State commission rules no amateur boxing events can take place
before meeting with suspended USA Boxing
HOLLISTER
Amateur boxing in the state of California came to a halt last week.
The California State Athletic Commission suspended the regulatory body that oversees the sport, USA Boxing, pending a meeting April 13-14 in Los Angeles.
CSAC officials are investigating allegations that USA Boxing allowed rules to be skirted at private amateur shows known as “smokers,” which pit fighters as young as eight-years-old against each other as crowds bet money, drink alcohol and ogle ring girls who occasionally go topless. Fighters’ parents often times are strictly prohibited from attending such events.
“The Commission is concerned that the safety and fairness standards set forth and overseen by the national office of USA Boxing are inadequate to properly protect the health and safety of amateur fighters in California,” said Bill Douglas, CSAC assistant executive officer, in a statement last Monday, March 23.
All upcoming amateur boxing events in the state scheduled to take place before the hearing must be cancelled or postponed, according to Luis Farias, communications director for the Department of Consumer Affairs.
It’s possible that USA Boxing, the organization that oversees all amateur boxing throughout the country, could have its authority to regulate amateur boxing in California revoked, which would then force the CSAC to take over the licensing of all fighters, handle the registration of local boxing clubs, monitor shows for proper compliance with the rules and have oversight of those who do the monitoring.
Such an increase in responsibility seems hard to imagine to some in the boxing community.
“I do wonder and worry, ‘Does the commission have the manpower to regulate the amateur scene?'” said Arturo Gastelum, co-founder of the Frisco Boxing Club in San Francisco. “The amateur scene in California is the biggest of any state in America.”
USA Boxing and San Francisco’s Olympic Club both have come under fire recently after an ABC7 News investigation found that the prestigious athletic club was hosting smokers.
“That club, they’re out for the money,” said Zeke Lopez, owner of Bull Dog Boxing Gym in Hollister. Lopez added that he’s never taken his fighters to the Olympic Club.
“They do things on the weekdays – we’re taking the kids out of school,” Lopez said. “We’re not gonna show up to places like that.”
Ruben Guerrero Jr., the brother of former IBF featherweight champ Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and a co-founder of Silver and Black Boxing Club in Gilroy, said he fought at the Olympic Club five times as an amateur and didn’t pay attention to what was going on around him.
“We were just worried about the fight. We were worried about just trying to win,” Ruben Guerrero Jr. said. “I wasn’t worried about all that other stuff.”
He added that when his father, Ruben Sr., took over the direction of his and his brothers’ amateur careers the family stopped competing in such shows.
Jerry Rodriguez, founder of Left2Right Boxing Club of San Martin, formerly of Gilroy, said he most recently took a fighter to a smoker last year, where spectators brushed aside many of the rules against drinking and gambling at amateur events.
“The gambling takes place at the tables,” Rodriguez said. “You walk in, your fighter is walking in, you can see all the money sitting on the table. There would be hundreds of dollars on tables.”
Fans at this particular event would then raise red or blue napkins to signify which fighter they were betting on.
Rodriguez said he doesn’t enjoy such private shows because parents can’t attend, and he is leery of taking any of his fighters to similar events in the future.
“But private shows are not a new thing,” he added. “I’ve been to private shows since I was 15-years-old.”
Gastelum, calling himself a “boxing historian,” wholeheartedly agreed.
“[Private shows] are not new at all,” he said. “Try 150 years. How about that?”
Gastelum added that amateur boxing shows often need more than just fights to draw crowds, and he believes amateur fighters, USA Boxing officials and anyone involved in putting on public or private amateur boxing shows should be paid for their work. Doing so, Gastelum said, could limit the kind of corruption USA Boxing is currently being accused of.
“I’m no defender of USA Boxing, but at the same time I don’t like throwing stones without having solutions,” he said. “It’s hard to run a business that’s built on charity.”
Along with USA Boxing’s indeterminate future, so too are future amateur events such as the California qualifiers for the Junior Olympics, where Hollister’s Jorge Hernandez was scheduled to compete.
Meanwhile, Hollister boxer Tony Corrales was slated to fight in an upcoming U.S. men’s open tournament, which would have put the local fighter in contention for the U.S. team.
“I don’t think all of California should be reprimanded,” Lopez said. “They shouldn’t go after the people that were playing by the rules.”
The CSAC said in its statement that no plan is in place at this time, but it will “work closely with the United States Olympic Committee to ensure that California’s amateur boxers will be able to participate in qualifying tournaments for the Olympic Games.”
Randy Guerrero, 16, the youngest brother of Gilroy’s most notable boxing family and a fighter in Silver and Black’s stable of amateurs, has hopes of competing in the event on his way to making a run at the 2012 Olympics.
Gastelum, who said he has known the Guerreros for many years, thinks the instability caused by USA Boxing’s suspension and the possible stripping of its regulatory rights could hurt the chances of Californians succeeding in the tournament.
“Even if it doesn’t happen, it’s gonna be bad because most of these kids won’t train for it,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of these kids are disillusioned because they’ll say, ‘Why should I bust my butt?’
“Training for a fight that might happen is not the same.”
Lopez and the fighters at Bull Dog, however, will continue to train and prepare; basically, all they can do at this point.
“They’re down and out, but like I told them, we’ve got to keep training,” Lopez said. “We’re still training, still doing our thing, still preparing for things to come. It’s not gonna put us out.”
Ruben Guerrero Jr. said his brother Randy will continue to train in the assumption that the Junior Olympic qualifiers will take place in May.
“We’re still going to go ahead and go about our business,” he said. “They can’t hold amateur boxing down forever.”
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Free Lance sports editor Andrew Matheson contributed to this report
