In a statement, Golden Boy attempts to "dispel some false statements made by certain reporters concerning the suspension."
You can check out the ESPN article with statements by Golden Boy's attorney and the statement over at MaxBoxing.com for more on the background.
There are two points in the statement that I wanted to address.
First, Golden Boy is correct in its assertion that "THE NYSAC WAS NOT IN ANY WAY OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE SUCH A HEARING OR WARNING [prior to issuing the suspension]." In fact, under the relevant regulations, the NYSAC is only obligated to provide a hearing if it is contemplating revoking a license and/or issuing a fine. It has no obligation to hold a hearing prior to issuing a suspension.
Second, Golden Boy claims that the NYSAC requested the:
HBO and DiBella Agreements, as well as any written agreements between Golden Boy and the fighters on the May 15 card" and that the "person responding to the request erroneously questioned the NYSAC’s authority to request copies of Golden Boy’s promotional contracts, asked for the basis for the requests, and did not send those contracts. This was clear error on the part of the Golden Boy, as under all circumstances, the contracts should have been sent to the ABC [sic].
On July 1, 2010, Golden Boy contacted the Commission by sending it an email which stated that the contracts did not have to be disclosed to the NYSAC because they would not be held confidential. According to counsel for the Commission, this conclusion as to the confidentiality of the requested disclosures issue was erroneous. In any event, Golden Boy erred in not immediately sending the contracts to the ABC [sic] at this point in time.
Aside from the fact that the statement refers to the ABC as opposed to NYSAC, Golden Boy is correct that all contracts must be sent to the NYSAC under the regulations whether it believes the contracts are confidential or not. In fact, there is no provision in the relevant regulations that I am aware of that mentions any right to ever withhold any information from the NYSAC on confidentiality grounds or otherwise.
It is clear from the regulations that the NYSAC not only requires virtually every conceivable contract in any way connected to a fight card, but it also undeniably has the right to request any information that it deems necessary in evaluating a fight card. Accordingly, Golden Boy's conclusion is correct.
Bottom line, it was bad that Golden Boy didn't provide the agreements in the first instance in May 2010, but attempting to justify the failure to produce the documents on confidentiality grounds in July in my opinion only made matters (and the punishment) worse.
Fight Lawyer
