This is a fight that Mesi should give up
Joe Mesi should go to Freeport, Ill., before he goes to court to sue the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
He needs to visit Gerald McClellan, the former super middleweight champion who is now blind, crippled, and barely able to speak. He needs to see what happens when a fighter injures his brain and lives. He needs to see what McClellan's life is like -- cared for 24 hours a day by his brave sisters, with little support from the sport that put their brother in his dark state.
He needs to go visit a few gravesites, too. Go talk to the headstones of Duk Koo Kim and Jimmy Garcia and Ernie Schaff, the old heavyweight Max Baer killed in the ring. Go talk to the ghosts of Robert Wangila and Pedro Alcazar, the last two professional boxers to die in Nevada from subdural hematomas.
Go see if the family of Beethoven Scottland, who died after a beating from George ''Khalid" Jones, would advise him to try suing his way back into the ring after suffering two subdural hematomas in his last fight, a win over former cruiserweight champion Vassiliy Jirov in March 2004.
When he goes, he should take a Concord, Mass., neurosurgeon named Robert Cantu with him. See if Cantu thinks he should fight one more time, the way he said he should at the hearing in Nevada last week, when Mesi was denied a boxing license because of those brain bleeds.
Ask Cantu just how sure he is that a boxer who suffers bleeding on the brain is as fit to fight as anyone else, as he told the commission. Most of all, ask Cantu what he'd tell his son to do if he'd had two brain bleeds. Ask Cantu if he'd be standing in front of the Massachusetts Boxing Commission arguing for him to be relicensed in such a circumstance.
Three other doctors spoke on Mesi's behalf. They all argued that NSAC Rule 467.017 is not supported by medical evidence. That rule says: ''The Commission will not issue or renew a license to engage in unarmed combat to an applicant or an unarmed combatant who has suffered a cerebral hemorrhage." They say it's not supported by medical evidence but acknowledge that there is no medical evidence to indicate what might happen to a fighter who competes after suffering a subdural hematoma. In other words, Mesi is the guinea pig.
Cantu and his associates talked of auto racers and a college football player and even a female soccer player who suffered subdural hematomas and returned to action. They didn't mention that auto racers and football players wear helmets or that the aim of soccer is not to hit your opponent in the head. To compare what an auto racer does to what Jack Dempsey or Sonny Liston did would be comical were this not a life-and-death scenario.
What Mesi can't see is that he's the lucky one. He's the one who didn't die. The one who didn't end up like McClellan. He got a warning after complaining of headaches following the Jirov fight and got to a doctor in time. Benny ''Kid" Paret complained of headaches, too, but no one checked his head, and the next time he got in the ring, Emile Griffith beat him to death.
Cause of death: Subdural hematoma. Bleeding on the brain. Sound familiar, Joe?
Mesi's stubbornness is understandable. At 29, he was undefeated and on his way to being the No. 1 contender for the heavyweight title. Millions of dollars and the fulfillment of a dream were only a fight or two away. Then he struggled badly against Jirov in the final rounds, barely holding on to win.
When his head continued to hurt, MRIs were taken and the bleeding was found. He and his father for a long time denied that bleeding on the brain had occurred. Eventually it all came out, including the multiple MRIs paid for by Mesi and taken at different times until the brain bleeding had receded to the point where it could not be detected. Problem was, the NSAC didn't want only the last MRI, it wanted all the MRIs. Once the commissioners saw them, Rule 467.017 finished Mesi's career.
The frustration is not easy for a young athlete to cope with. To look for ways around the sad reality is normal, and if you look long enough, as Reggie Lewis did, you'll find a doctor who will clear you to do whatever you want. He might even be there when they bury you.
Mesi found Cantu, but there are a lot of other doctors with more intimate knowledge of the ravages of prizefighting who have aligned themselves on the other side. Cantu may be right, but if he's not, Mesi may pay a high price. He could wind up dead or another Gerald McClellan.
Suing to get back in the ring is what the Mesi family intends to do, and Cantu will testify on their behalf. He'll say Mesi is at no more risk than any other boxer. He'll believe he's right. The guy who told Paret to go fight Griffith thought he was right, too. There was nothing more to say after that fight but the prayers.
Short jabs
Some have already started to beat the drum for a world title fight in Boston between World Boxing Association heavyweight champion John Ruiz and Dorchester's Kevin McBride, who beat Mike Tyson into submission last Saturday night. There is interest at the FleetCenter and talk of possibly putting it on at the new Agganis Center at Boston University. Some believe the Chelsea native would pack in the Hispanic crowd and McBride would bring in the Irish for an ethnic clash that would echo boxing's golden days when such matchups drove the sport. But before we get ahead of ourselves, McBride was an unranked heavyweight when he got in with Tyson. Truth be told, Tyson was as well, except by the World Boxing Council, which had him 13th. McBride's victory was one he can be proud of, but the Tyson he beat had won only one of his last four matches and hadn't had a major victory in a decade. McBride deserves to get a major payday out of this, but a world title shot? Still, Ruiz's people have talked with McBride's and with promoter Don King's office. King said from his home in Ohio yesterday that he will speak with Marty Wynn, whose Raging Promotions company has an option on McBride's next fight as part of the deal to put him in with Tyson. It never expected to have to exercise it, but the only way to recoup the millions it invested is to get McBride a big fight . . . King hopes to get Ruiz back into the ring by September, and word from Las Vegas is that Ruiz has decided his surgically repaired nose will be ready sooner than October or November, as first believed . . . Tyson's manager, Shelly Finkel, didn't waste any time stepping over his beaten fighter. According to McBride's people, Finkel tried to buttonhole McBride immediately after the postfight news conference to talk about what he could do for his career. . . . Saturday night, HBO offers a doubleheader of interest with light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson defending against Antonio Tarver in a rematch. Underneath is the return of former welterweight champion Ike Quartey (35-2-1, 30 KOs), who is coming out of an almost five-year retirement to face a tough challenge from former junior middleweight champion Verno Phillips (38-10-1, 20 KOs). Quartey was only 29 when he retired, and new promoter Lou DiBella hopes a big win over Phillips could put Quartey in line for a lucrative rematch with Oscar De La Hoya.
Local bleatings
New England Ringside promotions is running a July 1 ESPN2 show at Memorial Hall in Plymouth, with George Jones (22-2-1, 13 KOs) headlining vs. Freddy Moore (30-3, 27 KOs) in a 12-rounder. In the co-feature, South African heavyweight Courage Tshabalala (26-3, 22 KOs) is on the comeback trail vs. Providence's Robert Wiggins (19-4, 11 KOs). Also on the card is fast-rising prospect John Duddy (10-0, 9 KOs) in a six-round middleweight fight. Duddy, originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, now fights out of New York and is being keenly watched by several major promoters. Last week he won every round vs. Patrick Thompson at Madison Square Garden underneath Migeul Cotto's TKO of Muhammad Abdullaev . . . If you missed McBride-Tyson on pay-per-view, you can see it on Showtime Saturday night at 9 . . . Promoter Rich Cappiello brings Ian Gardner (18-2, 7 KOs) back July 5 vs. Marcos Primera (19-10-2, 12 KOs) on ESPN2. Gardner upset hot prospect Tukunbo Olajide a while back but is coming off a 12-round loss to Arthur Abraham . . . There was a mess in Lynn last weekend when the Massachusetts Boxing Commission wisely refused to allow former world champion Gerry Penalosa to fight late substitute Felix Murillo when Murillo's 15-3 record didn't match what Fight Fax, the New Jersey-based clearinghouse, had for him. Penalosa (48-5-2) was originally scheduled to fight Reynaldo Hurtado Arendo, but Arendo was knocked out the Tuesday before the fight by ex-World Boxing Organization bantamweight champion Mauricio Martinez.
Material from personal interviews, wire services, and other beat writers was used in this report. 
