For several decades now, this page has been calling on Congress to set up a national commission to regulate professional boxing.
We have done so because of prize fighting's long association with crime, corruption, and scandal. Actually, boxing ought to be outlawed as the only sport whose main objective is to hit one's opponent and otherwise inflict as much suffering and insensibility as possible. It brutalizes participants and spectators alike, tending to legitimize violence. But public apathy is so great that a national boxing commission is the next best alternative to outlawing the sport.So it's encouraging to see that a Senate Government Affairs subcommittee is holding hearings this week on legislation to clean up the troubled sport by creating a national boxing commission.
Currently, boxing is regulated only on the state level by officials who do an inadequate job. In several states, there is no regulation at all.
As a result, boxers who have been knocked out repeatedly can avoid rules that forbid them from fighting again for a certain time simply by going to another state. In one case, a boxer who was legally blind in one eye was still able to get fights in 1990 by going to Wisconsin, one of the states without a boxing commission.
The present system also permits conflicts of interest to the detriment of the boxers. For example, a promoter also is allowed to serve as a manager. Yet a manager is supposed to protect a boxer's interests while a promoter is responsible for financing a bout and seeks to pay boxers as little as possible to maximize his own profits.
Moreover, there are now four different sanctioning bodies, each ranking fighters in 17 different weight classifications. So there is a potential for having 68 different "world champions."
What a travesty! Wisely, the proposed legislation would have the proposed national boxing commission:
- Set up a computerized federal register that would include all fighters' rankings, medical histories, won-loss records and other pertinent information.
- Set national safety and medical standards for boxers, including full physical and neurological examinations before they fight.
- Require federal certification of managers, promoters and trainers and annual licensing for boxers, referees and judges.
- Outlaw conflicts of interest and encourage the boxing community to set up a health-care plan and pensions for boxers. Unlike other professional athletes, boxers have no union and no sportwide insurance or pension plan.
Congress should enact this legislation without further delay. It has been considering boxing reforms since 1961. Meanwhile, the brutality and scandal associated with the ring go on and on.