The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 36

iuuruH THE SUN v.UNLJAY, NOVfcMBfcH 1988 LEONARD VS. LALONDE Leonard will test his motivation against Lalonde Trainer, with $20 million pot, defends his no-middlemen bout Notes Mustafo Hamsho, stopped Davis In two rounds and successfully defended his crown in Trinidad last May by whipping Leslie Stewart in five rounds. Gallagher concedes Leonard has a decided edge In experience and natural ability, but said Lalonde's explosive power will more than offset the difference In skills. "Hagler fought the right fight against Leonard and did a good job of cutting off the ring," Gallagher said. "But what Hagler didn't do was throw punches and apply constant pressure.

That's what we Intend to do. We're going to keep throwing punches. "My gut feeling Is that Leonard will try to fight us rather than running, and If Donny hits him on the chin, he'll go just like Davis and Stewart. If he does run, it will Just take a little longer. But Donny will eventually catch him." A master psychologist, Leonard has tried to play mind games to disconcert Lalonde Just as he did with Hagler, who surprisingly switched from his customary left-handed stance to fight right-handed in the early rounds.

But Lalonde appears to be unawed by either Leonard's reputation or the aura of participating In a Las Vegas spectacular. "Why should I be afraid of an aging welterweight?" asked Lalonde, who Is expected to weigh close to 172 pounds by fight time and is 3 Inches taller than Leonard. "It's like he can't understand our difference In weight and size. I don't need to deal with his speed, All he has to do Is get close enough to me, and I'll knock him out." Asked for a likely scenario, Lalonde said, "Very early in the fight there will be an exchange and he's going to say. 'Wow, I can get hit by this Once he starts all that movement stuff and sees that I'm not like Hagler following him around the ring like a puppet, he's going to ask, 'Now what do I Meanwhile.

I'm banging him pretty good and he's got nowhere to go from there. It can only end one way: with Sugar Ray on his back." Predictably, Leonard sees quite a different ending. The key to beating Lalonde Is to frustrate him," he said. "Make him miss, and then counter. I watched the tape when he got stopped by Edwards.

When he got hurt, he didn't know what to do and was pleading with his corner for help. "People question me fighting a light heavy. They raised the same questions when I fought Hagler. But I don't think about the weight. I Just feel stronger now.

Sure, I don't punch as hard as Lalonde. But I'll be like a mosquito on an elephant's back. I'll sting him to death." The hype Is over. Leonard vs. Lalonde certainly lacks the magic and box-office appeal of the Leonard-Hagler extravaganza, But aside from troubled heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Leonard Is boxing's only legitimate superstar.

That's why the boxing world anxiously awaits the outcome In this latest chapter of the "Perils of Sugar Ray." jflGHT, from 1C five comebacks" In a non-title bout with unheralded Kevin Howard in May 1984, Leonard admitted a lack of motivation. Leonard did not get his boxing act together until Howard had knocked him on the seat of his pants in the fourth round. Why then, the critics wondered, should Leonard get psyched for La- I londe, rated by Sugar Ray's trainer, ftanks Morton, as a one-armed fighter who climbed over "half-dead men" to win the vacant 175-pound title last November against Eddie Davis, ,36, and a shell of a former champi-ton? "People have been questioning my motivation since my first official retirement In 1982," Leonard said. "My last fight with Hagler was a personal challenge. This fight is Just competing, a chance to beat a bigger man and win two more world titles.

Even with Hagler, I wasn't trying to prove I could beat him. 1 knew I could beat him. My motivation here Is that I simply enjoy winning more than loclng." It is not the well-chronlcled Leonard, a 3-1 favorite, but Lalonde who Is the unknown factor in this fight. Less than 30 months ago, Canada's "Golden Boy," with the handsome 'rock star features, contemplated retiring from the ring. He was beset by physical ailments, the most noteworthy a steel pin in his left shoulder that severely restricted its movement, making him rely almost exclusively on his powerful right hand.

Lconard-Lalondo comparison Lalonde Leonard Total bouts 33 35 Record 31-2 34-1 Winning Pet 93 9 97.1 Won by KO 26 24 KO Pet. 78.8 68.6 Won by decision 5 10 Lost by decision 1 1 Lost by KO 1 0 Total rounds 149 252 Avg. rds. per bout 4.5 7.2 1st round KOs 3 4 Distance 1-5 21 12 Distance6-10 11 19 Distance 11-15 1 4 Champions fought 1 5 Among Las Vegas wise guys, he still is regarded as a one-armed bandit who somehow lost to a guy named Vampire Johnson and was flattened by Willie Edwards in 1985. His new manager, David Wolf, enlisted the help of body shaper Ken Balson and addeda nutritionist who mixed strange concoctions of health foods.

