While winning his first 29 professional fights, Joe Mesi never needed help from the officials. Twenty-five of those victories came via the stoppage route, meaning the referee needed only know how to count to 10, or accurately judge when to save a battered opponent.
Two of the four decisions he earned came in four-round bouts during his first year as a pro, the other favorable verdicts in his last two bouts to date.
While Monte Barrett dropped Mesi for the first time in his professional career in December 2003 and Vassiliy Jirov repeated the trick, times three, three months later, the Tonawanda native so completely dominated the early portion of each fight that no one complained too loudly when his hand was raised on both nights.
To get a chance at jump-starting a career that's been dormant since doctors discovered that the late beating he took from Jirov caused his brain to bleed, though, he'll need an assist from another set of officials, the ones that serve on the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
On June 9, Mesi will ask the commission to make history by ignoring, for the first time ever, the recommendation of its own medical advisory board.
In April, that body unanimously recommended upholding the suspension that's been in place since shortly after the Jirov fight, a banishment that effectively prevents Mesi from fighting in the United States, Canada and just about anyplace else that might care about professional boxing.
Since then, Mesi bolstered his legal team with quite possibly the best-known attorney in Buffalo, Paul Cambria, and Richard Wright of Las Vegas, as well as cousin Julie Bargnese. They plan to bring up to five new doctors willing to testify that he's not at any increased risk of suffering another subdural hematoma.
The advisory board rejected that theory in resounding fashion, so it's tough to envision the commission reversing its long-held policy of "one brain bleed, no license."
But just because Nevada has been consistent about that rule over the years doesn't make it right.
The state that serves as the boxing capital of the United States, if not the world, licenses thousands of fighters every year. Almost all of them lack the financial wherewithal and support structure to get properly checked out after a fight on their own, as Mesi did when he experienced headaches after the Jirov fight.
Three-division titlist Marco Antonio Barrera has fought at least a dozen times in Nevada since having a steel plate inserted into his head in 1997. Of course, the athletic commission didn't find out about that until late 2003, leading you to wonder just what else it doesn't know. Despite Barrera's failure to disclose the surgery, he's kept his license and fought twice more in the state since the metal became public knowledge.
None of this is meant to minimize the severity of Mesi's injury, or to suggest that there's an inalienable right to punch other people in the face for money. But the commission is asking Mesi to do the impossible -- prove that he won't get injured again, perhaps fatally. I admit to sleeping through most of Philosophy 101 in college, but I do remember one truism -- you can't prove a negative.
If Nevada were truly more interested in the health of boxers than in paying hypocritical lip service, it would spend some of the millions of dollars the sport generates for state coffers each year on a long-term study, one in which every boxer got an MRI after every fight, and track the results.
That's not going to happen, since it's much cheaper to have a bunch of political appointees wring their hands and intone solemnly about how much they care. Which, odds are, will be exactly what happens on June 9 when they refuse to lift Mesi's suspension.
Almost certainly, that won't be the end of this fight. Cambria, who also represents former Laborers Local 91 president Mark Congi in the federal RICO case against more than a dozen members and ex-officers of the once-feared union, isn't the type to take a case without battling it out. The array of legal and medical experts heading for Nevada with Mesi presents a pretty clear sign that, if the commission turns him down, a strongly worded lawsuit will follow.
Watching a dazed Mesi stumble through the 10th round against Jirov, absorbing the full force of one horrific shot after another, I had the sick feeling that I was watching a guy I'd come to know about as well as a writer knows a professional athlete, and to like as a guy, being killed live on national television.
And after the subdural-hematoma story first broke after the Jirov fight, I wrote that I hoped Mesi would retire.
I still have a clear sensory memory of that sick feeling, and I still wish he would walk away and take advantage of some of the multiple opportunities his popularity and personality afford him.
That choice should belong to him, though, and not to a commission concerned with little other than covering its own behind.
