Overkill and Inefficiency? An Inside Look at the CSAC - Part II By Steve Kim (April 22, 2008) Send this page to friend Give us your feedback Last Tuesday in Los Angeles, a Promoters and Stakeholders Informational Meeting was held where promoters, managers, cornermen, and really anybody, could come and discuss issues that pertain to the business of boxing in the state of California. At this meeting, which was run by the executive officer of the California State Athletic Commission, Armando Garcia, the agenda dealt with such issues as the non-resident withholding tax for out-of-state fighters and the lingering problem of unlicensed MMA shows that are sprouting up all across the state. The majority of those in attendance seemed to be local MMA promoters and owners of MMA gyms. Only two boxing promoters were in attendance, Ed Holmes and Roy Englebrecht. As the floor was opened up by Garcia, Englebrecht, who is perhaps the states most prolific and respected club promoter, inquired about the, "staffing of the office," in Sacramento. Englebrecht, like many other promoters, had grown increasingly frustrated at the process in which paperwork - which green lights the fighters to appear on a show – is handled by the CSAC. He spoke of dialing up fax machines that had no transmissions and he wondered why each fighter's medical paperwork needed to be 20 pages long. Garcia would respond by telling the small audience that they had just, "hired another body in the office," and would be hiring an additional person soon. He also explained that in the process of moving, their fax machines were out of service. But Garcia would point out that, while they did admittedly, "kill a lot of trees," by law, every single one of those papers needed to be there for the weigh-ins and at the fights for the ringside physician and paramedic in case of an emergency. As a show is planned, each promoter must send in what is called a 'Who's, who,' which means on a six-fight card, 12 Fight Fax records of the boxers involved for approval, in addition to the battery of medical examinations that a fighter must be cleared on. Englebrecht wondered if there was a more streamlined process in which to do this in the computer age. As these papers are sent to Sacramento - and they must receive all the pages - if something is missing, 'Need' is put down. But what irks many of the promoters is that when this occurs, or when a red-flag is raised about a particular fighter, that original paperwork, which is usually turned in weeks ahead of time by most responsible promoters, is then returned in many instances so late that a suitable replacement for that fighter or bout cannot be found. The CSAC does not have an easy task. Under Garcia's reign, which began in the middle of 2006, the state of California has averaged around 180 shows (if you combine boxing and MMA), and if you do the math on what we just talked about above, that's a lot of paperwork to sift through. But a cadre of small promoters, managers and matchmakers involved in the sport has their horror stories of how they send Fed Ex'd documents that are signed off on, only to be told weeks later they never arrived. Or what a difficult process it is to transfer medical forms of one state to another. Then there are interminably long delays, overall, in getting out-of-state fighters licensed. It's clear that the office of the CSAC is understaffed and underfunded. But on the flip side, you go to any small club show in California and you'll see up to seven or eight inspectors working that event, which is highly unusual. It's almost universally accepted within the boxing community that for a club show, you need no more than half of that to patrol the locker rooms and enforce the rules of the commission. Our source within the Florida State Boxing Commission says that for a club show, "You can get away with four." And for a televised show, "Maybe five, six tops." Garcia makes no bones about the amount of inspectors California regularly employs. "Sometimes we have more than seven or eight," he admits, pointing out that the budget comes out of the support fund." So I staff events based on the number of fighters and so on and how much money I have to work with because I can't go over budget. It's not like they gave me extra money for inspectors. With that said, if you have, let's say, 10 fighters and you have five fights, it’s a very small show. So knowing you have 10 fighters, you have potentially up to four people in each corner. So let's say you have two people in each corner, not four; now you have 20, no, you have 30 people and this is a very small show. So now you have 30 people to oversee, that you are literally responsible for, in maybe three, four dressing rooms or more. "How do you properly supervise those people without people working that? When you also include the anti-doping process, you need people for that. I'm very conscious about our money and we're doing really, really well going into fiscal month ten. I staff the shows to protect health and safety and consumer integrity." California, unlike most jurisdictions, administers a drug test to every fighter on a show, which means inspectors are needed to track fighters before and after they perform. Most others merely drug test the main event, any championship bout and a random fighter on the undercard. Certainly, you want to protect the integrity of the sport and the health of its participants, but let's be honest, only at the highest and most lucrative levels have fighters tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in boxing. The reality is that most four and six round fighters simply can't afford HGH or steroids. And it's not as if steroid use at the lower level was ever rampant in boxing. A source tells Maxboxing that in the last 12 months that there have been 65 positive drug tests in California. 53 have come in MMA, ten in boxing and one in kickboxing. The majority of the positive drug tests for boxing have been for marijuana use. On each show, the promoter must give up 5-percent of their gate (for instance, at $50,000 they cough up $2,500) which goes to the 'State Fee', which funds the commission. This money is used for the staff, drug tests, travel costs, inspectors, office rent and health benefits of the commission. So in essence, it's the promoters who pay for all this. So with that being said, would Englebrecht rather have a few less inspectors at each show, and put that money towards having a bigger support staff? "There is no doubt that if I had my choice, more Sacramento office staff or more inspectors, I would vote unanimously to take money from inspectors and put more staff in Sacramento, so that promoters can get their concerns and their questions answered quicker," Englebrecht would tell Maxboxing. Jerry Hoffman, of 12 Sport Productions, who has promoted such events as the 'Shakedown in Quaketown' and the 'Riot at the Hyatt' for the past 15 years, says of the paperwork process, "It's such an overkill and I gotta go backwards here for a second, because the system