By Dave Sholler

Sometimes, being the person in charge has its perks. And sometimes, when controversy strikes, it doesn’t.

For proof of this, just ask NBA Commissioner David Stern (dealing with a referee accused of gambling) or NFL boss Roger Goodell (entrenched in turmoil with Michael Vick’s alleged dog fighting case). Regardless of their unlimited access to sports’ greatest games and stars and all of the glitz and glamour that is associated with professional athletics, sports executives are often given the task of managing public relations nightmares.

As the managerial faces of their respective sports, executives like Stern and Goodell can take much of the credit for their leagues’ successes, but are often forced to take much of the blame for their failures, too. One minute they are celebrating billion dollar revenues like the corporate big wigs they are, and the next they are facing the intense bright lights of a scandal.

Unlike the NBA and NFL, the sport of boxing lacks a true head honcho who must face similar music. When Mike Tyson is prosecuted for committing an offense, does anyone in the sweet science play the role of Roger Goodell? Unfortunately, with the cluster of alphabet soup organizations and the lack of one definitive “boss,” the answer is no. Likewise, if one of the sport’s top referees was fixing fights, who would lead the way as the unheralded voice for reform?

With all of this said, imagine that you got an email with the subject line “Monster Jobs: Boxing Seeks Commissioner.” Imagine that you opened the email to find that the boxing organizations had finally gotten together to appoint one, true boss. This unbiased boss would oversee all of the world councils and be responsible for supervising the ratings systems, implementing proper judging and refereeing mechanisms, and working as an intermediary to ensure that boxers, managers, and promoters interact legally and ethically.

Under his/her leadership, all of the boxing councils would report to the Office of the Commissioner, an office that wouldn’t be run by any particular form of government, but by an official or officials who truly know and understand boxing.

Ok, so it sounds a little far-fetched, but we did ask you to just imagine. Still, if you were on the search committee, what would you look for in a candidate? What reform would you like to see done? In a sport where some titles mean the world and others mean next to nothing, how would you determine champions?

As you can see, there are a lot of options to consider. But since we have created an illusion and job opening for a knight-in-shining-armor boxing leader, we are best served to throw out some items we’d like to see incorporated into the sport moving forward. Since this is a dream, it’s hard not to be compelled to create some truly improbable boxing occurrences. Nevertheless, if we were in charge of appointing one unquestioned, undisputed boxing boss, here is what we wouldn’t mind seeing him/her do:

Create Better Fight Cards: As Commissioner, you better get to know HBO and Showtime execs quickly. In doing so, the objective would be to create more entertaining cards. Instead of just showcasing one or two fights, how about doing more cards like HBO’s July 14 broadcast?

Why couldn’t Carlos Baldomir and Vernon Forrest fight on the undercard of Hopkins-Wright instead of staging the two a week apart? Throw in an Erik Morales fight to that card and all of the sudden you’ve got three hours of outstanding boxing. And from the networks’ side of things, it is conceivable that you’d get more bang for your production and travel bucks. Instead of jumping from venue to venue each week, you can create less frequent, but more compelling fight nights. Meanwhile, you can use your preliminary fights to promote young talent and give them exposure by fighting on a loaded card. By adding up-and-coming, yet unknown talent to a stacked card, there is a good chance that fighters will be discovered at big fights since they often command a big media/viewing presence.

Define True Champions: Do we really need a dozen welterweight champions? Can we settle this matter by following the NCAA’s lead and having some sort of boxing March Madness? Can we rank the top welterweights in the world and, like bracketology, have the fighters annually determine who the best is? While it would almost certainly never happen, could Showtime and HBO agree to alternate on coverage of particular fights in Boxing’s March Madness, with a final, joint PPV determining the true champion of the division? Again, we ask you to dream. After all, it would be more fun to fill out a boxing bracket featuring the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Paul Williams, and Miguel Cotto than a basketball bracket featuring Wichita State, Winthrop, and Kent State.

Found R&J University: On the sprawling campus of Referee and Judges University, students would be taught the value of separating fighters from the clinch, when and where to stop a fight, and how to score power punches vs. pitty-pat shots. This four-year accredited program, featuring degree tracks in Judging, Refereeing, and Boxing Administration, would be mandatory for all prospective boxing officials.

Increase Exposure: When the Antonio Tarver-Elvir Muriqi bout fell through for ABC in April, a good opportunity to enhance boxing’s network exposure was lost. Many impressionable boxing fans don’t have access to HBO and Showtime, and thus are not given the chance to see the sport at its finest. While they can check out ESPN’s frequent boxing telecasts, it still would be nice for one of the other major networks to broadcast a night at the fights.

Convincing a big, recognizable name like Oscar De La Hoya to appear on a network card wouldn’t hurt either. While it would be tough to meet his financial demands, big sponsors would most likely pony up the money to make ends meet given the Golden Boy’s name value. And if Oscar cares about the future of the sport, could he sacrifice a few dollars for the overall good of the sport? That in itself is a tough task for the Commissioner.

In the end, the recent troubles in the NFL and NBA have at least shed light that all sports, no matter their financial standing, are prone to controversy. However, under the guidance of strong leaders and creative thinkers, both the NFL and NBA will undoubtedly live to fight another day. Both Stern and Goodell understand the value of marketing and product development in their respective businesses and boxing insiders should take heed.

If they don’t continually improve and enhance their product, boxing’s businessmen are taking a gamble and will find themselves in a dog fight of their own. With new combat sports like MMA captivating younger audiences, boxing will need to pull out all the stops to attract new viewers. By thinking outside of the box and generating exciting ideas, boxing should have no problem coming out on top. Anyone interested in becoming Commissioner?

Dave Sholler is the boxing analyst for ESPN 1450 AM in Atlantic City. Listen to his commentary weekdays from 4-7pm on ESPN 1450 or visit www.1450espn.com.