Boxer gets 15 months in fight-fix conviction

Jace Radke

Monday, Feb. 21, 2005 | 9:01 a.m.

A boxer convicted of throwing a fight at Paris Las Vegas in 2000 has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Thomas Williams, 35, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge James Mahan, after being found guilty by a jury of conspiracy and sports bribery.

The jury found that Williams took between $5,000 and $10,000 to throw an August 2000 fight against Richard Melito Jr.

"Mr. Williams is an example of what is wrong with boxing," Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson told Mahan during the sentencing hearing Friday.

Williams' attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Kevin Tate, said that his client did not play a major role in an alleged scheme to fix 11 of Melito Jr.'s fights, and was only involved in the Las Vegas bout.

Tate, who argued that Williams should be sentenced to probation, said that it was ridiculous for anyone to think that sending Williams to prison cleans up boxing.

"That's a joke," Tate said.

Williams' lawyers plan to file a motion with Mahan to ask that Williams be released on bond while an appeal of the case moves forward in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tate has argued that information about Williams taking a dive in a fight in Denmark prior to his August 2000 fight in Las Vegas should not have been allowed at trial. Tate said that is one of the reasons Williams should get a new trial.

Williams' former boxing promoter Robert Mitchell, 42, has also been found guilty of conspiracy and sports bribery. He has yet to be sentenced.