wasn't broken until Armando arrived. Armando was hired on the basis of, 'There's something wrong with boxing in California and dammit, I'm going to fix it,' and in the process the Department of Consumer Affairs, who knows nothing about boxing says, 'I'm going to protect you.' So he is a supreme politician. His decisions are motivated to impress his employer, rather to do what's best for boxing, boxers, matchmakers, promoters, trainers and the people that are involved that bear the brunt of the expense and the hassles that we have to go through based on his arbitrary decisions." On the issue of inspectors, he says, "It's total overkill; we never had that many inspectors to begin with, plus we never know who these inspectors are that are coming. Of course it's overkill. When you have for five or six on a club show without television, why do you need more than one or maybe two inspectors for each dressing room?" And he also believes that not every single preliminary boxer should be obligated to give a urine test after each fight. "Boxing is by far and away the most regulated sport and there are fewer transgressions in our sport than any sport. Name one sport that's cleaner than boxing, with the possible exception of golf?" Hoffman is the one of the few promoters willing to go on the record and air his grievances against the CSAC. But he does speak on the behalf of many others who echo his thoughts, but only in private for fear of retribution. But Dan Goossen says that Garcia has brought a level of stability to the commission. "He put the system together from the standpoint of the rules and regulations of California, and part of the problem that fighters, promoters, managers, and commissions have is that our rule books has been outdated, and based upon that, some of the rules that have now been designed to follow have created this discontent with certain people," said the veteran promoter, who runs Goossen-Tutor. "From my end, Armando's been a fair executive director, certainly not one that I see has anything but the best interest of boxing at the forefront of any decision he makes. "Now, that doesn't make things easy for what Tom Brown (Goossen's matchmaker) has to go through to make matches and medicals and all the different licensing procedures. But on the other hand, again, those are items that have been ignored throughout the years and what we've got to do is get new rules into the system." But what bothers many of the smaller promoters is that while they get hassled on so many of their fights, they firmly believe that the name brand promotional outfits - the ones who bring big television money on a consistent basis - get rubber stamped on their shows. "There have been issues with every show that I've done on decisions that Armando has made that impact my shows since he got here," says a frustrated Hoffman. "For 13 years before he got here, I never had any incidents, never had any issues. Dean Lohuis knew everything that was going on with the state and always said, 'Man, you make matches,' and I only did two shows a year. I take great care of the matches I make. I have to prep them. There's a reason for every match that I make. "But for some reason or another, arbitrary decisions by Armando have taken away fights from me pretty consistently in the last couple of years." Lohuis is the chief inspector for the state, and he is regarded by the boxing community in California to be as knowledgeable as they come in regards to the local fighters and the fight scene. But in recent years he has had his power and responsibilities stripped away by Garcia, which has frustrated many matchmakers and promoters in the state. But it's no surprise that there are two divergent opinions on Garcia from the major and small promoters. It's not unusual for any commission to give a bit of leeway to shows that are put on by the big promoters. After all, most of the time they bring in huge amounts of revenue to the state. Hate to say it, but that's life in the big city. But Garcia insists that everyone plays by the same rulebook. "I want to make it a level playing field," he would tell Maxboxing, "but I gotta tell you with all due respect to the people before me, people that are still involved here in the commission, it was not a level playing field. People here, this particular name used to be able to do this and this one did it and there was selective enforcement. When I came in, I tried to treat everyone equally. The little guy and the big guy. And sometimes people don't like that." But Hoffman isn't buying it. He believes he's a small fish who has been made very expendable in a big pond. "I can't speak for other promoters; for me, much of the fun has gone out of it. The state of California requires so much from promoters and matchmakers, to get all of their particulars in, meaning all the Fight Faxes that we're required to get in and submit, so we can get bout approval. The problem is you get everything in - and I'm anal about that, I get stuff in three, four weeks before my show, so in theory I have time to make adjustments in case there are any – but sure as s**t, whenever I submit my stuff, I never get a return response in a timely fashion. "It's always the week of the show and it's too late for me to do anything about it." CONUNDRUM Another thing Hoffman and many others have complained about is that in recent years, MRI's, eye exams and EKG's are now mandatory for all licensed fighters in California. The MRI is good for five years, the EKG for three. They are all for the safety of the fighters, but they also believe that many young aspiring boxers are priced out of getting their licenses because with the new mandatory policies - which now puts California in line with states like Nevada - the price of obtaining a license has gone from around $300-$400 to around $700-$800. There are two ways to look at this argument. First, shouldn't every fighter come in with a clean bill of health? And even if it's a fighter making his pro debut, they still have taken jarring shots to the head during their days as an amateur and in sparring sessions in the gym. But others will point out that the state of California has been a relatively safe state for the most part when it comes to ring fatalities. Last September, Jackson Bussell would lose his life after a six-round draw against Javier Garcia, and there were recent close calls involving Victor Burgos and Ruben Contreras in recent years. But it had been awhile since California had had to deal with a ring death. There were two-high profile casualties in the early 80's. Johnny Owen would lose his life after twelve hard rounds against Lupe Pintor in September of 1980. And then Kiko Bejines would pass away after his bout versus Albert Davila in September of 1983. Then in 1988, David Gonzalez would die as a result of his eighth-round knockout at the hands of Rico Velasquez. For Questions or Comments E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com Today's Boxing Press Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums