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Very twisted' relationships cited for draw
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A web of "very twisted" boxing relationships helped account for the disputed draw in the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis bout, New York's attorney general said Tuesday.Eliot Spitzer pointed to what he said were questionable alliances involving boxing's sanctioning bodies, the fighters, promoters and judges.
The attorney general will hold a hearing Friday in New York, one of three state investigations stemming from Saturday night's heavyweight title bout at Madison Square Garden in which Lewis was widely believed to have won.
Spitzer's hearing will focus on ways states or the federal government can "redefine" the roles of the principal players in professional boxing.
Boxing's chief governing bodies -- the WBC, WBA and IBF -- select judges for major title bouts and pay their expenses and fees.
When a judge selected by a governing body backs that group's champion -- as the IBF judge did in the Holyfield-Lewis fight -- the fairness of the scoring is called into question, Spitzer said.
"The way in which judges are picked certainly breeds the lack of confidence that the public has," Spitzer said. "The entire world of judging these days is insufficiently regulated and the aura of incompetence and perhaps worse, corruption, that permeates the industry flows from this."
Spitzer also wants to look at how governing bodies determine rankings and who gets title shots. Fighters appear to "move up and down based upon, apparently, their relationships with promoters," the attorney general said.
In the Holyfield-Lewis bout, judge Eugenia Williams of New Jersey, selected by the IBF, declared Holyfield the winner. The IBF and the WBA recognize Holyfield as champion; Lewis is the WBC champ.
The WBC judge, Larry O'Connell of England, said Tuesday he was surprised when he tallied his scorecard and found it was a draw. But he said he made no mistake in judging the fight.
"It was a lot closer than it might have appeared," he said.
The WBA judge, Stanley Christodoulou of South Africa, had Lewis the winner.
WBC president Jose Sulaiman said Tuesday that Lewis was "robbed" of the unified heavyweight crown.
Sulaiman said the WBC had objected to Williams as a judge because of her inexperience in championship bouts. He also questioned if she would favor Holyfield, an American, in a fight with an Englishman.
Spitzer is chairman of a boxing task force within the National Association of Attorneys General. The task force has been working with U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona on boxing reform.
New York Gov. George Pataki has ordered the state Athletic Commission to examine how fights can be assured of impartial judging.
"I certainly believe there should be some federal changes to prevent a repeat of that incident," he said.
The state Senate Committee on Investigations said it would hold a hearing on the bout on Thursday in New York.
Among the witnesses scheduled to attend the Senate hearing are Williams, referee Arthur Mercante Jr. and promoters Don King and Dino Duva. Lewis may participate in person or by conference call. Sulaiman will speak by phone from Mexico City.