Mack to remain on as NSAC chairman

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003 | 9:58 a.m.

Saying he feels he's a good influence on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Luther Mack retained his chairmanship of the regulatory body that oversees boxing and related sports within the state.

At a Monday meeting of the NSAC, Mack was reelected chairman for 2003. Dr. Tony Alamo was named vice-chairman, replacing Dr. Flip Homansky in that role on the five-person panel.

"My chairmanship brings a calmness to the commission," Mack said later. "I feel I'm a facilitator."

Mack, 63, has been a member of the NSAC since 1989. He's a Reno businessman who feels the board he heads has taken something of a business slant.

"This particular commission has more quality people on it than ever before," he said. "It has more people with a business background and it's being run like a business."

As chairman, Mack is able to steer the NSAC in directions he sees fit as controversial issues arise. One such issue certain to arise in 2003 is the licensing of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who was denied a Nevada license last year and, as a result, was forced to take a blockbuster fight with Lennox Lewis to Memphis, Tenn.

"This is a new commission but it will ask Mr. Tyson the same tough questions," Mack said. "We'll want to know what's changed in his life and what he has done to better himself.

"But he did go to Memphis and it proved to be uneventful in terms of his conduct or his being bad."

Mack hints that Tyson can expect to be relicensed if he continues to stay out of trouble.

"He's been kind of quiet," Mack said. "It seems as if there's been a change in his manner."

Also on the docket for 2003 will be a lawsuit filed by boxer Augie Sanchez of Las Vegas, who was denied a license when he appeared before the NSAC in July. In rejecting Sanchez's request, the board was of the opinion that the former featherweight contender was getting hit too hard and too often to approve him to fight here.

"I'm told by the attorney general's office that I shouldn't comment on that," Mack said of the pending suit and its ramifications. "But I will say I don't think this is a good thing for him to be doing. As a licensee, he signed off on adhering to our findings."

Asked if he, as chairman, had any misgivings concerning upcoming fights in Las Vegas in which major stars are pitted against aging and lesser-quality opponents, as will be the case with Shane Mosley vs. Raul Marquez (Feb. 8 at Mandalay Bay) and Oscar De La Hoya vs. Yory Boy Campas (March 3, likely at Mandalay Bay), Mack wavered.

"Personally, I think those fights might be more competitive than you think," he said. "But we do need to do a better job in looking at these things. A true fight fan wants to see a competitive fight, so I hope it doesn't happen that those fights don't measure up to that standard."