Greetings Sports Debate Universe. I present the Virginia Boxing Commission Pt 1. The following report is the result of an extensive investigation that uncovered some very sad realities about combat sports in Commonwealth of Virginia. The investigation is not over. Given the amount of interviews tomorrow, we figured it made more sense to break it into two parts. We want to thank Todd White Lightning Wilson, Jimmy Lange, Tony Jeter, and a ton of other people for their contribution to this investigation thus far. I am going to post an excerpt from the report. Simply clink on the link to read the rest, and to see the full article complete with content ETC. 11:00AM After some captain crunch, I placed a call to Dave Holland of the Virginia boxing commission. I will admit I was nervous. Not that I was afraid of the man, no, because I did not want an argument between us to cloud my objectives, or deny this platform information. I called, and he picked right up. SDU: Greetings Mr. Holland, this is Christian Vick, the Senior investigative reporter for Sportsdebateuniverse. DH: How are you? SDU: I am fine, I was contacting you because I had some questions of which I explained in my email. DH: Sure go ahead SDU: I was curious if the commission had any record of a drug test for Joey Gilbert before or after his feb 18th 2006 with Jimmy Lange. DH: Umm….uhhh…ummm… I am not sure SDU: your not sure? Could you check? Do you know personally? DH: I remember now, we didn’t drug test him, there was no drug screen. SDU: Really? so a quasi championship fight had no type of drug testing before during or after the fight. Thats seems strange no? A little irresponsible? DH: The truth is we do not drug test Christian. We normally only administer HIV, and Heaptitis B screening. We do not actually require a drug test unless the promoter specifically request it. It has to be an additional measure, it is not something we provide. SDU: So there is no drug testing policy, or regimen, or mandate for Boxers in Virginia? Has there ever been? DH: No, there is not. There never has been. We do not have the staff for such a thing, we only get so many provisions from the state government, and such a thing is not as easy as you would think. We do not do blood testing, or urine. This is something I would like to move towards, and we are. It will take time. Its not an overnight thing. Its not free either. SDU: Mr. Holland, you do realize your own policy has language in it that allows the commission to test the fighters for controlled substances right? Article 14 and 15 of chapter XI of the performance code specifically gives you the right to drug test ANY of the boxers that will compete on the 15th. DH: Are you sure? SDU: I am looking right at it sir. The provision is there, so I am unsure why the articles have not been implemented I than had to guide him to the articles. I had to teach a chief administrator components of his own doctrine. Once Dave was up to speed, the interview resumed. DH: Oh wow, I was not aware of this. I will be all over this if this is true. I am going to walk this up to my boss, and get this thing started SDU: I think you should. I think the Commission is well within its legal rights to test all these boxers. I do have to say its a little strange that the Board has NO drug testing protocol, and never has. According to you, none of the fights in Virginia feature drug testing, not even light drug testing, and as you know, Joey Gilbert, a fighter who was untested, and knocked out Jimmy Lange, was slapped with prolific drug allegations surrounding two failed tests. That to me Dave should make it clear that something has to change. DH: Can you call me back, I want to speak with my supervisor, and get back to you. How is Monday? SDU, Monday is fine DH: I want to say that I will be all over this. I was not aware of this, and I will move forward with this if I am able SDU: You are able. The provision is there clear as day. There is no reason for the fighters not to be drug tested before November 15th. We ended the call with an unusual amount of pleasantries. It was a nice change from our tough conversation a couple years back. I do find it odd that a decision maker was not concerned enough about illegal drug use to at least take a look at his rights to screen the athletes. This is boxing. Two men punching each other in the face, and the man who oversees that process does not consider athlete safety a necessary part of his agenda. Well not his agenda, the boards agenda. The board does not have in place an administrator that is totally familiar with the organizations administrative doctrine. That in turn has led to countless fights being sanctioned without any type of drug testing whatsoever. Fighters could blow blunts in the dressing room and it never would come to light. Such is the perfect atmosphere for an athlete to ingest a controlled substance with a half life of 9 hours. This fact hangs a big black cloud over every sanctioned fight in Virginia over the last 25 years. There is no way to know what was real, and what was not. It is woefully irresponsible for boxers to enter the arena which no chemical security in place. The Commission has failed the athletes and the state of Virginia. An utter and complete lack of institutional control. The promoters are complicit as well, such a practice reinforces the meat market notion. The Commissions incompetence does not absolve the promoters who could advocate for such scrutiny at the drop of a hat. It should not be a promotion by promotion counter measure, it should be a vital aspect of the system. The board is in place to regulate Boxing and MMA in Virginia, and it seems, they are usurping their most basic duties as administrators while bringing in a good amount of revenue for a smaller commission. To not even drug test after the fight? Holland cited cost as a reason for the lack of testing, resources, etc. That makes little to no sense. If you look at the fee schedule for promoters, and fighters, the cost of a drug test for controlled substances is really not that big of a deal, furthermore, the commission could simply embellish the general fee to offset the cost, and overhead associated with the testing. I than got a call from matchmaker JD Brown, SDU: Is this Mr. Brown? JD: Yes it is SDU: How are you, this is Christian Vick. I wanted to ask you some questions about the upcoming Jimmy Lange card if that would be alright JD: Sure. Go ahead SDU: I get the sense their is some animosity between the two fighters in the main event. You know anything about that? JD: Jimmy Lange is a major draw. He puts butts in the seats. He is the biggest draw in the Virginia area. People want to see Jimmy Lange. Fighters knows this, and want to knock him off. Its really jealousy if you think about it. I have known Tony since he was an Amateur. I turned him pro. He fought for Sugar Ray Leonard boxing. He has spent time on Jimmy Lange’s undercards. He would always tell us he deserved to be in the main event, but thats not the case. Tony thinks he is a draw, but how many butts were in the seats for his last 5 fights combined? Ask him that. He won’t be able to answer that. SDU: That victory was huge for him though. It did take him to a new level. JD: Yeah he talks about the WBC and all that, but he still not Jimmy. The fans are not coming to see Tony Jeter. Jimmy is the attraction, there is no rivalry, and the result of the first fight was questionable. All those points deducted plus Jimmy knocked him down and Tony wins???? Come on man. SDU: How is Jimmy looking? JD: He looks good. One of my former fighters William Joppy has been training him, and William tells me he looks good. I think Tony is in for a long night on the 15th Christian. SDU: Now about Todd Wilson. He still does not have an opponent, which is odd right? I get the sense he will be deep in the undercard, yet he is a nice draw, any thoughts as the matchmaker? JD: He belongs down the undercard. Todd Wilson is right where he belongs. This gets back to what I was talking about. Natural jealousy. Its nice that he brings 300 fans with him to the fight, but thats not enough to justify being in the co main event let alone the 3rd fight. Let alone the 4th fight! If he was a draw, he would put on a card of his own. Once he can draw in the 10,000 range than we can talk. He is not at that level yet, he needs to step up the competition, lets face it, he has fought soft fights. His people can talk about him being a draw, but facts are facts. Pull his attendance numbers if you want. I will rest my case on that. SDU: Wow. So you do not think he could be headliner? JD: Not right now. He needs to step up the competition. Right now he belongs down the undercard. Once he steps it up we can talk. I think he has a nice following, and is a good guy, but the fact remains he is not enough of a draw, and his fights are not that competitive in the ring. I hope he can change that, if he does, than sure he could be a headliner at the Patriots center.I would love to see him take the mantle from Jimmy. Please click this link to read part 1 in its entirety! sportsdebateuniverse/blog/2014/10/jimmy-lange-virginia-boxing-commission-pt-1/
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 14:43:57 +0000
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