Boxing : In Glory Days of Gambling, Wager Served as Insurance for Challenger

The era in which Pete Rose finds himself unemployed because of sports gambling is quite different from a time in America when athletes, managers, coaches and fans wagered openly, on almost any street corner.

There was a time when one didn’t dare make a comment about sports without offering to back it up with a wager. Not gambling was considered odd behavior.

Once upon a time in America, believe it or not, before a heavyweight championship fight, the challenger got a bet down on the other guy. That’s right, he bet against himself.

The challenger was Los Angeles’ only heavyweight champion, Jim Jeffries, and the champion was Bob Fitzsimmons. The place was Coney Island, N.Y., and the date was June 9, 1899.

In a 1948 interview with Times sportswriter Cal Whorton, the 73-year-old former champion acknowledged that he had bet $5,000 on Fitzsimmons in the days before the fight.

“I bet $5,000 against myself in that fight and I don’t mind saying I was glad to lose it,” Jeffries said.

Early odds on the fight favored Fitzsimmons by as much as 10-1, since little was known on the East Coast about the 24-year-old Californian. By fight day, however, odds were down to 3-1.

Jeffries described his bet as “insurance.”

“I figured it this way,” he said. “I was broke. If I got beat, I knew the gambling winnings would come in handy. If I won Fitz’s title I wouldn’t miss the $5,000, what with the money I hoped to make off the championship. I just wanted to keep myself covered both ways.”

Jeffries knocked Fitzsimmons out in the 11th round.

And he was right. He never missed the $5,000.

Jeffries told Whorton that in the years after he won the heavyweight title, he banked more than $300,000, most of it earned from boxing exhibitions in the United States and in Europe, where he earned as much as $15,000 per appearance.

Clearly, then as now, the heavyweight championship was the most valuable title in sports.

Bet on it.

One of the first questions asked of bantamweight Frankie Duarte after his loss to Daniel Zaragoza at the Forum Thursday night was if he had decided to retire.

He said he would retire, but in case he changes his mind, the California Athletic Commission will make the decision for him.

“We’re going to recommend that he be retired,” said Commission chairman Raoul Silva after the bout, meaning the Commission will in effect revoke his license.

On Thursday, Duarte, who turns 35 Sunday, was only a shadow of the fighter who had thrilled Southland boxing fans since 1973. After the beating he received from Zaragoza, you wondered how such a bout was ever sanctioned to begin with. Indications were unmistakable that Duarte was no match for Zaragoza, who was defending his World Boxing Council super-bantam championship for the fourth time. In the last 14 months, Duarte had struggled to defeat three mediocre opponents with a combined record of 52-44-5.

Nevertheless, the California Commission approved the bout, the Forum paid Zaragoza $90,000 to fight Duarte and, even more startling, the WBC moved Duarte up to 10th in its super-bantamweight rankings to lend legitimacy to the bout.

Boxing Notes

Ruben Castillo, the Prime Ticket boxing announcer who is in the midst of a ring comeback, was released from Beverly Hills Medical Center Friday after having been injured in a fight at the Forum Thursday night. Castillo, loser on a fifth-round TKO to Edgar Castro, complained of abdominal pain and was hospitalized when a ringside physician feared that Castillo might have suffered a colon tear. Examination showed the injury was a colon bruise.

The Huntington Park Athletic Club will have an amateur boxing show Sept. 16. . . . Don King offered the long-awaited Meldrick Taylor-Julio Cesar Chavez showdown to the Las Vegas Hilton but was told the hotel wanted Mike Tyson on the same card. No deal. . . . Two key figures in the 1988 Olympic boxing picture, Roy Jones and Ed Hopson, will box on NBC’s Sunday show. Jones, 2-0 as a pro middleweight since losing a controversial decision at Seoul in the gold-medal bout, will fight Ron Amundsen. Featherweight Hopson, a disputed-decision loser to Kelcie Banks at the Olympic trials and now 3-0 as a pro, will fight David Moreno.

Bob Arum’s Olympians, heavyweight Ray Mercer and flyweight Michael Carbajal, step up to eight-rounders on ESPN Tuesday. Also on the card is promising heavyweight Tommy Morrison, unbeaten in 14 fights. . . . Paul Gonzales, after his 12-round decision over Armando Castro at the Forum Thursday, hopes his reward will be a super-flyweight title fight with Gilberto Roman, who will fight Santos Laciar in a Forum title bout Sept. 12. . . . How’s this for scoring? In the David Gonzales-Armando Baeza lightweight fight in Sacramento Monday, two officials turned in cards reading 120-100 and 117-111. The third had it 115-115.