On the phone with council, he asked, "How hurt do I need to be? " The chamber came apart. Judith Renick used the gavl four times. Then she looked down the room at the man at the far table. Mr. Starns, you have held every one of these documents for 11 days.
You were fired. Your class was shut down. And 9 million people called you a liar. Why did you wait, Jeremiah? Stern stood up.
Because on day one, it would have been my word against a champion. He said, "It would have been about me. I wanted it in a room with a record, and I wanted them to finish. " He paused. There is a man behind me on two canes. 18 years ago, I put him there in a training accident.
I quit the sport that day. I have never once taken money to hurt anybody since. I mop floors. I like mopping floors. His voice went somewhere he had to bring it back from.
I did not step on that mat to prove I could hurt him. I stepped on it to prove I would not. Nobody clapped. It was not that kind of room. Judith Renick recessed the hearing and walked into her office and made one phone call.
The person on the other end was the commission's records custodian. Do not print it. Do not summarize it. Do not edit one frame. She said, "Seal the whole file. " Both waivers.
The inspector recording the vendor log. Miss Kilgore's statement. Hand it to the district attorney exactly as it sits. Understood. Ma'am, consider it done.
The written decision came down 9 days later and it ran to 31 pages. The complaint against Jeremiah Starns was dismissed in full, not narrowed, not settled, dismissed on every count with a finding that the allegation of concealment was contradicted by a document the complaining party had signed himself. Then the commission turned around. Cade Boschant was suspended 18 months for the illegal strike and for making false statements in a sworn filing. He was fined $100,000.
The promotion vacated the welterweight title within the hour. The belt he had carried on his shoulder into a room full of laughing people went into a case in an office in another city. Stuart Leoo was referred to the district attorney for tampering with evidence. Ironbound Athletics lost its license to host sanctioned events. Bellweather Athletic terminated the gym contract and the athlete contract in the same email.
It was sent by a brand vice president named Clifford Lundren who never once used the word sorry. Larry Ottinger was referred to the state bar. And there was one line near the end of page 30 that most people missed. The commission found that Jeremiah Starns had in fact remained on the mat for the full 90 seconds which meant the terms Kade Boschamp had announced in his own kitchen on his own camera had been met. The Fairmount Community Center got its $50,000.
Norman Hargus resigned from Ironbound the morning the decision published. He did not ask for anything. He drove to a bakery on Ardmore Avenue and bought a coffee he could not drink. He sat in his car outside for a while before he went in. "I signed it," he said to Jeremiah in front of Verdell and everybody in line.