BOXING NOTEBOOK: MARTIN LOOKING DOWN AT CALABASAS' ST. JOHN.

Byline: Michael Rosenthal Assistant Sports Editor

LAS VEGAS - Mia St. John has no business in the ring with Christy Martin, most believe. Martin is a fighter who made the cover of Sports Illustrated, St. John a media creation who was on the cover of Playboy.

Not even Martin, who is negotiating to fight the Calabasas resident, can disagree.

``People were asking me, 'When are you going to fight Mia? When you are going to fight Mia?' I took it as an insult,'' Martin said. ``Then I thought, 'Why not?' It's business.

``It's a sellable fight, a good fight for the public.''

The negotiations come at a particularly absurd time: St. John was knocked out by unknown Rolanda Andrews on Nov. 9, her first defeat in a career filled with mediocre opponents.

St. John, in town to watch Martin fight Lisa Holewyne on the undercard of the Hasim Rahman-Lennox Lewis fight today, is undeterred.

In fact, she put a positive spin on the setback.

``Hey, look at all the attention I'm getting,'' she said. ``That's a good thing. I'm a businesswoman.''

Business could get St. John hurt.

--Middleweight title? William Joppy takes an embarrassing beating by Felix Trinidad in May. His reward? An immediate shot at the vacant WBA middleweight title: Joppy, a stablemate of Rahman, faces undefeated Howard Eastman today.

If that's not disturbing enough, the title became vacant when the WBA anointed undisputed champ Bernard Hopkins ``super champion'' in the division.

As most see it, that move was made so the WBA can collect additional sanctioning fees and only further dilutes the prestige of being a world champion. In other words, few are taking the Joppy-Eastman fight seriously.

--Also fighting: Oliver McCall faces Henry Akinwande in a 10-round heavyweight bout. McCall was the first to knock out Lewis, turning the trick with one punch to win the WBC title in 1994 only to lose it to Lewis two years later.