By Thomas Hauser

At a January 18 press conference at Barclays Center to announce the March 4 championship bout between Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia, Angel Garcia (who trains his son) called Keith Thurman a “n*gg*r” (or “n*gga” or both). Angel didn’t use asterisks when he spoke. But this website has a policy that precludes posting certain obscenities and other unacceptable language.

Angel Garcia is a provocateur with a well-deserved reputation for unacceptable public conduct. Sooner or later, most of his son’s fights have an unpleasant pre-fight moment as a consequence of Angel crossing over a line. Here, he repeated the epithet several times as part of an incendiary rant and also had a few choice words for “mother****ing immigrants [who] come from another country.” Another member of Team Garcia called Thurman a “f*gg*t.”

There’s a line that separates decency from indecency, and Angel Garcia crossed it. That afternoon, he fit the stereotype of a hate-filled bigot. The press conference could have turned physical if Thurman weren’t the person he is. But Keith took the high road, labeling Garcia’s rant “unnecessary” and “a form of ignorance” before adding, “I can go that route too, but I don’t have to and I’d rather not. I’m above that.”

In a properly-run sport, Garcia would face serious consequences for his outburst. Imagine how NBA Commissioner Adam Silver would react if a coach spoke like that at a press conference or if New York Knicks owner James Dolan said of former Knick power forward Charles Oakley (with whom Dolan is feuding), “F*** that n*gg*.”

Garcia’s views are antithetical to the core beliefs held at DiBella Entertainment (which is promoting the fight), Barclays Center (where the bout will take place), and CBS (which will televise the contest in conjunction with Showtime).

One day after the press conference, Showtime executive vice president Stephen Espinoza condemned Garcia’s outburst, saying, “The remarks were reprehensible and have no place at this event, or anywhere else for that matter.” That followed a statement from Lou DiBella, who tweeted, “N-words, homophobic epithets, and anti-immigrant rhetoric have no place at a boxing press conference (or anywhere else).”

But DiBella then evinced less wisdom, announcing that, to avoid future problems, no member of either fighter’s team would be allowed on the dais at the final pre-fight press conference. That will deprive Angel Garcia of a microphone to use in disseminating his poison. But it was the wrong response because it treats Dan Birmingham (the thoroughly decent man who trains Thurman) as Angel’s equivalent in terms of disgraceful public conduct.

Meanwhile, CBS is still planning to televise the fight in conjunction with Showtime, with or without Angel Garcia in his son’s corner. Lou DiBella will still promote it. Barclays Center will still host it. All of that is appropriate. And boxing fans will come out in force because Thurman-Garcia shapes up as a great fight. Any sanction against Angel Garcia will have to come from the New York State Athletic Commission, which has regulatory authority over the bout.

Angel Garcia is not currently under the jurisdiction of the NYSAC. His previous license to work as a trainer in New York expired last year. However, Section 207.1 of the commission rules and regulations states that no person shall act as a trainer or second in a professional boxing or mixed martial arts competition unless he or she has a valid license issued by the Commission.

In other words, Angel will have to be licensed by the commission before he can work his son’s corner on fight night. Under the law, a license to work as a trainer on fight night is a privilege, not a right.

On January 20, the NYSAC issued a statement that read, “The New York State Athletic Commission does not in any way condone or excuse Mr. Garcia’s words and actions. Angel Garcia is not a licensee of the Commission and therefore is not subject to its jurisdiction at this time. In the event Mr. Garcia pursues a license with the State Athletic Commission, this incident and all relevant information will be reviewed and this matter would be revisited in that context.”

Sources say that, thereafter, the NYSAC communicated indirectly with Garcia, told him that a final decision on licensing wouldn’t be made until fight week, and suggested that, if he avoided further incidents, the license would be granted.

On February 21, a spokesperson for the New York Department of State (which oversees the NYSAC) told this writer that NYSAC personnel had “been in contact with Mr. Garcia and his camp regarding this matter;” that commission personnel would meet with Angel Garcia shortly to discuss his request for a license; and that “the matter will be resolved before the March 4 bout.”

