MMA Adversary Removed From NYS Payroll
Published by Charles Jay on August 2nd, 2008 in Operation Cleanup

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Commentary on MMA history….as it’s happening

MMA ADVERSARY REMOVED FROM NEW YORK STATE PAYROLL
Stevens’ ouster is good news for MMA interests
August 2, 2008

In a recent New York Post story discussing the firing of Ron-Scott Stevens, who had been the chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, it was speculated by George Willis, the writer of that piece, that Stevens’ attitude toward MMA, which has not yet been passed in New York but inevitably will be, was a factor in the decision by Governor David Patterson to replace with with Melvina Latham.

Stevens was quoted in Willis’ story as saying, “It’s not my role to say whether I like it or not. My role is, if it’s passed by the legislature, to regulate it properly.”

That’s a tough thing to do when the whole world knows you have a pre-disposition against it. It’s the kind of thing that would leave him open to constant attack, some of it justified, over decisions that may seem controversial or unfair against an MMA operator. And that might be the kind of thing that is expected out of someone who is part of the boxing culture, as a matchmaker for so many years as Stevens was.

People in the boxing business were happy with Stevens because under his leadership, there were more fights conducted in New York. As such, he was a guardian of the interests of promoters. From another perspective, however, the kind of perspective someone like me is most interested in, he was something of a disappointment.

What you must understand is that it is very rare for someone with any experience in the industry itself to be in a position where he would actually be a regulator. Stevens had a chance, with the advantage of this boxing background, to do some things to affect an improvement across the board in the way of efficiency on the part of state boxing commissions. And he could have, with considerable gravity, made some good points related to policy, among them the most pertinent of all – that the federal government, corrupt as it is, has no business whatsoever regulating the boxing business.

Yet on whatever occasion he was called upon to address committees in Washington, Stevens turned into what the late Morton Downey Jr. may have referred to as a “pablum puker,” extolling the virtues of the prospective omnipotence of government as lord and master of the sport, and advocating the appropriation of powers that it had over no other sporting industry in this country. In other words, he had evolved into just another politician. This kind of thinking has nothing fresh about it; it is, in fact, old, tired, stale and submissive to a certain authoritarianism.

But I’m not sure we should have been at all surprised; after all, Stevens was an authoritarian himself. He is the commissioner who once stepped way beyond his boundaries to suspend Evander Holyfield for medical reasons, making it reciprocal among all member commissions of the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) merely because he didn’t like the nature of his performance against a fringe heavyweight contender named Larry Donald. And just for the record, Donald went on to box a draw against Ray Austin in a title eliminator in his next fight, then lose a majority decision to then-unbeaten Nicolay Valuev in Germany, which means he probably won the fight. Meanwhile, Holyfield, who Stevens was not able to keep down permanently, won four straight fights before losing a title fight to Sultan Ibragimov, and one of his victories along the way was a knockout over Vinny Maddalone, who Stevens coddled several times during his reign by letting him fight against vastly inferior opposition that, if we are going to use current commission standards as a barometer, had much less business being in the ring than Holyfield ever did.

As for the quote from Marc Ratner (former Nevada State Athletic Commission director who is now the UFC’s chief ‘regulatory liaison’) that “He (Stevens) actually said, ‘It’s not a gentlemanly sport,” that sounds like a canard. Stevens trying to pass off mixed martial arts as too barbaric would be somewhat laughable, when I reflect on my lasting image of him – and something that should carry a certain amount of instruction for you as well.

After a trip to Washington, where he gave useless testimony before a House subcommittee, Stevens rushed back to New York for a show at the Madison Square Garden Theater on Match 3, 2005. During the intermission he actually received a plaque in the ring from promoter Sal Musameci, presumably for allowing Musameci to put “house fighters” in with creampuffs on a regular basis; then the crowd sat back and watched a near-tragic mismatch between one of the guys Musameci was pumping, Timor Ibragimov, and Ronald Bellamy, a fighter from North Carolina who had a virtually artificial 14-1-4 record. Bellamy was billed as being 41 years old, but he may have in fact been much older, considering that he is the brother of former NBA player Walt Bellamy, who was SIXTY-SIX at the time. The end result of this travesty was a knockout loss by Bellamy, followed by a trip out of the Garden on a gurney.

Should Stevens’ dislike for MMA have factored into his firing? Yes. MMA, which has demonstrated a better safety record than boxing thus far, should be legal, and when it indeed passes its final hurdle, promoters should be able to put on shows without being unfairly prejudiced, whether consciously or sub-consciously, by someone who might be protecting another sport – one which is perceived as a rival – at their expense.

Even if we give Stevens the benefit of the doubt about his feelings about MMA not being material to the politicians who engineered his ouster, they may have been very material to the disposition of his duties, because those feelings would have affected the way we would regulate it. As an operative in the boxing industry for many years, he may have made things more difficult for those he may turn to for future employment, i.e.,boxing promoters. That’s where he came from and that’s where he may well go back to.

Perhaps it should have happened sooner.