Rumble for Rubles Comes to Moscow : Boxing: Ringside tickets to the Cowell-McCrorie IBF cruiserweight bout, Russia’s first title fight, cost $500, more than an average worker earns in a year.

Alfred (Ice) Cowell is favored to retain the International Boxing Federation cruiserweight title against Briton Glenn McCrorie here in a fight in the wee hours Saturday morning. But no matter who wins, both boxers will make sports history.

“We’re quite pleased to be here,” said David Gregory, McCrorie’s manager. “Traveling and fighting is pretty much part of life these days, and the opportunity to come to Moscow for the first-ever world title fight (here) is a landmark we were more than happy to take part in.”

Few Russians will get to see this bit of boxing history. Because the main event is scheduled for 1 a.m. local time Saturday (2 p.m. PDT Friday) to accommodate Western European cable television audiences, the two Moscow-based state TV networks are refusing to show it.

Ringside seats also are going for 500,000 rubles--about $500--making this probably the costliest ticket for a recent event in Russian sports, experts say.

With average monthly salaries barely exceeding $30, promoters report that even seats priced at $5 were available on the eve of the big bout.

Despite the expected low turnout, the fight will add another pro sport to this former citadel of amateur and Olympic sports excellence. Russia already has an ATP Tour tennis tournament, the Kremlin Cup; an NHL farm club, semi-pro baseball and American football leagues and Ted Turner’s Goodwill Games every eight years.

Prizefighting fits Moscow’s nouveau riche like a glove, if Thursday’s weigh-in at a glitzy $4-million U.S.-Swedish casino- nightclub was any indication.

With rows of luxury Western sedans parked outside the Arbat Street locale and a hefty $30 cover charge, the opulent surroundings impressed the champion’s entourage.

“Very, very nice. I’m impressed,” said Cowell’s manager, Stan Hoffman as he surveyed the plush second-floor disco featuring a 40-foot bar and curtained booths. “You don’t come here and expect this now, so it’s really nice.”

Referee Ronald Battle, who also worked the 1991 Evander Holyfield-George Foreman heavyweight bout, said: “I realize that we’re in a city of ruins, but I haven’t seen any. We’ve been very well received.”

The lack of organization and world-class services that plague many Western concerts and athletic events in Moscow have apparently not hampered preparations for the fight. With minor exceptions, those connected with the Cowell-McCrorie bout praised local organizers.

“Very frankly, the people have treated us marvelously,” Hoffman said. “The food has been terrific, in spite of everything we’d heard. I can’t think of a single problem.”

One jarring note in that hymn of good feelings comes from Cowell, 29, who has a pro record of 20-1 with 11 knockouts and is a slight favorite in the scheduled 12-rounder.

“I didn’t want to go to fight in Russia,” Cowell said. “I didn’t want to fight over here.”

The reason, he said, is jet lag and the fact that his opponent’s home turf, Great Britain, is five time zones closer to Moscow than is his hometown of Spring Valley, N.Y.

“To Glenn, it’s a three-hour difference,” Cowell said. “It’s like me fighting in Atlantic City and (Las) Vegas. To him, it’s no problem, I’m sure.”

In any event, both boxers will have had four days to acclimate.

McCrorie (30-2, 12 knockouts) won the title in 1989, then lost it the next year to Jeff Lampkin. McCrorie, 28, said he has improved and matured, despite his second-round loss to countryman and World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in October, 1991.

“My fitness has been good, my wit is fine,” McCrorie, an affable, smiling athlete from Stanley, England, said before weighing in at 189 pounds, the same as Cowell. “It’ll be close, I know, but I’m ready.”

Russian organizers and boxing fans look forward to the day home-grown talent will contend for pro boxing’s top prizes.

Mikhail Sorin, co-founder of the Russian Professional Boxing Federation, predicts that a Russian in a mid-weight class will win a world title within a year.

Russia has produced a few professional boxers and at least one “titlist,” 1988 Olympic gold medal winner Vyacheslav Yanonovsky. He won Japan’s junior-welterweight crown in 1991 by knocking out an American serviceman.

The first Russian boxer to turn professional was middleweight Viktor Yegorov from the ancient city of Vladimir east of Moscow. After a 13-year amateur career in which he compiled a 174-15 record, Yegorov signed a contract with New York promoter Lou Falcigno. In his pro debut, Yegorov knocked out American Michael Williams in August of 1988.

Considering the relatively successful Olympic history of Soviet boxing, some predict that a serious Russian heavyweight contender will appear soon.

“I’ve seen the guys that are preparing now to become professional boxers, and I think that our boxers will become heavyweight champions very soon,” said Dmitri Voskresenev, sports editor for the business-oriented Kommersant Daily.

“It’s another matter whether they get a shot, but in America, at least as far as I know, they are waiting for a white boxer to knock out Tyson, Foreman, Lennox, anyone.”