Rivera's comeback success is Taylor made.

Byline: Bud Barth

COLUMN: BOXING

WORCESTER - It didn't rate high in style points, but other than that, Jose Antonio Rivera had very little to complain about in his comeback fight after a 10-month retirement.

The 35-year-old Rivera, a three-time world champion in two weight classes, started slowly but wound up doing more than enough to pound out a unanimous eight-round decision over 37-year-old Clarence "Sonny Bono" Taylor of Wilmington, Del., before a happy hometown crowd of more than 500 fans last night at the Lincoln Street armory.

The Worcester junior middleweight, looking fit and trim at 154 pounds, was favored by all three ringside judges. Paul Barry of Worcester gave Rivera every round, 80-72, while Brendan King of Stoneham scored the fight the closest, giving Rivera a 77-75 edge. Judge John Madfis of Newton had it 79-73. The Telegram & Gazette scored it 78-74, giving Taylor the first and last rounds.

"I'm glad it's over with," said Rivera, who had blood trickling from his right nostril in the sixth round, although it didn't affect his performance.

Rivera (39-6-1 with 24 knockouts) didn't look smooth, but he always has been more about substance than style, and he controlled the action against Taylor, a proven survivor who fell to 13-17-2 but went the distance for the 29th time in 32 fights.

"My stamina was fine, I didn't have a problem with the stamina," said Rivera, who has been working on tactics with his new trainer, Rocky Gonzalez. "Me and Rocky have been working on a lot of new things, and it's just a lot of thinking. I could see myself going back to my old style - I was doing a little bit of Rocky, a little bit of me, a little bit of Rocky, a little bit of me - but then, at the end, I just said, `You know what? I'm going after this guy.' I saw fatigue in him."

Maybe so, but Taylor stood in his corner after every round, eschewing the traditional stool, and looked fresh except for one stretch in the seventh round.

Rivera never seemed to hurt Taylor, although he did get his attention with a couple of good combinations. Mostly, though, Rivera had problems putting punches together, especially early. Taylor also did an effective job of skipping away from trouble every time Rivera tried to pin him in a corner.

"It was hard for me to get into my tempo, to get into a rhythm, because I was just doing too much thinking in there," said Rivera, whose promotional company put on last night's card.

Rivera connected several times with uppercuts that seemed to stun Taylor, including one in the sixth round as blood began to trickle from his nose. The bleeding seemed to stop after he was attended to between rounds by cut man Dave Tenny.

Asked if he was satisifed with his performance, he said: "Well, it was the first fight back, you know? We wanted to get this victory."

Next up for Rivera? He wants to fight again by November, and will ask his promoter, Don King, to let him fight on another one of his own shows. If King refuses, Rivera will ask King to get him on a card before the holidays.

On the undercard, Auburn middleweight Chuck Shearns improved to 2-0 in his final pro bout with a unanimous four-round decision over Samuel Ortiz Gomez (0-5) of Orlando, Fla.

Junior welterweight Jose "Flaco" Velasquez of Worcester (1-3) scored his first pro victory after three defeats, knocking down Larry Foster (0-4) of Washington three times before finally stopping him at 2:58 of the second round.

In the first bout of the night, Worcester lightweight Edwin Rosado (1-4) got hit with a bomb by Haverhill's Brendon Simonds and suffered a TKO loss at 2:58 of the second round.

Eddie "Thunder" Caminero of Haverhill (5-0, 5 KOs) withstood a frenetic, all-out assault by Chris "The Killer" Cook of York., S.C., in the bout's opening seconds, and scored three second-round knockdowns before the fight was stopped at 2:19.

Worcester heavyweight Keith Bianchini made his pro debut a success, knocking down the rusty Orion Sistrunk of Philadelphia once while winning all four rounds easily.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLNE: (1) Jose Antonio Rivera goes on the attack against Clarence "Sonny Bono" Taylor. (2) Jose Antonio Rivera gets a drink of water from trainer Rocky Gonzalez between rounds as cutman Dave Tenney looks on. Rivera won an eight-round unanimous decision over Clarence Taylor in his comeback fight last night at the Lincoln Street armory.

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/MARK C. IDE