On paper, it was a solid consolation prize once Yuriorkis Gamboa decided the rattle the promotional cage and drop out of his potentially explosive bout with Brandon (Bam Bam) Rios for the interim WBA World Lightweight Title. In one corner there was Rios, an all-action boxer who had with a nice run of exciting, world level fights going into his scrapped bout with Gamboa. In the other corner, there was Richard Abril, a talented Cuban expatriate who had the stones and the foresight to crash a Rios-Gamboa press conference to call Rios out and did even get ?glassed? for his efforts afterward. The end result was an animated build up to what everyone expected to be a well-contested championship bout, perhaps one that did not require the $50,000 bonus promised to the winner by its promoter, Top Rank to help ensure the boxers came out at their best. Come fight weekend, however, the wheels did not just fall off of the Rios-Abril fight, the entire car blew up. First, just one day after it was reported that a $50,000 bonus would be given to the winner, Rios failed to make weight and had to forfeit percentages of his purse to both the Nevada State Athletic Commission and Abril to keep the fight alive. Then Abril appeared to win a lopsided decision only be robbed of the win in the latest judging disaster to rock professional boxing?s top echelon. What legal lessons can we learn from the debacle that was Rios-Abril? A quick look follows.
The Real Brandon Rios Should Have Stood Up
Rios had already been stripped of the WBA World Lightweight Title when he failed to make weight for his bout with John Murray just four months before the Abril bout. Why then would he have endeavored to make the lightweight limit again for his fight with Gamboa/ Abril? While the easy answer is money and a potential fight-of-the-year candidate with Gamboa, good faith is an implied term of nearly every written agreement, boxing or otherwise, and good faith dictates that Rios should have been honest both with himself and his promoter and let it be known that, Gamboa or not, his body was simply unable to make the lightweight limit any longer. Indeed, it is not as if having to fight at junior welterweight these days is a death sentence; it is one of the hottest divisions in the sport.
The Lara Doctrine Should be Adopted by Other Commissions
Following the awful decision in the July 9, 2011 bout between Paul Williams and Erislandy Lara, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board took the unusual step of indefinitely suspending the three judges who scored the fight. Comparisons between the decisions in Williams-Lara and Rios-Abril were quickly made around the boxing world following the shocking April 14, 2012 decision in the latter. Should the fall-out be similar? Perhaps the Nevada State Athletic Commission will decide that in the coming weeks. What is certain right now is that if it does adopt New Jersey?s unique brand of punishment, no one in the boxing world would complain too loudly.
Sometimes Incentives Are Not Enough
There are a lot of things some people would probably subject themselves to for an extra $50,000. Many might criticize Rios for not including the making of the lightweight limit as one of the things he would for such a bonus. However, the bout went on anyway so theoretically Rios made that $50,000 extra on top of his guaranteed purse for the Rios fight. But what if the bout had been cancelled? If it had, it probably would have had more to do with Rios being physically incapable of taking off the last few pounds and less about his desire or lack thereof to earn a little extra money in the event that he both made weight and then won the bout. The lesson here: While incentives are created to stimulate people into action, they are just not enough in some situations, especially where one may put themselves in more danger than good to make sure they are eligible for them.
The Positive: You Generate Buzz, You Generate Money
Abril took himself from relative obscurity into a high profile bout by aggressively marketing himself and what he could bring to a bout with Rios by showing up at Rios? press conference. He is the latest in a string of professional boxers, including former light heavyweight David Telesco, ex-heavyweight contender Jorge Luis Gonzalez, and David Haye who took their careers to the next level by persistently and publicly calling out their better known targets until they got their day in the ring with them. What can you learn from the aforementioned boxers and others like them? A little something extra can go a long way toward you being offered your dream bout contract. At least one positive lesson came out of Bam Bam?s fight with Abril being reduced to pebbles.
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Gridlock on Boxing?s Toll Road: Rios-Abril was not the only unfortunate development in professional boxing these past few weeks. In the matter of one week, upcoming boxing matches involving Gary Russell, Jr., George Groves, Fernando Guerrero, and Nathan Cleverly were all called off or postponed as the result of illness or injuries sustained by each of the aforementioned boxers. As first discussed in Standing 8 Court?s 2009 column ?Toll Road Back to Ghost Town?,? one would expect that each of these boxers has a provision in their management and/or promotional agreements which provides that the term of said agreements is suspended or interrupted during the period of time for which each of them in unable to compete. Now would be the time for each of their managers or promoters to provide written notice to them of an exercise of that provision. For more on the use of tolling provisions in boxing agreements, please see: http://www.8countnews.com/news/138/ARTICLE/1968/2009-10-05.html.
Shameless Plug: On May 17, 2012, the Chief Justice of Standing 8 Court will be moderating a public forum entitled ?Lin-tellectual Property? at the headquarters of the New York County Lawyers Association in downtown Manhattan. My panelists will be discussing the legal issues raised by the rapid ascent of the New York Knicks? point guard Jeremy Lin and what a sports law practitioner can learn from it for their everyday practice. If you are interested in attending, you can send me an e-mail at the address below.
