Michael Nunn

Michael Nunn, the International Boxing Federation middleweight champion, has signed an exclusive multiyear contract with the new Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, The Times learned Thursday. A formal announcement is not expected for several months. Negotiations are under way for Nunn to fight at the Mirage for the first time in January against Marlon Starling, World Boxing Council welterweight champion.

Pete Sampras' title drought stretched to 32 tournaments Wednesday with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) loss to Australian Wayne Arthurs in the Cincinnati Masters Series at Mason, Ohio. "Maybe he wasn't at his peak, but it's always great to get a win over one of the best players ever," Arthurs said. "Yes, he's maybe a little bit more vulnerable than he used to be."

Promoter Bob Arum has signed middleweight Michael Nunn to a two-year contract worth more than $250,000. The deal calls for Nunn to fight at least six times in each of the next two years for Arum, one of boxing's top two promoters. Nunn's North Hollywood manager, Dan Goossen, retains the right to stage additional Nunn fights over the same period. "This puts us in an excellent situation," Goossen said.

In the movie "On The Waterfront," there is this moving scene in which Marlon Brando, playing a broken-down, betrayed old pug, turns to his brother piteously and delivers this heartbreaking line: "I coulda been a contendah!" He spoke for every loser the world over who got to his big chance and blew it. For some reason, I had these lines in mind when I went out to the San Fernando Valley the other day to interview Michael Nunn, the light-heavyweight fighter.

To Michael Nunn, the best compliment he received after winning the International Boxing Federation middleweight title from Frank Tate was that he fought like a young Sugar Ray Leonard. Nunn enjoyed hearing that because Leonard and, to a lesser degree, Muhammad Ali, were his idols growing up. "I caught Ali at the end of his career and caught Leonard at the beginning," Nunn said Thursday. "I think I remind people of them because of head movement, foot speed and hand speed.

By some accounts, it promises to be a classic matchup: North Hollywood's Michael Nunn, the up-and-coming kid fighting for national recognition, versus Marcos Geraldo, the aging veteran fighting time in hopes of getting one more shot at the title. By other accounts, it promises to be a whopping mismatch. Not that anyone doubts Nunn's potential. The 21-year-old middleweight topped off an amateur career by earning a spot as an alternate behind silver-medalist Virgil Hill on the 1984 Olympic team.

Michael Nunn is back at the Reseda Country Club, back with Dan and Joe Goossen, attempting to climb the ranks of professional boxing. But can Michael Nunn get back to being the Michael Nunn of old? The last time Nunn fought at the Country Club, when he knocked out Ron Daniels in the second round on May 5, 1988, he was figuratively, and almost literally, "Second To" Nunn.

When Michael Nunn, the unbeaten International Boxing Federation middleweight champion, fights World Boxing Council welterweight champion Marlon Starling tonight, it will be Team Turmoil vs. Team Tranquility. Nunn (34-0), in a bitter split with the management team that had guided his career since 1984, walked out of training camp March 17. However, a meeting was underway late Friday night in what sources said was an attempt to resolve the fued between Nunn and his manager, Dan Goossen.

The story of Michael Nunn would be an odd one were he not a boxer, where odd is the norm and shattered dreams are as common as a left to the chops; where great talent often ends up shuffling along Lonely Street. The dream of Nunn, the former middleweight champion of the world, has not shattered, but it is deteriorating like the leather of a worn-out glove.

Nobody paid much attention to middleweight Michael Nunn's arrival in this seaside resort. For one thing, he pulled up in the midst of a near riot Tuesday night. Hotel and casino workers, locked in a bitter strike with management, were busily bombarding their gaudy workplaces with everything from eggs to rocks and bottles, leaving shattered glass and frightened guests in their wake.

Michael Nunn proved he could go home again. Nunn's return to the Reseda Country Club, where the two-time former world champion ascended the middleweight ranks during the 1980s, was a ringing success Friday as Nunn stopped Rudy Nix 2:52 into the second round of their North American Boxing Federation light-heavyweight title fight before about 600. The bout was Nunn's seventh consecutive victory under the tutelage of trainer Joe Goossen, with whom Nunn reunited in 1995 after a five-year split.

Michael Nunn proved he could go home again. Nunn's return to the Reseda Country Club, where the two-time former world champion ascended the middleweight ranks during the 1980s, was a ringing success as Nunn stopped Rudy Nix at 2:52 of the second round of their North American Boxing Federation light-heavyweight championship fight before a crowd of about 600 on Friday night.

Michael Nunn is back at the Reseda Country Club, back with Dan and Joe Goossen, attempting to climb the ranks of professional boxing. But can Michael Nunn get back to being the Michael Nunn of old? The last time Nunn fought at the Country Club, when he knocked out Ron Daniels in the second round on May 5, 1988, he was figuratively, and almost literally, "Second To" Nunn.

Former two-time world champion Michael Nunn, scheduled to fight Jan. 17 at the Reseda Country Club for the first time in 8 1/2 years, has a new opponent. Nunn will fight Rudy Nix in a 10-round bout for the North American Boxing Federation lightweight championship. Nix (17-2-1 with 16 knockouts) replaces Asluddin Umarov, who had agreed to fight Nunn but pulled out of the bout this week. "I don't know why [he backed out]," promoter Peter Broudy said.

Is it 1996? Or 1986? A trip through the door of the small, storefront gym on a side street in Van Nuys is like a trip in a time machine. There, in the center of the ring, is two-time former champion Michael Nunn, back where he was a decade ago, working and sweating and dreaming under the close scrutiny of trainer Joe Goossen. In the interim, Nunn won and lost both the International Boxing Federation middleweight and the World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight crowns.

Michael Nunn, who began his professional boxing career by training at a makeshift gym set on an otherwise vacant lot on a North Hollywood cul-de-sac, could soon be training under his original mentor at the new Ten Goose Boxing Club. Nunn, who split with Ten Goose in March, 1990, after a six-year association, has signed a promotional contract with Top Rank Inc. and is expected to be reunited with trainer Joe Goossen.

It's mid-afternoon at a small bungalow with a boxing ring in the middle called the Ten Goose Gym. Outside, the noise of traffic on the nearby Hollywood Freeway muffles the sounds of boxing workouts going on within. There are only two boxers working out, but it sounds as if there are 50. At one end of the room a fighter is working on a speed bag, furiously pounding it to a beat that is music only to his ears. The eyes of the few spectators gathered in the gym are not on him, however.

Boxer Michael Nunn was free on bond after being charged with alcohol and weapons violations Thursday in Orion, Ill.

Super-middleweight champion Michael Nunn retained his WBA title by scoring a technical knockout over Crawford Ashley of England in the sixth round of a scheduled 12-round fight Friday night. Nunn (41-1) knocked down Ashley (18-5-1) three times during the sixth round at the Memphis Pyramid. Ashley, the light-heavyweight champion of England, was fighting for the first time in the United States in his first shot at a world title.

Boxer Michael Nunn was free on bond after being charged with alcohol and weapons violations Thursday in Orion, Ill.