Goossen Puts Out Word: Count Him In, Not Out

Twenty years ago, Dan Goossen was selling pens and pencils over the phone. Whether sweet-talking secretaries or schmoozing shipping clerks, he made a good living.

Today, Goossen is still living on the phone. And life is better than ever, because now, he no longer has to sweet talk or schmooze. He has something people want: a growing stable of some of the best young fighters in the world.

Goossen, chief operating officer of America Presents, returned home this week to the San Fernando Valley, where his career as a boxing promoter-manager began in the early 1980s, to promote the second of the six shows he hopes to stage this year at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City.

Among the 29 fighters under the America Presents banner are David Reid, the only gold-medal winner among the U.S. fighters at the 1996 Olympics; Azumah Nelson, a three-time world champion; Bernard Hopkins, the International Boxing Federation middleweight champion, and Gabe and Rafael Ruelas, Michael Nunn, Tracy Harris Patterson, Simon Brown, Wayne McCullough, William Guthrie and Ray Berry, all of whom have worn championship belts.

In addition, America Presents can boast of a crop of promising heavyweights, such as Paea Wolfgramm, the Tongan who won the 1996 Olympic super-heavyweight silver medal; Duncan Dokiwari, the Nigerian who won the bronze in the same competition, and Lance Whitaker, Monte Barrett and Lawrence Clay-Bey.

America Presents also has television contracts with Fox Sports and HBO.

“T ‘n’ T, talent and television, that’s the business,” said Matt Tinley, a former television executive who founded America Presents less than two years ago, funded it with about $7 million put up by his uncle, cable pioneer Bill Daniels, and hired Goossen to run the boxing end.

That’s a long way from the Ten Goose Boxing Club in North Hollywood, Goossen’s old family-run venture.

“I thought about a lot of jobs,” Goossen said. “Then I looked in the phone book under promoters, and under ‘A’ I saw [Bob] Arum and under ‘K’ I saw [Don] King. So I figured, this is a good business. Nobody’s in it.”

First, he had to learn the ropes. Actually, first he had to get some ropes for a ring.

The Goossens set it up under a tree in the backyard of a house on a valley cul-de-sac and got all the necessary equipment, from gloves to punching bags.

All the Goossen family dreamers needed was a fighter. No problem. They tried a tough guy down at the car wash named Nacho. They tried a car salesman.

Uh, no.

It turned out this boxing racket was tougher than it looked. No wonder nobody was in it.

But slowly, things began to happen. They found a bona fide fighter, a flyweight named Alonzo Strongbow. They got a quality fighter named Frankie Duarte at the end of his career.

They got Nunn when he was just starting and rode him all the way to a championship. They developed the Ruelases. They staged shows at the Reseda Country Club for a decade.

But Goossen, never having the money to compete with the big boys, wound up folding Ten Goose and going to work for Arum.

When he saw no room for advancement there, Goossen went out on his own and hooked up with Tinley.

America Presents’ big acquisition was Reid. He was signed to a five-year deal after the Olympics that will pay him at least $15 million. But, Tinley says, over the long haul the deal could be worth more than $100 million to Reid.

“It staggered Bob Arum, who thought he had Reid,” Tinley said. “For us to come in and get him was like CBS letting Fox come in and get the NFC away from them. I think some people were asleep at the switch.”

Both Tinley and Goossen talk about the difficulty of trying to break into the exclusive promoters’ club, but they regard Arum as their arch-foe.

“Bob doesn’t care if he leaves money on the table to keep you from making money,” Tinley said.

Arum, of course, has a rebuttal.

“That’s a senseless kind of statement,” said Arum, who maintains that the lucrative contracts America Presents presents to its fighters are not realistic.

“I wanted to make a fight between Tracy Patterson and Genaro Hernandez,” Arum said. “But [America Presents] promised Tracy so much that it wasn’t worth it to me. There are other opponents out there who cost far less but are just as good. They promised so much money to Gabe and Rafael. That’s fine, but now you can’t use them because they are too expensive.

“Dan is a really nice guy, but he is the worst businessman I’ve ever met. When it comes to taking out a pencil and coming up with figures without dreaming, he’s horrible. Anybody can get a big-name fighter. But if you get him, throw money at him, lose money and say you’re a big shot, people know.

“I don’t care who is subsidizing [America Presents]. They are in a sea of red ink. Until they show black ink, they are not in a league with me or King or even [promoter] Cedric Kushner. They are not in any league but the red-ink league.”

Countered Tinley, “Bob and Don are winding down their careers. Bob is trying very hard to fight us, but he can’t stop change.”

Who says there are no good fights out there? These guys put on a better show than any of the fighters they promote.

DANCE CARD

Don’t look for Oscar De La Hoya in the ring before mid-June.

With his February match against Patrick Charpentier twice postponed because of torn cartilage in De La Hoya’s left wrist, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion will face the French challenger in Atlanta City on June 13.

After that, should he win as expected, De La Hoya will fight in September in Las Vegas on pay-per-view.

His opponent?

According to Arum, De La Hoya’s promoter, the preference list goes as follows: 1. Julio Cesar Chavez if he beats Miguel Angel Gonzalez next Saturday; 2. Felix Trinidad; 3. Ike Quartey if he beats Pernell Whitaker April 25; 4. Yory Boy Campas.

What about Whitaker if he wins April 25?

“Nobody wants it,” Arum said. “I’m afraid to risk the money. I don’t believe it will sell and the casinos back that up. It’s all economics.”

In other words, Whitaker wants too much money.