By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

"What are you doing?" they have come to ask promoter Tom Moffatt with incredulity.

" 'You're supposed to be a rock concert promoter,' " Moffatt says he has been pointedly reminded.

And, indeed, in 47 years that is how Moffatt has made his considerable name and fortune here, by bringing in everybody who was anybody: Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones etc.

So, even on a Tuesday night boxing card at the Sheraton Waikiki Ballroom that includes a title bout, the best known name might be that of the promoter, Moffatt. Also, the most curious.

Even for a man whose promotions have run the gamut — from ballet to big band, and basketball to tangos — this is a departure and challenge of significance. From this weekend's Sesame Street Live show, to boxing in one step is no small leap of faith given the black hole that has been pro boxing here.

So many would-be boxing promoters have come and gone — mostly gone broke — over the past 20 years that former boxing commission executive secretary Bobby Lee once suggested that anybody who applied for a promoter's license should be required to get a brain scan along with the fighters.

People who have been successes in other businesses have been quickly decked stepping into the rough and tumble world of boxing. And even some who have spent their lives around the sport have found themselves living out of their cars.

Moffatt has dabbled enough around the edges of boxing to know the score. But where he did an occasional closed-circuit show or was backed in the past by Lou DiBella and others who bore the brunt of the financial risk, this time he is on his own.

And, it will be without the more recognizable commodities of Jesus Salud, an ex-world champ, or Brian Viloria, who has an Olympic resume. The last time a show here broke even, it was with one of them as a headliner.

Moffatt's Tuesday show will be a "club" card, built around two up-and-coming local fighters, Teddy Limoz Jr. (9-1, 8 knockouts), the reigning World Boxing Organization Asia Pacific welterweight titlist, and Dustin Kim (18-5, 10 KOs).

Both are promising talents and have shown glimpses of being the kind of punchers and action fighters crowds here can warm to. The problem is that there haven't been enough cards hereabouts to give them the exposure. It has been a boxing Catch-22.

The gamble, then, is that a series of club cards can make a go of it long enough to certify Limoz and Kim as the kind of attractions that can bring back boxing on a bigger scale.

"I'm an entertainment promoter," Moffatt says of his foray into the sport. "And boxing is entertainment."

How ironic it would be, then, if the man who helps bring back boxing is also the one who books Jimmy Buffett and Big Bird.