Boxing bill passes Congress, heads to Clinton

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 23, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's delegation is praising a vote in Congress on Monday that approved a boxing bill easing the grip promoters have on fighters. President Clinton is expected to sign the bill into law, Nevada officials say.

The bill aims to crack down on shady promoters who coerce fighters into signing contracts. Promoters will be limited to signing fighters to a one-year contract to prevent the promoters from denying fights to a boxer unless he agrees to sign up for future bouts. Promoters face a year in jail or $100,000 fine for violations.

Promoters also would be banned from having financial ties to a boxer's manager, preventing promoters from hiring their relatives or business partners as managers.

Yet another provision of the bill requires the bodies that rank boxers to develop a fair ranking system and allows fighters to challenge their rank.

Nevada's delegation hopes the bill will polish the tarnished image of a sport that brings the state national attention.

"What's at stake is whether boxing will continue to be a popular sport in America with a sense of public confidence in its integrity," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., led the fight to pass the bill in Congress.

The bill is named for Muhammad Ali.

Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, on Monday urged the House to approve the bill and quoted Ali as saying, "The day this bill is signed into law cannot come soon enough."

"This legislation is good for boxing and good for the fans," Oxley said.

The bill's final form included changes inserted by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. One change would protect casinos from being considered "promoters" and being punished under the law, even though casinos advertise fights.

Another change would make networks that broadcast fights such as HBO and Showtime subject to the same rules as promoters when the networks sign contracts with fighters.

Lobbyists for the networks tried to persuade the Nevada senators to back off the legislation, even in recent weeks as the bill was poised to pass, staffers in the Senate offices said.

"Now not only are promoters like Don King and Bob Arum prevented from making these kinds of demands, but the modern promoters -- HBO, Showtime -- are subject to the same law," said Reid, a former amateur boxer and recipient of hefty campaign donations from King and Arum.

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, was pleased with the changes made by Reid.

"There were a couple of amendments that were added to it that were important to us," Ratner said.

Ratner added that the one flaw in the bill is that it assigns "implied powers" to the Association of Boxing Commissioners, which may not have manpower to deal with new responsibilities.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, Nevada's lone Republican in Congress, supported the bill but not the punishments for promoters.

"I'm not sure we needed to go to the lengths of a felony or the size of the fines we have here," Gibbons said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., disagreed, saying the bill needed teeth. "We're serious about this," she said.

Sun reporter Dean Juipe contributed to this story.