BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Neurological Exams Under Fire

After years of pleading by California boxing promoters, managers and boxers, it now appears that the state Athletic Commission is finally taking a long look at its neurological testing program.

The “neuros,” mandated by the legislature in 1986, are required yearly of all pro boxers in California. Between 1987 and Aug. 31, 1991, 2,654 exams were given and 204 boxers failed.

Although no one questions the good intentions behind the exams--they are supposed to show if a boxer has boxing-related neurological impairment--promoters, managers and boxers have long complained that the exams are culturally and educationally biased against Latinos and boxers with poor educational backgrounds.

The failure of a prominent boxer to pass his test here recently revived the controversy. Welterweight Luis Ramon Campas, 20, of Navojoa, Mexico, is Mexico’s second-best fighter, behind Julio Cesar Chavez, his handlers say.

But he never had a chance to box last Saturday at the Reseda Country Club.

Campas, who had never fought in California, failed his test in San Diego on Jan. 14. Then he failed a second time, in a longer follow-up test.

“They told us he flunked miserably, both times,” said Dan Goossen, promoter of the Reseda card. “So we were left scrambling, the day before our show.”

Everyone concerned, it seemed, was upset, among them Ferdie Pacheco, who was describing the card on the Spanish Univision network. Portions of the exam were shown on the telecast. Pacheco, a medical doctor, criticized the tests on the air, and later during a phone interview.

“Campas should consider suing the California commission for medical malpractice,” he said during the interview.

“That test is an outrage. How can you possibly tell if this kid, with very little schooling, has brain damage from a test given to him by a doctor using an interpreter?”

Campas’ manager, Guillermo Millan, said Campas dropped out of school before reaching high school.

Roughly the same situation nearly cost the Forum a world title fight two years ago when bantamweight champion Raul Perez of Tijuana had to take the test three times before he passed it--hours before he fought.

Complaints about California’s tests didn’t go unnoticed by the Nevada Athletic Commission, whose legal counsel feared a liability problem with boxers who had failed the California test being licensed in Nevada.

Nevada asked a team of neurologists, including the chief neurology resident at Ohio State University’s School of Medicine, to study the California test.

The team determined that the test was not valid for detecting boxing-related cerebral injuries. The team’s report said that nine boxers who had failed the California exam were given “standard” neurological exams in Nevada and that all passed.

Further, the Nevada study said, the California exam was given to 15 non-boxers and 10 failed.

Now, according to Richard DeCuir, the California commission’s new executive officer, criticism of the tests is being dealt with.

“We’re testing three different groups with the test, people of varying cultural and educational backgrounds, and both English-speaking and non-English-speaking people,” DeCuir said.

“We’re concerned about the criticisms, and we want to look at them. “

Said Bill Eastman, new chairman of the Athletic Commission: “I have a lot of questions about the neuros, and the cultural-bias issue is the most significant question I have.”

The commission has a pending legal problem with the tests as well. Dio Colome, a Dominican who was once a main-event fighter here, failed the test in 1988, was denied a license, then sued the commission for denying him a right to earn a living.

The trial is scheduled to begin in April.

Boxing Notes

The amateur boxer who died recently in Phoenix had competed in his first boxing match. Ramon Gomez, 19, of Chandler, Ariz., died of bleeding of the brain, an autopsy concluded. Gomez collapsed near the end of the third round and died at a Phoenix hospital after surgery. A USA Boxing spokesman said Gomez’s death was the federation’s first boxing-related fatality since 1989. He also said there are about 12,000 USA Boxing bouts each year.