Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Dean Juipe: Sanchez sues NSAC over license denial

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.

Having suffered not one but two brutal knockouts in the previous two years, Augie Sanchez was denied a boxing license by the Nevada State Athletic Commission earlier this year. Now he's suing the NSAC, using the claim that it has overstepped its bounds.

"We maintain the commission exceeded their authority," Sanchez's attorney, Marc Cook, said this week. "The relief we're asking for is clear and obvious: We want Augie to be licensed to box."

While Sanchez once said he was ready to retire and pursue a career as a Clark County firefighter, he changed his mind and attempted to comply with the NSAC's licensing and medical requests. And while he presented documentation on his behalf, the commission voted against licensing him on July 31.

Sanchez, a former featherweight contender, lost a pair of fights that had troubling and dramatic endings. He was carried out of the ring after losing by fourth-round knockout to Naseem Hamed Aug. 19, 2000, in Ledyard, Conn., and he appeared to be badly hurt after a first-round knockout loss to John Michael Johnson last Dec. 7 in Indio, Calif.

In the NSAC license denial, it states that Sanchez has "an increased susceptibility to head blows and an increasing inability to recover from head blows. Consequently, Sanchez has failed to establish his physical and mental fitness for competition."

Sanchez, his family and Cook take exception to that evaluation.

"Not only did I see the Hamed fight, I saw and read about the other one," Cook said. "I think there's legal justification for what we're asking."

Hence, they filed suit Sept. 6 against the NSAC, its individual members and the State of Nevada. The defendants have 30 days to respond and a trial, if necessary, would be set within 120 days.

Cook said "I agree" when it was suggested that a trial seems inevitable, given the unlikeliness of the NSAC to rescind its earlier decision.

"We just think (denying a license) is beyond the scope of their authority," Cook added.

The licensing scenario began with the NSAC requesting that Sanchez take physical and opthalmologic exams (as per a Feb. 26 letter from the commission), which prompted Sanchez to see Dr. Michael Mega. In a statement presented to the NSAC, Mega maintains that there is "no reason to preclude Mr. Sanchez from continuing to pursue his professional boxing career."

But the NSAC, at a July 26 hearing on the matter, used the testimony of trainers Teddy Atlas and Miguel Diaz, plus an evaluation by Dr. Michael B. Schwartz and a film clip of the loss to Hamed to build a case against licensing Sanchez.

Cook, in asking the court for a Writ of Mandate allowing Sanchez to be licensed, wrote that "the respondents' actions ... were arbitrary, capricious and without lawful authority ... and was done without due process of law (as provided by the U.S. Constitution). Further, (NSAC) statutes and regulations and codes are impermissibly vague and/or overly broad ... (and that the license denial) was not supported by substantial evidence."

Beyond attorney and processing fees, Sanchez is not seeking financial compensation as part of his lawsuit.

"As of now, the fight's still on," Top Rank publicist Lee Samuels said Wednesday, while acknowledging that each man is having his difficulties.

Mayweather was a passenger in a vehicle registered to him that may have been deliberately involved in a Las Vegas traffic incident early Saturday morning. A woman who is the mother of one of Mayweather's children and who filed a two-count domestic violence complaint against the fighter in March maintains Mayweather's vehicle, driven by DeJuan Blakely, ran her off the road.

Metro police are continuing to investigate and have not yet filed a report.

If Mayweather is found to be complicit in the Saturday incident, he may have to serve the six-month suspended sentence he received as part of being found guilty from the March incident which also included a misdemeanor battery charge.

Compounding matters is the fact that Castillo has an injured ankle that has interrupted his training in Mexico. He was to have seen a specialist Wednesday.

"Barrera and I are good friends, but once the bell rings it's business as usual," Tapia said. "I've been involved in a lot of big fights but I've never been an underdog like I am in this one. Being an underdog only adds to my motivation."

A betting line has yet to be posted, although Barrera is certain to be the favorite. He's 55-3 and Tapia is 52-2-1.

"People who think this will be an easy fight are wrong," Barrera said. "(Tapia) will be very tough to beat and is very aggressive."

But Tapia realizes what he's up against.

"I know he's going to try and come after me and that I'm going to get hit hard," he said. "It's up to me to box, stick and move and do what I do best."

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