Athletic Commission

This is an excerpt of a New York Times editorial that was published on Tuesday:SOMEBODY once called boxing the sweet science, but there was nothing sweet about last Saturday night's Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title bout or scientific about the collective wisdom of the three judges who called it a draw.Mr. Lewis was clearly the superior fighter for most of a dreary evening, and one judge actually awarded him the fight. A second judge called it a draw while a third, astonishingly, gave it to Mr. Holyfield.

Gosh. Has a whole week really gone by since the Starr Report leapt out of its box and took front pages and TV networks everywhere hostage? It may seem impossible, but there were other things going on in the world this past week. As a public service, here's what happened in other news:A psychiatrist's report detailed how convicted killer Theodore Kaczynski, nicknamed the Unabomber, secretly wished to be a Unabombette. The report, based on interviews with the imprisoned Kaczynski, suggests his career in homemade-bomb building was fueled less by technophobia than a frustrated desire for a sex-change operation.

"Thank you for this opportunity."Saturday night was the worst night of my professional career as a boxer, and I am here today to apologize, to ask the people who expected more from Mike Tyson to forgive me for snapping in that ring and doing something that I have never done before and will never do again."I apologize to the world, to my family and to the Nevada State Athletic Commission that has always treated me fairly, to Judge Patricia Gifford, who knows that I am proud to be living up to the terms of my probation.

D. Chester O'Sullivan never forgot the death of Ernie Knox, a young Baltimore fighter who died of a brain hemorrhage 32 hours after he was knocked out in a 1963 fight at the old Coliseum on Monroe Street.It spurred Mr. O'Sullivan, then the chairman of the Maryland State Athletic Commission, which regulated boxing, to commit himself to making the sport safer. Over more than three decades, he instituted tough measures that accomplished his goal.Mr. O'Sullivan died Saturday of a heart attack at St. Martin's Home for the Aged in Catonsville.

Mike Tyson was temporarily suspended and his $30 million purse placed in escrow yesterday in a preliminary move by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a result of his third-round disqualification Saturday night for biting both ears of heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.The five-man commission, which reviewed tapes of the bizarre title fight, is expected to make a final ruling Tuesday.In the meantime, it moved to cancel the check written to Tyson by promoter Don King, and asked that a second check be sent to the commission and placed in an interest-bearing account.

Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, preparing for a rematch with Andrew Golota, has accused his rival of using steroids in their first riot-marred fight at Madison Square Garden last July."

Rock Newman, manager and promoter for former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, of Fort Washington, Md., yesterday was suspended for a year by the New York State Athletic Commission after being found culpable in the post-fight riot following Bowe's controversial July 11 match with Andrew Golota at Madison Square Garden.The commission barred Newman from appearing in any boxing event in the state involving Bowe during the period of suspension and also penalized Spencer Promotions -- the umbrella corporation established by Newman to promote Bowe's fights -- the sum of $200,000.

Five years ago at Painters Mill Theater, promoter Stuart Satosky found himself without a main event for his cable-TV boxing card.Maryland State Athletic Commission secretary Dennis Gring notified Satosky that lightweight Julian Solis had failed a motor skills test linking numbers and letters, indicating possible neurological problems. Solis would not be permitted to fight Calvin Grove."It caught the TV producers from USA Network completely off guard," Satosky said. "They screamed and raved about the commission being overzealous and vowed we'd never get another TV date in Maryland.

Should boxing be banned?Should we conclude, after yet another ring death, Jimmy Garcia's, that it's time to halt this stuff?At the fights at Martin's West Tuesday night, some of us were kicking those questions around.The seminars were spurred by Alan Goldstein's excellent reporting on the subject, which led The Sun's sports section last Sunday under the six-column headline: Boxing Again Finds Itself Under Cloud."Boxing's not under any cloud," scoffed Al Flora, who promoted fights here in the '60s and is now a member of the State Athletic Commission, which oversees boxing.

Are boxing matches fixed?Of course they are.You don't have to go to the fights to know that. All you have to do is watch "60 Minutes" on CBS-TV.Last Sunday "60 Minutes" did a segment on the ring rise and fall of ex-New York Jet Mark Gastineau. The show was an embarrassment to a lot of people, including the Jets.Gastineau KO'd one opponent after another. It looked as if he might be going somewhere.The show interviewed one of Gastineau's supposed victims, a palooka who stood there on national TV and admitted: "It was strictly a fixed fight.

