BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : All of the Fights Aren’t in the Ring When Goossens Dispute the Card

There were seven bouts on the Forum’s boxing show last Monday night--eight, if you count the one in the dressing room hallway before the first bout.

Seems Forum fight matchmaker Tony Curtis was in a shouting match with brothers Dan and Joe Goossen of Ten Goose Boxing. Witnesses say the confrontation nearly became physical.

At issue was the order of bouts on the Forum card. The Goossens were upset because the order wasn’t changed, as they had requested, so that their two undercard fighters could be televised by Prime Ticket.

They were turned down, sources said, because Dan Goossen had not taken his boxers to the Forum’s publicity staff to be interviewed, meaning the Prime Ticket announcers had no biographical material on them.

“It was pretty hairy,” said Tony Rivera, Roberto Duran’s trainer, who was nearby when the argument began. “Curtis picked up a chair at one point.”

Rivera said that Dan Goossen was separated from Curtis by Miguel Diaz, a Las Vegas trainer. Diaz refused comment.

Curtis acknowledged that the shouting match had occurred, and indicated that the Forum and Ten Goose Boxing might have arrived at a break in relations.

“There was a little scuffle. . . . They were doing a lot of hollering and screaming,” Curtis said.

The Goossens had made a noisy issue over the bout order with Forum boxing director John Jackson before seeking out Curtis.

Asked if the Goossens had risked future Forum appearances by their talented featherweight, Rafael Ruelas, Curtis was vague.

“I don’t know,” he said. “They’ve got to get themselves straightened out. They tend to get a little crazy sometimes . . . and I don’t want them jumping all over me anymore.”

The Forum boxing staff and the Goossens have had prickly relations for more than a year. There was a flare-up a year ago, when Curtis complained about the Goossens requesting that a last-minute bout be added to a Forum card.

“We try to work with these people, but they make it so hard,” Curtis said at the time.

Dan Goossen wouldn’t comment, except to say: “It’s a dead issue.”

Marty Denkin, assistant executive officer of the California Athletic Commission until he was fired 19 months ago, appealed his dismissal and will have a hearing before an administrative law judge at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the State Office Building in downtown Los Angeles.

Denkin was fired in June of 1989, for “dishonesty” and “failure of good behavior,” according to the state Department of Consumer Affairs’ dismissal notice.

According to the notice, Denkin was specifically charged with accepting “unauthorized gratuities” that included $300 in cash, a $1,300 gold necklace and $2,000 in cash.

Denkin was fired after an investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

Julio Cesar Chavez, the fighter many call the world’s best but one who also confounds everyone he deals with because of his propensity to sign any contract that Don King puts in front of him, apparently has not fired his Los Angeles lawyer, Leon Pizante.

Reports from Mexico last week indicated that Chavez, after a meeting with King, had fired Pizante and his San Diego manager, Alberto Gonzales. Pizante feared he had been fired last week, but he said Thursday that Chavez called to tell him he still wants Pizante to represent him.

“Julio told me he signed only a contract with King to fight at the Mirage March 18, but that King showed him a contract that King says he, Chavez, signed in 1987 that binds him to King as long as he’s a champion,” Pizante said.

Chavez not long ago signed a six-fight, two-year, $15-million contract with Bob Arum that becomes effective May 1.

Gonzales, who said last week he believed Chavez had fired him, heard from Chavez Monday. Gonzales said he asked Chavez pointedly if he was fired. Chavez’s answer: “We need to talk.”

Boxing Notes

The Southern California Amateur tournament, with 200 boxers on hand, all hoping to advance to the national tournament, is under way at the Azusa VFW Hall. Semifinals begin tonight at 7 and finals Sunday at 3 p.m. Winners qualify for the Feb. 2-3 Southern California-Nevada championships at Azusa, and those winners advance to the nationals in Colorado Springs in late February.

Sacramento promoter Don Chargin has put together a Tony Lopez-Brian Mitchell junior-lightweight unification title bout at Arco Arena March 15. Sacramento favorite Lopez is the International Boxing Federation champion, and Mitchell, a South African, is the World Boxing Assn. champion. . . . ESPN says its recent Virgil Hill-Mike Peak telecast from Bismarck, N.D., equaled the network’s all-time boxing Nielsen rating high, a 3.5. ESPN also got a 3.5 for a 1985 Harold Brazier-Joey Ruiz fight.

Michael Nunn’s Davenport, Iowa, lawyer-manager, Ron May, was turned down by the University of Iowa when he requested a permit for Nunn to defend his middleweight championship in the university’s 15,500-seat Carver-Hawkeye Arena. May was told the university viewed boxing as an “unsafe activity.” . . . Word is that fast-rising heavyweight Riddick Bowe will get a June shot at Mike Tyson, providing Tyson gets by Razor Ruddock March 18 in Las Vegas. Bowe will fight Tyrell Biggs March 2 in Washington as part of Bowe’s new $1-million, two-fight deal with ABC.