LIFE ENDS BADLY MORE OFTEN THAN NOT
San Francisco, CA– Not wanting to start a pissing contest of sorts with a media icon, I’ll try and do this in a manner that leaves my adversary on the issue of “Fighters are fighters, they are what they are,” to remain unidentified. Oh, and from the get go this is going to rankle my Libertarian & Republican readers because I want boxing regulated by the Federal Government.
VALERO CASE SHOWS FATAL SIDE OF STATE COMMISSIONS
The current “state by state” system of regulation means Texas licensed WBC lightweight (135 lbs) champion turned violent murderer Edwin Valero, this after a brain injury from a helmet-less motorcycle accident of a decade ago. A few years later the state of New York had Valero take (and fail) an MRI. Nevada wouldn’t give him a green light, only Texas. Valero murdered his wife and then took his own life after displaying behavior so bizarre that Venezuelan officials ordered a six month (six days in Venezuela) stint in a mental hospital. The case of Edwin Valero cries out for a Federal Boxing Commission.
GETTING BACK ON TRACK HERE
Going back to my original topic, fighters, they may be fighters, but they are first human beings, so when this media icon says, “Fighters are fighters, let them fight,” I just cringe. When you add the fact that 79% of Showtime’s text-ers wants to see a fifth fight between Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez, this in a poll before referee Raul Caiz Jr. stopped the slaughter after an already busted up Vazquez was dropped in round three.
YOU (FANS) DON’T SEE THE RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF WARS
The overwhelming majority of those polled by Showtime don’t have a boxing background per se, and I can understand their wanting to see great fights. But have you ever thought about what life is like for a lot of professional boxers after their zenith has come and gone. Look today at Meldrick Taylor, a 1984 Olympic Gold Medal winner at 19 years old, and watch him walk around on his heels, or listen to him talk like a guy doing a bad animated imitation of “The Kid” from Philadelphia, PA.
“THE KID” NOT IMPACTED AS BAD AS OTHERS
This is not an attempt to point out one fighter, Taylor just happens to be a recent poster child of how state regulators have failed miserably. unable to get a license in jurisdictions like Nevada, California or New York, Taylor now 45, took his act to states that would allow him to fight. In all, Meldrick answered the bell for 329 rounds in a career that spanned from 1984 until 2002.
FIRST CHAVEZ FIGHT EXTRACTED MUCH FLESH
The highlight of his boxing career might have been in losing in the waning seconds of a 1990 fight to Julio Cesar Chavez. One can make a case that after the 1992 Halloween day (October 31) TKO 8 massacre by Crisanto Espana, which was preceded by a TKO 4 loss to Terry Norris some five months prior to the bewitching hour with Espana.
SHELL OF TAYLOR FACES CHAVEZ AGAIN
Two years later, Julio Cesar Chavez devours Meldrick sans salsa inside of eight frames in what was Mel’s last fight in Las Vegas. Now obviously impaired from the sport of boxing, Meldrick took his act to his home state of Pennsylvania for one fight and a loss before Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Washington DC, Mexico, Denmark, all before his last fight in (loss UD 10) July 2002 to Wayne Martell in that boxing hotbed Minnesota.
GOVERNMENT FAILED TO PROTECT TAYLOR FROM….
Himself, greedy promoters, unscrupulous managers, athletic commissions, Indian reservations, sanctioning bodies, anybody who played any part in his career after the second Chavez fight, it is these people that have Taylor’s blood (brains) on their hands. Some of this blame needs to fall on the shoulders of fans like the 79% of Showtime’s peeps that wanted to see Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez fight for a fifth time.
IN RARE INSTANCES, MORE GOVERNMENT IS GOOD
In closing, only a Federal Boxing Commission would help close the gaps that allow a fighter like Taylor to throw himself into meat grinder after meat grinder. This is not a political thing, more like a common sense thing as government needs to step in and regulate boxing for sure, as well as any off shore drilling for oil, the banking industry, our food and water supply, to name just a few instances where more government is better than less.
CAN’T LET INDUSTRY POLICE ITSELF!
To not go in this direction will instead allow companies like British Petroleum to police themselves, and as we can see with the estimated 2 million gallons of oil that is currently being washed around the Gulf, that “no regulation” s*it ain’t working!
Pedro Fernandez