Mesi Fighting for His Boxing Life.

Joe Mesi could have been more than a contender. He could have fought Mike Tyson and made millions. He could have been the champ. Mesi had everything it took to be boxing’s next superstar. He spoke in complete sentences, looked good in front of the camera, and could flatten fellow heavyweights with one big right hand. They called him the third franchise in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, where his fights drew huge crowds. It didn’t hurt that Baby Joe is white in a sport where color, unfortunately, sometimes does matter. By all rights, Mesi should have been fighting for the title by now with his perfect 29-0 record. Instead, he’s in another kind of fight, one Mesi isn’t favored to win. This one will be between dueling medical experts, and it’s not likely to be pretty. Suspended from boxing after his last fight, Mesi goes before Nevada boxing officials next month to plead for a return to the ring. He wants to be able to take punches to the head, knowing all along that the last time that happened he left the ring bleeding inside his brain.

It’s the kind of bleeding that kills fighters, four alone in Nevada in the last ten years. Then again, you don’t become the heavyweight champion without taking some risks, even if they may cost you your life. Mesi is more than willing to take that chance. “If I had any slight doubt that I’d get killed or badly injured I would not do this,” Mesi said. “Why would anyone in their right mind do it if they thought they would be hurt?”

That’s what some in boxing are asking about Mesi. He’s thirty-one, seemingly healthy and has a few dollars in the bank.

He’s also got an MRI taken after his fight last March with Vassiliy Jirov showing a subdural hematoma on his brain. In layman’s terms, it’s blood clots on the surface of the brain, the same thing that killed fighters such as Jimmy Garcia and Pedro Alcazar recently in Las Vegas rings.

“The bottom line is that this is the reason most fighters die,” said Dr. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist and ring physician who heads the Nevada Athletic Commission’s medical advisory board.

Ironically, if it weren’t for Mesi himself, no one might have ever known he was injured at all.

Mesi was easily winning his fight against Jirov, a former world cruiserweight champion, and seemed ready to justify his No. 1 ranking by the World Boxing Council when Jirov caught him with a punch to the back of the head late in the ninth round that sent Mesi to the canvas. Jirov knocked Mesi down two more times in the tenth round and he was hanging on desperately to stay upright as the bell sounded to end the final round. Still, Mesi won the fight on the judge’s scorecards, even though he says he can’t remember it now.

The win meant talks could continue between Mesi’s team, including his father, Jack, who manages him, and Tyson’s camp for an August fight at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo. Jack Mesi thought 55,000 people would come to cheer for the hometown hero.

“We had it all in Baby Joe,” the father said. “People don’t realize the magnitude of the dream and the dream for Buffalo.”

But Mesi complained of his head hurting after the Jirov fight, and he was incoherent at times. Nevada’s ringside physician should have sent him to the hospital for tests, but for some reason didn’t. When the headaches continued after Mesi returned home, he went to a doctor who ordered an exam of his brain.

“I went to the doctor on my time, on my dime,” Mesi said. “It wasn’t ordered by anyone and the results and billing should have come to my home address. That didn’t happen, it was sent to the New York commission instead.”

The Nevada commission immediately suspended Mesi on medical grounds. He took several more MRIs over the next months, and sought out a noted sports neurosurgeon in Dr. Robert Cantu, who proclaimed the injury healed and said Mesi should be cleared to fight.

“I’m not trying to downsize subdural hematomas because they’re not nice injuries,” Mesi said. “Kids get killed with these injuries because they have a fight and don’t know they have it. We’re a smart team here, a smart family. My injury was very minor and I feel I’m safe after a year layoff.”

Nevada officials don’t, and if Mesi can’t convince them next month to overturn his suspension he’ll likely either go to court or travel overseas to fight. Under federal boxing regulations, other states must honor Nevada’s suspension.

Boxing, as Tyson likes to say, is a hurt business. It used to be even more of a hurt business until commissions like those in Nevada started taking the risks that fighters face more seriously and requiring them to undergo tests more often to prove they are fit to fight.

There’s still a lot that even the doctors don’t know. They’re not sure why some fighters seem to have a predisposition to bleeding on the brain, or what exactly – other than being hit in the head – causes subdural hematomas.

Nevada wants to err on the side of caution, while Mesi wants to be given a shot at his dream of becoming a heavyweight champion. He’s already behind on points because he must convince the commission he’s at no more risk than any other fighter.

Mesi is in the fight of his life, with a cause he believes is just.

But the last thing boxing needs is to see him fighting for his life.