Pepeli Dusts Off Career and Leaves His Imprint : After Premature Retirement, Heavyweight Returns With a Vengeance and Ten Goose in His Corner

Rocky Pepeli, who decided as an 8-year-old that he would continue the legacy of the fighting Pepelis of Iowa, used his heavy hands to pound his way to much acclaim as an amateur.

He won Golden Gloves titles and was the national junior Olympic champion and he brawled with Mike Tyson. He became a professional three years ago and shortly thereafter found himself in a lofty position.

Unfortunately, the lofty position was not atop the boxing world. It was in a hard seat atop a backhoe owned by his stepfather, a plumbing contractor. It long has been an axiom in boxing that many fighters wind up in a ditch. Pepeli, it seemed, had become perhaps the only fighter preparing to make a living from digging the ditch.

“In Des Moines, there weren’t many heavyweights,” Pepeli said. “So after a few fights, I ran out of opponents. There were no prospects for me. I couldn’t afford to travel and no one seemed to have much interest in me. I figured that was the end of the line for me.”

Pepeli retired with a 5-0 record, but before the pneumatic shovel could take too many bites from the earth, a new door opened for him. A friend from his amateur boxing days in Des Moines, Michael Nunn, had joined up with the Ten Goose Boxing Club, then based in North Hollywood, and relayed words of optimism back to his friend.

With no more urging and no guarantees, Pepeli climbed off the backhoe, stuffed his life’s savings into his pockets, along with money given to him from the grandparents who had raised him, and pulled a Horace Greeley. He arrived in Los Angeles knowing only Nunn. He met briefly with the men who were paving the path to a world championship for Nunn--manager Dan Goossen and trainer Joe Goossen.

And they, in essence, told him he should have stayed on the backhoe.

“We had no time for anyone else,” said Dan Goossen, president of the Ten Goose club, now in Van Nuys. “We had Nunn and a few others and we were devoting all of our time and energy to those few guys. When we take a fighter in, we are very committed. We just didn’t have time for Rocky Pepeli.”

A disheartened Pepeli hunkered down in a hotel room in Burbank, a room not much larger than himself. With only one friend and not much hope, despair became his most frequent companion. “I came here with the idea of signing a contract right away,” Pepeli said. “But it just didn’t work out. And then I thought, ‘Now what?’ ”

Nunn, already well on his way to championships in the middleweight division, persuaded Dan Goossen to give his friend a chance. Goossen did, matching Pepeli against Los Angeles heavyweights on his boxing shows at the Reseda Country Club.

Pepeli did the rest.

With a jolting right hand and a wrecking ball for a left hook, he began ending fights early and--much to the delight of Goossen and the howling mob at the Country Club--with spectacular displays of power. The fans knew that when Pepeli fought there would be a knockout.

“I knew that was my ticket,” Pepeli said. “I knew I had to knock everyone out to build some interest. Luckily, that was never much of a problem.”

Opponents hit the mat with a thudding regularity, and Pepeli definitely built some interest. Promoter Don King signed Pepeli to a six-month contract and brought the fighter to New York, but he fought only once and was used primarily as a sparring partner for heavyweights Riddick Bowe, Alex Stewart and Mitch Green.

“Don King lied to me,” Pepeli said.

When the contract expired, he returned to Los Angeles. And this time, the Goossens--who since had lost Nunn--had the time to work with him. He signed a contract with Ten Goose earlier this year and once again has built a wave of interest. The Burbank fighter’s next bout is Tuesday night at the Country Club when he takes on Vince Jones of Los Angeles in a scheduled six-round bout.

The card also features Olympic light heavyweight Anthony Hembrick (15-1) and super middleweight Frank Liles (14-0), who recently signed with Ten Goose.

But it likely will be Pepeli who draws the loudest reaction. The reason for the interest is simple: Pepeli can fight. With thick, massive arms delivering short, accurate punches, Pepeli, 26, has overwhelmed most of his opponents. To see him throw a punch brings a flashback to the scene in the film “Blazing Saddles” in which Mongo--played by Alex Karras--knocks out a man’s horse with a single punch.

And when he’s in the ring, he admits that his mentality is quite Mongo-like.

“I like fighting because I like the violence,” said Pepeli, who is 6-foot-1 and fights at about 220 pounds. “I like that feeling of knocking a man out with one punch, that feeling of controlled violence in a ring.”

Do not think, however, that Pepeli is a grunting maniac. When the gloves come off, a sensitive and vulnerable man emerges, a man who thinks almost constantly of the life he left behind as he chases a dream.

A child of a broken home, Pepeli was raised by his mother’s parents, Jack and Betty Caldwell. Pepeli’s father was an amateur boxer in Des Moines and his grandfather was a pro fighter named Rocky. His father gave him that name, Pepeli said, but not much more.

“My grandparents are my parents, as far as I’m concerned,” Pepeli said. “They gave me everything and they did everything for me. And you know what? They didn’t have to. They could easily have passed on the whole idea. But they took me in and I could never forget all they did for me.”

Pepeli, he of hard arms but soft heart, returns the love at every possible chance. Betty Caldwell, he said, has been a serious fan for decades of singer Engelbert Humperdinck. So recently, when Pepeli had the chance to meet the singer in Los Angeles, he jumped at the opportunity. And later, at Pepeli’s urging, Humperdinck placed a phone call to the Des Moines residence of one Betty Caldwell.

“She,” Pepeli said with unrestrained joy, “was just stunned.”

A much different kind of stunned, obviously, than the type Pepeli enjoys when it involves an opponent in a boxing ring. He has lost only one fight in three years, and all nine of his victories have come by knockout.

“What I like most about Rocky Pepeli is that he knocks people out,” said Joe Goossen, who also has become a friend of Pepeli’s.

“He has a helluva left hook, a world-class left hook. But just as importantly, he has the right attitude. Heavyweights I’ve dealt with in the past all had that idea that they were God’s gift to the world. They grew up as the biggest and toughest kid, beating everyone up and developing that lousy attitude.

“Rocky doesn’t have that bad attitude. He knows he has a lot to learn about boxing, and he knows he’s not the best in the world. But he also knows that in a few years, with enough work, he could be one of the best. He has the tools to do it.”

Pepeli said he has more than that.

“I really feel that I can be a champion,” he said. “I feel that I have to become a champion, or else all of this was wasted. I am not in this for a few paydays. I am in this to become the best. I have dedicated my life to boxing. If I didn’t feel I could become the best, that I could win a championship, then I wouldn’t do any of this.”