Meanwhile, Danny Garcia hasn’t helped matters. Commenting at the kick-off press conference on his father’s bigoted rant, Danny told the media, “That’s how he is. I can’t change him. I just sit back and laugh.”

Except Angel’s rant wasn’t funny. All good people have an obligation to rebut bigotry and prejudice. At the very least, Danny should have disassociated himself from his father’s diatribe. Instead, he took an opposite tack. Following a February 15 media workout, Danny publicly challenged the NYSAC’s authority by threatening to pull out of the March 4 bout if his father were denied a license to work his corner during the fight.

“I won’t fight,” Danny said. “Nope. What got us here is teamwork. And I know, if they wanna do that, then it’s just something personal. You know what I mean? Who’s gonna work the corner? A ghost?”

Most likely, that’s an idle threat. Pulling out of the fight would expose Danny to lawsuits that could bankrupt him. And to return to the NBA for a moment; suppose Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr called LeBron James a “n*gg*r” (or “n*gga”) and several of the Warriors said they wouldn’t show up for a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers if Kerr were suspended. Does anyone on the planet think that Adam Silver would roll over and play dead?

That said; the New York State Athletic Commission has shown in the past that it sometimes administers one set of rules for the powerful and another set of rules for everyone else.

So . . . What can and should the commission do?

Article 41, Section 1007 of the New York General Business Law requires that all trainers and seconds in combat sports competitions be licensed by the NYSAC and further provides, “The commission shall establish by rule and regulation licensing standards for all licensees.”

Section 207.7 of the NYSAC rules and regulations enumerates these standards, which include demonstration “to the satisfaction of the commission” that the applicant is knowledgable with regard to the commission’s rules and regulations, understands the fundamentals of training, and evinces “general fitness” and “trustworthiness.”

Other than the terms “general fitness” and “trustworthiness,” there’s nothing there that’s remotely relevant to Angel Garcia’s remarks.

Article 41, Section 1014 of the New York General Business Law states, “The commission shall promulgate regulations governing the conduct of authorized professional combative sports that . . . (4) establish responsibilities of all licensees before, during, and after an event; (5) define unsportsmanlike practices.”

Last summer, the NYSAC revised its rules and regulations in a manner that imposed impractical insurance requirements on some combat sports competitions and spared mixed martial arts from many of the requirements that the commission imposes on boxing. But the NYSAC did nothing to address what constitutes unsportsmanlike conduct other than to define the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs and certain fouls committed during competition as “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

In other words; we’re in uncharted territory.

One point of view regarding Angel Garcia can be expressed as follows: The New York State Athletic Commission can issue all the lofty press releases it wants. But if New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s handpicked commissioners license a man who spreads hate by spewing racial epithets and attacking “mother****ing immigrants,” then the governor and his commissioners are enabling hate. Donald Sterling was forced to divest himself of his ownership stake in the Los Angeles Clippers because he objected to his mistress bringing people of color to NBA games. Is it too much to ask that Angel Garcia be required to sit out for one fight?”

But . . . And this is a big but . . .

The NBA is a private enterprise. The New York State Athletic Commission is a government entity. Thus, there must be a Constitutionally permissible basis for the NYSAC’s decisions regarding who it licenses and refuses to license in conjunction with fights.

Let’s assume for a moment that it was Danny Garcia (rather than his father) who uttered the venomous remarks. Should Danny be licensed to fight?

Floyd Mayweather called Manny Pacquiao a “sushi-eating f*gg*t.” Pacquiao called gay people “worse than animals” and posted a Biblical verse on Instagram that, in his view, endorsed gay people being “put to death.” Bernard Hopkins ripped a Puerto Rican flag from Felix Trinidad’s hand and threw it on the ground at a press conference in San Juan to promote their 2001 Madison Square Garden middleweight championship bout.

Suppose a fighter refuses to stand for the National Anthem?

