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40-something and fighting fit

Someone said it looked like five guys were getting ready to make retirement speeches. Larry Holmes, James 'Bonecrusher' Smith, Tim Witherspoon, Greg Page and Juan Laporte, ranging in age from 49 down to 39, however, were in New York yesterday to talk about fighting on a pay-per-view card on June 19 in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

The show kicks off what is planned as a 'Legends of Boxing' series, and promoter Cozell McQueen said the age limits are 35 to 50.

"So, you'll let a 50-year-old man fight,'' McQueen was asked. "If he's still living,'' shouted Holmes.

Holmes beat Smith, and Witherspoon defeated Page in 1984 in heavyweight title fights. Retirements, not difficult negotiations, held up the rematches for which there has been no particular public clamour.

McQueen said as of today 1,200 tickets, ranging from 20 dollars to 150 dollars, had been sold. The arena holds 11,500. The pay-per-view price is 19.95 dollars.

Laporte, a 39-year-old former featherweight contender, will fight a ten-round junior middleweight bout against 43-year-old Billy Costello, WBC super lightweight champion in 1984-85. Costello did not attend the news conference.

The idea for 'Legends of Boxing' was that of Smith, a 46-year-old native of north Carolina, who came out of retirement to fight three times last year. On July 4, he was stopped after one round against Joe Bugner when he dislocated his right shoulder while throwing a punch.

The Smith-Holmes fight will be a 12-round bout for the Legends Heavyweight Championship. Holmes stopped Smith on a cut in the 12th round in defence of the IBF title of November 9, 1984. Holmes held the WBC or IBF titles from 1978 to 1985. Smith won the WBA title by stopping Witherspoon in the first round on December 12, 1986, and lost it on points to Mike Tyson on March 17, 1987.

"Time flies when you're having fun,'' said Holmes, who fought relatively often from 1991 through 1997. He did not fight last year when he signed to fight George Foreman, but that match was cancelled.

"If an individual can still get in shape to perform, then I don't see why he should retire him from what he loves doing,'' Holmes said.

"As long as two guys who know how to fight and are in the same age category and are in shape, I don't see anything wrong with it,'' said Smith, a north Carolina boxing commissioner in 1995-97.

The Witherspoon-Page bout is scheduled for ten rounds. The 41-year-old Witherspoon outpointed the 40-year-old Page for the vacant WBC title of December 12, 1984. Witherspoon later won the WBA title, and Page also became a WBA champion.

Smith showed up at the news conference with a bottle of something he called power punch, which he hopes to market. Asked what is in it, Smith said: "It's fruit and vegetables and a lot of other ingredients that make you feel young.''

AP