This week we take a look at the suspension of Golden Boy Promotions, the legislation that brought it to pass and the attention it received in the mediia! Check out Joe Roche’s thoughts on the subject in the latest edition of 411’s The Way I See It!
The Way I See New York: Now this is rare. I’m actually going to say that both parties in the Golden Boy ? NYSAC exchange should be commended for the way the entire situation was handled.
On the one hand the NYSAC was completely within their rights under the “Muhammad Ali” rule to suspend Golden Boy for 90 days. But in a rare turn of events, and unlike that guy who fights under the Top Rank banner, Golden Boy (after a day, admittedly) essentially came out in support of the NYSAC’s suspension and admitted that it was their fault that the suspension came down.
To provide a little prospective ? Golden Boy Promotions was suspending for violating Public Law 106-210 or what has commonly been come to be known as the “Muhammad Ali boxing Reform Act” [hereinafter the “Act”]. The Act was drafted by Rep. Michael Oxley and it was signed into law by President Clinton. The purpose of the Act was essentially to reform unfair and anticompetitive practices in the boxing industry ? which since it was signed in 2000 it obviously did not accomplish.
The Act was designed (in part) to deal with the lack of information that was provided to state commissions. The Act itself is interesting in what it lists as it’s findings, it’s so interesting in fact that I thought I might re-create it here because while these findings were made (and passed into law) in 2000, many of them continue to this day.
“The Congress makes the following findings:
1) Professional boxing differs from other major, interstate professional sports industries in the United States in that it operates without any private sector association, league, or centralized industry organization to establish uniform and appropriate business practices and ethical standards. This has led to repeated occurrences of disreputable and coercive business practices in the boxing industry, to the detriment of professional boxers nationwide.
2) State officials are the proper regulators of professional boxing events, and must protect the welfare of professional boxers and serve the public interest by closely supervising boxing activity in their jurisdiction. State boxing commissions do not currently receive adequate information to determine whether boxers competing in their jurisdiction are being subjected to contract terms and business practices which may violate State regulations, or are onerous and confiscatory.
3) Promoters who engage in illegal, coercive, or unethical business practices can take advantage of the lack of equitable business standards in the sport by holding boxing events in States with weaker regulatory oversight.
4) The sanctioning organizations which have proliferated in the boxing industry have not established credible and objective criteria to rate professional boxers, and operate with virtually no industry or publicoversight. Their ratings are susceptible to manipulation, have deprived boxers of fair opportunities for advancement, and have undermined public confidence in the integrity of the sport.
5) Open competition in the professional boxing industry has been significantly interfered with by restrictive and anti-competitive business practices of certain promoters and sanctioning bodies, to the detriment of the athletes and the ticket-buying public. Common practices of promoters and sanctioning organizations represent restraints of interstate trade in the United States.
6) It is necessary and appropriate to establish national contracting reforms to protect professional boxers and prevent exploitive business practices, and to require enhanced financial disclosures to State athletic commissions to improve the public oversight of the sport.”
That’s all well and good, and if I do say so myself it’s pretty damned interesting. But for Golden Boy Promotions the real problem came in Sec. 13 which is headlined “Required Disclosures for Promoters.”
“(a) DISCLOSURES TO THE BOXING COMISSIONS ? A promoter shall not be entitled to receive any compensation directly or indirectly in connection with a boxing match until it provides to the boxing commission responsible for regulating the match in a State a statement of ? (1) a copy of any agreement in writing to which the promoter is a party with any boxer participating in the match; (2) a statement made under penalty of perjury that there no other agreements, written or oral, between the promoter and the boxer with respect to that match; and (3)(A) all fees, charges, and expenses that will be assessed by or through the promoter on the boxer pertaining to the event, including any portion of the boxer’s purse that the promoter will receive, and training expenses; (3)(B) all payments, gifts, or benefits the promoter is providing to any sanctioning organization affiliated with the event; and (3)(C) any reduction in a boxer’s purse contrary to a previous agreement between the promoter and the boxer or a purse bid held for the event.”
“(b) DISCLOCUSRES TO THE BOXER ? A promoter shall not be entitled to receive any compensation directly or indirectly in connection with a boxing match until it provides to the boxer it promoters ? (1) the amounts of any compensation or consideration that a promoter has contracted to receive from such match; (2) all fees, charges, and expenses that will be assessed by or through the promoter on the boxer pertaining to the event, including any portion of the boxer’s purse and the promoter will receive, and training expenses; and (3) any reduction in a boxer’s purse contrary to a previous agreement between the promoter and the boxer or a purse bid held for the event.”
“(c) INFORMATION TO BE AVAILABLE TO STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ? A promoter shall make information required to be disclosed under this section available to the chief law enforcement officer of the State in which the match is to be held upon request of such officer.”
Ok so there’s your Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act in a nutshell. There is plenty more to the Act and if you’re a boxing fan you might want to take a moment to check out the full text. However, for the purpose of this column you now have enough information to formulate an opinion. Golden Boy in their press release made the following statement:
1. THE NYSAC’S SUSPENSION NOTICE DOES NOT ALLEGE OR SUGGEST ANY FINANCIAL MISCONDUCT ON THE PART OF GOLDEN BOY.
2. THE NYSAC’S SUSPENSION NOTICE DOES NOT ALLEGE OR SUGGEST THAT THE SUSPENSION IN ANY WAY RELATES TO THE LICENSE FEES PAID BY HBO FOR THE TWO TELEVISED BOUTS ON MAY 15, 2010. IN FACT, GOLDEN BOY DISCLOSED ITS CONTRACTS WITH HBO AND DIBELLA ENTERTAINMENT TO THE COMMISSION ON MAY 19, 2010 – JUST 4 DAYS AFTER THE MAY 15 EVENT.
