended to Monday.

A Hearns-Hill fight, Martinson said, would earn Hearns $3 million to $4 million and about $1.5 million for Hill.

Al Stankie, who guided East Los Angeles light-flyweight Paul Gonzales to an Olympic gold medal in 1984 and who aspires to do the same in 1992 with another East L.A. standout, Oscar de la Hoya, has been suspended by the USA Amateur Boxing Federation. At the recent USA/ABF convention, Stankie was assessed a three-year suspension for alleged drunkenness at the 1990 national championships last February. Stankie, a retired Los Angeles policeman, has appealed and his appeal will be heard at the USA/ABF’s January board meeting in Colorado Springs.

Oscar Rankins, popular Los Angeles middleweight and light-heavyweight boxer of the 1930s and 1940s, died recently at 78. Rankins was both the middleweight and light-heavy champion of California.

Boxing Notes

Irvine Marriott promoter Don Fraser corrects his Reseda rival, Dan Goossen, who billed his recent show as “the first all-heavyweight card in California in 33 years.” Retorts Fraser: “I did the last all-heavyweight show--it was Ali-Norton II at the Forum in 1973, and all the undercard fights were heavyweights.”

Former welterweight champion Jimmy McLarnin, 83, will be honored Jan. 13 at the Ace Awards show at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. He will be honored, along with former heavyweight champions Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton and Joe Frazier. . . . Humberto Gonzalez, who will defend his light-flyweight title at the Forum Wednesday night, will hold a free, public workout in the Forum parking lot today at 11 a.m.