Knocking Out Corruption in Boxing

▪ 2001

      Boxing was called the sporting world's “red light district” for a good reason—it had been a haven for corruption since the bare-knuckle days when bouts were fought in saloons, on barges, and in remote fields, far from the prying eye of the authorities. Although professional boxing had been legal throughout most of the world for 100 years, corruption continued to be one of the sport's biggest problems. Instead of the fixed fights of bygone eras, however, most modern scandals involved rigged rankings of boxers by the various ratings organizations and unscrupulous business practices on the part of governing bodies, promoters, and managers. There were two significant initiatives during 2000 intended to rid professional boxing in the U.S. of corruption—one judicial, the other legislative—but there was still uncertainty about whether these measures could salvage the sport's shaky reputation.

      On April 11 Robert W. Lee, Sr., the founder and former president of the International Boxing Federation (IBF), and his son, Robert W. Lee, Jr., went on trial in federal court in Newark, N.J., accused of taking $338,000 in bribes to manipulate the organization's rankings. During the highly publicized trial, prominent boxing promoters Bob Arum, Cedric Kushner, and Dino Duva testified that they had paid thousands of dollars to IBF functionaries to obtain favourable rankings for the boxers they promoted. The government's star witness was Colin Douglas Beavers, the former IBF ratings chairman, who had been secretly helping the FBI since May 1997 and had made dozens of audio recordings of his conversations with Lee, Sr. On August 17 the jury acquitted Lee, Sr., of all the major bribery and racketeering charges but convicted him on counts of money laundering, tax evasion, and interstate travel to aid racketeering. His son was acquitted of all charges.

      In the aftermath of the trial, Arum was fined $125,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and put on six months of probation for “conduct detrimental to unarmed combat.” Kushner was also fined $100,000 by the New York State Athletic Commission.

      On the legislative side, the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was signed into law by Pres. Bill Clinton on May 26. The long-awaited legislation placed a one-year limit on the length of a boxer's contract with a promoter and banned the coercion of rights from top-ranked mandatory challengers. It also prohibited financial relationships between promoters and managers, barred managers or promoters from making improper payments to ratings organizations, and required ratings organizations both to disclose all charges they imposed on boxers and to publicly explain the reasons for their often-controversial ratings decisions. Promoters were required to disclose their contracts with boxers to state athletic commissions and to inform commissions of any charges or fees they were taking out of a boxer's earnings. Under the act, which was to be enforced by those commissions, state attorneys general could initiate civil actions and injunctions, while boxers could bring private actions.

Nigel Collins

* * *