3. DIBELLA ENTERTAINMENT HAS ALREADY INVESTIGATED THE LICENSE FEE “ISSUE,” AND INFORMED GOLDEN BOY AND COUNSEL FOR MR. MALINAGGI THAT IT DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT THERE WERE ANY IRREGULARITIES.
4. NYSAC’S SUSPENSION NOTICE DOES NOT ALLEGE OR SUGGEST THAT GOLDEN BOY FAILED TO PROVIDE REQUIRED ALI ACT DISCLOSURES TO FIGHTERS ON THE MAY 15, 2010 CARD. TO THE CONTRARY, ALL SUCH DISCLOSURES WERE PROVIDED.
5. THE NYSAC SUSPENDED GOLDEN BOY WITHOUT FIRST GRANTING IT A HEARING OR A WARNING. HOWEVER, THE NYSAC WAS NOT IN ANY WAY OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE SUCH A HEARING OR WARNING
Before we even see what admissions Golden Boy did make, after reading the Act I think it’s clear what happened ? The promote (in this case Golden Boy) failed to make the required disclosures under the Reform Act to the Commission and as a result they were hit with a fine. Paragraph 3 leads me to believe that DiBella was given the appropriate disclosures for Malignaggi, which means that the only provision that could’ve been violated was that Golden Boy is required under the Act to make certain disclosures to the State Commission and those were not adhered to. Golden Boy’s admissions were as follows:
1. Following the May 15, 2010 event, a Golden Boy employee apparently mistakenly informed the NYSAC that Golden Boy did not have any written agreements with the fighters other than the bout agreements for the bouts that took place on May 15. In fact, Golden Boy had written agreements with some of the fighters on the May 15 card. This was an innocent error made by someone who should not have made the representation without taking steps to ensure its accuracy.
2. On May 19, 2010, the NYSAC requested both the HBO and DiBella Agreements, as well as any written agreements between Golden Boy and the fighters on the May 15 card. As noted, Golden Boy immediately produced the HBO and DiBella Agreements. The GBP employee normally in charge of dealing with Commission matters, left for his honeymoon immediately following the May 15 event and was unable to be contacted, however, the person responding to the request erroneously questioned the NYSAC’s authority to request copies of Golden Boy’s promotional contracts, asked for the basis for the requests, and did not send those contracts. This was clear error on the part of the Golden Boy, as under all circumstances, the contracts should have been sent to the ABC.
3. Unfortunately, and despite other requests by the Commission, Golden Boy’s response was inexcusably delayed.
4. On July 1, 2010, Golden Boy contacted the Commission by sending it an email which stated that the contracts did not have to be disclosed to the NYSAC because they would not be held confidential. According to counsel for the Commission, this conclusion as to the confidentiality of the requested disclosures issue was erroneous. In any event, Golden Boy erred in not immediately sending the contracts to the ABC at this point in time.
5. On July 6, 2010, the NYSAC, as it had the absolute right to do under its Rules, suspended Golden Boy without a hearing. At that point, Golden Boy immediately sent the requested contracts to the ABC. Today, upon the representation of counsel for the Commission that the requested contracts were not subject to public disclosure, Golden Boy sent all of the requested contracts to the NYSAC.
There are a few thoughts that I’m left with though ? not the least of which is why someone at Golden Boy going on his honeymoon can result in such a massive problem? Honestly shouldn’t the guy behind the guy have as much (or in the case of most jobs) more information then the guy in charge? How is it possible that you’re so unprepared to take over for your boss that you’re capable of getting your company suspended for 90 days because of your incompetence?
The other thought I’m left with is that I’m impressed with how well Golden Boy handled that situation. Honestly, had Top Rank and Bob Arum dealt with the Margarito issue as well as Golden Boy handled this particular hiccup we’d probably be using this space to talk about Margarito ? Pacquiao instead of an email exchange with the NYSAC that resulted in a 30 day suspension for an entire promotional company.
I do find it fun that Golden Boy made it a point to highlight that they were not given a chance to have a hearing on the matter ? even though they also admit that no hearing was required. I mean what kind of circular logic is that, of course you weren’t given a hearing, nobody is given a hearing ? but by slipping that statement in there it makes you, the common rube, think that Golden Boy could’ve defended themselves successfully had they been given the chance. In this day and age of Judge Judy and crime shows galore (that might have been a different day and age) we the people love giving someone a day in court. Golden Boy didn’t get that, and even though I know the truth doesn’t it make the whole situation seem less inflammatory when you read their press release?
At the end of the day does any of this mean anything? Likely no. Just like when Chris Arreola was suspended from fighting for a title that he wouldn’t be fighting for anyway, this suspension will come and go without anyone needing to rearrange their schedule. Golden Boy does not promote many New York fighters and none of them are looking for something to do over the next three months anyway ? no harm, no foul.
But during a week when the Nevada State Athletic Commission rejected Antonio Margarito’s license appeal because California had yet to reinstate Margacheato this New York decision seems like a trend of State Commissions becoming stronger, and maybe [gasp] actually doing something to regulate and improve boxing. Hey ten years late, but at I guess it’s better to be late to the party then not show up at all right?
