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Show Sanrdav. October By JAY SEARCY Newspapers Knight-Ridd- er Once upon a time in America, everybody old enough to read knew the name of the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. It was Jack Dempsey. It was Joe Louis. It was Rocky Marciano. It was Smokin' Joe Frazier. It was Muhammad Ali. Now name today's champion. Is it an Englishman named Frank Bruno? Or is he that Italian wrestler? Isn't it Bruce Seldon, the guy from Atlantic City, N.J.? What about Riddick Bowe? Or was he the one who threw his belt i into a trash bin? Foreman? George Francois Botha? Axel Schulz? You could ask your neighbor, but he wouldn't know, either. But that's OK. It isn't you. it's the state of boxing. The answer, sadly, is none of the above. Not since Muhammad Ali in the mid-'70- s has the world had a true heavyweight champion. That's when the alphabet sanctioning bodies began fracturing the talent pool. Mike Tyson? He was recognized by the Big Three the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council and the International Boxing Federation but not by the World Boxing Organization. Same with Buster Dou- - glas, Evander Holyfield and Bowe. Larry Holmes? He was the WBC champion, then the IBF champion, but never a unified champion. "How many sanctioning organizations are there? Too many to count," said Phill Marder, editor of Fight Fax, Inc., considered the most reliable book of boxing records. "I have about 10 listed in the book, but two more probably started up this week." And each has its own champion, tah Page B7 it's confu sing ampions, the IBC champion was the great Tim Puller from Israel. The World Boxing Federation, based in B.istol, Tenn., went to Brazil to find its world heavy- Adilson champion, weight Rodrigues. The WBF was founded six years ago by Larry Carrier, who also founded the International Hot Rod Association, which does not rank boxers. Yet. The International Boxing Organization, formed four vears ago in Janesville, Wis., bv a Hormel meat world heavyweight champion, according to the International Boxing Council, is Tommy Morrison, the Oklahoman who was knocked down four times Saturday night en route to a TKO loss to Lennox Lewis in Atlantic City. (It was a non-titl- e bout.) Before Morrison. companv superintendent. lists James Thunder, a Samoan. as to the quarterfinals of the NCAA basketball tournament and stop- - champion. It used to be Danell N'ickolson. Or was it Denzel Wash- The alphabet champions rarelv t'ght one another because of politics and greed and jealousy So the public loses. It all became so confusing that HBO finally quit mentioning any of the alphabet organizations on its programs. There are 17 weight Jivisi; n now. some separated bv a mere three pounds. ington? Thre are so many champions so many weight divisions and" that the public is dizzy with confusion and. not surprisingly, apathetic toward boxing. It's like being unable to figure out which league the Yankees are in. like not hav ing a World Series to determine a champion every vear. like getting ATLANTA (AP) Buoyed on one end by spectacular ticket sales and sagging on the other because of diminished corporate support, the Final budget for the Atlanta Olympics shows no profit and scant room for error. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games approved a $1.61 billion budget. The break-eve- n bottom line was up slightly on both the revenue and expense side from earlier forecasts. All but $227 million or about 14 percent of projected revenue is now either in hand or contractually committed, ACOG said. The financial package includes a $30 million contingency, half the amount in the budget that was released last year. Organizers said. world of rollerblades and skating, which may be the hottest recreational sport going these days. She's not an investor of any sort, in fact. "Whenever you can get the Kerrigan name involving in a store about skating, it can't hurt." said Flaim, who won the silver medal in the 1500-metrace at the Olympics of Calgary. "She's just doing us a favor." One night earlier, Kerrigan had been one of the featured performers at opening of the new Fleet Center in Boston. "It's a great building ... great seats everywhere," she said. "But it's not so big that you lose the audience. It's built cozy enough that you can still feel the audi- though, that while the financial margin for error is smaller, so is the risk. "As time goes on. information Based on strong demand in the first six months that tickets . e been available. ACOG has upped its ticket revenue forecast from $261.2 million in last year's budget to $422 million. That is helping to offset a drop gets clearer ... uncertainties become certainties." said A.D. Frazier, ACOG's chief operating officer. "This is it we are out of the speculation business." in anticipated sponsorship revenue, previously budgeted at The major differences from previous budgets were in the revenue projections for ticket sales and corporate sponsorships. $5 3.4 million but now penciled in at only $428.1 million. With most of the sponsorship deals already signed. ACOG expects to find $16 MILLION iff? W ITe Atlanta International Airport and housing tor volunteer who come to Atlanta from other cities. ACOG said. Also. ACOG is ha ing to pay million toward the construction of the Centennial Olympic Park. The park was to be financed entirely from outside sources, but an d program to it by selling commemofund help rative bricks fell far short of Hartsfield to shell out about $35 million more in the final nine months before the Games. Billy