Thursday, Feb. 15, 2001 | 10:18 a.m.
Long layoffs are nothing new to James Page.
In a career accentuated by significant gaps, the former -- or reigning, depending on your point of view -- World Boxing Association welterweight champion is periodically coming off a lengthy stretch of inactivity.
For instance, he quit boxing for two years after failing to make the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. Then he missed 13 months after being charged with robbery and having to serve an 11-month prison sentence in 1992. Then he missed all of 1997 when other legal troubles arose. And now he's coming off a 19-month hiatus brought on by contractual problems with his former promoter, Don King.
The hard life and unsteady background have bettors feeling he will lose his Saturday fight with Andrew Lewis at the MGM. In a fight that opened as a pick 'em, Page is still even but Lewis has been bet to a minus 130.
"That doesn't bother me," Page said Wednesday. "It could be he should be favored. I'll just have to show the people they're wrong."
Page, 30, is 25-3 with 19 knockouts and was stripped of the WBA title for failing to meet Lewis, as had been scheduled, last August at the Paris Las Vegas. Yet because he hasn't lost the title in the ring, he is, at the least, the de facto champion.
Lewis, also 30, is 19-0-1 with 18 KOs and has been the mandatory challenger for more than a year.
Page vs. Lewis is part of a Top Rank card that headlines the WBC featherweight title fight between Guty Espadas and Erik Morales. Interestingly, the champion is the underdog in that fight as well, as Espadas is a plus 525 and Morales is a minus 750.
Page vs. Lewis went to Top Rank when it won the right to promote the fight via a purse bid. It has Lewis under contract but has no other ties to Page.
The promotional intricacies seem to have escaped Page, who said "I'd have to talk to (James) Prince about it" when asked if he had any remaining obligations to King. Prince, who manages Page, and King were at odds when the Page vs. Lewis fight didn't come off as scheduled last summer.
"Boxing business," Page lamented, leaving the issue(s) at that.
But it's because of the business side of the sport that he hasn't fought since July 24, 1999, when he stopped Freddie Pendleton in 11 rounds at the Flamingo Hilton.
"I've been in the gym 10 months," Page said. "This fight with Lewis has been on, off, on, off, but I've been sparring and getting a lot of work with left-handers."
Lewis, a southpaw, has a glistening record -- the draw was of the technical variety, brought on by a clash of heads with Han Kim in 1994 -- yet hasn't faced anyone tougher than Teddy Reid. Page, meanwhile, has not only beaten Pendleton but the equally respectable Andrei Pestriaev and Jose Luis Lopez.
His losses came to Zack Padilla (in 1991), Stevie Johnston (1993) and Robert West (1996). The latter should have been a crushing setback, but Page battled back on King undercards to land a title fight with Pestriaev that he won within two rounds.
"I've been fighting since I was 10 years old," Page said, as if the occasional loss is part of the game. "I've watched tapes of Lewis and he's definitely a strong fighter, but I intend to go in there and do what I have to do.
"You guys might say I'll look rusty, and that's fine. My only goal is to win the fight, one way or another."
At 147 pounds he's in a division with Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya, so a victory could push him into a much more lucrative bout.
"It's not that I've looked past Lewis, but I've thought about it a little bit," Page said of what may lie ahead. "There are some good fights there, but I have to stay focused on this fight right there."
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