The decision wasn't unanimous, but it was enough to knock Mike Tyson out of Nevada's boxing future and help establish a standard of integrity for the Nevada Athletic Commission.
The 4-1 vote on Tuesday could effectively cost Las Vegas $100 million in lost business, but this was a matter with long-range consequences -- for boxing in Nevada and for Tyson.
"It was the right thing to do for boxing, the right thing for the state of Nevada and the right thing for Tyson himself," said Flip Homansky, a member of the Athletic Commission and former ringside physician for 16 of Tyson's fights. "I think he has been around enablers for a long time. It was time some entity told him, 'No, you can't have it this way. You have to play by the rules.'"
Homansky was joined by John Bailey and Amy Ayoub in approving Tony Alamo Jr.'s motion to deny Tyson a license to box in Nevada.
The lone no vote came from Commission Chairman Luther Mack, who told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he would have considered a conditional license.
The commission could have been swayed by the economic ill winds of the times, and it could have decided Tyson deserves one more chance to show it's the sport, not the sideshow, that is paramount.
It could have -- and then perhaps watched Tyson pull more of his infamous, sometimes criminal, antics. Tyson has proved himself to be too big a risk.
The commission revoked his license following the 1997 fight at the MGM in which he bit Evander Holyfield's ears. Although he got the license back in 1999, his behaviour in and out of the ring -- including last week's brouhaha at a press conference -- proves he didn't deserve it.
Some argue "It's just boxing" and, winking and nodding, would allow the allure of a big payday to cloud their judgment.
We say the influence of sports in our society today no longer allows us to shrug off criminal, abusive, anti-social behavior of the magnitude of Tyson's.
When the Nevada Athletic Commission had an opportunity to make a significant decision -- to make a statement that was, in the context of sports, noble -- it didn't flinch.
