VINTAGE 2000 COLUMN: WHY NEVADA BOXING STILL APPEARS SHADY!

March 3rd, 2010 By Pedro Fernandez

NEVADA CONTROVERSY STILL APPLIES DECADE LATER

Las Vegas, NV- The recent confirmation by Governor Kenny Guinn of Dr. Tony Alamo Jr. as the head of the Nevada Medical Advisory Board has all the earmarks of yet another undeserving political appointee, and one who hasn’t even cut his teeth yet on boxing. If that’s the same as not ever working a fight, then we are talking about Dr. Tony Alamo Jr.

DAD ALMOST #1 CHEESE IN CASINO

Tony Alamo Sr. is the man that brought us Jr. As Senior Vice President of the Mandalay Bay Resort Group, he is within spitting distance of being the CEO. Seeing this same MB group is a quasi promoter of sorts holding fights in their fabulous Events Center, my Stanford law wiz says it is without question, “A conflict of interest.”

ALL ABOUT PUBLIC’S PERCEPTION

“Think about all the problems with this appointment, the baggage it carries is a load so great that I’m surprised a Governor would do it. First of all, Nevada is all about sports gambling. And with his father being that high up in a casino, I just think that if he were to make a critical decision, the perception could be that what he was doing might be affected by the fact of who his father is.”

ON THE GIG TRAINING

“Looking at this strictly from a Lawyer’s point of view. The fact that he has no experience in boxing medicine can end up being a liability for the State. I know I’d want an MD with more than just parental connections, and a medical license examining me if I were in the business of trauma, giving and receiving.”

ATTORNEY GENERAL QUIZZED

Asst. Attorney General Kirk Hendrick put it like this when I posed the conflict of interest question to him last week. “I’m sure the Governor thought about that before he made the appointment. Yes, I can see where the perception of some people thinking that there might be a conflict of interest.”

WHO THE HELL IS JOHN ENSIGN?

As I was gathering information up for the Arum Hearing next week, I kept running into the name of Ensign. First it was Mark Ensign, and when I searched the Internet and Nevada’s public files, I came up with the name John Ensign.

TONY SR.’S BOSS

It turns out that Mark Ensign is the CEO/Chairman of the Board for the Mandalay Bay properties. He is the father of John Ensign, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada. And it was Mark Ensign who leaned on the Governor I’m told to appoint Tony Alamo Jr. to that of Nevada’s #1 medical person on boxing.

THE NEW MR. BIG?

No, Ensign cannot yet even put his toes in the shoes of a Sig Rogich, the most powerful man in the entire state of Nevada. But he is viable candidate for #2 with his title and political clout. Mark Ensign is said to be so controlling that I was told to not mention him in any negative manner, for that he has the wrath of Gangues Khan when he’s angry. Yeah, like I care!

2010 UPDATE ON JOHN ENSIGN

Today, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada is in mired in scandal. The aforementioned Mark Ensign, his daddy, paid over $100,000 to a former staffer of his son that the Senator was having sex with! Ensign, who lives in a Christian commune while staying in Washington, is just as I had alluded to a decade ago, a piece of shit! As for Tony Alamo Jr., another walking and breathing turd, he now runs the Athletic Commission in Nevada.

Pedro Fernande