BOXING : An Expert Offers Leonard Some Advice

Sugar Ray Leonard hasn’t asked for it, but Carlos Palomino has nonetheless offered some advice on how Leonard should go about fighting Roberto Duran in Las Vegas on Dec. 7.

Leonard probably figures he doesn’t need advice, since in their best-forgotten rematch of 1980, Leonard was handling Duran so easily, the Panamanian quit in the middle of the fifth round.

Palomino and many others in boxing see Duran as a man on a mission, grateful for the chance at age 37 to atone for that mistake.

When Palomino, once a welterweight champion, lost a lopsided 10-round decision to Duran in New York in 1979, Duran was 27 and had just abandoned the lightweight division for the welterweights.

The secret for beating Duran in his prime, Palomino said, was surviving his heart, not his punch. He presumes the same is true now.

“I found Duran to have average punching power,” Palomino said the other day. “He was a devastating puncher at lightweight, but never at welterweight or middleweight. Really, Armando Muniz hit me harder than Duran. Now, Duran hits you just hard enough to get your attention. The key is to make him respect you early in the fight. If you don’t do that, he’ll try to walk right through you. “And he’s tough to hit squarely, because he gives you so many angles, so many feints. He’s in and out on you a lot, very hard to figure out.

“If he comes in under 160 pounds, that will tell you something. If he does, I’ll predict he’ll stop Leonard.

“To me, Leonard seemed very slow against Tommy Hearns--not in a hand-speed sense, but in how long it took him to recover when he was off-balance. I like Duran to win the fight.”

Footnote: Duran-Leonard III is at 162 pounds. Three months ago, Duran looked as if he were close to 190. On Wednesday, Duran’s people claimed he weighed 160.

During the early and middle rounds of his bout with Orlin Norris in Santa Monica Tuesday night, Tony Tubbs looked as though he were a few rounds away from wrapping up a career.

But the quick, agile heavyweight, who once held the World Boxing Assn. championship, proved that a seemingly fat heavyweight can still be in decent physical condition. Tubbs was surprisingly strong during the last three rounds of the 12-round fight, winning a close decision to end Norris’ 19-bout winning streak and take the North American Boxing Federation title.

Still, you wondered why the much taller, 233-pound Tubbs struggled for so long against the undersized, 205 3/4-pound Norris.

Throughout his career, Tubbs has been an enigma. He is athletic, a hard hitter when he wants to be and, all too infrequently, an impressive fighter. For example, Tubbs was angered by what he claimed was a Norris head butt, and for about 15 seconds, fought with almost Tyson-like fury.

Remember the name: Nana Konadu.

The recent super-flyweight championship bout in Mexico City between Mexican champion Gilberto Roman and Konadu, of Ghana, had an unexpected result.

Roman, considered one of boxing’s most capable champions, was defending his title for the 13th time. But Konadu, a huge underdog, knocked Roman down five times. A Mexico City headline read: “The Lion of Africa Devours Roman.”

Forum matchmaker Antonio Curtis wants to match Konadu against Paul Gonzales in February. Boxing Notes

George Foreman, training for his Jan. 15 bout in Atlantic City, N.J., with Gerry Cooney, has finally checked into a fat farm--well, a remote island, anyway. It seems George weighed about 260 pounds for a recent exhibition, and a publicist for Foreman said the fighter has gone to a Caribbean island “to run hills and eat raw fish” until Dec. 2, when he will arrive in Las Vegas to hype the Cooney fight. . . . Top Rank, Bob Arum’s promotion firm, said the third bout between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran on Dec. 7 in a 16,000-seat arena at Las Vegas’ new Mirage Hotel should sell out by this weekend.

Ten Goose Boxing’s Tuesday show at the Country Club in Reseda, its last of the year, features the main-event debuts for unbeaten brothers Gabe and Rafael Ruelas. It will also be the debut of Gabe (17-0) at junior lightweight and of Rafael (11-0) at featherweight. Their manager, Dan Goossen, said Team Ruelas will jump up in class, beginning in January. . . . On SportsChannel Monday: junior-welterweights Vinny Pazienza vs. Eddie Van Kirk. . . . On ESPN next Friday: middleweights Nigel Benn vs. Jose Quinones. Wednesday’s scheduled World Boxing Assn. welterweight title match in London between champion Mike McCallum and Michael Watson was canceled Friday, after Watson suffered a broken nose while sparring. . . . Australian super-featherweight Jeff Fenech improved to 24-0 by scoring a unanimous decision over Mexican Mario Martinez Friday in Melbourne.