THE SIDELINES : Panel Cool to Quarry Comeback

A newly created boxing panel has advised the state to reject a request to allow former heavyweight Jerry Quarry to return to the ring at age 45.

Marlene A. Cummings, secretary of the Department of Regulation and Licensing, said she was leaning strongly toward accepting the panel’s recommendation.

The boxing panel was formed this week at the request of Gov. Tommy G. Thompson in the aftermath of a dispute over former junior welterweight champion Aaron Pryor’s return to the ring last week. Cummings’ agency received sharp criticism after it granted Pryor a license for the May 16 fight against Daryl Jones in Madison after four other states had denied Pryor a license because of impaired vision in one eye.

The seven-member panel is to advise Cummings on boxing issues until a state boxing commission is re-established in the state. The state’s boxing commission was disbanded in 1980.

Promoter Gary Pliner has scheduled a June 9 bout in Lake Geneva for Quarry, who has not boxed for 13 years except for two exhibitions in 1983. The panel recommended that Pliner not be awarded the permit for the fight based on insufficient information about the boxers on the ticket. The panel also cited Quarry’s physical condition, saying it did not want the state to become a haven for washed-up fighters.