ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS

By Michael Swann

DOUBLE REVERSE

It was announced early this week that the recent Hasim Rahman-James Toney heavyweight fight has been declared a no decision by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC). Toney had been announced as the TKO winner after an accidental head butt in round three after considerable delay and discussion at the commission table.

This was after referee Ray Corona had been heard telling the ringside announcers that it was a no decision after stopping the fight on the advice of ringside physician Paul Wallace, and then changing his decision after a confab with a commission official. So the announcement comes as no surprise here, aside from the extra super fast resolution of the appeal process.

Armando Garcia, the Executive Director of the CSAC, somehow came out of this embarrassment smelling like a rose.

Bob Arum, the CEO of Top Rank, Rahman’s promoter, called it a “true and just result,” and praised Garcia for “having the courage to reverse a decision made the night of the fight.”

Rahman said, “…I am gratified. It is the right thing to do and I appreciate Mr. Garcia’s efforts.”

Dan Goossen, Toney’s promoter, was gracious about the reversal and told us that:

"As I said immediately after the fight, it wasn't the way we wanted to get a victory. James came in prepared, his lowest weight in the last five years, and it appeared that he was on his way to a KO victory and was deprived of this result. However, Hasim Rahman complained about not being able to see, and whether or not that was the case, the commission has rules that don't interpret if a fighter is actually trying to get out of a fight. The commission ultimately made the right decision, although most people believed, including me, James was on his way to a knockout victory."

The opinion here is that the right decision had finally been made, albeit the hard way after reversing the original decision made by Corona in the ring.

The part that concerns me is that the Rule 368 that Garcia cites in “his” decision to reverse the call states in part that a decision rendered at the termination of a boxing contest is final and shall not be changed unless “the commission determines” that one of a list of items had occurred.

For the record, Garcia uses item 3: “There was a violation of the laws and regulations governing boxing which affected the result of any contest.”

Garcia says this rule supports his decision; I call it a stretch. That is, unless he is referencing his interference as the violation.

In any event, I interpret this rule to say that neither Garcia nor any individual member would have had the authority to reverse the decision without a vote from a majority of the full commission. Normally in such cases the public would be able to witness such a hearing at a commission meeting and be able to judge the written and verbal testimony given.

All concerned parties were required to submit a written report.

Something tells me that they wanted to put this one behind them as quickly as possible.

Further, if you read between the lines of Garcia’s written official decision, there are references that appear to point the blame in the direction of Dr. Wallace and referee Corona, a smokescreen in my opinion.

If anything, it seems as if Corona was coerced into changing his correct decision to one that was thrust upon him after Garcia held discussions with Craig Goossen, Dan’s son, Chief Inspector Dean Lohuis and Dr. Wallace.

And so the politics of California boxing continues on, and you can be certain that this is not the end of it from behind the scenes. The same intimidation that changed a correct call into another Cali-controversy now has a gag order out on this one.

Hopefully there will be none of the covert retaliatory actions that have previously taken place in the state under the Garcia regime.

NOTES:

* No one, but no one is buying the story that Joe Calzaghe’s alleged right wrist injury is the real reason that his scheduled September 20th HBO PPV fight with Roy Jones Jr. at Madison Square Garden was cancelled. The fight has been rescheduled for November 8, still in the Garden.

A source said that the actual cause of the date change is that there is pending legal action by promoter Frank Warren against Calzaghe, adding that HBO has an unwritten policy about broadcasting fights with pending litigation.

While this might well be true, I’m told that it was far more likely that the promotion simply needed more time to get off the ground. A press tour was already scheduled and there just wasn’t enough time to pull it all together by September 20.

Calzaghe and Jones are co-promoting the fight. This would be the first major fight promoted by John Wirt, CEO of Square Ring, Jones’ promotional company. As for Calzaghe, sources say that Golden Boy is “helping out” rather covertly.

*According to Jim Wilkes, Jeff Lacy’s attorney and adviser, the Lacy-Jermain Taylor fight is back on for November 15. So it appears that Jeff’s “retirement” lasted about four days.

All it took was some more cash as a show of love and Lacy was quoted as saying, “The fight’s back on. I’m happy.”

Lacy had previously been offered $550,000, which he dismissed as “opponent’s money.” Judging from recent performances such as last week’s razor thin majority decision over Epifanio Mendoza, he may well become an “opponent” by the time Taylor is finished with him.

My only question is whether he was overrated all along or did Calzaghe ruin him?

*The British press is reporting the retirement of Billy Graham, Ricky Hatton’s long time trainer. Based on months of rumors dating back to the Mayweather fight, and the fact that brother Mathew had already dumped Graham, the first thing that came to my mind was -- did he jump or was he pushed?

Graham has since been quoted as saying, “My retirement was brought forward because I was sacked from my role. I had said that I would leave with Ricky and wouldn’t carry on in the sport after he had retired.”

As always, boxing is a business.