Efforts to get mixed martial arts sanctioned in Maryland took an important step forward yesterday when a Senate committee gave a favorable nod to a bill that would allow the state's athletic commission to oversee the sport. After receiving approval from the committee for education, health and environmental affairs, the bill will move to a vote by the Senate. A House version, sponsored by Del. Kirill Reznick, a Montgomery County Democrat, has a committee hearing tomorrow afternoon. "It's good to see all the hard work that we've put in paying off," said John Rallo, who co-owns the Ground Control martial arts gym in Canton and has spurred the sanctioning effort.

John Rallo and the lawyers he works with are optimistic that mixed martial arts will be sanctioned in Maryland. They're just not sure the process will go as quickly as hoped. Many state athletic commissions have the power to allow the sport without legislative action. But that's not the case in Maryland. Here, the General Assembly would have to give the athletic commission authority to govern mixed martial arts. The athletic commission presides over boxing, kick boxing and wrestling.

This is an excerpt of a New York Times editorial that was published on Tuesday:SOMEBODY once called boxing the sweet science, but there was nothing sweet about last Saturday night's Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title bout or scientific about the collective wisdom of the three judges who called it a draw.Mr. Lewis was clearly the superior fighter for most of a dreary evening, and one judge actually awarded him the fight. A second judge called it a draw while a third, astonishingly, gave it to Mr. Holyfield.

Gosh. Has a whole week really gone by since the Starr Report leapt out of its box and took front pages and TV networks everywhere hostage? It may seem impossible, but there were other things going on in the world this past week. As a public service, here's what happened in other news:A psychiatrist's report detailed how convicted killer Theodore Kaczynski, nicknamed the Unabomber, secretly wished to be a Unabombette. The report, based on interviews with the imprisoned Kaczynski, suggests his career in homemade-bomb building was fueled less by technophobia than a frustrated desire for a sex-change operation.

Mike Tyson was temporarily suspended and his $30 million purse placed in escrow yesterday in a preliminary move by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a result of his third-round disqualification Saturday night for biting both ears of heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.The five-man commission, which reviewed tapes of the bizarre title fight, is expected to make a final ruling Tuesday.In the meantime, it moved to cancel the check written to Tyson by promoter Don King, and asked that a second check be sent to the commission and placed in an interest-bearing account.

"Thank you for this opportunity."Saturday night was the worst night of my professional career as a boxer, and I am here today to apologize, to ask the people who expected more from Mike Tyson to forgive me for snapping in that ring and doing something that I have never done before and will never do again."I apologize to the world, to my family and to the Nevada State Athletic Commission that has always treated me fairly, to Judge Patricia Gifford, who knows that I am proud to be living up to the terms of my probation.

D. Chester O'Sullivan never forgot the death of Ernie Knox, a young Baltimore fighter who died of a brain hemorrhage 32 hours after he was knocked out in a 1963 fight at the old Coliseum on Monroe Street.It spurred Mr. O'Sullivan, then the chairman of the Maryland State Athletic Commission, which regulated boxing, to commit himself to making the sport safer. Over more than three decades, he instituted tough measures that accomplished his goal.Mr. O'Sullivan died Saturday of a heart attack at St. Martin's Home for the Aged in Catonsville.

Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, preparing for a rematch with Andrew Golota, has accused his rival of using steroids in their first riot-marred fight at Madison Square Garden last July."

Rock Newman, manager and promoter for former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, of Fort Washington, Md., yesterday was suspended for a year by the New York State Athletic Commission after being found culpable in the post-fight riot following Bowe's controversial July 11 match with Andrew Golota at Madison Square Garden.The commission barred Newman from appearing in any boxing event in the state involving Bowe during the period of suspension and also penalized Spencer Promotions -- the umbrella corporation established by Newman to promote Bowe's fights -- the sum of $200,000.

Should boxing be banned?Should we conclude, after yet another ring death, Jimmy Garcia's, that it's time to halt this stuff?At the fights at Martin's West Tuesday night, some of us were kicking those questions around.The seminars were spurred by Alan Goldstein's excellent reporting on the subject, which led The Sun's sports section last Sunday under the six-column headline: Boxing Again Finds Itself Under Cloud."Boxing's not under any cloud," scoffed Al Flora, who promoted fights here in the '60s and is now a member of the State Athletic Commission, which oversees boxing.