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AMID REPORTS OF INJURY TO MESI, TRUTH STILL BOBBING AND WEAVING

By David Staba

It's a story with no middle ground.

If you believe Joe Mesi and his father/manager, Jack, and his promoter, Tony Holden, the Town of Tonawanda native emerged from his last fight with nothing more than a minor concussion and Team Mesi's biggest concern is who to fight next.

If you believe two highly respected boxing writers and a trainer/analyst who are each as plugged into the sport's inner circles as anyone, the horrific beating Vassiliy Jirov dealt Mesi over the last four minutes of their March 13 fight nearly killed the heavyweight division's hottest prospect, leaving damage that will end his ring career.

There's no room for compromise. Either the punishment meted out by Jirov while inflicting three knockdowns caused a subdural hematoma -- internal bleeding in the brain that's the most common cause of boxing deaths -- or it didn't. The nature of the injury, a tear in the brain's tissue that never fully heals, gives the situation profound gravity.

Nearly every prominent ring death, including Benny "Kid" Paret against Emile Griffith in a 1962 welterweight title fight, Davey Moore against Sugar Ramos a year later in a featherweight championship fight and Duk Koo Kim against Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini in their 1982 lightweight title clash resulted from a subdural hematoma. In those cases, the bleeding didn't clot on its own, with subsequent swelling of the brain causing death.

A story alleging that a post-fight MRI taken in Buffalo showed a blood clot in Mesi's brain appeared Thursday on the boxing Web site Secondsout.com. Its author, Thomas Hauser, is Muhammad Ali's official biographer and a strong, steady voice for reform in a sport marred by corruption and a lack of concern for the safety of its athletes.

On Friday, Tim Graham of the Buffalo News cited Hauser's column in a top-of-the-front-page story, as well as a number of independent sources -- two of them members of state athletic commissions -- who confirmed the report. Besides serving as the main boxing writer for the News, Graham is the paper's beat writer for the Buffalo Sabres and a boxing columnist for ESPN.com.

For their part, the Mesis said the reports simply aren't true, and that if there were any indication that Joe -- who was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission after the fight as a routine precaution pending medical clearance -- had really suffered such a life-threatening injuring, he'd retire immediately.

Friday night, Teddy Atlas of ESPN2, who trained Mike Tyson as an amateur and covered several Mesi fights broadcast by the cable network, said his sources backed the stories by Hauser and Graham and that the condition means Mesi can never fight again.

Vitali Klitschko's brutal win over Corrie Sanders for the World Boxing Council's heavyweight title on Saturday underscored why boxing regulators take such injuries so seriously. En route to winning the belt via an eighth-round technical knockout, Klitschko landed dozens of thunderous head shots, while taking more than a few in return.

If you're going to be in a position to take such punishment, as Mesi strives to be, you'd better be sure your brain's defenses are free of weak spots. While a clot left by a non-fatal subdural hematoma can disappear with time, the area is left more susceptible to reopening, with the bleeding much less likely to stop on its own in time to save the fighter from permanent brain damage or death.

When two sides of a story are so diametrically opposed, you can sometimes detect the truth by looking at motive. But not this time.

Lying would serve no long-term purpose for the Mesis. The Nevada commission won't clear him to fight again until it reviews all available medical records. The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act passed in 2000 demands that all states honor medical suspensions handed down by any other state's commission, so without clearance by Nevada, Mesi can't fight in the United States. The controversy underscores the need for further reform. Most fighters would have neither been able to afford the sort of testing capable of revealing such an injury, nor been encouraged to seek treatment by management as protective and supportive as Mesi's.

It's not like stonewalling is possible under the circumstances, either. If commission members believe an MRI showing a blood clot exists, they're not clearing Mesi until they're satisfied that it doesn't. He might be allowed to fight in a place like China, which has been mentioned as a possible site for a Mesi-Tyson bout, but any promoter or boxing functionary who took part in what would amount to an outlaw fight would face permanent blackballing in the United States.

Nor would any of the journalists involved benefit by circulating a story that proves to be untrue. While Atlas is by trade more a trainer and analyst than a journalist in the classic sense of the word, Hauser and Graham -- like most of their peers -- wouldn't publish such statements by sources to whom they'd granted anonymity if they had any doubts about their honesty.

While Jack Mesi and other family members have frequently taken umbrage at what's been written or said in the local media -- including this outlet on occasion -- the notion that hard feelings on either side could have fueled this story is ludicrous.

In an interview with host Howard Simon of Buffalo sports-talk radio station WNSA, Hauser said, "I like Joe Mesi. I think he's a good guy and a good fighter. I hope I'm wrong about this. But I don't think I am."

Equally far-fetched is any thought that Jack Mesi would allow his son to risk his life over a couple million dollars -- a pittance by today's sporting standards, especially to a boxer bright and personable enough to make a good living in any number of careers that don't involve getting punched in the head.

The Mesis spoke briefly with reporters at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Friday, making their only public comments since the story broke. Joe Mesi said he'd "never been told I have a blood clot," according to the Buffalo News, while his father said all records would be sent to the Nevada commission.

If that's the case, then the truth will soon emerge, one way or the other. In this one, contrary to the time-honored cliche, there's only one side to this tale. Either:

  1. Someone got some information terribly wrong at some point along the line and a lot of credible people wound up repeating the exact same incorrect story; or
  2. The best boxer the area has produced in several generations, and one of the sport's brightest young stars, could die if he ever fights again. And may not get to make that decision for himself.

It's a story with no middle ground.


David Staba is the sports editor of the Niagara Falls Reporter. He welcomes e-mail at dstaba13@aol.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com April 27 2004