BOXING : Nunn Reportedly Wants Better Contract

Middleweight champion Michael Nunn, now of Agoura Hills, is said to be unhappy with manager Dan Goossen, trainer Joe Goossen and the rest of the Reseda management firm, Ten Goose Boxing. Dan Goossen, whose management contract with Nunn expires in November, denies there is a problem. But Nunn’s longtime adviser, Bob Surkein, of Ft. Myers, Fla., confirmed that Nunn has become unhappy with the percentages in his Ten Goose contract.

Boxing sources in Las Vegas and Davenport, Iowa, Nunn’s hometown, also indicated Nunn’s heretofore happy relationship with the Goossens has turned sour and that he wants a new contract or he wants out.

The same sources also question the validity of Nunn’s “wrenched back” he is said to have suffered on his staircase at home. That injury, and not a Nunn-Goossen dispute, Goossen said, forced the cancellation of the Jan. 27 bout against Marlon Starling at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

“I have no problems with Michael that I know of,” Goossen said. “All we’re concerned about now is getting Michael healthy and back into training.”

Surkein, a longtime amateur boxing official who sponsored Nunn’s amateur career and still advises him, said Friday that Nunn wants a new contract.

“Michael tells me he will honor his present contract with the Goossens, but that if he re-signs with them in November, the percentages must change,” he said.

“And frankly, I think Michael’s not entirely happy living in Southern California. He grew up in Davenport in a very tight-knit family, and he misses that. Basically, this is a guy who went from nothing to a million-dollar fighter, and even though he may be 26, he’s still growing into his situation.

“Under this contract, the percentages are two-thirds for Michael, one-third for the Goossens. If Michael signs a new deal with them, it’ll be 70-30, and the Goossens will pay for all the training expenses and for Joe Goossen’s share.

“It should be said that for the first two years of Michael’s career, the Goossens didn’t take a nickel. It was an investment for them for a long time with no return.

“The Goossens have done a good job with Mike. They took a kid who didn’t make the ’84 Olympic team and turned him into a million dollar fighter.”

Efforts to reach Nunn Thursday and Friday through Goossen were unsuccessful. “His line’s busy,” Goossen said.

Ron May, a lawyer in Davenport and longtime friend of Nunn’s, said Nunn has spoken with him lately about his relationship with Ten Goose.

“I won’t tell you exactly what Michael and I have discussed, because that would be breaking a confidentiality,” he said. “But I can tell you that the subject was his contract with them (Ten Goose).”

Goossen had signed an agreement with the Mirage Hotel whereby Nunn would fight three times at the hotel. Nunn is supposed to have been paid $500,000 up front for the deal. But the pact is reportedly up in the air now.

Also airborne is Starling, who was to receive $800,000 for fighting Nunn.

“We’re aggrieved,” said Starling adviser Morton Sharnik.

“I have no reason to believe Nunn’s injury isn’t legitimate, but we feel we’re owed at least an explanation (from Ten Goose). Marlon put his career on hold for this fight. He’s a welterweight and had put on weight. He’s also out $15,000 out-of-pocket expenses for training.”

Nunn, the International Boxing Federation middleweight champion, has been managed by Ten Goose since he turned pro in 1984.

With Dan Goossen managing his career and his brother, Joe, training him, Nunn has won 33 consecutive professional fights, including a technical knockout of Frank Tate in July, 1988. That win gave him the IBF title, which he has defended successfully three times.

“Uno Mas,” or Leonard-Duran III, may have been a dull fight, but it does go into the trivia book on one count: It became the first high-definition-TV telecast of a sports event in America.

The HDTV version of the fight was shown at five closed-circuit locations in North America, but visitors to Leonard’s and Duran’s Las Vegas workouts could watch the fighters on HDTV monitors. The image was sharp enough to see each drop of sweat fly off the boxers and strike the canvas. One other thing is clear: Everyone did well on Uno Mas except the pay-per-viewers. The fighters, promoter, Mirage and pay-per-view promoters all made a lot of money. In Southern California, the fight was purchased by 120,000 households. Boxing Notes

Don King, Mike Tyson’s promoter, appeared at George Foreman’s training camp in Marshall, Tex., two weeks ago armed with contracts for a Foreman-Tyson fight, providing that Foreman beats Gerry Cooney on Jan. 15. “George was polite, but he told King that he wouldn’t consider or sign anything until after the Cooney fight,” said Foreman adviser Morton Sharnik. King was talking about “$3 million to $5 million” for a Tyson fight, he added.

Seven boxers from the Soviet Union have arrived in Toronto and begun training for pro boxing careers in Canada and the United States. They are being trained by Boris Gitman, who emigrated from the Soviet Union, and will be promoted by Lou Falcigno of New York.

Featherweight champion Jorge Paez, the Forum, the Las Vegas Hilton and NBC have entered into a boxing agreement, under which the colorful Paez would defend his International Boxing Federation title up to four times in 1990, starting with Troy Dorsey on Feb. 4. The Hilton will play host to the fights, and NBC will televise them. NBC’s Aug. 6 telecast of the Paez-Steve Cruz bout was the highest-rated network boxing show of 1989.

The California Athletic Commission won’t decide on heavyweight Tony Tubbs’ fate until its Jan. 19 meeting in San Diego. Tubbs, who tested positive for and admitted to cocaine use after his November decision over Orlin Norris, didn’t show up for the Dec. 15 commission meeting, and the commissioners, acting on advice of counsel, postponed a ruling.