Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: A proud day for Nevada

Tuesday, May 23, 2000 | 9:53 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

WHAT TOOK PLACE in Indianapolis on May 13 wouldn't have been allowed to happen in Las Vegas. What happened at Caesars Palace more than 21 years ago set a precedent in professional boxing that sent a message to the promoters and sanctioning bodies that should have been heard over the world of boxing.

Last week the Ralston Report quoted from a letter signed by Sens. Richard Bryan and John McCain, along with Rep. Michael G. Oxley, R-Ohio, to Jose Sulaiman, who heads up the World Boxing Council. The trio expressed their disgust with the bullying tactics of a WBC official at the Roy Jones Jr. vs. Richard Hall bout.

"The WBC representative told the event's promoter that if the Indiana Commission did not submit to the last-minute imposition of a WBC-sponsored judge, Mr. Jones would be stripped of his WBC title. This conduct does not convey much regard for the sanctity of the title 'Champion,' or for the integrity of the judging process, which U.S. boxing commissioners are struggling to improve. All boxers and true boxing fans surely believe the only way a legitimate champion should lose his title is to be defeated in the ring. It would be difficult for a sanctioning organization to state that it treats boxers fairly if it would take away a champion's belt on such a trivial pretense."

The Indiana Boxing Commission evidently collapsed under the pressure and let the WBC official have his way. That lack of guts in itself reflects a weakness which is embarrassing to the government and people of Indiana. In addition to being embarrassing, it is just one more black eye for professional boxing.

The letter to Sulaiman made this problem clear and suggests a solution when saying: "As you know all too well, there have been numerous scandals involving boxing judges in the last decade. Many of these have raised substantive concerns that judges can be biased in favor of the sanctioning organization they represent. The only solution is for U.S. commissions to exercise complete authority in the selection of judges and referees, without any regard to their nationality or the commands of ratings bodies."

What happened in February 1979 at Caesars Palace is a moment Nevada can recall with pride. It was a championship fight to be televised by ABC. Just hours before the fight the World Boxing Association (WBA) demanded that Nevada use unknown officials or the fight wouldn't go on as scheduled.

Guess what? The Silver State Athletic Commission, and its executive secretary, Jim Deskin, refused to be pushed around and the fight didn't go on. Although the crowd was upset, there was never any hint from Deskin that any thought was ever given to let the WBA get away with pulling this distasteful stunt. The promoter got in the center of the ring and blamed everybody except the WBA and himself. He did stir up the crowd that felt cheated.

In this column the following week I quoted athletic commission Chairman Bob Shields saying, "We dealt in good faith by joining the WBA as requested -- we all (the WBA and the athletic commission) agreed to use known Nevada officials -- and then at the last minute they put a gun to our heads because they thought we would be forced to back down."

The commission was made up of Shields, Sig Rogich, Dr. Jack Davis, Sammy Macias and Duke Durden. Rogich was fuming and called it a "tough, but right-is-right issue."

Rogich went on to explain what had happened:

"Here we have a promoter and others trying to extort the state of Nevada and at the same time impugn the integrity of boxing here by telling us to approve a fight without any knowledge of the background of their officials. It was a less-than-subtle attempt to blackmail us and we just weren't going to stand for it. I believe we acted responsibly."

It didn't take a threat from Congress for the Nevadans to do what was right. That was more than two decades ago and what happened in Indianapolis can't be excused.

Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Joe Louis, my son Tim, his godfather, Peter Swords, and I didn't see Mike Rossman defend his title that afternoon at Caesars Palace. What we did witness was a response to a bully that made us, as fight fans, proud.