IBF's ratings chairman describes system based on payoffs

The longtime chairman of the IBF ratings committee described a system that helped or penalized boxers based on payoffs from promoters and managers.

The chairman, C. Douglas Beavers, testified on Tuesday that his panel was a sham because only he and IBF founder Robert W. Lee did the rankings, and that Lee had the final say and often ignored the sanctioning body's written criteria.

Beavers, Virginia's top boxing official for 19 years, also told the jury in Lee's racketeering case that the sport's biggest promoters, including Don King, regularly got special consideration from Lee.

The International Boxing Federation derives about 90 percent of its revenues from sanctioning fees paid by promoters of boxers in IBF title fights, Beavers said during his first full day on the witness stand.

Beavers, who cooperated with investigators and is testifying with immunity, said he split bribes with Lee and two other IBF officials since shortly after the IBF was formed in 1983 so he could stay at the helm of the rankings committee.

"I didn't think that president Lee would trust me if I didn't take the bribes," he said. "I wanted to make sure that all the young fighters, or as much as I could control, got a shot on their ability."

Nevertheless, Beavers described how the IBF rankings were corrupted to favor certain boxers, including heavyweights Francois Botha and Joe Hipp.

They are among about two dozen fighters that prosecutors say benefited from Lee's manipulations. No boxers have been charged, and Beavers said he never got a payoff from a fighter.

King, whose offices in Deerfield Beach, Florida, were raided in June as part of the investigation, and 11 other promoters and managers are called unindicted co-conspirators by prosecutors.

Lee and other IBF officials are accused of taking $338,000 in bribes to rig rankings, which play a big role in determining whom a boxer fights and how much he earns.

Beavers said that as a result of the corruption, he was not surprised when FBI agents approached him in May 1997.

"I asked them, 'What took you so long?"' Beavers said. He began cooperating because, "I didn't want to go to jail."

Beavers wore a "body wire" to secretly record hundreds of conversations with Lee, and in coming weeks is to guide the jury through 80 of them, as well as videotaped meetings they had in which money was exchanged.

The trial, now in its second week, is expected to last three months. In the meantime, a court-appointed monitor is overseeing the IBF, and Lee is barred from participating in IBF affairs.