The World Boxing Council wants to banish once and for all fathers from working their sons’ corners during fights after a study showed it could prove fatal.

Speaking at the WBC’s annual convention, council president Jose Sulaiman said the organization already had a rule banning fathers from their sons’ corners but that it was being flouted.

The WBC must strictly enforce this law to prevent errors in judgment that could lead to tragedy in the ring, Sulaiman added.

Dr. Paul Wallace, chairman of the WBC’s Medical Advisory Board, said that a study in California backed up the WBC’s stance.

“The most common factor out of all the fatalities that had happened, was having fathers in the corner,” he said of the study. “Now, that’s not something that’s a medical issue, but it’s something that’s clearly an association.”

Art Pelullo, president of Banner Promotions, said the emotional link between father and son should preclude them working so closely together during a fight.

“A father is not detached enough to make the right decision, because he’s looking at what he loves and maybe not seeing what’s really going on,” Pelullo said.

Experts and the WBC believe a father can’t look at what is taking place strictly as a trainer rather than as a parent. I don’t know if I agree or disagree, but if the WBC doesn’t want fathers in the corner, they should strictly enforce the rules they have now.

Lou Filippo, a California referee and judge for more than 30 years and member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 83.

Boxing fans argue to this day about who deserved to win the fight, although Leonard was awarded a split-decision victory. It was Filippo who scored the fight for Hagler 115-113.

The U.S. Army in South Korea will lift its ban on boxing matches, but participants will have to follow several new safety rules, an Army spokesman said Tuesday.

The ban was imposed last fall after Army Pfc. Jason Price collapsed during a boxing match and later died.

The new rules will apply to all “high-risk contact” sporting competitions, including wrestling, mixed martial arts and tae kwon do.

The rules govern only soldiers and civilians assigned within 8th Army in South Korea and do not apply to regular unit martial arts training, said Maj. Jerome L. Pionk, an 8th Army spokesman in Seoul.- Stars and Stripes

Physicals will be mandatory under the new rules for anyone who wants to take part in these sports. I have mixed feelings about servicemembers being allowed to take part in boxing. The sport, no matter how many precautions are taken, can cause permanent health problems that are sometimes not detected for years. My father used to own standardbred race horses and one of the driver/trainers who my father used was named Billy Pocza*. Pocza had once been a heavyweight fighter and sparring partner for Champion Jersey Joe Walcott.

While still short of 50 years of age, Billy Pocza’s mental condition started to deterioate. He eventually died sometime in the mid-80’s and I know he was somewhere around 55 years of age at the time. The slow degeneration of Pocza’s mental abilities was sad for his family. His son Jay(who was the same age as I give or take a year) and I were friends back when our fathers had a business relationship and I was over to the Pocza’s Florida home a couple of times.

While I don’t advocate a ban on boxing, I rather not see an Army family have to go through what Jay Pocza did with his father. There are other sports that carry few if any risks.

*- That is a 1972 photo taken at Brandywine racetrack of a horse named Charlie Zam after he won a race. From Left to right- My grandfather, me, my father, Charlie Zam, Billy Pocza, Jay Pocza, Jody Pocza, unidentified woman.

I remember this race and time well. Charlie won by five lengths, a day or two some storm hit the mid-Atlantic seaboard causing me, Grandpa, and Dad to stay holed up in a Delaware hotel for an entire day, and the binoculars around my neck had been given to me by Grandpa just before we left on this trip.

Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym of Thailand has stopped Bernard Dunne of Ireland in the third round to win the WBA super-bantamweight title.

The Thai landed a trio of powerful left hooks in the third round on Saturday in Dublin, each time sending Dunne to the mat. The referee stopped the fight after the third knockdown as blood flowed from the Dubliner’s nose and left ear.

The 28-year-old Poonsawat (39-1) had waited 18 months for his shot at the title. It was his first professional victory outside Thailand. Before the fight he predicted he would knock out the hometown favorite within seven rounds.

Dunne only held the title for six months.*- Honestly I only posted this news to see if the blog’s server would crash due to the boxer’s last name. If you read this, apparently it didn’t work.

Four officials of the Mongolia team were expelled from the world boxing championships Thursday for allegedly trying to bribe a referee with a watch.

The Mongolian boxers, their coaches and team doctor were allowed to stay in Milan until the championships end Saturday, the International Amateur Boxing Association said on its Web site.

AIBA’s code of ethics says any gifts offered to a referee must be authorized. Gifts can be exchanged “only as a mark of respect or friendship” but must have a nominal value.

AIBA spokesman Richard Baker said the Mongolian delegation violated the code by the manner in which the watch was offered, and because it hadn’t been cleared by AIBA.

“Depending on how it was done, these things can be approved,” he said. In the Mongolian case, “it wasn’t done with transparency.”

The code of conduct first took effect during the Beijing Olympics. It was designed to “eliminate any potential of suspicion” that gifts might affect the outcome of a match, Baker said.

I find it interesting gifts can be allowed. Even authorized ones look like an attempt to sway officials in their decision making. That’s just my humble opinion.

You can turn off the sarcasm now.

The International Boxing Association has reduced the number of men’s weight categories from 11 to 10 for the 2012 London Olympics.

The move was made Monday to accommodate women’s boxing at the games, which the IOC Executive Board unanimously agreed on last month. The IOC would not allow the AIBA to add to its total number of boxers.

At the 2008 Beijing Games, there were 286 boxers — all male. In London the total will remain the same but there will be 250 male boxers and 36 female boxers.

To decrease the number of men, the AIBA condensed its four lightest weight categories into three.

The new categories will apply to all AIBA events starting in September 2010.

Now could anyone fix the farcical Olympic scoring system for boxing.

Former French Olympic champion Brahim Asloum is retiring from boxing.

The 30-year-old boxer said on French television that he is ending his career after a bitter dispute with cable channel Canal Plus, the longtime promoter of his fights.

Asloum became the WBA light flyweight champion in December 2007 with a unanimous decision over defending champion Juan Carlos Reveco of Argentina.

I’m going to make a guess that Asloum’s retirement is very short lived.

Boxing is coming back to the big screen.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s eagerly anticipated showdown with Juan Manuel Marquez on Sept. 19 will be showcased live in about 170 theaters nationwide, promoters announced Monday. The fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will also air on HBO pay-per-view.

Richard Shaefer of Golden Boy Promotions said he’d been considering theater feeds for several years, ever since a trip to the movies with his kids. Unaware that live boxing has a long history on the big screen, Shaefer’s children asked him whether it was possible today.

*****

Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs), considered one of the sport’s pound-for-pound kings, will be fighting for the first time since ending a brief retirement. The flamboyant six-time world champion will be taking on a five-time champion in Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs), headlining a stacked card that includes two other title fights.

All of the televised undercard fights will also be shown in theaters.

The decision is part of a comprehensive marketing thrust that includes 30-second previews, much like film trailers, shown on about 1,500 screens before the start of movies for the next several weeks. Tickets for the actual fight are expected to be about $15.

*****

The first fight to be publicly shown in theaters was Eric Boon against Arthur Danaher on Feb. 23, 1939, in London. The format gained popularity in the 1950s, after Joe Louis defeated Lee Savold in a fight beamed to thousands from Madison Square Garden, and a young Muhammad Ali earned a tremendous following around the country during the 1960s.

His epic fight against Joe Frazier in March 1971 at the Garden was seen worldwide.

The rise of pay-per-view coincided with the demise of boxing on the big screen, as fans began to watch high-profile fights from the comfort of home. Among the last fights widely shown in theaters was Ray Leonard’s infamous “no mas” victory over Roberto Duran in November 1980.

IMHO boxing needs to be more public friendly. Most big championship fights are not on free television, basic cable, or even HBO. Due to this I can count the fights I’ve watched one hand in the last twenty years. To me, I won’t pay $50-60 to watch less than an hour’s action.

I might pay $15 to watch a fight in a movie theater. Dear Wife would also, if Manny Pacquiao was boxing.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission adopted two major rules changes at its meetings in Las Vegas on Wednesday that could have a significant impact on boxing in the fight capital of the United States.

In two 5-0 votes, the commission approved the use of instant replay for boxing and mixed martial arts bouts and also amended a rule that previously did not allow fighters in either sport to apply for a license in the state if they had previously suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

Both new rules are expected to go into effect in September, said Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada commission.

How will instant replay work? Will it interfere with the flow of a boxing match?

The use of instant replay was adopted on a limited basis and will be at the sole discretion of the referee. Kizer said it will only be used when an injury forces a fight to be stopped.

“An eye poke, a cut, something along those lines,” Kizer said. “The cut happens, the fighter cannot continue and the referee makes a call whether it was caused by a punch or a head butt. If he feels the use of replay will help him be sure, he can review it. It’s no different than the NFL. If the replay is inconclusive, the initial call stands.”

That makes perfect sense. I remember some Marvin Hagler fight(Vito Antuofermo?) being stopped because of his opponent’s excessive bleeding. Hagler’s opponent claimed the cut was a result of a head butt but the fighter Marvelous Marvin was fighting often led with his head.

Replay will not be used, Kizer said, to determine such things as whether a knockdown is caused by a punch or was a slip.

All sports today seem to be in need of dragging when it comes to the use of technology. Why should a sporting event be decided in a infalliable and often wrong fashion, if instant replay can prove conclusively a mistake was done?

Since 1972, Nevada rules prevented a fighter who had suffered a head injury, such as a subdural hematoma (bleeding on the brain), from applying for a license, even if the injury was not related to fighting and there was no longer evidence of it in medical testing.

That rule is what prevented fighters such as heavyweight Joe Mesi and lightweight titlist Edwin Valero from asking Nevada for a license after injuries.

But with advances in medical technology, the commission revisited the rule and took its unanimous vote after a recommendation from Dr. Albert Capanna, a neurosurgeon and chairman of Nevada’s medical advisory board, which also approved of the rule change.

