BOXING / RICH TOSCHES : Lopez Approved for Comeback Bid at 39

One of the following statements is true:

A) George Foreman recently said he has been on that weight-loss milkshake diet and has already lost the equivalent of Tom Lasorda.

B) Don King publicly announced that his hair is actually a wig made of wolf fur.

C) Former featherweight champion Danny (Little Red) Lopez is making a comeback after a retirement of nearly 12 years.

If you guessed C , you are right. When last seen, Lopez was draped over the ropes, being used as a punching bag by Salvador Sanchez.

It was the second such occurrence.

The referee stopped the first fight in the 13th round. In the rematch, the referee stopped it in the 14th round, prompting Times columnist Jim Murray to write: “Either Danny Lopez had gotten stronger, or the referee’s stomach had.�

Lopez, 39, will fight again on Feb. 27 at the Irvine Marriott, his first ring appearance since those two lopsided defeats in February and June of 1980.

He has the blessings of the California Athletic Commission, even though in his initial sparring session, under the observation of two commissioners, his reflexes were deemed to be so poor that it was unlikely he could duck an appointment, much less a punch.

“In that sparring session, he got hit a lot and didn’t have any reflexes,� said commissioner Steve English, who viewed the sparring along with commissioner Dale Ashley. “He was just not up to par. He got hit with every right hand the other guy threw.�

Based on that dismal showing, English and Ashley emphatically rejected Lopez’s application for a boxing license. Common sense in boxing--sounds silly, doesn’t it?--prevailed.

For a brief moment.

Lopez complained to the state commission that the sparring session was unfair. Basically, according to English, Lopez’s argument was that his sparring partner, David Kamau, was too good.

“So we rescreened him with somebody else, some kid,� English said. “I don’t recall who. We videotaped that sparring session and sent it to our full commission and they approved him to fight.

“In my opinion, he looked better the second time. His reflexes were better. But he still got hit a lot.�

The boxer Lopez sparred with the second time was Greg Puente, whom Lopez has trained during much of his pro career. Puente hadn’t had a fight in three years.

At his peak, as he battled to the world featherweight championship in 1977, Lopez absorbed terrible punishment in nearly every fight. It seemed as though he intentionally blocked punches with his face, picking them off with his nose and eyebrows and chin before they could do any damage to his hands. His hands won all of his fights, delivering thudding, damaging blows that knocked out 39 of his 47 opponents as he went 42-5.

A Danny Lopez fight had all the slick, technical intricacies of knocking down a concrete wall with a sledgehammer. Which is what Lopez has been doing for most of the last decade.

As a laborer for a concrete contractor, Lopez spent his days crashing the hammer against walls. Lopez finally found something he could hit that didn’t hit back and split open his face.

“I wanted to make a comeback several times over the last 10 years,� Lopez said. “I thought about it in 1983, right after Salvador Sanchez died in the car accident. But my heart wasn’t in it. I tried it again about five years ago, but things didn’t work out. Nobody really knew about that one.�

A few did. One day, as he tried to spar the rust from his worn body in the mid-1980s, a lightweight named John Montes Jr. decked Lopez in the gym. Stretched him out cold, according to witnesses. The comeback bid ended with a headache.

Now, six years later, he is back. And--Lopez is being trained by John Montes Sr.

“This idea has been in his mind for a long, long time,� Montes said. “Last February he called and said he really wanted to try it again. So now I’ve got him boxing four or five rounds every day, and you know what? He looks good. He still has that punch, that big right hand. We’ve got to work on his defense, and then he’ll be ready. He’s still got that heart, that Little Red Lopez heart. He’ll win a lot more fights, I think.�

The reason, Montes said, is that Lopez continued to lead a clean life after his retirement.

“He never lived a bad life,� Montes said. “All the time he’d be going up to the mountains. Camping and things like that.�

Camping? That’s what they’re banking on?

“We’ll judge Danny on a fight-to-fight basis,� English said. “This is, really, a limited license for him to box. If we don’t like what we see in his fight, we’ll pull it. Honestly, I have reservations about this. I have a concern. But if he can’t do it, we’ll retire him quickly.�

Said Lopez: “I know about the skeptics. I tell them this: It’s my life. The doctors and my friends can say what they like about something like this, but it’s my decision. The critics say I don’t have a chance. We’ll see.

“I do know it’s much tougher now, tougher to train, tougher to keep getting hit. My reflexes are off a bit. I think it will take a while to get my timing back.�

Does Lopez need the money this badly?

“I made about a million and half dollars in my boxing career,� Lopez said. “Unfortunately, you don’t get to keep all of it. I had a pension fund from the boxing money, and I’ve sort of been living off that for a while.�

And there is another reason for the comeback.

“George Foreman,� he said. “I saw what he’s done, and I just figured if he can do it, I can do it.�

Boxing Notes

Former International Boxing Federation featherweight champion Jorge Paez of Mexicali, who during his fight against Alan Makitoki at the Forum leaned out from his corner and kissed the ring-card girl between rounds, will take on Jose Luis Vasquez of Puerto Rico in a 10-round lightweight bout at the Forum on Feb. 10.

The Forum card features three other scheduled 10-round bouts: Armando Castro against Antonio Ramirez in the semifinals of the Forum’s super-flyweight tournament; unbeaten David Sample against Fidel Avendano, and undefeated David Kamau, the 140-pounder who thrashed Danny Lopez in their first sparring session, against Rolando Cummings.