Fight spotlight shifts from ring to courtroom

Dean Juipe

Friday, March 27, 1998 | 9:08 a.m.

U.S. Senators didn't need to go to Washington, D.C., for this week's scheduled review of the 1997 Professional Boxing Safety Act and round-table discussion on the status of the sport. They could have randomly selected any courthouse in the nation, dropped in, and, in all probability, convened for their hearings while a boxing-related case was on trial.

It would have given them a chance to see firsthand what's wrong with the sport today.

Boxing's biggest problem is that it has become litigious to an extreme. Every disagreement finds its way to the courts.

"Something is haywire," Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said Thursday from his Washington office.

Yet correcting this relatively recent penchant to resolve every dispute in a courtroom setting baffles Bryan as much as the next guy.

"I don't know what can be done about that," he said. "Boxing is unique. Other sports have a central office that works for the common good, while boxing has proliferating sanctioning bodies concerned only with their own well-being."

Bryan, who co-authored the 1997 bill with Arizona Senator John McCain, advocates privatizing the sport, although that could be wishful thinking.

"The lack of an unbiased governing body to rank boxers and impose guidelines is one of the root causes of the problems that exist in boxing today," Bryan said. "But I don't know how we get from where we are to there. I'm reluctant to embrace a federal boxing czar."

Likewise, McCain backs the privatization concept.

"I would prefer a privately run national commission," he said, alluding to corporate financing of the proposal. "Regretfully, such a far-sighted step (is but a) hope for the future."

Last year's federal boxing bill was a step in the right direction for a sport intertwined with corruption. The bill established insurance, identification and record-keeping practices for all fighters, plus mandated state-supported boxing commissions approve and oversee fights in every state.

"It has had an impact," agreed Marc Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. "The I.D. cards, the standardization of rules in title fights and medical testing ... these are good things that needed to be done."

Yet McCain is aware of gaps and inconsistencies in enforcing the boxing bill.

"I haven't been hesitant to express my concerns when (states) have slipped in their public duties," he said. "Some boxing commissions in the United States are indefensibly lax in their duties."

Even Nevada, which is at the forefront in pushing for meaningful boxing reform, isn't above criticism. A Las Vegas-based manager of fighters, Sterling McPherson, is complaining because the NSAC failed to prevent a fighter he says he has under contract -- Robert Garcia -- from fighting two weeks ago in Miami.

"Pressure has to be put on states, including Nevada, to live by their own rules," McPherson said. "The game needs serious reform and the Nevada commission passed up a chance to make a significant statement when it let a promoter take a fighter I have under contract and put him in a fight in Florida. What's with that? How can Nevada let that kind of s--- happen?"

While McPherson's dispute with Garcia will be heard by NSAC arbitrator (and commission member) Dr. James Nave next month, he has joined the growing list of fighters, managers and promoters who have found the courts to be a convenient recourse for their problems.

"I'm in a legal battle every month," McPherson said. "I've been involved in a number of suits and I feel there's no avoiding the courts."

Ratner calls the rush to file a lawsuit to settle a dispute "societal" although, perhaps, it's more pronounced in boxing.

"Boxing is very litigious right now and I believe the sport is having more problems than it has in 20 years," he said. "I don't know the solution. It's easy to say we need oversight like the NCAA has with college sports, but boxing, unlike any other sport, is handled by individual states.

"It's a sign of the times that so many of these issues are going to court. I wish I could wave a magic wand and have everyone get along."

Likewise, Nave -- a former commission chairman -- has the sport's best interests at heart while acknowledging its widespread deficiencies.

"I think boxing is in a very difficult stage right now and I know the public is disgusted," he said. "One very big problem is the multiple organizations that don't seem to follow any rules. They're creating a lot of these problems.

"Ideally, everyone would take a deep breath and then put their best foot forward. Boxing will survive and flourish again, but there needs to be someone screaming 'do what's right.'"

Could that person be someone like McCain or Bryan, working through the Senate hearing process?

"I know I spend a lot of time defending boxing," Bryan said. "I know it has a credibility problem. Senator McCain and I are going to sit together and see if there's anything appropriate we can do.

"I will say we heard a lot of things this week and there were some good suggestions. It was one of the best Senate hearings I've taken part in in a long time."