Problems found in files of late boxer

Friday, Nov. 18, 2005 | 8:03 a.m.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission files on Martin Sanchez, one of two boxers who died in Las Vegas bouts this year, contain medical documents that were missing his required signature and other records that are contradictory.

The files raise questions as to the commission's thoroughness when it comes to the review of medical records and other information submitted when an individual applies for a state boxing license.

But Marc Ratner, the commission's executive director, and Chief Deputy Attorney General Keith Kizer, the commission's legal counsel, both said that none of the omissions or contradictions raised red flags that would have prompted the state to deny Sanchez a license.

However, they conceded that there may have been some sloppiness on the part of the commission and Sanchez. And they speculated that Sanchez perhaps did not understand what he was signing because he spoke only Spanish and the forms are in English. Sanchez, a 26-year-old super featherweight from Mexico, died July 2 of a brain injury, a day after being knocked out in the ninth round of a fight with Rustam Nugaev at the Orleans.

When boxer Leavander Johnson died in Las Vegas in September, it represented the first time since 1933 that two boxers died in Nevada in the same year.

The deaths prompted the commission to form a five-member Advisory Committee on Boxer Health and Safety, which has been asked to come up with recommendations by April.

Since Sanchez's death, the commission has begun offering several bilingual licensing and medical forms.

When Sanchez applied for his boxing license on June 30, a day before his fight, he listed a Tijuana, Mexico, address and a professional record of 20 wins and four losses. All of his prior fights had been in Mexico.

But Fight Fax Inc., which supplies detailed professional boxing records to state athletic commissions throughout the country, listed Sanchez's pro record at 13-8 and his residence as Mexico City. A Mexican newspaper that wrote an obituary on Sanchez reported that he was a Mexico City firefighter at the time of his death. The commission relied on Sanchez's 13-8 Fight Fax record when it approved the fight against Nugaev, who was 13-4.

Ratner said it is not uncommon for Mexican fighters who apply for Nevada licenses to exaggerate their professional win-loss records based on cultural reasons, including the refusal to accept certain fights as losses when the decision is awarded to an opponent. Kizer also said that Fight Fax might not be privy to information on "unofficial" bouts in Mexico.

"He may have disputed some of the losses if he got disqualified," Ratner said of Sanchez.

If a fighter claims to have more wins than shown by Fight Fax, Ratner said he usually requests proof of those fights in the form of newspaper clippings.

As for the Tijuana address, Kizer said the commission has no way of knowing whether it belonged to Sanchez or someone affiliated with him.

"Maybe his manager was in Tijuana and he put his manager's address down," Kizer said. "There's no way to verify these things."

The physical and ophthalmologic exam reports, both completed by Tijuana doctors and received by the commission on June 29, were not signed or dated by Sanchez as required.

"This is one reason why we went to bilingual forms," Kizer said. "If we had caught that he didn't sign them, we would have asked him to sign them."

Ratner also said that while the boxer is required to sign the forms, it is more important that the documents contain signatures from physicians indicating that the fighter has passed his physical exams.

"That's the key for us, if the doctors have signed them," Ratner said. "But the fighter should sign them, too. I'm not blaming anybody for this. I take full responsibility. The fighters should sign everything."

Sanchez's files also include a report in Spanish indicating he had a normal result from an MRI scan of his brain -- a document dated June 29 by a Tijuana radiology clinic.

But the prefight medical questionnaire in English and signed by ringside physician William Berliner of Las Vegas the day of the fight states "No" when the fighter was asked whether he ever had an MRI.

Under state law, it is illegal for someone to box in Nevada without an MRI. Sanchez's "no" response on the form referred to the fact that he had never had an MRI prior to the scan in Tijuana, Berliner said.

"The wording of that question probably does need to be changed, but I think it's minutiae," Berliner said. "We're asking about past history, not about stuff that just happened."

Normally, an interpreter is with a Spanish-speaking boxer when he is being questioned and examined by a ringside doctor. But Ratner said the prefight questionnaire should be bilingual and agreed that it may be a good idea to clarify the question on prior MRIs.

Kizer said after Sanchez died the commission obtained the film from the Tijuana MRI and had it checked by a Las Vegas doctor to confirm that the June 29 report showing a normal result was accurate.

The timing of Sanchez's license application and submission of the medical reports within two days of the fight also raises the question of whether the commission has enough time to review licensing applications.

Ratner said it would be better if the commission had more time to review applications and medical records.

"I would like to have everything at least 10 days before the fight," Ratner said. "But what do you do if you have to substitute a fighter, do you cancel the entire card?"

Dr. Margaret Goodman, a Las Vegas neurologist and former ringside physician who continues to chair the commission's Medical Advisory Board, has recommended that the commission hire a physician to review all medical records before a license is granted.

The only medical records automatically reviewed now by physicians prior to licensing involve special circumstances, such as fighters older than 36 or who have not boxed for at least three years.

The medical records of all other boxers are usually reviewed by ringside doctors during the prefight physical exam.

Although Goodman declined comment on the Sanchez files, speaking generally, she emphasized that it is critical that boxers sign the forms submitted for review.

"As someone who reviewed medical records for the commission for more than five years, I think they all have to be signed by the fighters," she said.

"Otherwise, how can we be sure that the records are of that specific individual?"

Steve Kanigher can be reached at 259-4075 or at steve@lasvegassun.com.