SPORTS A ONE-TWO PUNCH FOR DALLAS

on June 12, Reunion Arena will be filled with ring fanatics watching the Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns fight on closed-circuit TV. If it’s a thriller, they can thank the World Boxing Council Ratings Committee, chaired by Dallas insurance agent Dickie Cole.

Cole’s committee, scattered around the world, is responsible for tracking the careers of boxers and for creating new weight divisions such as the super middleweight division that Hearns and Leonard will slug it out in at Las Vegas. The committee, which initiated the new division last year, also was responsible for selecting Leonard and Don-ny Lalonde to fight for the new title. Leonard KO’d Lalonde, and Hearns is next in line.

In the longer-term boxing forecast for Dallas, there is much reason to believe Dallas real estate appraiser Steve Crosson will bring home the title of presideni of the WBC in 1992, He’s currently the treasurer and U.S. spokesman for the international council that regulates the big bouts, in addition to being a referee.

Dallas is in fact already pretty crowded with WBC officials, all friends of Crosson’s and all non-voting members of the executive committee. Among them are Bart McLendon of McLendon Companies, in charge of future planning for the WBC, and Arlen D. “Spider” By num. The Dallas attorney is an active referee, fight judge, and chairman of the Ring Officials Committee.

Jose Sulaiman of Mexico City is currently president of the WBC. While Sulaiman has the option of running again when his term expires in 1992, he is fifty-five years old and suffers from obesity.

Bynum says that Crosson is effectively the No. 2 man in the WBC. making many of the day-to-day decisions from his office. Asked to handicap Crosson’s chances, assuming Sulaiman retires. Bynum says: “He has about as much chance as Bush had of succeeding Reagan.”