Berto Wins but Is No Sure Thing

Another day, another grievance.

So, more than 24 hours after a controversial bout in Tuesday’s opening round of the U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials, two of the team’s brightest stars still hung in limbo with deliberations by a grievance committee stretching late into Wednesday night.

As a result, Andre Berto won a furious struggle in the second round of the 152-pound competition, 20-19, over Vanes Martirosyan on Wednesday night, while also struggling with the thought that he might still be disqualified from the tournament and thus eliminated from contention for a spot on the team for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Fellow 152-pounder Juan McPherson sat in the audience in the Tunica Arena and Exposition Center, watching the Berto-Martirosyan match, knowing that his Olympic dreams have probably already been shattered because of an injury, although McPherson insists he has fully recovered.

The convoluted, confusing crisis began when Tuesday’s match between Berto and McPherson ended with 27 seconds remaining in the fourth and final round with McPherson lying on the canvas in obvious agony, clutching the back of his head.

McPherson had been thrown there by Berto, who was trying to break away from McPherson’s holding tactics.

Referee Dennis O’Connell stopped the bout and disqualified Berto, apparently knocking him out of the tournament. After McPherson was taken to the Memphis Regional Medical Center, Berto’s handlers filed a grievance, which was upheld by a committee of five.

Having studied a videotape of the incident, the committee awarded Berto the bout, ruling the foul was not flagrant and, because McPherson was physically unable to continue, he would be dropped into the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination event.

But when McPherson, who had been released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon, arrived at the arena Wednesday morning to continue in the trials, medical clearance in hand, a trio of USA Boxing doctors ruled that McPherson’s medical paperwork was not sufficient to allow him to get back into the ring.

“The medical information from the hospital was not clear enough,” said Eric Parthen, executive director of USA Boxing, “for our doctors to be comfortable with someone boxing who was carried out of the ring 24 hours ago on a stretcher, wearing a neck brace.

“Our No. 1 priority is the safety of the fighter. Our No. 2 priority is the liability for USA Boxing and the liability of the doctors.”

McPherson’s handlers immediately filed a protest, but, before it could be heard, his scheduled bout Wednesday was held. Because McPherson was not allowed to fight, he was ruled out of the tournament.

With an afternoon of deliberations failing to result in a verdict, the committee reconvened late Wednesday night. Because McPherson has already been eliminated from further competition for medical reasons, the only change a decision by the committee to reverse itself will produce is Berto’s disqualification for a second and presumably final time.

“Since I was 8 years old, I have dreamed of the Olympics,” McPherson said. “This is a nightmare.”