With the help of Balson's body massages that Increased blood flow to the Injured areas, the pain disappeared from his shoulder and fractured fists and Lalonde's confidence was renewed. "I don't exactly know what the body shaping does, and I wouldn't touch the food he eats," said trainer Tommy Gallagher. "All I know Is that It works." Lalonde then won a brawl with By Alan Goldstein Sun Staff Correspondent LAS VEGAS In an ffort to eliminate middlemen In boxing like Don King and Bob Arum, Mike Trainer has been the favorite target of snipers trying to undermine the Ray Leonard-Don Lalonde match he carefully orchestrated. "I feel like Michael Dukakis In that I'm being bombarded with one unfair innuendo after another," Trainer said. "I'm constantly being asked to defend a fight that already has $20 million In the pot.

We've hit a home run, we're rocking and rolling, and 820 million Is the floor, not the celling." Trainer said the entire S20 million package goes to the fighters, with Leonard getting the lion's share, a guaranteed $15 million. The sum total Is a combination of $9.5 million from Titan Sports for the pay-per-view television rights, $7.5 million for the Caesars Palace site fee, $2 million for foreign rights and $1 million sponsoring fee from Coors brewery. Depending on whom you listen to, pay-per-view sales are either a major disappointment or a huge success. Arum has labeled the fight "a fiscal disaster" and questioned the wisdom of bucking the traditional "Monday Night Football" qn ABC-TV. "All the negative talk has been fabricated to hurt our show," said Jim Troy, vice president of Titan Sports, better known for Its World Wrestling Federation productions.

"We had Nielsen research the Cleveland-Houston football game, and they said those two teams have nev- Too bad, but it'll be a nice fight 1 1 r. -T i '1 iTfT- fcV ft f'. fc- I SSttV IS er received good national ratings. "We're getting an excellent response from Montgomery County In Maryland and In New Jersey and San Diego. I think we'll have a bigger audience than Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks drew, Lalonde is not well known, but Leonard has tremendous marquee value.

I'd do a major fight again In a heartbeat. In fact, we're already talking to two fight promoters." Questions still being were raised yesterday on how much An-gelo Dundee will be missed In Leonard's corner tonight. Dundee, who worked all of Leonard's previous bouts, quit In a salary dispute. "Look around you," said chief cornerman Janks Morton, pointing to Dave Jacobs and Jose Correa sitting beside him. "All three of us were with Ray when he was Just starting as an amateur boxer, long before Angelo came on the scene.

I know he respects our Judgment." Correa trains International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Simon Brown of Washington. He was Leonard's first trainer, before Jacobs directed him to the 1984 Olympics. The two title fights on the Leonard-Lalonde card have received little publicity. Roger Mayweather (32-5. 22 knockouts) defends his World Boxing Council super lightweight crown against Vinny Pazien-za (25-2.

20 KOs), and WBC super flyweight champion Gilberto Roman (50-4-1, 35 KOs) risks his title against Sugar Baby Rojas (30-1-1. 18 KOs). IvIIKE A londe said. "The fact that I'm going to fight him has nothing to do with how I feel about him personally." Leonard countered: "From the first time I met him, 1 liked Donny. 1 like what he's about.

too, support his campaign to stop child abuse Like I told Hagler, after the fight, we'll still be friends." The good news is that If you like both fighters, you shouldn't have to worry about either getting hurt. Lalonde is lumbering and slow. And though he Is said to have a frightening right hand, his left might as well be stapled to his side. Even If he can catch Leonard, which won't be easy, he'd still have to hit him. Ask Marvin Hagler how easy It is to hit him.

And while you're at It, If you get Hagler on the line, ask him about getting hit by Leonard. It's not exactly the same as being trapped In front of a runaway locomotive. In a fight matching a much bigger Lalonde against the quick little guy, Lalonde's concern will be getting cut. not getting knocked out. Still, the fight is a difficult one toj figure.

Leonard is old. He's 32, and he's fighting for the first time in 19 months, and only the third time in 6'a years. Someday, he has to slow down. And sometime, during 12 rounds, Lalonde Just might catch him long enough to put Leonard qn his back. This should not be a classic matchup.

It's a fight that didn't have to be. but one that might make the fighters, if you can believe the stories, a combined $20 million a tribute to Leonard's drawing power. The only way this fight can be made memorable Is for Leonard to lose, but I made a promise after the Hagler fight that I'd never pick against Leonard again. And I'm su-e not going to start now. Let's say Sugar Ray Leonard in a decision in what might not be a very good fight.

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How many boxers do you know who have studied Zen Buddhism? Lalonde works out to the music of Bob Dylan, which. In boxing circles. Is roughly the equivalent of doing your morning running with Mozart on the Walkman. And Lalonde's story Is so compelling the abused, teen-age runaway, beaten by his stepfather, who made a life for himself. In boxing, he found the self-esteem that no other avenue seemed to offer.

And If he's not a great fighter, he is a light heavyweight champion. And not just a champion, either. He has used the fight tour as a platform In the greater fight against child abuse. Believe me, this is no cynical grab for publicity, but rather a hand he has reached out for others to grab onto and hold. So, this is a guy you hate? The nastiest thing I can say about Lalonde, other than his butterfly left hand, Is that he does touch up his long, blond hair with a lightener.

Which brings us to Sugar Ray. Look at his face. That Is not a face you hate. He's smart; he's sharp. He's as quick on his feet outside the ring as he Is Inside it.

And though he has succumbed, repeatedly, to the temptation to return to the boxing ring, you don't suppose that he takes any pleasure In inflicting pain. More than a fighter, he Is a boxer, and perhaps the consummate craftsman of his generation. And you want to hear some real nastiness? In his spare time, Leonard has done public service announcements to help Lalonde's campaign against child abuse. OK, maybe Leonard Is not as nice a guy as he would have you believe. We've watched him torture Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns too long to think otherwise.

On the other hand, Leonard deserves special credit for resisting any attempt to make this fight a black vs. white confrontation, a selling technique unfortunately commonplace in boxing. Who's the bad guy here? If you ask the fighters how they feel how they really feel about one another, you get the truth. What, you thought these guys would He to you? "How can you hate a man who, first of all, you don't know, except his public persona, and in that way, he's carried himself so well?" La- stations in Baltimore alone. Tliat means in order for yourmessageto be to cover a lot of territory You've got to run a lot of time at a lot of is that phenomenon more apparent than in Hie Baltimore Sun.

dressy When they say your in the hopes that when your somewhere will listening. it through the front door, they're right Hirough the front door, down the hall and wliammo, right ikh smack in tlieold iV circular file. compare that towhatyou get with Sun Readers. Loyal. Dedicated readers.

People who want and are willing to pay for it How do you like that for a coincidence? While you've been pouring all that money into other media, the answer's been staring you right in the bee: An ad in Tlx Baltimore Sun. It's one place you can be sure the market's going to look And look, they do. More than 1,300,700 people each week. People who, on paper, are very similar to you. They're educated Sawy.

Know what they want and know how to find it And when it comes to buying advice.this is where they're most apt to look. UsiXeTV.YcucanlTtornA There's nothing TV reps love more than ''tellingyou who's watdringwhat show when, Unfortunately, what they can't tell you is who's watchingyour commercial. Because, chances are, it will end up playing to an empty room. 1 1 V4 rr to At least 78 of all consumers throw out mail without even opening it So if your idea of a target is a living, breaming, spending human beins. nerhaos vour ad dollars should go i C3 w.

expense. All message will make spot finally actually be unread and therefore, tally ineffective. Studies bear it 01 it. i-. ii means you not only capturing their better chance of 1 .303.700 that, why on earth this is where budget to the mail? This is where THE Now The Baltimore Verifiable the information urn, com If you want they re shopping.

spending. more proof Sun Account into something that more apt to reach tfestoraii, onceyou ve got tneir attention, them. Namely, Hie Baltimore Sun. you can take all the time you want Nobody On a weekly basis, it reaches 75 of the will rush you. Nobody will cut you off.

That market. Most importantly, it reaches them means there's nolimittoyour selling power. 1 You ivssfi itwasYcrs? toreach theBaltimoremarket, at their request. That have a better chance attention, you have a holding it Considering would you trust your ad of you want your message to be. they're looking.

This is where This is where they re Come to think of it, how much do you need? Executive or 332-6300. ll You're Trying Tc sc'! ma M2iKot in sixty ccia E3 Easting Yccr Ercasn. It doesn't take a PhD. in research to figure out that nobody listens to radio for the commercials. In fact, even industry people will admit that commercials can actually cost a station audience.

To most listeners, they're just an excuse to push the button. And push the button, they do. Hop-scotching between at least 10 different Recent studies bear it out At the first sign of a commercial break, 50 of the viewers head for the bathroom, the kitchen or just turn off the sound That's something people can't do with a newspaper ad Andaccordingtothel986 1987Scarborough Report, they dart want to. The reason is quite simple. Consumers rate newspapers as the most helpful, believable source of advertising informatioa That's where theyprefer to turn first Ard nowhere BALTIMORE SUN.