The Boxing Promoters Association (BPA) held its third meeting on January 11th in Las Vegas, with a renewed sense of optimism for boxing in 2010. In a full day of meetings at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, the President, Joe DeGuardia, and the various Committees gave reports and moved forward with the planned agenda. The growing group of over 30 promoters heard committee reports outlining collaborative efforts for television and Internet distribution, venue agreements, legislative activities, and a host of other issues the group will tackle in the new year.
BPA ENTERS DISTRIBUTION ARRANGMENT WITH MAGAZINE
At the meeting it was announced that the BPA would be entering into a distribution agreement with a boxing publication. The arrangement will provide a Boxing Magazine for fans while providing the magazine with the massive distribution capabilities of the BPA membership as each promoter will distribute the magazine free of charge at every boxing event.
BPA CREATES WEBSITE
The BPA also addressed the need for an exclusive and informative BOXING website, which would be akin to the websites currently used by the NFL, MLB and other sports. The BPA agreed upon the domain of BoxingPromotersAssociation.com.
BPA, ABC, AARP UNITE
Another major development that the BPA agreed upon was to work with the American Association of Ringside Physicians and the Association of Boxing Commissions to assist in and become a member of a standardized medical database. Part of the agreement includes an exclusive arrangement for access and collaboration with respect to the Boxing Medical Database, which in turn will ensure the integrity of fighter’s medical records and speed up the process for promoters to obtain those records. In addition, the arrangement will be cost effective, saving both boxers and promoters money. This collaborative effort among Promoters, Doctors and Commissions is the first of its kind and symbolic of the progress spearheaded by the BPA.
TIME TO JUDGE THE JUDGES
Another significant development was the decision BPA made at the meeting to begin taking steps in creating a Judicial over-sight process to review inept judges.
In addition, various regulatory issues regarding boxing throughout the United States, as well as pending National Boxing Legislation were reviewed and discussed.
OTHER RELATED/GROUND BREAKING BOXING NEWS
In other BPA related news, it was reported that the three major sanctioning organizations in boxing, the WBC, WBA and IBF, reached an agreement in which the three organizations will for the first time in boxing history unite, cooperate and work together. The meeting, which took place in Cancun, Mexico included WBC President, Jose Sulaiman, WBC Executive Secretary Mauricio Sulaiman, IBF President Marian Muhammad, IBF Chairman of Officials Larry Hazzard and WBA Executive Vice President Gilberto Jesus Mendoza.
The unity of the three organizations, which announced that they plan to work more with boxing commissions throughout the world as well as the Boxing Promoters Association, is viewed as a very signifcant development towards the betterment of the sport of boxing. One of the main topics of discussion at the organization’s meeting, which was also a topic at the BPA’s meeting (as previously mentioned herein) was developing a system to rate the performance of judge’s decisions.