WBAN Letter to the Nevada Boxing Commission – Marc Ratner – August 4, 2000

On August 4, 2000, WBAN’s Sue TL Fox traveled from Portland, Oregon to Las Vegas, Nevada, to attend a female bout at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel featuring one female bout on the card.  It was a time when the sport had many of the daughters of famous male boxers fighting in the pro ranks.   This fight in particular was featuring the pro debut of Roberto Duran’s daughter, Irichelle Duran, who was fighting an unknown boxer from Cleveland, Ohio’s Geraldine Iglesias  under the tutelage of Jim Holley who was known in the sport to give an easy supply of fighters at the last minute, and most could not box, and some did not even hardly train.   WBAN had been keeping tabs on the female boxers who were fighting out of this area, and their easy losses to prominent boxers…

Before Duran’s fight with Iglesias, WBAN was ready to get a story from Iglesias about how she got the fight and about what was going on in her area of Ohio—-after the fight when she won by a split she closed up and wouldn’t give us information about Holley or the going-ons in Ohio.

My original notes from August 3, 2000:

I contacted Geraldine Iglesias the morning of the fight, by calling her on the phone while she was in her room.  Geraldine is under the wing of a guy named Jim Holley that has the stable of Ashtabula fighters.  I was given information that Iglesias was in that stable and was going to possibly give some insight into the inner goings-on with this stable of fighters.  I was also given information that Geraldine was not sparring and had been training for a very short time.     I did not want to distract Geraldine before her fight, so I told her that I would interview her after the fight.  Of course I did not think for one moment that she would win…..in light of the fact that she was under the direction of Holley, who has or had a stable of women boxers that generally don’t make it past the first round.

A post-fight interview, I met with 20-year-old Geraldine. She confirmed that she had only been training for a short time, and had been running mostly to prepare for this bout.  Geraldine had another fight at Hard Rock about a month ago, fighting a local boxer and had lost that first fight.  When asking her about her dealings with Jim Holley, she then said, “No comment.”

I did find it it odd that people told me that Jim Holley was giving out his business card freely with the name “Holley” on the card at the fight, and that information got back to WBAN that he was going by the name of “Wright.”    I did check the suspension list that has a “Jim Holly/Holley (spelled both ways on the list)” listed as “indefinitely” suspended in the state of Ohio as a “Manager.”  In checking the suspension records with the name of  “Jim Holly” it showed that he  was suspended in Indiana and Pennsylvania for falsifying ID in those states.

After this fight, knowing that Jim Holley was suspended by commissions, and that she was being connected with him, I wrote a letter to the Nevada Athletic Commission, Marc Ratner.  Response from Letter by Ratner, dated August 8, 2000

Dear Ms. Fox,

Jim Holly was indeed in Las Vegas for he Geraldine Iglesias-Irichelle Duran bout last Friday night.  Because he is on the Federal Suspension List we would not let him work the corner of Ms. Iglesias.  He was in the back of the arena and wasn’t near the corner.  I do not know of Mr. Holly using the name of Wright.  He understood that he can’ t work the corners until he takes care of his problems in other states and gets himself off of suspension.  Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, but we have three fights this weekend and are inundated with paper work, and licensing and weigh-ins.  Holyfield is fighting this weekend and it will be a big show!  Thanks for your help with women’s boxing!

Regards,

Marc Ratner
Nevada Athletic Commission