Pavne. ACOG president, said organizers were negotiating with potential sponsors, whom he would not identify. "There is no risk in raising S35 million in the sponsorship category." he said. Among the expense increases were higher costs for the main, press center, an accreditation center for athletes and officials at enough companies ACOG-guarantee- Sell-Of- Largest Clearance Ever f Thousands of NEW Reductions AR AN 41 C Eq Red Dot Reduced Again All SeU-Of- Prices Marked f in-li- PROVIDENCE, R.I. The guy pulled a picture out of a large envelope and placed it in front of Nancy Kerrigan to sign. Kerrigan looked down at the picture and grimaced. It was a photo from an old Newsweek magazine cover and it showed her horror-strickecrying in a pain n, and anguish. "Why Me?" the headline screamed in huge type. The picture was from that terrible time nearly two years ago when the figure skater was assaulted by a couple of hit men who had clubbed her on the right knee with an iron bar with the idea of knocking her out of the 1994 Lilleham-me- r a table at a store-openi- on the city's East Side, Kerrigan looked as if she were going to sign the photo. But then she paused for a moment. She stared back down at the picture and a thousand thoughts seemed to be racing through her mind all at once. And maybe they were. Maybe it was all coining back to her. The names and the faces and the events Sean Eckert ... the countless press conferences ... Jeff Gillooly ... the early morning practices ... Tonya Harding ... the photographers ... the TV cameras ... the press. The relentless press. She .ighed. And then looked back up at the autograph seeker. "Do you have something else I could sign?" she asked quietly. The guy nodded and pulled out another picture. She quickly signed that one. Still, the man waited for a moment or two for her to sign the Newsweek photo. "I don't think she's going to sign it," a voice said from somewhere. The guy scooped up the picture and left. "It was just a bad time in my life," Kerrigan would say later when I asked her why she hadn't signed the photo. "There was nothing good about that picture or that time. Nothing good. Nothing positive. Nothing uplifting at all. Why should I have signed?" Why indeed. This was a recent afternoon and Kerrigan was helping her bother, Michael, and Eric friend, offiFlaim, a speed-skatin- g store Street a Thayer cially open skating. devoted to Motion Sports" is the name of the place, hard by the Brown University campus, and Kerrigan's job was easy: Sign sonic autographs. She had a pile of glossy photos in front of her and there was a line that at times stretched out the out store, down some stairs and onto the sidewalk. at "Amazing ... I'm amazed head. her " she said shaking this, "It (the Olympics) seemed so long even ago. I can't believe anybody in-li- I w debacle behind her Olympics. Now sitting at THE DAILV HLRAI.1). Provo. 0 VITIQIC budaef leaves little mom for error Kerrigan works ai putting ice skating By BILL PARILLO Providence Journal-Bulleti- n who is not recognized by the others. Seldon, for instance, is the WBA champion, but he isn't even ranked bv the WBC, the WBO or ' the IBF. This might surprise you, but the 14. 19V5 "Kerti-gan-Flai- m remembers." "C'mon, you were big news,' someone said. "But it's just me," she smiled. "It's only me." the She is not defecting to er ence." She married her agent. Jerry Solomon of Washington, D.C.. a week ago. and her competitive skating career is basically over. She left that, she said, in Lilleham-me- r when she finished second to h Oksana Baiul of Ukraine by of a point. She has no desire to give it another shot, having come that close. "I did what I wanted to do in Lillehammer." she said. "I wanted to skate my best performance and I One-tent- h did that. I lost by can go either way on any night. I have no control over that. I'm satisfied that I did my best." Now. hers is a world of skating shows and videos. She is involved in a Halloween production to be staged at the Fleet Center in two weeks, and there are a couple of videos on tap. Once again, she will skate for the renowned Tom d Collins world tour but on a basis. Last year, she did some 70 shows in 90 nights involving 60 cities. "Sounds glamorous but it isn't." she said. "It's not the skating. I'm on the ice for maybe 10 minutes. It's all the plane trips and bus rides and suitcases and hotel rooms. That's the part that wears one-tent- one-tent- Look For Red to $150 on Enamel coating over cast iron distributes heat evenly while making this French ...II cookw are easy to clean and non- odor absorbing. TL-MaJS- Sheet Sets to ... just enough poly tster to make it "i 1 you down." She seems more at Oease now than she ever was during that ordeal two years ago. But that's no surprise. Still, she seems to have matured: she has moved into a more professional phase of her "1 like the shows ... like givas opposed to ing performances," participating in competitions, she said. "Besides, I'm sure it would take some time to get back the jumps and spins that you have to do for the judges." She says she does some skating now but it's purely recreational. When it comes to the jumps and twists and turns, she's a fan like everyone else. So she watched as they shut off a couple of blocks of Thayer so skaters could vault over mini-van- s while others did things like and the "gumby." They also did some miJ-ai- r spinning off the launch ramp. There was the "360" and the "fakey 360" and the "540," which is nothing more than a 360 with another 80 tacked onto it. 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