Roth watched fellow Delawarean Tiberi's longshot bid to dethrone Toney on TV and was outraged when the champion left the ring at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City still in possession of his title. Never mind that 14 ringside reporters were evenly split over who deserved to win; to Roth, Tiberi's misfortune symbolized all victims in individual sports in which athletes have comparatively little say over their destinies.
Roth subsequently introduced Senate Bill 2852, which would create a non- profit Professional Boxing Corp.
Five months into the most extensive government probe into boxing since the late Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.) decried the "racketeers and hoodlums who infest professional boxing" in 1960, Roth and other members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations are intent on picking up the torch that Kefauver carried. These are the first public hearings in the matter.
"I am convinced that uniform rules and strong investigative powers of a centralized authority are essential if professional boxing is to regain its credibility," Roth said in a prepared statement before hearing testimony.
Tiberi has not fought since he faced Toney and has opened a youth center outside Wilmington. He refused an offer of $200,000 for a rematch.
"I'm not entering the ring again until justice prevails in boxing," Tiberi told the Senate panel. Tiberi, 25, is recognized by a resolution of the Delaware legislature as the IBF middleweight champion in that state.
"At first, I got calls from fighters who told me I was crazy to turn down the money," he said. "Now, I think they're beginning to see me as someone standing up to a system that needs to be changed."