Nick Casal of Niagara Falls, who improved to 10-0 with 10 knockouts with a second-round stoppage of Steve Verdin on May 20 at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Okla., is scheduled to fight again June 16 on a Ballroom Boxing card from Glen Burnie, Md.
Casal was originally slated for the undercard of the June 11 bout between Mike Tyson and Kevin McBride in Washington, D.C., but manager Shelly Finkel moved him to the Ballroom Boxing card, where he'll fight during the televised portion of the evening.
After winning his first bout at the National Golden Gloves last month, Anthony Casal dropped a decision after hyper-extending his back against Earl Cole of Baltimore in the 141-pound weight class.
Anthony Casal is expected to be back in action by July 29, when the Summer Fight Fest is scheduled at Smokin' Joe's Family Fun Center, the fourth amateur fight card in the former Wintergarden in the past year.
Another fighter from Casal's, super heavyweight John Harless, qualified for the National Junior Olympics during regional competition on Memorial Day weekend in Lake Placid. Harless will represent Northeast Region I at the national tournament in Brownsville, Texas, from June 21 to 25.
Don Patterson, who runs the amateur program at Mesi's home gym, the Northwest Community Center in Buffalo, is putting together the Carubba Collision Nickel City Challenge Invitational Boxing Tournament, slated for June 17 and 18, at the Sphere Entertainment Complex at 681 Main St., Buffalo.
The event includes several Niagara Falls fighters, including Joey Trusello, Roy Burns and Anthony Ferlito from Casal's Boxing Club, as well as Lorenzo Davis, who fights out of the 13th Street Gym. Davis and stablemate Tim Mallory each won bouts in Buffalo over Memorial Day weekend.
Entries from the Northwest Community Center are scheduled to include 141-pounder Felix Mercedes and 132-pounder Jordan Gaines, both of whom are tutored by Mesi's trainer, Juan De Leon, as well as heavyweight Exell Holmes and 105-pounder Justin Keith.
The Nickel City Challenge will also host fighters from Rochester, New York City, Pennsylvania, the Seneca Nation and Canada, with most having won Golden Gloves, Jr. Olympic or other regional or national titles.
"Just about everybody who's coming is a champion of some sort," Patterson said. Weight classes with enough fighters will feature four-fighter brackets, with additional fighters matched in individual bouts. Many of the boxers will be making an appearance at 7:30 p.m. on June 16 at Sports Collectibles at the Galleria Mall, where tickets will also be on sale.
First bell is set for 7 p.m. on June 17, with bouts starting at 6 p.m. the next night. Tickets are also available at Casal's Boxing Club on Hyde Park Boulevard, Carubba Collision's locations on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo and Niagara Falls Boulevard in Tonawanda, the Sphere Box Office or by calling Patterson at 400-9697.
Allan Tremblay, who promoted two Mesi-headlined cards at the former Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center in 2001 and another at the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls, Ont., in 2000, announced that the top prospect in the Orion Sports stable will travel to Mexico later in the month.
Steve Molitor (20-0, 6 knockouts) of Sarnia, Ont., will move up to 122 pounds to take on Francisco Mateos on June 24 at Coliseo de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, in the main event of a six-bout card.
Though Mateos is on the downside, with a record of 20-8-4, he holds wins over two fighters who went on to win world bantamweight belts, former WBO titlist Cruz Carbajal and current IBF boss Rafael Marquez.
It will be Molitor's second fight since coming back from an eight-month layoff, the longest of his career, following laser surgery to correct nearsightedness. In his last bout, he rebounded from a second-round knockdown to pound out a unanimous decision win over Henry Arjona in Toronto.
Molitor was ranked No. 3 by the IBF and No. 14 by the WBC at 118 pounds, but can no longer make that weight. He won five bouts at junior featherweight from 2002-04 and is already ranked No. 10 in the 122-pound category.
In an effort to make up for lost time, Molitor comes home to fight again July 14 in Mississauga against an opponent to be named.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | June 7 2005 |