Bowe Heavy Favorite to Retain Titles : Boxing: Ferguson, who has lost four of his last six bouts, gets a shot because of upset over Mercer.

WASHINGTON —  Riddick Bowe will defend his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Assn. heavyweight championships against Jesse Ferguson tonight, a match more indicative of the fragmented state of pro boxing than it is of Bowe’s fitness as a champion.

Ferguson will arrive as the challenger in RFK Stadium solely on the strength of an upset of Ray Mercer on the undercard of Bowe’s last defense, against Michael Dokes on Feb. 6.

Before that, this 19-9 challenger had lost four of his previous five, and eight of his last 13. Between March of 1990 and February of 1993, Ferguson won two of seven fights.

Nevertheless, because boxing isn’t governed, Ferguson will be matched against a champion who deserves better.

Ferguson is the second setup guy for Bowe (33-0) since his rousing victory over Evander Holyfield last November. Dokes was taken out in less than a round.

Ferguson is best known as a world-class sparring partner. Some of Mike Tyson’s toughest fights were sparring with Ferguson.

“Jesse was a sensational sparring partner for Mike,” said Steve Lott, former assistant manager of Tyson.

“He could go toe to toe every day in the gym with Mike. We used him at the training camps for Bonecrusher Smith, Tony Tucker, Tyrell Biggs, Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks.”

Tonight’s challenger was supposed to be Mercer, who had only to beat Ferguson on the Bowe-Dokes undercard. But Ferguson won going away by decision over a fat, complacent, Mercer.

As a result, Ferguson will get a $500,000 purse tonight, and Bowe, a 40-1 favorite, will get about $7 million.

But wasn’t Buster Douglas something like a 40-1 underdog, too? Yes, but Douglas was an outstanding heavyweight who had never been in shape until the day he beat Tyson. Ferguson has been seen at his very best, and that doesn’t appear sufficient to make him competitive with Bowe.

So what is holding up a Bowe-Lennox Lewis fight?

Lewis, recognized only by the World Boxing Council as champion, is perceived as the heavyweight challenger needed to create the next mega-fight, but the two camps still are maneuvering for position.

Another prominent figure from the 1988 Olympics--during which Bowe lost to Lewis in the gold-medal bout--is middleweight Roy Jones, who will share some of the spotlight tonight.

Jones was the Pensacola, Fla., boxer who was robbed by the judges in his gold-medal match with South Korean Park Si-Hun. Since then, he has won all 21 pro fights (20 by knockout) and tonight will box Bernard Hopkins (22-1) of Philadelphia for the vacant IBF middleweight championship.