Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 31

oREPUBLIC FINAL The Arizona Republic Sunday, December 13, 1981 1 jCHI Brawler tries to limit punches to gym Bob 11 Hurt Phoenix may have the closest thing to Rocky Graziano the city will ever get Graziano was the street fighter from Brooklyn who used his fists to battle his way in and out of trouble and who eventually became tamed enough to win the world's middleweight title. He was the subject of the hit movie Somebody Up There Likes Me. Meet Sonagtane "Tony" Fulilangi, 6-foot, 210 pounds, from Tonga, an island in the South Pacific. Actually, the country of Tonga consists of about Verne Boatner Sports Director ASU gymnasts left Mexico City with much more than medals "I'm scared to fight in the streets anymore," he said. "I'm afraid I'll hurt my hands." Fenn, who handled the late Zora Folley when he was a world heavyweight contender, claims that Fulilangi was better after six amateur fights than Folley was after 73.

"When he came to me," Fenn said, "he was raw as beef. But he learned fast He used to work for hours at home on routines I taught him." If it was up to Fenn, Fulilangi would still be an amateur. But he went to Hawaii to visit his sister, wound up beating up Hawaii's best heavyweight in a Honolulu gym and was offered a professional fight He called Fenn, who reluctantly agreed. In his first pro fight, Fulilangi knocked his opponent out in the first round. Of six amateur and seven pro fights, Fulilangi never has gone past the second round before knocking out his opponent He is scheduled for a four-round preliminary bout Thursday at the Youth Center (in the state Fairgrounds adjacent to Veterans Memorial Coliseum) against Jumbo Jim Wallace, a 235-pound heavyweight from Chicago.

Fenn still remembers Fulilangi's first amateur fight He rushed across the ring for a quick knockout, got nailed by a terrific right, shook it off like a stunned bull and proceeded to tear his opponent apart "It was not a very good showing," said Fenn, with no trace of a smile. People are getting excited about Fulilangi. Local promoter Steve Eisner declares that he's "the hardest punching heavyweight in the world today, and that includes Gerry Cooney (the World Boxing Council's No. 1 -ranked heavyweight contender)." That remains to be seen. In fact a lot remains to be seen about the former street fighter from the coconut groves.

lou islands that are about 3,000 miles southwest of Honolulu. Captain William Bligh and his 18 loyal sailors were cast adrift in those islands by the mutineers on the Bounty. It was a British protectorate from the turn of the century until 1970, when it was granted independence. The people, who supposedly came from Samoa originally, are renowned as great warriors. But enough of history.

The life history of Tony Fulilangi the kid. He chased him out of the ring and around the palm trees. "He made me mad," was Fulilangi's explanation. A lot of people have made Fulilangi mad. "The people tried to down him all his life," said his trainer, Al Fenn, 61, who has been handling boxers for the past 35 years.

"They tried to make him a nobody. "But I think he felt he had something in him that he was somebody. So he let it out with his fists." By the time he got to Phoenix, he had a reputation as a brawler. How he got here is interesting. He was offered a track and field scholarship to Brigham Young University's branch in Hawaii but decided college wasn't for him.

So he left the college "and just bummed around" in Hawaii for a couple of years. He came to Phoenix to visit his brother and decided to stay. The main reason was that he discovered Fenn's gym in south Phoenix. But, before that, he walked into another gym and wound up punching out the coach. It didn't take him long to get in trouble at Fenn's gym, either.

According to Fulilangi's version, he was asked to spar with a former Golden Glove champion. But the guy tried to land a knockout punch and got Fulilangi mad. "So I went after him and knocked him down twice," Fulilangi said. "His trainer stepped in the ring and chased me out" There seems to be differing versions- about whether Fulilangi hit his opponent after he was down. Fulilangi said he has had trouble holding jobs in Phoenix.

He said he always seems to have a conflict with someone and lose the job. Currently, he is working for a furniture company in south Phoenix. Fulilangi says he's cleaned up his act, but he doesn't sound very convincing. TEMPE For 16 members of the Arizona State men's gymnastics team, it was a rude cultural shock. Imagine, no chimi-changas in Mexico City.

Not only had the Mexicans not heard of a chimichanga, but they also laughed when the Arizona delicacy was mentioned. In their language, a changa is a female monkey. That was only part of the education of the ASU gymnasts, who spent five days in Mexico City homes while competing in an international meet. Most problems dealt with basics: language, food, bathrooms, and combinations of same. Don Hinton locked himself in a bathroom because he failed to notice there was no knob on the inside of the door.

He couldn't break the door, and his teammate, Steve Schechtman, couldn't break the language barrier. Schechtman tried to explain the predicament to their hosts with gestures and pidgin Spanish. Finally, he pulled the hosts to the bathroom. They jiggled the doorknob, releasing the captive Hinton. Bruce Barclay stayed in a home in which, as he explained it, "the poverty level was a little low." Every time he took a shower, they had to turn on the water.

