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Senator vows to change boxing after the biting
One longtime boxing fan is vowing to force the sport to change in the wake of Mike Tyson's disqualification for biting a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear.Sen. John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, urged the Nevada State Athletic Commission by letter Monday to "impose severe sanctions" against Tyson and said he was "extremely disturbed by the total failure of the event's promoter, Don King, to forcefully condemn the conduct of his fighter."
On Monday, Tyson apologized profusely for his third-round escapade Saturday night and asked the commission to impose any penalty short of banning him from boxing for life.
Ironically, a new federal law takes effect today that would force other states to honor any suspension that Nevada imposes.
That law also requires boxers to use identification cards to prevent suspended or medically unfit fighters from entering the ring under assumed names. But that won't be enough to clean up the tarnished sport, McCain said.
McCain, R-Ariz., told The Arizona Republic he plans to use his Commerce position to force reforms to restore "badly needed integrity" to boxing.
McCain, who has battled "ultimate fighting" as barbaric, said he would like to see a single national boxing commissioner and an end to the "alphabet soup" of organizations now running boxing.
"You can't rip off more than 1 million (pay-per-view) fans in that fashion and not have repercussions," he said shortly before Tyson's apology.
"What I would like to see, tell you the truth, would be a boxing commissioner along the lines of football, baseball and basketball. ot a federal guy, but one who works within the sport itself."
"There's got to be a way" to get boxing under one ruling body instead of the current hodgepodge, he said from Washington.
Calling himself "a saddened and disillusioned fan," McCain said he hadn't planed to watch the fight because "I can't stand Tyson. And then I listened to the hype, and a half-hour before the fight, I said OK."