UT Chancellor Says Fight Can Happen At Sun Bowl, Bans Alcohol At Fight

The University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa has changed his mind and will now allow the boxing match between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Andy Lee at the Sun Bowl after setting several conditions.

The conditions are:

-A letter of Assurance from the Chief of El Paso Police, the Chief of the El Paso Sheriff’s Office, the El Paso Director of the FBI and the El Paso Director of the DEA that states any increased risk indicators related to this boxing match can be mitigated to a routine level, assuring that this event can occur at the Sun Bowl;

-No beverages containing alcohol will be sold or served at this event nor are alcoholic beverages allowed to be brought onto University Property;

-Any costs for security over and above the normal security measures UTEP would take for such an event will not be encumbered by the University of Texas at El Paso or The University of Texas System;

-Prior to signature, the contract must be reviewed by the UT System Office of General Counsel and the UT System Office of Risk Management and shall conform with Regents’ Rules and Regulations;

-A security plan developed by the UT El Paso Chief of Police to be reviewed and affirmed by Director Michael Heidingsfield;

-A letter to the UTEP community from President Diana Natalicio apprising them of the date and time of the event and providing them assurances that law enforcement agencies have addressed any security concerns resulting from such a boxing match. Furthermore, students and non-essential personnel should feel free to leave the University premises while the event is ongoing.

El Paso leaders and Top Rank Boxing officials had been negotiating Friday morning to have the fight at the Sun Bowl Stadium on June 16 as it was originally scheduled before being canceled on Tuesday morning by the chancellor. Richard Adauto, UTEP’s Executive Vice President for Legal Affairs and Oversight, told ABC-7 on Tuesday that it was an unusual step for the UT System to get involved.

“They typically don’t OK any event we have,” Adauto said.

It was not immediately clear if Top Rank Boxing had accepted the new conditions and would put the fight on at the Sun Bowl or elsewhere in El Paso.

Alcohol is not sold at UTEP football games but is sold during the Hyundai Sun Bowl and at some other events at the stadium depending on approval. According to a UTEP Police log, only one incident was reported during the boxing matches at the Don Haskins Center on April 21 when an iPad was stolen from a TV production room.

ESPN Friday Night Fights will be taking place at the University of Texas at Austin Frank Erwin Center tonight. Alcohol will be available at the Erwin Center, according to an employee of the arena who was asked Friday morning.

“This event rallied the community in a way that showed all of us that what was at stake was larger than a boxing match. The heroes that made this happen are people like Lester Bedford, Diana Natalicio, Bob Arum, the CVB, city manager’s office, and all the El Pasoans that came together to fight for our community. El Paso made this happen and showed our community’s resolve and unity.”

On April 26, Cigarroa and UT System Director of Police Michael Heidingsfield met via videoconference call with El Paso representatives of the FBI, DEA, ICE, Customs and Border Patrol, and local law enforcement officials to present the UT System’s Risk Assessment related to the boxing match at the Sun Bowl.

The purpose of the videoconference also was to receive the risk assessments of the invited law enforcement agencies, according to Cigarroa’s news release. There was consensus with Heidingsfield’s assessment that this specific boxing match should not be considered a routine special event at the Sun Bowl and there was also consensus that the increased risk indicators for such an event could be mitigated, according to Cigarroa.

“The thorough and deliberative discussion that ensued during the video conference, coupled with the fact that the El Paso Chief of Police, DEA, FBI and Sheriff’s office addressed my concerns regarding safety by affirming that those concerns can be mitigated to a high confidence level,” Cigarroa said in a statement. “This led to my decision to permit UT El Paso President Diana Natalicio to enter into negotiations for UTEP to contract with Top Rank, Inc., for the Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. vs. Andy Lee fight, contingent upon several conditions. Our universities and health science centers are public institutions and hundreds of thousands of members of the general public visit these institutions every year. One of the most important responsibilities I have in my role as Chancellor of The University of Texas System is the safety of our students, faculty, staff and campus visitors.”

El Paso’s FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark A. Morgan said on Wednesday that there is no known credible, vetted or specific threat to the fight at the Sun Bowl. Morgan, along with El Paso’s mayor and city manager and other local leaders, spoke at a news conference Wednesday in an effort to try and keep the boxing match in El Paso.

Mayor John Cook said the decision to cancel was made on raw intelligence and not based on a credible threat.

The risk report, viewed by the Associated Press, was done by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and said leadership of both the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels would be present at the fight – but specified there were no specific threats to the city, the event or those attending it, according to the law enforcement official.

The cartels have waged a bloody war in Ciudad Juarez across the Rio Grande from El Paso for control of drug smuggling routes and other criminal enterprises in the city.

The official, who is familiar with the contents of the report, spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because the official isn’t authorized to release the information.

Homeland Security Investigations “sent a security assessment to UT System who sent it to us and it wasn’t for another two weeks they (UT System) decided to cancel,” said Veronique Masterson, a public information officer at UTEP.

Cigarroa’s previous decision to cancel the fight without releasing any details angered El Paso officials and state lawmakers, who accused him of fostering a culture of fear that the city has been overrun by cartel-related violence. Despite the drug war raging in Mexico, El Paso ranks among the safest cities in the nation in terms of violent crime.

A day after the cancellation announcement, local, state and federal law enforcement officials in El Paso, including a representative of ICE, said they had picked up no intelligence of a credible threat or security risk associated with having the fight in El Paso.

State Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, who had asked the Texas system Board of Regents to overrule Cigarroa, on Friday dismissed the cartel report as “incredulous.”

The cartel leaders weren’t likely to show up at a high-security, highly-publicized event with a strong police presence, Rodriguez said.

“Logic tells us, common sense tells us, these people would stay away,” Rodriguez said.

Arum laughed at the cartel warning.

“Of course members of the cartels will come. When I first started promoting, there were mafia families at Madison Square Garden,” Arum said. “It would seem like a good place to arrest them.”

Arum called El Paso a natural place to host a fight with a popular Mexican boxer like Chavez, Jr. The 51,500-seat Sun Bowl drew more than 40,000 fans to watch Oscar de la Hoya fight in 1998.

Watch Cigarroa’s video statement here.