Long, strange boxing trip for Philly's Dargan brothers

THEY WERE LOCAL celebrities as child prodigies and national champions as teenagers. It was, as Mike "Sharp" Dargan recalls, a "big run" for himself and younger brother Karl, better known as "Dynamite," who along with twin cousins Rock and Tiger Allen were among the most accomplished amateur boxers ever to lift off from the launching pad that is Philadelphia's gritty gym scene.

Then the Dargans turned professional and the seemingly interminable hot streak ended, or at least was allowed to simmer on the back burner of inactivity and geographical misplacement.

Now they're hoping to again remind a local audience of what it is that got everyone so excited about them in the first place.

"Concrete Jungle is back," Mike, 27, said of the amateur boxing program shepherded by Brother Naazim Richardson that once was nearly as recognizable throughout America as Detroit's Kronk Boxing Team. "Me and my brother are going to do in the pros what we did in the amateurs. We're still here. Our talent is still there. We haven't been around much lately, but we haven't quit. It's just that we don't have much time to waste."

Because of the curious, often-stalled courses their pro careers have traveled, the appearance of the brothers Dargan on tomorrow night's boxing card at The Arena (formerly the New Alhambra) in South Philadelphia is probably of as much interest as the 10-round main event that pits another celebrated former Philly amateur, 2006 U.S. national champion Danny "Swift" Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs), of the Juniata section, against Christopher Fernandez (18-9-1, 11 KOs), of Salt Lake City.

But Garcia, 22, who is under contract to Golden Boy Promotions, which is putting on the show in association with Joe Hand Promotions, has been fast-tracked for stardom by Oscar De La Hoya's relentless hype machine while the Dargans have, for whatever reasons, languished.

Regardless of what happens in the ring, it will barely make a ripple on the global and national scene when Karl Dargan, 24,(7-0, 3 KOs) takes on Jorge Ruiz (7-11-1) in a scheduled six-round junior welterweight bout, and Mike Dargan (1-1, 1 KO) ends a nearly 5-year layoff when he faces Jason Montgomery (1-0) in a four-round junior middleweight tiff.

Telefutura will televise Garcia-Fernandez and Karl Dargan-Ruiz.

As good as their cousin-trainer, Naazim Richardson - the father of the Allen twins who is now best known as the trainer of Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley - says the Dargans are, their windows of opportunity aren't as open as they once were. Maybe it's too late in the game for either, but particularly for Mike, to make up all that lost ground.

"He never can be what he could have been," Brother Naazim said of Mike, who twice won national Police Athletic League championships in addition to a national Silver Gloves title. "His ceiling was almost unlimited when he was a young man. He'll never reach that plateau now, but there's enough time, with his ability, to become a world champion. I honestly believe that.

"I've seen 'Sharp' [Mike, spar with] the best fighters in the world - Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins - and hold his own with each and every one of them. I saw him beat Kelly Pavlik and Kermit Cintron in the amateurs. All these guys became world champions, and some of them are called legends, but I never saw anybody dominate Sharp."

And Karl Dargan?

"It hasn't been Dynamite's fault that he hasn't been active," Brother Naazim said. "I've been back and forth with Golden Boy about keeping him busy. They always tell me about the difficulty they have in finding him opponents. The first couple of guys they got to fight Danny Garcia were approached about fighting Dynamite, and they all turned him down.

"Then, after Danny started knocking everybody out, I told Golden Boy it couldn't be easy getting opponents for him either, so give us some of the guys he already beat. They gave us the one guy Danny couldn't knock out, [Jose Alfredo] Lugo, and Dynamite stopped him in the fourth round.

"I got a kid who's begging to fight and who comes to every training camp. I said, 'Give us a fight a month like you're doing with Danny.' It hasn't happened yet."

Eric Gomez, the matchmaker for Golden Boy, said even the hint of a conspiracy against Karl Dargan by the Los Angeles-based company has no basis in fact.

"The difference is that Danny Garcia is under contract to Golden Boy Promotions," Gomez said. "He's with us. As for Karl, we sent Brother Naazim a contract and he's been sitting on it for 2 months.

"We have a lot of respect for Naazim, and we know he's been busy with Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley. We want Karl Dargan to be with Golden Boy. We've been patient, and it's not like we haven't used him. We're trying to get as many dates for him as we can, but we have fighters under contract who wouldn't understand if someone who isn't officially with us gets more spots on our cards than they do."

For his part, Karl is eager to settle into a regular schedule.

"Danny Garcia is getting a lot of chances that I haven't," Karl said. "I know he's under contract to Golden Boy, but I could be doing what he's doing, too. I would hope that changes if and when my contract gets done. But you got to see to believe. Maybe there's some doubt about me in their minds, but if I get put on hold for 6 months at a time, it's hard to keep knocking the rust off."

And if Karl - twice winner of U.S. national amateur and national PAL titles, as well as a Pan-American Games championship - has a difficult time scraping rust off ring skills that can atrophy if not regularly exercised, imagine how it must be for Mike. He says he lost a total of 3 years to a pair of surgeries, one for a stab wound to the face, another for a gunshot wound to the hip. He also has had out-of-the-ring issues of another sort, fathering seven children by multiple women.

"I think about [what might have been] a lot," he said. "In the amateurs, I beat Kelly Pavlik, Chad Dawson and Timothy Bradley. All those guys are or were world champions, and I know I could have been right up there with them.

"But God has a purpose for things happening the way they do. Some of the guys I beat, they got there, and I can get there, too. It just doesn't have to happen at the same time."

The Dargans hope to re-establish themselves locally before again expanding their horizons. This will be only Karl's second pro bout in Philly, as is the case with Garcia. They've been road warriors of a sort, often fighting out west at Golden Boy's behest.

"People here know us from the amateurs," Karl said of the warm reception he expects for himself, his brother and Garcia in their hometown. "No matter what, we're always going to be Philly fighters." *