Van Kirk

Cut to the chase:John Ausherman didn't allow himself the luxury of thinking about winning yesterday's 30th Washington's Birthday Marathon until nearly within sight of the finish line. Pressure had nothing to do with it.See, lots of marathons these days have accompanying relays and, well, there are people jumping in and pulling out all over the place. "The only solid pieces of information I had was I did the first half in 1:18 and I was about fifth at 15 miles," said the Chambersburg, Pa., native.

Laurel welterweight Victor Davis underwent minor surgery Thursday to repair a "bruised" retina in his right eye, forcing him ZTC to cancel his scheduled March 4 bout against Eddie Van Kirk at the Baltimore Arena.Promoter Don Elbaum immediately revised his card, matching Van Kirk with Baltimore rival Vincent Pettway in a 12-round bout for the Maryland state welterweight title."This is the fight I really wanted to make, and I think it's the one the fans here want to see," said Elbaum, who witnessed the eruption of a long-festering feud between Van Kirk and Pettway at a news conference last week.

With any luck, the fights will be as good as the news conference to announce them.Promoter Don Elbaum was in the process of letting the world know about a boxing show planned for the Arena March 4 when Eddie Van Kirk, one of the participants, casually mentioned what he thought might happen in another bout on the card.Besides Van Kirk taking on Victor Davis for the state welterweight title over 12 rounds, Vincent Pettway is scheduled in a 10-rounder against New Yorker Kato Wilson. "Wouldn't surprise me if Wilson knocked Pettway out," Eddie said none too innocently.

The Eddie Van Kirk-Victor Davis fight for the Maryland welterweight title is just about a month away (March 4), but a stormy news conference yesterday almost erupted into a tag-team match, with Van Kirk, Davis and welterweight-in-waiting Vincent Pettway exchanging angry words.One might suspect that veteran promoter Don Elbaum, a man not foreign to hyperbole, had rehearsed carefully the fighters in an effort to generate ticket sales for the first boxing card at the Baltimore Arena since Pettway outpointed Horace Shufford there three years ago.But this was not theater.

Light heavyweight Andrew Maynard, the 1988 Olympic Games gold-medal winner, will make his Maryland boxing debut Jan. 24 at Painters Mill Theater in a 10-round bout against Robert Curry (23-13) of Clarksburg, W.Va.Maynard (13-1), the North American Boxing Federation champion, is managed by six-time world champion Sugar Ray Leonard and Leonard's attorney, Mike Trainer.The Laurel native was unbeaten in his first 12 pro bouts before being stopped by former 175-pound champion Bobby Cycz in Atlantic City, N.J., last June.

ROCKVILLE -- Phil Gilberti knocked out Elkton's Jerry Rash 2 minutes, 13 seconds into the first round to decide the Maryland cruiserweight championship at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza last night.The victory by Gilberti (12-5, 12 knockouts) avenged a fourth-round knockout loss to Rash (7-5-1) in April.On the under card, Baltimore's Eddie Van Kirk (22-6) was knocked down in the first round but rallied to score a unanimous decision over Kato Wilson (12-12-2) of the Bronx, N.Y.