The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 61

CALENDAR E13 LOSANGELESTIMES TELEVISION like a fighter. He trains every the owner, Freddie Roach, says. Aformer boxer, Roach steps into the ring to referee as trainers, club members and spectators push close to the ropes. Five sharp bells and a green light signal the start of Round 1. Lopez goes right for the head.

His opponent, Mike Lin, pounds away with body shots. punching. Feinting. Looking for an opening. The trainers are shouting to Lopez: old school! Go back to your jab! Move your head! Move your feet! Keep your composure! Represent! He asked for it! Give him some Lin, who boxed regularly five years ago and met Lopez at the gym in the building where each works, is out of shape.

He holds his own as a long bell and yellow light signal 30 seconds left in the round. But soon Lopez knocks him down. Lin rises. Down again. He gets back up.

Again. Fight over. Outside the ring, workouts resume. As a dozen men and a couple of women sweat through their shirts, powerful punches jangle the chains holding heavy bags from the ceiling. The loud thuds provide the bass to the staccato smack smackof speed bags and double-end bags and the light tap, tap of jump-ropes.

Add to that noise Tupac, Usher, Snoop Dogg and other rappers blaring nonstop from the radio, the constant ring of the timing bells and phone. Aboxing lifer HIS is the gym that Freddie Roach built. The Boxing Hall of Fame trainer wears big, black glasses except when in the ring, and he looks quite different from the longhaired boxer, shown in posters above the front counter, who turned pro at 18, fought two-time featherweight champion Bobby Chacon, among others, and narrowly missed a shot at the title. He presides over this club on Vine near Santa Monica, located up a steep flight of stairs above a Laundromat, at the rear of a nondescript mini-mall. Atough guy from rough and tumble South Boston, Roach began boxing at 6.

He grew up in a gym that he says resembles the Hit Pit, in the Oscar-nominated movie that tells the story of a determined young woman (Hilary Swank) who insists on boxing and an aging trainer who reluctantly takes her on. Henry longtime production designer, built the large Hit Pit set in a warehouse in South Los Angeles. warehouse had a concrete floor. You have a concrete floor in a gym, so we put a hardwood floor over it. That gave it a marvelous the two- time Oscar winnersays in a phone interview after describing the two boxing rings, worn punching bags, office overlooking the gym and the space where an ex-boxer lives.

Bumstead, who will turn 90 in March, says he is stickler for details and realism. We aged he says, half of the picture, or a good part, takes place in that Seedy gyms like that are around somewhat, Roach says. in Los Angeles today, you have more of a white-collar crowd, for lack of a better like of his members, he says. clientele is not always good boxers. So this gym is a little bit cleaner, a little bit Six days a week (the gym is closed on Sundays), 125 people, including some of the 40 women who belong, work out between 7 a.m.

and 9 p.m. Because of their support, Roach says his gym is one of the few boxing clubs that breakeven financially. Roach says his favorite role in the movie is Morgan ex-boxer who lives at the Hit Pit. have three fighters living in my gym right now. They pursued boxing, make it like of us.

one of them. They make it to the big time. They make the money can never fight he says. role was the most realistic thing about the movie because that does happen. You have people who live in the gyms and clean the gyms.

the way it goes here. I live in the He takes issue with the portrayal of dirty fighting and fixing a broken nose in the ring but found the gym work, footwork and taking lessons from a pro pretty realistic. While Swank trained primarily in a Brooklyn gym, plenty of celebrities come to Wild Card. Like Mira Sorvino. a pretty good Roach says, also naming Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Wesley Snipes, Cuba Gooding Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke and the singer Pink.

Tyrese Gibson has visited to prepare for the Touchstone Pictures film He came in with an attitude, Roach says, but getting hit while learning how to be a fighterhumbled him and taught him respect. No one gets special treatment. like that one is treated any better than anyone else. They pay either $50 a month or $5 a Roach says. want private lessons they can work on that.

They look up to the athletes. They like being around the world Like Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones, Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya, who have visited. Like Muhammad Ali. best day this gym ever had was the day he came to work Roach says of that time a couple of years ago. stayed here three or four hours, telling jokes, performing magic, Foley adds, were all like, is coming into the Then his daughter come in.

