In a sport where poor men risk their health for money and fame, the more genteel brand of pugilism now helps gyms from London to Los Angeles pay rent, utilities and insurance. New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a former Army light heavyweight boxing champion in Korea, said some gyms couldn’t survive without white-collar business.
“White collar boxing, while it’s well-intentioned, it’s fun, and it appears to be very safe because of the way it’s monitored, apparently there’s recognition you have to have some rules because it’s growing in popularity, and it could be an accident waiting to happen,” Bruno said.
The state athletic commission received a complaint in November about a white-collar show in Huntington. Chairman Ron Scott Stevens said the show wasn’t properly sanctioned, and the boxing was stopped.
State law allows professional boxing licensed by the commission, with exceptions for military and scholastic boxing programs, as well as amateur boxing and martial arts regulated by sanctioning organizations that the commission knows adhere to safety and health standards, Stevens said.
“White collar boxing falls outside of that at the present time,” he said.
“We don’t want to see anybody seriously hurt. We want to make sure that these events are surrounded by competent people,” Stevens said. “At the present time they’re not really dead in the water. They do have the ability to get their events sanctioned by USA Boxing.”
White-collar boxers say the problem with bouts sanctioned by the amateur group is that competition heats up considerably.
“I don’t really want to hit anybody or get hit hard myself,” said 48-year-old Philip Maier, who has had about 70 white-collar bouts in nine years. “A lot of people come for the sport. They’re not looking to beat each other up.”
An administrative law judge for the state Public Employment Relations Board, Maier said he hasn’t seen anybody get hurt, though in 2001 he knocked out a visitor from Texas, who was fighting dirty and trying hard to hurt him.
“In Missouri, we had a group in St. Louis that promoted ’Hoosier Weight’ titles, which was very similar,” said Tim Luckenhoff, a Missouri regulator and president of the national Association of Boxing Commissions. “We advised them that in our mind it was amateur boxing, and they decided to get licensed through the local Golden Gloves.”
Philadelphia’s Blue Horizon hosted one white-collar show last fall before the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission said it was illegal, said commission executive director Greg Sirb.
In Gleason’s first white-collar show, an insurance executive with a Ph.D. in English boxed a veterinarian who was also an attorney. Both had some ring experience. They went five rounds.
“I beat the crap out of the guy. It was delightful,” said David Lawrence, the insurance man. After several more fights, Lawrence turned pro at age 44 and ran up a 3-2 record, all KOs. Now a 58-year-old trainer, he said white-collar bouts are more of an exhibition.
“When there’s no winner or loser, people still try to hurt each other,” Lawrence said, “but not to the same degree.”
Silverglade said after two years with judging, he eliminated it to make bouts easier to control and to better protect participants and their pride. Now everybody gets a trophy — though some still get bruised.
“You get punched in the mouth,” said Bridges, the mother of four. “I’ve gone to like parent-teacher things with a mouse on my face. Swelling bruises on knuckles and things. That’s not normal, epsecially in Greenwich.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM BOXING |
 Britain's Haye beats Valuev for heavyweight title |
| Add Boxing headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links