'MISUNDERSTANDING' - 'SIMPLE MISTAKE' ARE NOW GIVEN AS THE CAUSE OF NYSAC IMPOSING A SUSPENSION ORDER UPON GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS
These are remarkable admissions and it is ASTONISHING that NYSAC levied a draconian form of punishment and suspended Golden Boy if there was a likelihood that Golden Boy had only made a MISUNDERSTOOD SIMPLE mistake, which is now, apparently, admitted by NYSAC.
The exclusive report by boxing writer George Kimball was based upon the NYSAC draconian sentence and it would appear to be whatever Mr. Kimball might have written, which is now alleged to be unethical, surely has to mean that NYSAC was culpable.
Melvinan Latham , Chairwoman of NYSAC laid a violation of the Muhammad Ali Act: at the door of Golden Boy Promotions to justify her statement when she said, “They are suspended 90 days from the time that they’ve given us what we’re requesting. The clock doesn’t start until we get the necessary documents,."
Mrs Lathan, is in her second year as commission chairwoman and was dealing with Golden Boy for the first time. “
Golden Boy Promotions attorney, Judd Burstein confirmed the company's 90-day suspension has been lifted by the New York State Athletic Commission.
NYSAC spokesperson, Gabe Roth said "Golden Boy agreed to submit all of the proper paper work and all of the contracts for the May 15 event and they agreed to a $10,000 fine.
"Basically, they didn't submit everything that they needed to submit to the athletic commission for the fight,"
"We realized it, they realized it, and we were able to come to an agreement as they submitted their paper work. They have a small fine, and we removed the suspension and we'll go on with our lives," said Mr. Roth.
"From our end, they forgot to cross their T's and dot their I's and they realized it, we realized it, we came to an agreement, and we're moving forward."
Mr. Burstein said "As we have been consistently saying stories falsely claiming the suspension was based upon financial improprieties by Golden Boy are just that - false.
"The level of journalistic integrity demonstrated in this whole affair by certain reporters ... is shocking. They should be ashamed of themselves."
It was alleged the suspension was the result of the boxing promotional Company's failure to todge the boxer/promoter contracts disclosing the financial terms of their May 15 bout at Madison Square Garden for a pair of under-card fighters, Victor Ortiz and Nate Campbell who had appeared on the under-card of a Madison Square Garden event when the main event featured WBA junior welterweight (140 pounds) champ Amir Khan successfully defending his title against challenger Paulie Malinaggi.
Richard Schaeffer, CEO Gold Boy Promotions said, "I just want to say that I'm glad that everything has been cleared up. There was no doubt in my mind that it would be. We didn't do anything wrong. The only issue was that there was a delay in providing these requesting documents but as it relates to all of these other allegations, there was no doubt in my mind that the truth would come out, because the fact is that we didn't do anything wrong."
The three-member committee voted unanimously to lift the suspension and impose a $10,000 fine.
The Commission’s ruling today made clear:
a. Golden Boy had been suspended without a hearing only because there had been a misunderstanding and then delays in producing certain fighter contracts, as opposed to any allegations of financial misconduct. In other words, the only reason for the suspension had to do with these commission disclosure issues, and the suspension notice did not remotely suggest that Golden Boy had engaged in any inappropriate conduct vis a vis its fighters - all of whom had received timely Ali Act disclosures.
b. After its hearing today, the Commission explicitly found today that an initial Golden Boy disclosure, omitting the existence of certain contracts, was a simple mistake, and that the production of these contracts should have been made earlier. However, during the Commission meeting the Commission acknowledged that, having now seen all relevant contracts, there was no evidence of any substantive wrongdoing on the part of Golden Boy. Golden Boy has acknowledged an error (arising from the absence of key personnel for a short period of time) with respect solely to its timely production, and has therefore paid a $10,000 fine to the Commission upon the Commission’s finding that only New York laws, rather than the Ali Act, had been violated.
While Golden Boy made some procedural errors, the real story here is how supposedly reputable journalists, such as Mr. Kimball, feel free to write affirmatively false stories which they either know to be false or should have known to be false by simply reading the relevant documents. In this case, Mr. Kimball plainly never read the Commission’s suspension order and did not even bother to reach out to any Golden Boy representative to hear Golden Boy’s side, the truthful one, of the story. Indeed, in the case of Mr. Kimball, this conduct is particularly egregious in that he just published another false story in the Boston Herald on this subject.
Golden Boy is evaluating its legal options against Mr. Kimball and his publishers. It is our hope that the matter can be put to bed with a retraction and an apology. However, Golden Boy wants to make clear that, going forward, it will not tolerate this kind of irresponsible journalism, and will move swiftly to vindicate itself in court and elsewhere. ~