They get into the ring, and he shows her some Champ or novice, at the Wild Card, they wrap their hands with long strips of white, red, blue or black cloth, put on the gloves and attack punching bags patched with duct tape. And they sweat. These days, some talk about Dollar Roach and his trainers are especially interested in the film because four of the fighters who face character are former professional boxers who came out of Wild Card: Lucia Rijker, an undefeated world champion welterweight whose current passion is acting; Cynthia Prouder; Bridgett Riley, who works as a stunt- woman and Danielle Doobenen. is the first woman I Roach says. worked with her on the first day, but I sure if I really liked women boxing or even if it was a proper thing to do for girls.

But her work ethic was so great that I deny her. probably my best student my life and had 17 world champions. I trained Virgil Hill, Mike Tyson, James Toney, Michael Moorer, Vladimir Duran, Johnny Tapia, Stevie he says, going on tolistthem all. Rijker rarely stops at the Wild Card, but her photo remains on the door of the room, part of a collage of female boxers that also features Cynthia Prouder and Rita frames a large photograph of Marilyn Monroe. The fighters all look feminine, and none has a dam- agedface or cauliflower ears.

had a broken nose a couple of times. Up to this point, I had any cuts or major says Valentini, who won her last bout with a first- round knockout. Her favorite part in the movie is the relationship between the boxer and her trainer. Women at work ALENTINI knows what that feels like. had more attention to my emotional state, mental state and physical health since come into boxing anyone has my whole she says.

While she talks, Danielle Morapounds a heavy bag. She boxes because she manages a professional fighter, featherweight Juan Carlos Martinez, her Nearby, Holly Lawson dances around another heavy bag, hitting it, while trainer Eric Brown encourages her. your chin down. When up like he says, mimicking her stance, look like windmilling your punches like a catfight. You want that.

You want to Lawson, who works at a record store, came to the Wild Card to find a trainer to push her after discovering that she was the best in a boxing class at another gym. love it. I watch boxing tapes. probably my most comfortable when here sweating and surrounded by grunting she says as sweat plasters her bangs to her forehead. Her best punch is her right she hopes to fight her first match, an amateur contest, by the end of this year.

She, too, has seen Dollar made the mistake of taking my boyfriend with me, and he was not impressed when her nose was she says, though very supportive. bought me gloves for Christmas and Lawson says, is Very good. you have your own gloves, you have to use one of explains Sammy Stewart, a former world flyweight champion who now works as a trainer. Pointing to a chest overflowing with red, black and royal blue boxing gloves, he says, are very funky. You want to put your hands in other sweat every The sweat in the gym bother Stewart, who is originally from Liberia.

a saying that goes he explains. prettier the gym is, you have that much hunger in it. People are not hungry enough to fight. They go in there to look pretty. When you go to some of these gyms that are all decked out and air-conditioned and everything, there are women with their makeup on because they know there are a bunch of people just hanging around, standing there to see the prettiest girl who walks through the Not at the Wild Card, where a big red-and-white sign advises: Sacrifice A place is in the boxing ring Anne Cusack Los Angeles Times HARD WORK: Holly Lawson, 26, joined Wild Card after discovering she was the best boxer in a class at another gym.

Ring, from Page E1 probably my most comfortable when here Lawson, who hopes to have an amateur fight this year By Gayle Pollard-Terry Times Staff Writer In the ring at the Wild Card Boxing Club, Rita Valentini wears bright green boxing gloves and works the mitts hard with Pepper Roach, brother of owner Freddie Roach. A professional boxer, Valentini won her last fight with a first-round knockout. Abantamweight with a 5-3 ring record, she boxes at 118 pounds and at 124. Slender but strong, she says her jab is her best punch. In the ring, she likes to move around, come off the ropes and handle opponents, physically turning them around.

When in the ring, her trainer Marcus Harvey, a former cruiserweight, is for the form, the things worked on that her heart is into the When on the heavy bag, he looking for her to place her punches effectively her to move. When the bag swings a certain way, looking for her to step around. not looking for her to stand there look at the bag, and punch, boom, boom, boom. I want her to use her jab to set up another Preparing for her ninth fight, which she expects in a couple of weeks in Stockton, Valentini, 26, runs to build stamina and goes all out at the gym for two hours a days a week. She skips rope, shadowboxes, hits the bags andworks the mitts.

