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Boxer:Marty Maestas:019979 moved to Human:19979: Pagemove by bot

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Unknown user at 00:00, 1 January 2005

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Marty �Machine Gun� Maestas wants to fight again.

That�s nothing new to anyone who knows anything in Albuquerque�s boxing scene. Since he was �suspended indefinitely� after his last fight in 2000, Maestas has been trying to get his license to fight back. He�s tried just about everything�except doing what�s required of him, and that�s provide proof that he�s physically sound.

The question here, though, is not so much if the New Mexico Athletic Commission will, but should the Commission reinstate Marty Maestas? Is it actually safe for Maestas to fight? Maestas has almost died from ring injuries twice�is it ethical or sensible to give the Grim Reaper a third chance to score the indefinite knockout against the Machine Gun?

Maestas wants that third chance. Finally having his life together, after long periods of drug use, intermittent crime and even homelessness during the last ten years, he wants to fight�and he�ll take that chance. Boxing, he says, is in his blood. Besides, he�s on a mission, to prove something to himself and to others:

�I�m trying to make this comeback because I know I was a lot better than my record shows,� says Maestas. �I had a lot of obstacles in my life, like all the drugs I took, and now I�m doing a lot better. I�m also making a comeback because I�ve been insulted by so many people. Now, I�ll prove to them . . . and I won�t retire until I�ve made up for all my losses.�

For the past year, Maestas has been relentless in his quest to be re-licensed.

�Marty has asked to be reinstated but until we can get a recommendation from the Commission�s Medical Advisory Board, he�ll remain suspended indefinitely,� says Max Madrid, Chairman for the Commission. �Based on his previous medical condition and the knockout sustained in his last fight, he was suspended. Now, until the Medical Advisory Should Board can determine if there�s a health condition that prevents him from fighting, he�ll stay on that list.�

While the Commission waits for word from the Medical Advisory Board, the Medical Advisory Board, too, waits on more information:

�There is simply not enough information to make a judgment on whether Marty Maestas should fight again,� says Dr. Jon Wagner.

Wagner told Maestas that before he could advise the Commission on his case, Marty would have to undergo a screening procedure with a neurologist. Maestas shelled out the $250 for the tests and the neurologist concluded that further testing needed to be done: complete neuropsychological testing and an MRI.

Maestas protested, claiming that he could not afford it. The tests are not cheap. In a sport where Maestas is looking to make somewhere between $400 and $600 on his first fight back, he would need two or three fights to pay for the required exams and MRI.

Maestas hounded Dr. Wagner for another solution and he was advised to get the medical records from the hospital where he was treated in Tacoma, WA following a fight in 1997 in which he suffered a stroke in the ring after being knocked out.

�With those records, we could, perhaps, make a decision to keep Maestas suspended,� says Wagner. �But, in a best case scenario for Marty, he�d still have to have new tests done to compare the results of those earlier tests.�

Those records, says Maestas, have since been requested from the hospital in Tacoma.

While there are not too many people in the boxing community who think it�s a good idea for Maestas to fight again, the subject of his possible reinstatement raises several ethical questions: Should Maestas pass the required tests, does the NMAC have the right to deny him a license? And: Did the Commission have the right to suspend his license in the first place?

The fight that put Maestas on the suspension list was against Adriano Sanchez in February of 2000. Sanchez, 6-1 at the time, was a top Fresquez prospect and Maestas was the obvious opponent, coming in with a record of 3-12-1. Throughout the fight, Maestas took a lot of punishment and in the 7th, the fight was stopped.

Promoter Lenny Fresquez later learned that Maestas had been involved with drugs, and had been seen snorting coke before his fight.

�He shouldn�t have gone down from those punches,� says Fresquez. �I think it was a combination of drugs he was on, and embarrassment. But regardless, �Machine Gun� was an exciting fighter. A crowd pleaser. He didn�t always win but he always came to fight.�

Despite the odds stacked in Sanchez�s favor, Maestas actually put up a good fight, hurting Sanchez in the 2nd round.

�I was doing good in the fight,� says Maestas. �But at the end of the 6th, I was fatigued and shaky and I collapsed. It had nothing to do with a neurological problem or the stroke I suffered in a previous fight. It was dehydration.

�At the hospital, the doctor asked me if I�d drank any water that day and I said just one or two glasses. I explained that I�d lost 20 pounds in two weeks for this fight. They checked me and did a blood test and said it was dehydration. That�s why they took my license away�so why should I have to take neurological tests? Lots of fighters collapse from dehydration.�

The fight that is really in question is the one Maestas fought more than two years before in Canada in which he was matched up unfairly against Alex Bunema, a rising prospect at the time.

Maestas was knocked out in the 1st round and taken to a hospital in Tacoma, WA where it was determined that he�d suffered a stroke. Ironically, the athletic commission that sanctioned the fight did not see fit to suspend Maestas indefinitely�he was merely given the routine 60-day suspension all fighters get after a knockout.

Three months after that fight, Maestas was back in New Mexico, approved by the Athletic Commission to fight again. He would fight seven more times, in fact, before his fight with Adriano Sanchez�almost three years after the stroke. Four of those fights would be in New Mexico.

�They said I had a mild stroke and for me, it became just another obstacle for me to overcome. I didn�t know it was a stroke until later. I had half-amnesia at the time, and I was always numb on my left side and I couldn�t tell why.

�But why didn�t the commission suspend me after that? Instead they�re trying to make me take these tests I can�t afford. They�ve been giving me the runaround, trying to get me to resort to violence so I get locked up or something, I�m not sure, I don�t know . . . It�s not fair that they�re trying to blackball me. I�m my own man and I think they ought to give me another try. If I lose my first fight back, I will retire. But I promise you, I won�t lose. I�ll win . . . .�

Fresquez, Maestas� promoter for several of his fights, says that he would not like to see Maestas back in the ring.

�He�d be pushing it,� says Fresquez. �I think Marty should go visit Andres Fernandez and then maybe he�d understand how serious this is.�

Fernandez fought one too many times last June and after nearly dying from injuries sustained the ring, suffered irreparable damage that has him requiring constant care and unable to work.

Maestas says he understands the risks and has even offered to sign a waiver releasing the Commission of all responsibilities�but they are not budging until he is cleared.

And if the Commission�s final word is no?

�Then it�s God�s Will,� says Maestas. �And God�s Will will be respected.

�But there are places without commissions and if I could win ten fights there and then come back here, the Commission would have to give me back my license . . . .�

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Unknown user at 00:00, 1 January 2005