Will Texas Allow for Plaster of Pac Man?

August 20th, 2010

A Quick Review of Texas’ Regulations with Regard to the Suspensions and Revocations of Other States in Light of California’s Denial of a License to Antonio Margarito

Pictured: Margarito's plastered handwrap

By a vote of 5-1, the California State Athletic Commission decided this week that Antonio Margarito need not be reissued a professional boxing license on its watch following the revocation of his license after a Plaster of Paris-like substance was found on his hand wraps before his bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley on January 24, 2009. Subsequently, all eyes in the boxing world immediately turned toward Texas, where Margarito could face Manny (Pac Man) Pacquiao in a potentially explosive welterweight showdown at Cowboys Stadium on November 13, 2010. Texas has a decorated history of issuing licenses to boxers that have otherwise been banned in the U.S.A., including Evander Holyfield following his administrative suspension in New York several years back, and the late Edwin (El Inca) Valero. While Holyfield, Valero, and others were all suspended elsewhere for reasons pertaining to own their health and well being, Margarito had his licensed revoked for endangering the health and well being of someone else. Will such a distinction make a difference to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation? We shall soon find out. But what we know right now are the rules and regulations that govern Texas’ decision. A quick review of those rules and regulations, as well as an intangible or two that may play into Texas’ decision, follows.

Texas’ Administrative Rule on the Recognition of Another State’s Suspension of a Boxer

As initially summarized in “Inglorious Plasters,” the licensing of professional boxers in Texas is governed by 16 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 61, also known as the “Combative Sports Administrative Rules.” Under Combative Sports Administrative Rule 16.30(e), the Executive Director of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation “may recognize and enforce disciplinary sanctions, disqualification, or medical suspensions imposed by other combative sport authorities.” The use of the term “may” instead of “shall” in Combative Sports Administrative Rule 16.30(e) indicates that it is in the Executive Director’s discretion whether or not to recognize and enforce the disciplinary sanctions or medical suspensions imposed by another athletic commission. Despite this open-ended language, it should be noted that the federally enacted Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act mandates that individual boxing commissions establish procedures whereby a boxer suspended for “unsportsmanlike conduct or other inappropriate behavior consistent with generally accepted methods of competition in a professional boxing match” is permitted to box. The Act deems the term “suspension” to include a revocation of one’s boxing license. As discussed more below, it is also important to note that the revocation period is over, and California simply declined to issue Margarito a new license, so what Texas allows itself to do with a given suspension during its duration is no longer at issue.

The Association of Boxing Commission’s Guideline on Out-of-State Suspensions

Under the Regulatory Guidelines of the Association of Boxing Commissions (the “ABC”), the quasi-governing body of professional boxing in North America, “[a]ll medical and administrative suspensions placed on contestants by other athletic commissions will be recognized by the supervising Commission.” Like Texas’ employment of the term “may,” the ABC’s use of the word “will” does not create a strong mandate that one state athletic commission must recognize the suspension of another. It should also be noted that the ABC’s Regulatory Guidelines are silent on how to handle the revocation of a license by another state athletic commission, though the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act has that issue covered, as noted above.

How The Above Regulations and Guidelines Work Together to Margarito’s Advantage

The fact that Margarito was even allowed to reapply for his license in California is all some people need to hear in order to justify his applying for a license anywhere else in the United States. Add to the formula that Texas may now have access to one of the biggest money fights that can be made in the sport, and perhaps they will see some credibility in Margarito’s pleas of ignorance where California did not. That is where certain intangibles may come into play.

Intangibles: Will Texas Want the Wrong Message to be Sent on Its Watch? And What About Prospective Sponsors?

There is a bigger issue that may weigh on the mind of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, notably that boxing’s image, which has been on an upswing this past year with mainstream media coverage of the Mayweather-Pacquiao talks, the Cotto-Foreman bout, and Devon Alexander’s rise from the bowels of St. Louis, could take a sizeable step backwards if a major United States venue rewards the biggest villain in the sport today, Margarito, by hosting his fight against perhaps the biggest international mainstream symbol of the sport today, Pacquiao. Boxing cognoscenti could engage themselves in lengthy debates as to what kind of message that would send and what such a bout could do the sport’s image once the mainstream media started putting its slant on the festivities. And what about the sponsors that would ordinarily get behind a powerhouse like Pacquiao? What might they say about him agreeing to face the most maligned boxer in the sport? Perhaps Texas will decide that the image of the sport and its international face are not its concern. But perhaps Texas, in doing its part to solidify its reputation as a host of serious boxing events at Cowboys Stadium and elsewhere, will tell Margarito to find another place for the plaster of Pac Man to take shape.

Paul Stuart Haberman, Esq. is an attorney at the New York law firm of Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach, LLP. He is also a New York State licensed boxing manager and the Chairman of the Sports Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. Paul can be e-mailed at haberman@8countnews.com.