NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

By Charles Jay

The 12th Round

Just so we're clear on everything, during the year 2003 I resolve to:

* Help Greg Page in any way I can to achieve justice over the state of Kentucky and the
evil Kentucky Athletic Commission.

* Discredit the efforts of the Association of Boxing Commissions until such time as it
makes a statement that is, for a change, positive for boxing and sees its way clear to
remove Jack Kerns from its board of directors.

* Continue to expose the unfair business practices going on at networks such as ESPN,
which has severely diluted the quality of boxing offered on television.

* Continue to expose the hypocrisy in the so-called "editorial comment" from
ESPN "experts", who are concerned with cleaning up boxing, as long as it has
nothing to do with cleaning up themselves, or their employers.

* Get to the bottom of why John McCain and his followers are so hesitant about including
anything in the new boxing bill that would deal with a most pressing issue - the oversight
of television boxing.

* Further my efforts in spelling out - in an intelligent way - exactly what justifies the
regulation of television networks, as they relate to boxing.

* Shine the light on promoters who think they're going to stiff fighters - and get away
with it - so they can't operate any more.

* Pick up on some of the positive things going on in the area of boxing regulation and
make sure everyone knows about it.

* Defend boxing to those who criticize it only out of ignorance.

* Reform and revamp the ratings system in the only plausible manner I can think of - by
following through on our media poll and integrating it with a sanctioning body so that it
can have a real impact on world championships.

* Articulate in detail why it is so dangerous, and foolish, to put the sole authority for
ranking fighters and bestowing championships in the hands of one single media entity whose
primary purpose is commercial in nature.

* Clearly separate the legitimately-concerned boxing reform advocates from the hypocrites.

* Educate the media as much as possible, because, with no disrespect intended, it can only
enhance its capability of covering the sport accurately and effectively.

* Expose members of the press who are "on the take".

* Do everything I can to support people in this business who are truly doing things the
right way.

* Lay out a rational, realistic way in which promoters - and other roles in boxing - can
be defined, so that it is more difficult for someone to slip through the cracks.

* Make sure as many people as possible realize what kind of folks are running Sugar Ray
Leonard Boxing.

* Continue to force boxing commissions to take a long look at what they are doing and how
they are doing it.

* Encourage commissions to institute changes in policies and practices that make sense.

* Expose the inadequacies of commissions who don't care, or who refuse to adjust for the
benefit of the sport.

* Find out exactly how many boxers are bought and paid for - signed, sealed and delivered
to managers or promoters while they're still amateurs, and ascertain exactly how that's
allowed to happen.

* Drive Mat Tinley over the edge.

* Explore the exploitation of the insurance system by certain ringside physicians.

* Stay on the corrupt NABF's ass.

* Bring forward true, legitimate alternatives to the current scoring system.

* Do everything I can to help the union effort get off the ground.

* Explore the pluses, minuses, and ramifications of promotional contracts - the fuel on
which this business runs.

* Help Joey Gamache and fighters like him who are victimized by phony weigh-ins.

* Come up with a feasible plan by which comprehensive medical tests can be taken care of,
without cost to fighters or promoters.

* Figure out a way to assist those who are putting together ways for fighters to obtain
insurance and retirement benefits.

* Get it through somebody's head that consumers are a constituency that needs to be
protected.

* Get state commissions to reciprocally honor certain suspensions that may not necessarily
be related to medical issues.

* Continue to bring forward issues that should be included in boxing legislation, whether
they are ultimately included or not.

* Put together an alternative bill that would make more sense than anything that has been
submitted in Congress before, in the hope that it may get its due consideration some time
in the future.

* Help the sanctioning bodies join their efforts together on certain issues that might
result in the betterment of boxing.

* Continue the campaign for neutrality in officials for world championship fights, and to
clearly decipher what hidden agenda prompts people like Greg Sirb to be so dead set
against it.

* Convince people within the boxing industry that legitimate boxing reform need NOT be a
threat to them, but instead something that in the long run will enhance the credibility of
their product.

* Convince people like McCain's errand boy Ken Nahigian that a mind is a terrible thing to
waste.

* Find a legitimately qualified person to be the national boxing "czar", because
we've been offered mostly garbage.

* Force the ABC and its people to put their business out in the open - the same kind of
standard they seem to demand from most of the entities they would aspire to regulate.

* Digest as much feedback as I can from people who really care.

* Endure all thirty minutes of "Around the Horn" at least once.

* Explain to Max Kellerman why we are really not in another "golden age of
boxing".

* Love my neighbor.

* Make new friends.

* Exercise more tolerance.

* Okay, exercise LESS tolerance - sometimes.

* Be relentless.

* Be honest.

* Be accurate.

* Get more sales. PLEASE - more sales.

Happy New Year.