Area Boxers Good as Gold at U.S. Festival

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. —  With one thunderous right hand, Lance Whitaker hung out an Under New Management sign.

Whitaker, a much-maligned super heavyweight from Granada Hills, stopped Thomas Martin with a devastating right cross 2 minutes 20 seconds into the second round of their Olympic Festival gold medal bout Tuesday night at Cadet Fieldhouse.

It was a shot that might have been heard in Cuba, the domain of Pan American Games champion Leonardo Martinez.

When they met in Argentina in March, Martinez stopped Whitaker in 2:15 of the first round.

Since then, however, Whitaker has hooked up with Lou Duva and trainer Tommy Brooks, the tandem who guided Evander Holyfield’s professional career.

“Now I have the best trainers in the world,” said Whitaker, a 6-foot-8, 247-pound former football and basketball player at San Fernando High.

The feeling, at least in the euphoria of victory, was mutual.

“This is the kid who is going to make the Olympic team and this is the kid who can knock out the Cuban,” Duva said as Whitaker waited patiently in his corner while Martin laid on the floor trying to gather his wits.

Later, Whitaker seconded the motion.

“I’m No. 1 in the country, future No. 1 in the world,” he pronounced.

Whitaker’s victory was the most impressive on a night when all three local boxers won gold medals.

Fernando Vargas of Oxnard won a lopsided decision, out-pointing David Diaz of Chicago, 38-19, in the 139-pound class.

Carlos Navarro, a two-time national champion who up until recently trained in Van Nuys, won a 31-9 decision over Jorge Munoz of El Paso in a 119-pound bout.

Whitaker was ahead on points when he floored Martin, 18-year-old national Golden Gloves champion from Miami. Whitaker said it might have been the hardest punch of his career.

“In the six months he’s been with us you couldn’t believe the progress the guy has made,” Duva said. “And not because of us. Because of him. He’s determined to win the gold.”

There was some good news for former opponents of Navarro--he will move up in weight class, from 119 to 125.

Navarro weighed in last Friday, one day before his semifinal match, at 128--nine pounds over the bantamweight limit.

He dropped the weight in one day by languishing in the steam room, starving himself and boxing in three training sessions.

Navarro, national champion at 112 pounds in 1993 and at 119 last year, said he has struggled to make weight in the past, but never so much as before the Festival.

Navarro buckled Munoz’s knees three times in the first round and he forced a standing eight count late in the second round.

The crowd apparently felt a little too comfortable. An announcement that Vargas, 17, held a 12-4 advantage on points after the first round was roundly booed.

As if to make a counterstatement, Vargas responded by opening the second round with a flurry that wobbled his opponent’s legs and forced a standing eight count.

“It got me up a little bit,” Vargas said. “I heard the booing. I wanted to show them I could bring it on.”