For purposes of this chapter:
The term "boxer" means an individual who fights in a professional boxing match.
(A) 1 The term "boxing commission" means an entity authorized under State law to regulate professional boxing matches.
The term "boxer registry" means any entity certified by the Association of Boxing Commissions for the purposes of maintaining records and identification of boxers.
The term "licensee" means an individual who serves as a trainer, second, or cut man for a boxer.
The term "manager" means a person who receives compensation for service as an agent or representative of a boxer.
The term "matchmaker" means a person that proposes, selects, and arranges the boxers to participate in a professional boxing match.
The term "physician" means a doctor of medicine legally authorized to practice medicine by the State in which the physician performs such function or action.
The term "professional boxing match" means a boxing contest held in the United States between individuals for financial compensation. Such term does not include a boxing contest that is regulated by an amateur sports organization.
The term "promoter" means the person primarily responsible for organizing, promoting, and producing a professional boxing match. The term "promoter" does not include a hotel, casino, resort, or other commercial establishment hosting or sponsoring a professional boxing match unless-
(A) the hotel, casino, resort, or other commercial establishment is primarily responsible for organizing, promoting, and producing the match; and
(B) there is no other person primarily responsible for organizing, promoting, and producing the match.
The term "State" means each of the 50 States, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and any territory or possession of the United States, including the Virgin Islands.
The term "effective date of the contract" means the day upon which a boxer becomes legally bound by the contract.
The term "boxing service provider" means a promoter, manager, sanctioning body, licensee, or matchmaker.
The term "contract provision" means any legal obligation between a boxer and a boxing service provider.
The term "sanctioning organization" means an organization that sanctions professional boxing matches in the United States-
(A) between boxers who are residents of different States; or
(B) that are advertised, otherwise promoted, or broadcast (including closed circuit television) in interstate commerce.
The term "suspension" includes within its meaning the revocation of a boxing license.
(
2000-Par. (9).
Par. (10).
Pars. (11) to (15).
"(1) Section 9 [now section 17, enacting section 6308 of this title] shall not apply to an otherwise authorized boxing commission in the Commonwealth of Virginia until July 1, 1998.
"(2) Sections 5 through 9 [enacting sections 6304 to 6308 of this title] shall take effect on July 1, 1997."
"(1) Professional boxing differs from other major, interstate professional sports industries in the United States in that it operates without any private sector association, league, or centralized industry organization to establish uniform and appropriate business practices and ethical standards. This has led to repeated occurrences of disreputable and coercive business practices in the boxing industry, to the detriment of professional boxers nationwide.
"(2) State officials are the proper regulators of professional boxing events, and must protect the welfare of professional boxers and serve the public interest by closely supervising boxing activity in their jurisdiction. State boxing commissions do not currently receive adequate information to determine whether boxers competing in their jurisdiction are being subjected to contract terms and business practices which may violate State regulations, or are onerous and confiscatory.
"(3) Promoters who engage in illegal, coercive, or unethical business practices can take advantage of the lack of equitable business standards in the sport by holding boxing events in States with weaker regulatory oversight.
"(4) The sanctioning organizations which have proliferated in the boxing industry have not established credible and objective criteria to rate professional boxers, and operate with virtually no industry or public oversight. Their ratings are susceptible to manipulation, have deprived boxers of fair opportunities for advancement, and have undermined public confidence in the integrity of the sport.
"(5) Open competition in the professional boxing industry has been significantly interfered with by restrictive and anticompetitive business practices of certain promoters and sanctioning bodies, to the detriment of the athletes and the ticket-buying public. Common practices of promoters and sanctioning organizations represent restraints of interstate trade in the United States.
"(6) It is necessary and appropriate to establish national contracting reforms to protect professional boxers and prevent exploitive business practices, and to require enhanced financial disclosures to State athletic commissions to improve the public oversight of the sport."
"(1) to protect the rights and welfare of professional boxers on an interstate basis by preventing certain exploitive, oppressive, and unethical business practices;
"(2) to assist State boxing commissions in their efforts to provide more effective public oversight of the sport; and
"(3) to promote honorable competition in professional boxing and enhance the overall integrity of the industry."
1 So in original. No subpar. (B) has been enacted.