BOXING : Leonard-Norris Has Yet to Create Interest

NEW YORK —  Maybe it’s the lagging economy. Perhaps it’s concern over the war in the Persian Gulf. Could be it’s just plain New York City apathy about professional boxing, which once owned this town but in recent years has been reduced to an occasional diversion for a cult audience.

Whatever the reason, the interesting Feb. 9 fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Terry Norris at Madison Square Garden for Norris’ WBC junior middleweight title has yet to catch fire. As of Monday, about 1,700 tickets had been sold, putting about $206,000 in the box office. Sure, it’s early yet, but some officials at the Garden are privately concerned that Leonard’s first Garden appearance is going to be a box-office disaster. They are hoping to do numbers similar to April’s Razor Ruddock-Michael Dokes heavyweight bout, which drew 12,647. But that one benefited from a walk-up sale of 7,000 tickets the day of the fight. If there are only 5,000 or so tickets sold for Leonard-Norris by Feb. 8, there will be some heavy panic in Sugartown.

“If it was Leonard-Hearns, we sell out the Garden,” one MSG executive said. “Leonard-Norris might be an even better fight, but nobody knows Terry Norris. And it doesn’t help that he’s not the type to say, ‘Ray Leonard’s a bum and I’m going to kick his butt.”’

Norris’ lack of charisma was evident at Saturday’s Meldrick Taylor-Aaron Davis bout in Atlantic City. Despite parading through the arena several times wearing a red jacket embroidered with his name, Norris went virtually unrecognized. The Garden -- which has only a minimal financial risk involved because most of the burden has been borne by Leonard’s attorney, Mike Trainer -- is hoping Leonard’s arrival in town Saturday will spur ticket sales. But it is no secret that since his questionable draw against Hearns and his ho-hum decision over Roberto Duran in 1989, Leonard’s popularity has slipped. And others believe the prices -- $350 ringside down to $50 for the distant blues -- are just too high for the economy to bear.

Then, of course, there is anxiety over the possibility that the Garden could be a target for a terrorist attack, because it sits atop Penn Station, a transportation hub, and also because the Leonard-Norris telecast will be beamed to foreign countries. The Garden already has beefed up security at Knicks and Rangers games, which are telecast locally only. It stands to reason that even more muscle will be needed at Leonard-Norris. State Athletic Commission Chairman Randy Gordon might be well advised to ask police Commissioner Lee Brown to provide extra security for Feb. 9.

None of this will do much to help ticket sales for a fight that deserves better, because there are many who believe Leonard, 35 in May, may have bitten off too big a bite in the 23-year-old Norris (more on this below). Leonard, however, sees his problems as strictly promotional.

“This is the first fight in a long time that I actually have to go out and sell,” he said. “I’m used to fighting a Hagler or a Hearns or a Duran, where it’s a done deal. This is a bit of an inconvenience.”

Don’t count out Norris: Norris opened his New York training camp Wednesday, boxing five rounds with junior middleweight Rollin Williams at the Kingsway Boxing Club on 8th Avenue. Norris showed fast hands and an ability to double- and triple-jab, two qualities few recent Leonard foes have possessed. One impressed observer was former middleweight champ and current “Godfather III” hit man Vito Antuofermo. “I think Leonard will have trouble with him,” Antuofermo said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he beat Leonard.”

Believe it or not, Tuesday was the 18th anniversary of George Foreman’s heavyweight title-winning two-round TKO over Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica.

Who says Madison Square Garden Boxing is washed up? In the “you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours” world of pro boxing, MSG now has a piece of world champions Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker and Taylor on the basis of their defeats of Garden fighters Dokes, Alex Stewart, Juan Nazario and Davis. Sometimes it pays to lose.

The war hit home for Whitaker when he saw on TV the battered face of Navy Lt. Jeffrey Zaun, who is being held by Iraq as a POW. Zaun trains at Wareing’s Gym, the site of Whitaker’s Virginia Beach training camp and, according to Bob Wareing, always made an effort to befriend Whitaker and talk to him about Navy aircraft, a Whitaker interest. “He’s a real nice guy, he loves that A-6 (jet fighter) he flies,” Whitaker said. “I hate to see him tied up like that. Looks a lot more dangerous than boxing.”

Veteran New York judge and referee Johnny LoBianco recently retired after 36 years working pro fights. Now 76, LoBianco, a native of Astoria, lives in New Hyde Park and winters in Florida. He wrote a letter to the New York Athletic Commission to inform it of his retirement a few months back, but as yet no reply or acknowledgement from commissioner Gordon. “He’s going to get a real nice letter once our new stationery comes in,” said Gordon, citing budget crunches.

Arum goes with flow: Shameless as ever, Bob Arum had this to say about the Taj Mahal, Donald Trump’s white elephant in Atlantic City, before the Jan. 11 Ray Mercer-Francesco Damiani fight: “Although I am a Nevadan, I must say that this is the finest resort hotel in the world.”

Of course, Arum had said the same things about Caesars Palace and The Mirage when they were paying his freight. Arum still does business with Caesars but his fondest wish is that The Mirage be turned into the world’s biggest parking lot right after its owner, Steve Wynn, makes an ash of himself in his phony volcano.

Someday, if capitalism and casinos ever return to Havana, you can bet this will happen: Arum, a former U.S. Attorney in JFK’s administration, will squint out at the assembled media and announce, “And now I’d like to present my partner and good friend, Fidel Castro ...”