Gov. Paterson to name woman to boxing commission

NEW YORK

Friday, 25 July 2008 16:43:47

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Gov. David Paterson wants to select longtime boxing judge Melvina Lathan to head the state agency that regulates professional boxing.

State Athletic Commission chairman Ron Scott Stevens has been asked to step aside so Lathan, a commission member, can assume the role.

Lathan was nominated by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer and confirmed by the Senate last year as the first female African-American commissioner. She has judged 83 world championship fights and was inducted into the New Jersey State Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007.

Stevens, a former matchmaker and promoter credited with enforcing stricter regulation of prize fighting in New York since 2003, says he can remain a commissioner until 2009.

Paterson has nominated state Supreme Court Justice Edwin Torres to the third seat on the commission.