She also works with strength and conditioning trainer Justin Fortune, an Australian boxer who once fought Lennox Lewis. She started fighting five years ago after moving from Alberta, Canada, to Los she lived next door to a boxer. was always practicing and we would watch the fights. I started getting into it. been in sports my whole says Valentini, who ran track, figure skated, danced and played ice hockey and soccer.

work out with him a little bit. He showed me some things, and he thought Ihad some She took that potential to Wild Card, told the legendary Freddie Roach that she wanted to turn pro and asked him to train her. thought I was just ridiculous because I had no fighting she says, mind I was a He took her on. For three years, they worked. always believed in me.

Nobody else would have done that at that she says. During a break, her ponytail soaked with sweat, Valentini notices a world champion coming into the gym. Israel she says. He holds a world super-bantamweight title and works with another titleholder, Manny Pacquiao, whom Roach is training for a unification fight in March in Las Vegas. the Muhammad Ali of the Roach says, explaining that he has banned his hordes of distracting fans from the gym, except on Saturdays.

Even champions, Valentini says, are willing to help. relationship between the men and the women fighters, there is like so much respect, patience and professionalism. They will watch you. They want to come over and show you a better way, work with you, because they know in theretoo. fighting.

getting To finance her dream, she supports herself by working in catering, occasionally doing extra work and doing a boxing exhibition for the Internet. live in one room. I have a bed. I have a car. I ride my bike she says.

For years, she own a television until the guys at Wild Card gave her one. live just enough so I can take care of myself and continue to do this until I achieve what I want, which is to be the world Hard work, title dreams Anne Cusack Los Angeles Times FOCUSED: Bantamweight Rita Valentini, 26, trains two hours a day, six days a week. SIGNED PERF JAN. 23 AT 1PM OPENS TONIGHTAT8PM www.BroadwayLA.org NOW THRU FEB. 20 ONLY! 213.365.3500 or 714.740.7878 Box Office Opens daily at 10am.

GROUP DISCOUNTS: 323.463.4367 A PRESENTATION OF SIGNED PERF FEB. 13 AT 1PM PATTI A WAYNE BRADY Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Jan. 24-30) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S.

ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions. Program Network View- ersProgram Network Viewers 1 American Idol 2 American Idol 3 CSICBS21.82 4 ERNBC19.75 5 of Ordinary --------------------------------------------6 CSI: NYCBS17.56 7 Cold CaseCBS16.69 8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC16.16 9 MediumNBC15.78 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9 p.m.) ABC15.52 --------------------------------------------11 Numb3rsCBS15.46 12 Apprentice 3NBC15.41 13 CSI: MiamiCBS14.96 14 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS14.79 15 Without a TraceCBS14.55 --------------------------------------------16 60 MinutesCBS14.43 17 Law Order: Criminal Intent NBC14.26 18 Law Order: SVUNBC14.19 19 Two and a Half MenCBS13.58 20 Simple Life 3FOX13.32 --------------------------------------------21 Desperate HousewivesABC12.84 22 CSI 23 Crossing JordanNBC12.53 24 Las VegasNBC12.38 25 HouseFOX12.37 --------------------------------------------26 24FOX12.20 27 Amazing Race: 6CBS12.03 28 LostABC12.01 29 AliasABC11.68 30 Judging AmyCBS11.41 --------------------------------------------31 Fear FactorNBC11.31 32 NCISCBS11.28 33 King of QueensCBS11.23 34 According to JimABC10.80 35 Dateline: NBC --------------------------------------------36 King of Queens (9:30 p.m.) CBS10.75 37 The West WingNBC10.69 38 Funniest Home Videos ABC10.66 39 Law Order: SVU 40 Without a Trace (8 p.m.)CBS10.28 --------------------------------------------41 JoeyNBC10.24 42 The SimpsonsFOX9.97 43 RodneyABC9.75 44 45 NYPD BlueABC9.41 --------------------------------------------46 SupernannyABC9.25 47 Dateline: Katie CouricNBC9.22 48 60 Minutes WednesdayCBS9.14 49 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition They Do That? ABC8.95 50 Still StandingCBS8.91 --------------------------------------------51 52 Joan of ArcadiaCBS8.71 53 Listen UpCBS8.18 54 The O.C.FOX8.11 Law Order --------------------------------------------56 The BacheloretteABC8.02 57 7th HeavenWB7.99 58 Trading SpousesFOX7.89 8 Simple RulesABC7.89 60 Style: Celebrity ABC7.87 --------------------------------------------61 Law Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC7.80 62 8 Simple Rules (8:30 p.m.) ABC7.74 63 Hope FaithABC7.40 64 Most Outrageous Moments on Live TV NBC7.38 65 Cops (8:30 p.m.)FOX7.29 --------------------------------------------66 American DreamsNBC7.22 67 Dateline: NBC 68 Most WantedFOX7.11 69 CopsFOX7.03 70 ScrubsNBC7.02 --------------------------------------------71 Arrested DevelopmentFOX6.96 72 George LopezABC6.92 73 Medical InvestigationNBC6.84 74 Wife SwapABC6.79 75 Primetime LiveABC6.65 --------------------------------------------76 The Simpsons (9:30 p.m.) FOX6.63 77 My Wife and KidsABC6.56 78 Less Than PerfectABC6.55 79 Extreme MakeoverABC6.47 80 48 Hours MysteryCBS6.46 --------------------------------------------81 CommittedNBC6.17 82 Family GuyFOX6.09 83 Crimetime SaturdayCBS5.96 84 Malcolm in the MiddleFOX5.93 85 Desperate Housewives (Sat.) ABC5.88 --------------------------------------------86 King of the HillFOX5.21 87 WWE 88 Gilmore GirlsWB5.05 89 Point PleasantFOX4.54 90 EverwoodWB4.40 --------------------------------------------91 Bernie MacFOX4.34 92 Wickedly PerfectCBS4.23 93 SmallvilleWB4.21 Sports Illustrated: Model Search NBC4.21 95 Bernie Mac (8:30 p.m.)FOX4.14 --------------------------------------------96 One Tree HillWB4.07 97 RebaWB4.02 98 CharmedWB3.97 99 GirlfriendsUPN3.47 100 One on OneUPN3.37 --------------------------------------------101 Blue Collar TVWB3.34 Jonny ZeroFOX3.34 103 Half and HalfUPN3.08 104 Second Time AroundUPN2.87 105 Steve Big TimeWB2.85 --------------------------------------------106 107 Grounded for LifeWB2.56 108 EnterpriseUPN2.53 109 Kevin HillUPN2.46 110 Road to StardomUPN2.24 --------------------------------------------111 All of UsUPN2.18 112 What I Like About YouWB2.17 113 EveUPN2.14 114 Veronica MarsUPN1.98 115 Jack BobbyWB1.83 --------------------------------------------116 SummerlandWB1.36 117 Road to StardomUPN1.24 Network averages Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season. Network Last week Season to date CBS12.6713.04 NBC10.6910.10 FOX10.368.86 ABC9.4210.44 WB3.623.47 UPN2.923.42 Prime-Time TV Rankings By David Bauder Associated Press NEW YORK In a TV season already notable for some surprise scripted hits, and have the early look of winnerstoo. in whichPatricia Arquette plays a crime-solving psychic, joined Nielsen Media top 10 last week.

It beat in the time slot, although the CBS show was arepeat. NBC has already announced that will be back next year. benefited from following the American Football Conference championship game for its premiere, but also reached asolid 15.5 million people for its first Friday showing, a night whenviewership tends to be light. Further success may doom time slot competitor on NBC, which had only 6.8 million viewers last week. The new shows at the level of and for ABC, but those are promising starts particularly for NBC, which can use a hit.

The network competition has become even more heated than usual now that Fox, out of the race during the first half, has climbed back in thanks to Fox won the week among the viewers aged 18to49 that advertisers seek. Among all viewers, CBS led with a 12.7 million average in prime time last week (8.4 rating, 13 share), NBC averaged 10.7 million viewers (7.1, 11), Fox had 10.4 million (6.2, 10), ABC 9.4 million (6.1, 10), the WB 3.6 million (2.4, 4), UPN 2.9 million (2.0, 3) and Pax TV 670,000 (0.5, 1). won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.8 million viewers (7.5, 14). News had 10.1 million viewers (7.2, 13) and the Evening 7.8 million (5.6, 10). Aratings point represents 1,096,000 households, or the estimated 109.6 million TV homes.

The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show. For the week of Jan. 24-30, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: (Tuesday), Fox, 28.1 million; (Wednesday), Fox, 26.6 million; Crime Scene CBS, 21.8 million; NBC, 19.8 million; Sunday Movie: The Magic of Ordinary CBS, 18.7 million; New CBS, 17.6 million; CBS, 16.7 million; Makeover: Home ABC, 16.2 million; NBC, 15.8 million; Makeover: Home special, ABC, 15.5 million. and are strong for NBC, CBS Vacationing? Donateyournewspaperforeducation.1-800-252-9141..