The Virginian-Pilot
                            THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994              TAG: 9408110661
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Long  :  110 lines

BELINC: THOUGHTS OF WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

He is the guy who almost spilled paint on a masterpiece. The guy who - literally - almost sent Pernell ``Sweetpea'' Whitaker's Olympic dreams packing.

Today, Joe Belinc would just as soon talk about the great deal he can get you on a used car as he would reminisce about boxing. Truth is, the used car salesman's boxing memories are the equivalent of a car lot full of clunkers.

Belinc is not sputtering down life's highway. He earns a six-figure salary from the business he co-owns and has a happy family that he, happily, does not have to leave behind for long stretches because of boxing.

But sometimes he'll sit down in his Marysville, Wash., home with his high school sweetheart-turned-wife and watch Whitaker fight for millions of dollars on television. Suddenly, like a wicked punch you don't see coming, Belinc is struck by the starkly divergent roads taken by two men who once were virtual equals in boxing ability.

``Every once in a while I'll watch him and think, `That could have been me,' '' Belinc says.

When it comes to the 132-pound spot on the 1984 U.S. Olympic boxing team, Belinc is still convinced it should have been me.

It almost was.

Belinc came out of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials as the ``most noteworthy opponent'' at 132 pounds to Trials champion Whitaker. In amateur boxing, it's not enough to win the Trials at your weight class. Making the U.S. Olympic team is a game of double jeopardy in which you must come back a month later and defeat the most noteworthy opponent again to make the team.

For Whitaker, that opponent was Belinc, who he had beaten, 4-1, in the Trials final. At the Olympic box-offs at Caesars Palace, Whitaker needed one win, Belinc two to earn an Olympic berth.

Belinc won the first box-offs bout, 5-0.

``I walked up to him in the dressing room afterward and said, `I've got your number,' '' Belinc says.

Whitaker, the Pan American gold medalist and two-time world amateur champion, was shaken. His lifelong Olympic dream was in peril.

Whitaker began packing his bags and was ready to skip the second bout and head home.

``I thought I'd won the first night,'' Whitaker says. ``I figured there wasn't anything I could do as good as I did the first night.''

Whitaker's mother, Novella, made him stay. Lou Duva, who would become Whitaker's professional co-manager, obtained a tape of the first box-offs fight from ABC. He shuttled Whitaker off to a hotel ballroom to show him how to defeat Belinc.

Conspiracy theories abound. Duva has claimed there was a move afoot to ensure Belinc won the box-offs because he was white, and some people wanted a few whites on the team. Belinc claims the judges were in Whitaker's corner because he was the more heralded fighter.

The next night, Whitaker beat Belinc, 3-2. The crowd booed lustily. ABC broadcaster Howard Cosell initially said Belinc won.

To this day, each fighter claims he was the clear victor.

``I thought I'd beaten him worse the second time,'' Belinc says. ``I was the aggressor, I outpunched him in the second fight. After that, I was just ready to quit amateur boxing. I still feel bitter about what the amateur boxing people did to me.''

Belinc turned pro. But without the notoriety of ``Olympic gold medalist'' associated with his name, his professional career was undistinguished.

He fought a few times on ESPN. But Belinc loathed the constant time away from his wife and new baby girl - the first of two - born in 1986. Although he was winning, he was not courting stardom.

``I didn't feel I was really getting anywhere in my life and I figured I could do something else for my career,'' Belinc says. ``I think I could have done real well in boxing. Whether I could have done as great as Pernell Whitaker or not, you can never tell. I think I had the ability, I just needed to be molded.''

His face got remolded in his last bout, when he was cut repeatedly and needed more than 50 stitches around his eyes.

Enough. Belinc retired in 1987 with an 18-2 record and a top payday of $2,500. Whitaker, a five-time world champion, made 1,000 times more than that for fighting Julio Cesar Chavez last September.

``It'd be neat to make $1 million or $2 million for a fight,'' Belinc says.

Belinc, 29, does not begrudge Whitaker of anything. Belinc says while he himself was probably the better amateur boxer between the two of them, Whitaker's skills were better suited for the professional game.

The closest Belinc comes to fighting these days is when he hits the speed bag while working out at a gym called Olympic Muscle. He doesn't make millions selling used cars, but he's done OK since he and his brother-in-law opened their car lot on Route 99 in Everett, Wash. The business started small, but grossed a quarter of a million dollars last year, Belinc says.

``I really like what I'm doing now, and I really would rather be doing this than fighting,'' Belinc says. ``I'm living comfortably, and I don't have to get hit in the face.''

He is reminded of how close he came to the Olympics, of how on that night in 1984, Whitaker was packing his bags and ready to go home rather than fight again.

``It's a good thing Pernell didn't, because he wouldn't be where he is today,'' Belinc says.

Perhaps Belinc wouldn't, either. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MICHAEL O'LEARY

After posting an 18-2 record as a pro, Joe Belinc retired in 1987.

He is now co-owner of an automobile dealership in Everett, Wash. ``I

really like what I'm doing now, and I really would rather be doing

this than fighting,'' Belinc says.

File photo<

Pernell "Sweetpea" fought Julio Cesar Chavez last September, earning

$2.5 million - more than 1,000 times Joe Belinc's top payday of

$2,500.

by CNB