This I feel is a bad decision. The history of boxing has clearly shown brain bleeds can happen and if not with with fatal consequences then with permanent brain damage occurring. Errorring on the side of caution would be more prudent.

Recent WBC junior middleweight champion and 1992 U.S. Olympian Vernon Forrest was shot and killed Saturday night during an attempted carjacking, WSB Radio in Atlanta has reported, citing a police spokesman.

Forrest, who had a 41-3 career record with 29 knockouts, withdrew from that fight and still hadn’t recovered enough to go through with the fight against Martinez.

A Nevada boxing judge has been indicted in Las Vegas on a federal charge that he improperly collected about $250,000 in Social Security disability benefits.

U.S. Attorney Gregory Brower said in a statement Wednesday that 65-year-old Paul G. Smith worked more than 100 boxing matches from September 1994 and December 2005 and was involved in several other businesses inconsistent with his disability status.

A federal grand jury handed up a one-count indictment Tuesday charging Smith with Social Security fraud.

Brower says Smith received a summons to appear for arraignment June 12 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

I find it interesting they just issued a summons to Smith. Is there not enough jail cells in Clark County?

First Oscar De La Hoya, now Ricky Hatton. The way Manny Pacquiao is handing out beatings, maybe Floyd Mayweather Jr. should have stayed retired.

Pacquiao cemented his claim to being the best pound-for-pound boxer Saturday night with a spectacular performance that ended with Hatton sprawled helplessly on the canvas after a devastating left hand to the head late in the second round.

Coming off a dominating win over De La Hoya, Pacquiao was even better against Hatton, knocking him down two times in the first round before finally stopping him with a vicious left hand that dropped Hatton for good in the 140-pound title bout.

Referee Kenny Bayless took one look at Hatton and declared the fight over at 2:59 of the second round.

“I didn’t have to count,” Bayless said.

Hatton laid on the canvas for several minutes while doctors tended to him before finally leaving the ring with a wry smile on his face. He was taken to a local hospital for a precautionary brain scan.

Lets hope and pray Hatton is all right. Dear wife and I were invited to a friend’s house to watch the fight but we were both too tired to stay up. It was a short fight, we’ll get to watch some time later today.

So who is up next for Pac Man?

Greg Page, a former heavyweight boxing champion who suffered a severe brain injury in a 2001 fight, has died at his Louisville home. He was 50.

The March 9, 2001, fight left Page in a coma for nearly a week. He then had a stroke during post-fight surgery. He was paralyzed on his left side and received intensive physical therapy.

Page won a $1.2 million settlement in 2007 with Kentucky boxing officials over the lack of medical personnel at the fight. Boxing officials also agreed to establish a medical review panel for the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority to check the health conditions of people involved in the sport who may be at risk for injury.

Page was 42 and had a 58-16-1 career record going into the $1,500 fight against Dale Crowe at Peels Palace in Erlanger, Ky., near Cincinnati. Crowe was 24 and an up-and-coming boxer. Page went down after 10 rounds and didn’t get up.

Oscar De La Hoya stopped battling himself Tuesday, deciding after much internal turmoil to retire and end a career in which he won 10 world titles in six divisions and became boxing’s most popular fighter.

He made his announcement at an outdoor plaza across the street from Staples Center, where a 7-foot bronze statue of the 36-year-old Golden Boy stands.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s over,” the East Los Angeles native said before hundreds of fans, including comedian George Lopez and Oscar-nominated actor and former fighter Mickey Rourke. “It’s over inside the ring for me.”

De La Hoya retired four months after he was thoroughly beaten by Manny Pacquiao, his fourth loss in his last seven fights. He has not defeated a formidable opponent since Fernando Vargas in 2002. Age and diminished skills led to losses in recent years to Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

He won his last title in May 2006, beating Ricardo Mayorga in six rounds for the WBC 154-pound belt. He finished with a record of 39-6 and 30 knockouts.

De La Hoya looked terrible in the Pac Man fight. Based on that alone, I think it was wise for him to hang up his gloves.

Olympic middleweight gold medalist James DeGale won his first pro fight Saturday night, a dominating points win over Vepkhia Tchilaia.

Despite winning each round, jeers rang out at the National Indoor Arena as Britain’s lone boxing champion from the Beijing Games failed to provide the excitement sections of the crowd were demanding.

“I had to track him down and bang him around and it was tough,” DeGale said. “I’m never happy with my performances — even at the Olympics — that was just 30 percent of me.”

A systematic approach lacking urgency was adopted against the 21-year-old Georgian, who dropped to 9-9. The tactical fight was a stark contrast to DeGale’s sloppy Olympic gold medal bout with Cuba’s Emilio Correa.

“It was a learning curve. What do you want me to do?” DeGale said. “I don’t want to be silly and get knocked out. He’s running, he’s tucking up. I still had a couple of good shots.

“You lot are going to see the best of me when someone is there and wants it just as much as me.”

Two less than impressive fights don’t mean DeGale isn’t championship material. With the many weight categories there are in boxing today, not to mention the myriad of boxing federtaions(IBF, WBC, WBA,), I wouldn’t bet against him holding at least one title before his boxing days are over.