Nevada- A hearing to determine whether Joe Mesi should resume boxing was postponed until June after the suspended heavyweight changed lawyers.
Keith Kizer, Nevada's chief deputy attorney general, said the Nevada State Athletic Commission granted Mesi's request to postpone his May 5 hearing to allow the boxer's new legal team - headed by noted constitutional lawyer Paul Cambria - time to research the case.
Mesi changed lawyers after the commission's medical advisory committee recommended last week Mesi stop boxing after he suffered bleeding on the brain during a brutal fight last year. The commission was expected to follow the recommendation at next week's hearing.
Cambria is a Buffalo-based lawyer whose past clients include Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and alternative rock artist Marilyn Manson. He'll be joined by noted Las Vegas lawyer Richard Wright.
Mesi (29-0) has been barred from fighting since he was hurt during a unanimous decision over Vassiliy Jirov in March 2004.
Nevada doctors feared Mesi would risk a more serious injury if he re-entered the ring. Nevada has a rule against re-licensing boxers that have had any sign of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Cambria noted Mesi submitted medical tests showing the injury to be fully healed. Mesi was also backed by sports neurosurgeon Robert Cantu, who argued Mesi's injury was minor and there are no studies to show a boxer who sustained a hematoma to be predisposed to having another one.
"The bottom line is here that I don't think anybody can say - and the magic words in the legal field are - to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that he is at any greater risk of injury than any other heavyweight who steps into the ring," Cambria said.
Kizer said the burden of proof is on the boxer.
"We all wish he was fine. And if he is fine, please show it," Kizer said. "But they definitely did not show that at the medical advisory hearing."
