Weigh-In Change Stirs Word War : Everybody Upset at Press Conference for Tate-Nunn Bout

If the fight is as good as the press conference was, Thursday night’s Frank Tate-Michael Nunn 15-round International Boxing Federation middleweight title bout at Caesars Palace will be a classic.

Tuesday’s press gathering turned into a verbal brawl over the scheduling of the weigh-in, which was moved to tonight, then, after a lot of complaining, back to Thursday morning.

Promoter Bob Arum stormed out, Dan Goossen, Nunn’s manager, criticized everything and everyone from the IBF to the Nevada State Athletic Commission to the Tate camp, and Duane Ford, a commissioner with the Nevada athletic body, felt obliged to defend the integrity of his organization against charges of secret deals struck in back rooms.

In terms of histrionics, it might not have rivaled Muhammad Ali’s best efforts, but it certainly didn’t do anything to hurt ticket sales for a bout that has yet to inspire the public.

At issue was a 14-hour period, the time between the originally scheduled weigh-in at 9 a.m. Thursday and a proposed new weigh-in time of 7 tonight. The fight is set for about 8 Thursday night.

IBF rules stipulate that the weigh-in be held 8 to 12 hours before the fight.

At a recent IBF meeting in Florida, however, a recommendation was made to move the weigh-in to 18 to 24 hours before the bout, thus allowing fighters who must lose weight more time to recover from dehydration.

Monday, Goossen was informed that the weigh-in had been moved to this evening, a time favored by Doug Farrago, Tate’s nutritionist.

Goossen also learned that Stan Hoffman, a promoter of the fight but also a partner in the Houston Boxing Assn., the organization that holds promotional rights to Tate, had backed down on an earlier demand that no official from Nevada, where Nunn does most of his fighting these days, be allowed to work the fight against Tate, the champion.

Both Goossen and Arum, who holds promotional rights to Nunn, said they believed a deal had been struck between Hoffman and the commission.

“I am ashamed of the sport,” Arum said. “I may burn my bridges, but I don’t care if it means I don’t ever promote another fight in Las Vegas.

“Changing the weigh-in is unheard of in boxing, really unheard of. This is wrong for the fighters, wrong for the bettors who believed this fight would be held in accordance with rules of the state of Nevada, and a disservice to Michael Nunn and the people of this state. I’m disgusted. I’ve had it up to here.”

And with that, he was gone.

Then it was Goossen’s turn.

“I don’t care what kind of gloves we use,” he said. “I wouldn’t care if they used pillows as long as it was in the contract.

“But I don’t want to see changes in that contract two days before a fight when we’ve spent eight weeks training to be at a certain weight at a certain time. We don’t expect any favors from anyone. We don’t expect anyone to bend over backward, but we do expect the rules to be upheld. This is a black mark on boxing.”

Enter Ford.

“You’re a challenger,” Ford told Goossen. “You don’t own the world yet.”

Responded Goossen: “That’s why I have contracts.”

Arum went back to his office and put in calls to Nevada Governor Richard Bryan, Bob Lee, president of the IBF, and Herb Santos, chairman of the Nevada Athletic Commission.

“You have a nutritionist who would try to bulk Tate up 10 pounds with special stuff if he had the extra time,” said Arum, still fuming hours after his public outburst. “They were trying to violate the rules. To violate the law to (cheat) us is horrendous.”

With Lee en route from New York to Vegas and not expected until late Tuesday night, Santos moved the weigh-in back to Thursday morning.

“It had been represented to us that the IBF had changed its rules,” Santos said later. “Subsequently, it came to my attention that this was not a new rule, but something the IBF is experimenting with. You have to go by the legal rules. Unless, when Bob Lee comes out here, he can show me a new rule, there won’t be any change.”

As to charges of a deal involving officials, Santos said his commission didn’t make any deals.

“We would never do anything like that,” he said. “Stan Hoffman had requested that no California officials, no Nevada officials, and no New Jersey officials be used. We didn’t go along with that. We have competent officials here in Nevada and we have voted to have one work the fight.”

Said Hoffman: “Give me a break. Changing the weigh-in is just a matter of safety to me.