Denying a license can be a slippery slope; particularly when one recalls that Muhammad Ali was denied a license to fight because he refused induction into the United States Army at the height of the war in Vietnam. Ultimately, Ali vs. Oscar Bonavena and Ali-Frazier I were allowed to proceed at Madison Square Garden because a federal judge sitting in New York ruled that the New York State Athletic Commission’s refusal to grant Ali a license to fight was a denial of Ali’s right to “equal protection” under the Constitution.

The issue here is whether the government should be in the business of making judgments about and punishing speech, however reprehensible that speech might be. We wouldn’t trust Donald Trump with the power to decide this issue. Should we trust Ndidi Massay, John Signorile, and Edwin Torres (the three sitting NYSAC commissioners)?

However, there’s one more factor to consider. Not all speech is protected from government interference. The most commonly cited example of this is the illegality of falsely shouting “fire” in a crowded theater because doing so presents a clear and present danger to public safety.

The NYSAC has to weigh the possibility that Angel Garcia’s presence in his son’s corner on fight night will constitute an increased danger to public safety.

Ethnic tensions contributed to the July 11, 1996, riot at Madison Square Garden that erupted after Andrew Golota was disqualified for repeated low blows inflicted on Riddick Bowe and one of Bowe’s seconds (manager Rock Newman) assaulted Golota.

Many of the fans at Barclays Center on March 4 will know the history of Angel Garcia’s bigoted rant. Will that lead to added tension between diverse ethnic groups attending the fight? Maybe not. But Danny Garcia didn’t help matters when he declared last week, "I don't like Thurman. The bad blood will run on March 4th.”

Boxing is an emotional sport. Emotions always run high on fight night, particularly in a fighter’s corner.

Angel Garcia can be calm and rational. And in the next minute, without provocation or warning, he can explode. We don’t know what Angel is going to do on fight night because Angel doesn’t know. He might conduct himself in exemplary fashion. He might be erratic. Left to his own devices, he might decide to walk to the ring wearing a red Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. Under normal circumstances, that would be protected speech. But given the circumstances that presently exist, it would increase tensions outside the ring.

What will Angel do during the fight if Danny is getting beaten up? What if something else goes wrong during the bout? Remember; Danny isn’t just any fighter. Danny is Angel’s son. And Angel has shown that impulse control isn’t his strong point.

If the NYSAC thinks there’s a danger that Angel Garcia will go off the rails on fight night, it’s not enough to warn him not to. Remember; a license to work as a trainer is a privilege, not a right.

Moreover, it’s troubling that Angel Garcia has yet to apologize publicly for his comments. At this point, such an apology might be a matter of convenience rather than heartfelt. But a refusal to apologize and retract would speak to Angel’s mindset and increase the likelihood of problems on fight night.

Finally, the New York State Athletic Commission has known about Angel Garcia’s bigoted rant since January 18. By failing to act in a timely manner, it has created a situation similar to the one that existed prior to Antonio Margarito fighting Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden in 2011.

NYSAC personal knew that Margarito had serious eye problems as early as the kick-off press conference. The commission’s medical staff ruled that Margarito was medically unfit to fight. But the commission waited until the last minute to address the issue and was left with two choices: (1) license a fighter who its own medical staff said was unfit to fight or (2) create chaos. It managed to do both.

The likelihood is that the NYSAC will grant Angel Garcia a license to be in his son’s corner on March 4. But this is an issue that should have been resolved weeks ago. Security plans take time to develop. Here it should be noted that Barclays Center has an excellent record on public safety and can be expected to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure a safe environment on fight night.

That’s what Madison Square Garden did when it hosted Bernard Hopkins vs. Felix Trinidad eighteen days after 9/11. MSG tightened its own security that night and had conversations with the New York Police Department to confirm that police personnel would be available if asked to enter the building.

Important principles sometimes conflict with one another. The Angel Garcia conundrum involves issues of (1) free speech; (2) the desire to rebut open expressions of bigotry and prejudice; and (3) the need to minimize the possibility of conduct that could endanger NYSAC personnel, members of the boxing community, and the general public. Where the lines should be drawn is subject to debate. But lines have to be drawn.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thomas Hauser works as a consultant for HBO Sports.

Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His most recent book - A Hard World: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing – was published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism.