Boxing Odds and Ends: The NSAC Takes a Mellow Approach to Marijuana and More

At their monthly meeting on Wednesday, the Nevada State Athletic commission voted to cease disciplining boxers and MMA fighters who test positive for marijuana. The agency will continue to test for marijuana and a boxer who shows an elevated level of THC could be barred from entering the ring.

The ruling isn’t retroactive. At the same meeting, Canadian MMA campaigners Misha Cirkunov and Gillian Robertson were slapped with suspensions and fines for marijuana. Cirkunov was ordered to serve a 6-month suspension and fined $4,000. The penalty for Ms. Robertson was 4 ½ months and $2,000. Both will likely appeal and in light of this new development their appeals will likely be successful.

One could see the liberalization coming a mile away. In November of 2017, voters in Nevada approved a measure that legalized the recreational use of marijuana by individuals 21 years of age and older. The NSAC eventually removed marijuana from the list of performance enhancing drugs while keeping the ban in place.

The commission’s policy on marijuana has come a long way since 2012 when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was hit with a $900,000 fine and 9-month suspension after testing positive for marijuana following his match with Sergio Martinez. Three years later UFC fighter Nate Diaz was suspended for five years and fined $165,000 for the same infraction.

Both were repeat offenders and both would succeed in getting their penalties sharply reduced, but the penalties were so Draconian that the Nevada Athletic Commission came off looking like Simon Legree.

Wednesday’s ruling pleases octogenarian promoter Bob Arum who has long advocated for the decriminalization of marijuana and who told CBS Sports in a 2017 interview that he “still has a puff now and then.” Arum said he first used marijuana when he was in his 30s and he called his occasional use of the weed one of his secrets to longevity.

By the way, Nevada legislators recently passed a measure that would allow for marijuana lounges. As it now stands, Nevadans cannot consume a marijuana product at the place where it was purchased.

Will this open the door to marijuana lounges inside Nevada’s hotel-casinos? That will eventually come, of that I am certain, but it is going to take a while. The law that the voters approved stipulated no dispensaries within 1,500 feet of a casino.

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Trivia Time: John L. Sullivan, the first boxer to transcend his sport and become famous for being famous, and UFC superstar Conor McGregor had the same occupation before finding fame and fortune in the prize ring. Name it (answer below).

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R.I.P. – Lehlo Ledwaba

Former world super bantamweight champion Lehlo Ledwaba wasn’t the first prominent ex-boxer to fall victim to Covid-19, but he was the youngest (to this point). Ledwaba was 49 when he passed away in Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, on July 2.

One of the first black South Africans to make his mark on the international sporting scene following the end of apartheid, Ledwaba won the vacant IBF 122-pound title in 1999 with a unanimous decision over John Michael Johnson and made five successful defenses before losing the belt on a TKO-5 to Manny Pacquiao.

Ledwaba rebounded with a 12-round decision over countryman Vuyani Bungu who had held this same belt, but he would win only two of his final six fights, leaving the sport with a detached retina and a final record of 36-6-1 (23). In retirement he stayed active in boxing and would be credited with launching the career of knockout artist Zolani Tete who would win world titles at 115 and 118 pounds.

“So said to hear of the passing of Lehlo Ledwaba,” said Manny Pacquiao on Twitter. “He was a true champion in and out of the ring and left behind an amazing legacy. RIP champ.”

Other notable ex-boxers who have passed away in the last 18 months and whose deaths were laid at the doorstep of Covid-19 or attributed to complications from it include Nelson Cuevas (age 80), Hedgemon Lewis (74), Miguel Castellani (73), Juan Domingo Roldan (63) and Angelo Rottoli (61). In South Africa, which is experiencing a deadly third wave of the virus, the total number of deaths to date has been pegged at 61,500.

Answer to trivia question: plumber’s assistant

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