BOXING REFORM CRUSADER VISITS UTAH, LOOKING FOR ANSWERS ABOUT FIGHTER'S DEATH

SALT LAKE CITY (MAY 22) -- CHARLES JAY, renowned writer and chairman of the Boxing Oversight Task Force, will be visiting the offices of state agencies, both in the capitol building and elsewhere in Salt Lake City, on a Monday "fact-finding" mission surrounding the death of professional heavyweight boxer Bradley Rone in a Cedar City ring last July.

"The more and more I look at it, this was a death that not only could, but should have been prevented," says Jay, who has long been a leading voice of boxing reform, and author of two 'Operation Cleanup' books that constitute the most serious survey of the industry and its problems.  "The state of Utah has not been forthcoming in supplying much in the way of information, so I guess I'm here to see if I can get some answers."

Jay, who also accepted the Salt Lake City-based Personal Choice Party's presidential nomination on Saturday, will make a number of public records requests, and attempt to speak with some of the officials who hold oversight authority over the Pete Suazo Utah State Athletic Commission (headed up by part-time employee Richard Weinsoft). He has previously sent registered letters to Weinsoft and Klare Bachman (who oversees the commission from the Department of Commerce) inquiring about the conduct of the commission with regard to Rone' death, but the letters have gone unanswered.

Jay concedes Rone's death did not likely happen directly from any physical contact in his fight last July 18 against Billy Zumbrun, in which he collapsed at the end of the first round. But he has serious questions as to Rone's fitness to participate, and Utah's lack of duty in allowing him to do so.

Citing the state's denials of important documents to Cedar City Daily News reporter Jennifer Weaver, who is preparing a substantial investigative piece on Rone's death, Jay says there is no documentation of any pre-fight examination of Rone, who had lost 25 fights in a row coming into the bout, was reported to have high pressure and was suffering from the added stress of his mother's death just two days beforehand. "That may have signaled something about his physical condition," says Jay. "Absent that, we must operate under the assumption that no examination was conducted, at least not one that was complete. And my information is that the exam was taken 90 minutes before the fight, which is clearly contrary to Utah's own rules."

Utah officials are holding back most of the records relating to Rone's medical eligibility for the fight, citing "privacy" issues. Jay contests their motivation.

"Obviously I value the privacy of the individual,' he says. "But it has gone way past the point where it's a matter of protecting Bradley Rone's privacy. Right now the goal here seems to be protecting public officials in the state of Utah, who may have been derelict in their duties, prefer to conduct all their business under cover of darkness, and aren't willing to stand up and take responsibility for their actions, or inaction, as it were. Those are not valid personal choices on their part."

One of Jay's previous investigations, involving commission malfeasance in a fight in which former heavyweight champion Greg Page suffered permanent brain damage, eventually led to the firing of Kentucky Athletic Commission chairman Jack Kerns, a restructuring of the commission and the boxing statutes, and a lawsuit filed by Page and his family. His task force, which operates under the auspices of the International Brotherhood of Prizefighters was established to provide private, independent oversight of all segments of the boxing industry - including commissions - and to report corruption, malfeasance, and ineptitude to their superior agencies, as well as the press.

He will be accompanied on his quest Monday by several members of the Personal Choice Party, a third-party organization which has ballot access throughout the state. Jay will be the party's candidate for U.S. President on the ballot in November.

"The way my eventual report - and the investigative story that will follow - reads in the end will depend on what kind of cooperation I get from these people," Jay says of the Utah officials. "How they're portrayed in the end is up to them. I don't want anyone to say I didn't give them a chance."


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