Late last summer, the governor of Indiana, in his infinite wisdom, decided that the Indiana Boxing Commission
was in need of cost cutting. He was correct in that assumption, since the inept commission loved to call unnecessary
meetings (in addition to the usual one per month) to discuss things they knew nothing about or were qualified to
discuss. The Commission routinely assigned more "inspectors" for "Club Shows" than were necessary,
increasing expense to the state.
Larry Harvey was the full time commission executive officer
who did a very good job running the day to day business of not only boxing, but many other licensing agency's such as funeral
directors and manicure shops, which wasn't easy considering the interference and micro managing of politically apppointed
know nothings (Commissioners) who were constantly badgering him in order to demonstrate their value. So the governor relieved
Larry of his boxing duties, moved the State Boxing administrative offices from the State Office Building (that the state owns)
to the Gaming Commission offices in one of the highest rent privately owned office buildings in the state, then appoint two
full time people at nearly 4 times the salary that Larry Harvey was getting, and who had absolutely no experience in the sport,
even as a fan. Some way to save money, eh? As Don King often says, "Only in America."
The two new appointee's had absolutely ZERO experience with boxing, or the newly created takeover of Mixed Martial Arts. One
of the new fellows had been to one previous boxing card and left before it was over. The second chap had never been to either
type of show in his life. At the time this was taking place, the state due to lack of funds was laying off more than 40 school
bus inspectors. Our governor now wants to run for president, and should give Obama a run for his money in the ways of
government waste and incompetence.
The new boxing geniuses went right to work making more
than 100 pages of changes and or new rules for the regulated sports, which now include pro wrestling. Many years ago,
a wiser governor decided the state should not regulate wrestling since it was a show and not a sport and eliminated it from
licensing and taxation. The average wrestling show in Indiana is lucky of they have 50 paid customers. Now add the tax, the
burden of commission regulations, medicals and bingo,,, no more rasslin!!
The same was
bound to happen with small MMA shows in Indiana, but many of the promoters decided to call their events "Amateur."
No tax, no 100 plus pages of idiotic rules. That left only professionial boxing yet to be destroyed.
The man who engineered this demolition job is named Wade Lawhorn. Thankfully his power mad dash to the mountain
top and subsequent control of all mankind included stepping on someone's toes, with more political clout than he, resulting
in his firing, but not before the damage was done. Those 100 pages of changes are now law. As a result, our company,
after 42 years of building boxing in the state have given up promoting in Indiana. We ask you to remember that when
considering contributing to our man Mitch's presidential campaign effort.
