AG to look into King's relationship

 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York's attorney general plans to focus his inquiry into last weekend's disputed Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis fight on how boxing's sanctioning bodies govern the sport.
 The relationship between the sanctioning bodies and fight promoters like Don King is "highly problematic," as is the way the three chief governing bodies choose judges for major fights, Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday.
 Spitzer's criticism came as the Manhattan district attorney's office said it is now investigating possible illegalities in how the fight was judged. It is the fourth such inquiry into Saturday night's fight.
 Spitzer said his public hearing Friday in New York City on the controversial draw in the Holyfield-Lewis fight will seek to find ways states or the federal government can "redefine" the roles of the principal players in the sport.
 Gov. George Pataki said it was time for the federal government to step into the ring.
 The IBF, WBC and WBA raise conflicts of interest questions by selecting judges for major title bouts and paying their expenses and their fees for being at ringside, Spitzer said.
 When a judge selected by a governing body backs that body's champion despite evidence that his opponent did better during the bout -- as the IBF-selected judge is under fire for doing in the Holyfield-Lewis fight -- that calls into question the impartiality of the judging and the integrity of the sport, 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 said he also wants to look at how governing bodies determine their rankings and who gets title shots and who doesn't. To outsiders, fighters appear to "move up and down based upon, apparently, their relationships with promoters," the attorney general said.
 "It is very troublesome to say the least and would suggest the ranking system is less than pure," Spitzer said.
 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.
 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.
 Referee Arthur Mercante Jr., who did not have a vote, said he felt Lewis was the clear winner.
 "He took the fight to Evander," Mercante told The New York Times. "If I were scoring, I'd have given Holyfield three rounds.
 "Evander, he really wasn't focused and into the fight. His mind looked like it was somewhere else."
 WBC president Jose Sulaiman said Tuesday that Lewis was "robbed" of the unified heavyweight crown.
 Sulaiman said the WBC 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.
 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 Thursday in New York.
 Among the witnesses scheduled to attend the Senate hearing are Williams, referee Arthur Mercante Jr.,King and fellow promoter Dino Duva. Lewis might participate in person or by conference call. Sulaiman will speak by phone from Mexico City.