The toilet was cracked, but a bucket was left nearby. "I was kind of hesitant to take food," Barclay said. "I took mainly corn flakes with warm milk. I lost 6 pounds in five days." Others adapted better. Jeff Knep-per thought it was "really neat" to have chicken enchiladas daily for breakfast "They've got a lot more punch than bran flakes," he said.

The competitors stayed in 14 homes, mostly unheated and un carpeted. The only one who asked to move was Paul Webster, a rather shy freshman from Fort Collins, Colo. "I was living with a lady, and her daughter and the father weren't around much," he said. "They didn't have any hot water and not too many towels, and the lady told me I couldn't take a shower. I wanted to take a shower." The Sun Devils were appalled as dirty, raggedy kids invaded restaurants to beg.

They had a hard time believing the mud shacks lining the railroads. They shuddered when cars swerved to avoid a lady sleeping in the street It was a cultural shock. It also was a valuable cultural experience. It was humbling one-on-one diplomacy. It left the Sun Devils impressed with the friendliness and generosity of their hosts.

It was a great way to spend a Thanksgiving holiday. Schechtman said, "It makes you appreciate what you've got, for sure." Webster was moved from the home with no shower into the home of a professor. "They didn't have a whole lot of money, but they were real generous," Webster said. "Anything I needed, I got They found out I liked fruit I had every kind of fruit I don't even know the names. "He was a glass blower.

When I left, they gave me this real nice brandy glass he had made." The glass was broken going through customs. Paul Hartman came home with a nice, bulky sweater his hosts had insisted he keep. Cliff McGonigle was loaded down with gifts for his baby, who didn't make the trip. Knepper has a statue, a metal sombrero and memories of "a great time." Barclay recalls fondly the closeness of the family he stayed with. They had to be close.

Two brothers shared a twin bed so Barclay could have a bed to himself. But it was more than that "They kissed each other," said Barclay, who admitted he has reserved such things for girls. "It made you feel good. There was a real closeness in the family." The trip was successful. ASU won the six-team meet.

Each of the Sun Devil gymnasts won at least one medal; some won as many as seven. But that is not how the trip should be measured, Coach Don Robinson said. "The most important thing was the friends-across-the-border thing," he said. "All of us felt great about what the people did. Friendship overcame the language differences.

They gave gifts they couldn't afford. The whole thing was a touching experience a gift from Mexico." Fulilangi, 21, makes Graziano sound like a choir boy. And he won't even tell you about half of it Anyway, Fulilangi has been in and out of trouble since he was big enough to swing an uppercut "My father started whipping me when I was 8 years old for fighting," he said. "But it didnt do any good. "My dad was always mad at me.

I ran away several times. Everybody said I was wild. "In the schools, they make you work on Saturdays if you mess up. I worked a lot of Saturdays. "In Tonga, everybody is like that If you don't stand up and fight, you get whipped every day.

I got whipped sometimes. "In Tonga, they had a saying. Every day they would ask, 'Tony beat up who His cousin, who coaches an amateur boxing team, thought he would straighten out Fulilangi and keep him out of trouble. He put the untrained kid in against his best fighter. Fulilangi wasn't content to just kick hell out of Agent: Guidry OKs contract NEW YORK (AP) Pitcher Ron Guidry generally has agreed to terms with the New York Yankees and will probably sign a new contract with the American League champions within a week, his lawyer said Saturday.

"Based on Ron's perception of what George (Steinbrenner) and I have agreed to, if that can be reduced to writing, we have a contract," attorney John Schneider said in a telephone interview with the New York Tunes from his Lafeyette, home. Pacific Sunroofs! AUTO WINDOW! TINTING I rjoDORJir $SQ95 MOST CARS 274-8446 711 W. CAMELBACK MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY OFFROADINC SALE USED TRUCKS BUY OR LEASE FREE Huskers' Gill says he'll miss Orange Bowl LINCOLN, Neb. (UPI) Nebraska quarterback Turner Gill has ruled himself out of the Orange Bowl game against top-ranked Clemson on New Year's Night even though he has not received the results of his latest tests. "They've been telling me all along that I have a long-term problem, and I've finally accepted it," Gill said Friday.

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Gamecock grid coach fired i CATALOG OF OFF ROAD WITH THE PURCHASE OF EACH PARTS ACCESSORIES 8 GIFT CERTIFICATE slumped to 6-6 this year following consecutive 8-4 seasons and bowl appearances in 1979 and 1980, was notified of the decision by telephone, Holderman said. He said Carlen, who led the on-again, off-again Gamecocks to a 45-36-1 mark in seven football seasons, was out of town when the dismissal decision was made. Under Carlen's leadership, South Carolina's football team went to three bowl games since 1975 and produced several top players, including 1980 Heisman Trophy winner George Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. Jim Carlen, head coach of the South Carolina football team that struggled through a lackluster 1981 season, has been fired from his dual position as coach and athletic director. James B.

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