CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s03e07 Episode Script
Fight Night
(rap music plays) (applause and cheering) (applause and cheering) (both grunting) (applause and cheering) (shutter clicks) (applause and cheering) (grunting) (bell dings) That's enough! (applause and cheering) Come on, Laroi.
He's okay! We're going to dry it up, Laroi.
We're going to dry it up.
Take it, Paul.
I got that.
Suck it up.
Suck it up, son.
Suck it up, son.
Lo teine donde deseas! Me entiendes Io que te digo? El cuerpo siempre moviendo Laroi, listen to me! You keep your hands up, hear? He's killing you with that left.
Bum don't got the heart to put me down.
Yeah, well, you better start throwing your hands, hook to the body, hook to the head, uppercut.
Like we worked it in the gym.
(bell dings) (applause and cheering) Let's go.
(grunting) (cheering fades out) (thudding) (cheering fades in) One! Two! Three! Get a stretcher in here! Laroi! Laroi, talk to me! Come on, baby, talk to me.
Doctor, get in here! Laroi "The Fists of" Steele.
WFB welterweight champion.
One loss.
Boxers have died in the ring before.
Why is this one a crime? Casino management got a heads-up from the sports book.
Five hours before the opening bell, Steele goes from a two-to-one favorite to a five-to-one underdog.
Fight fixing? Yeah.
That's a felony.
And, if death occurs during commission of a felony, that's a murder.
(beeping) Gang member.
Tenth Street Vandals.
Isolated incident, or they having a war? It's hard to tell.
Vandals are based in L.
A.
But, on a weekend like this brings knuckleheads in from all over.
Witnesses? They were all in the bathroom.
Aren't they always? (beeping) We are just trying to be reasonable here.
I am not giving this back unless I get my ring.
Mrs.
Ramsey, it is not our policy to allow clients to Oh, really? I guess you need a new policy, don't you? Now you are being unreasonable.
No.
I don't think so Left that behind.
How many guys? One.
Yeah.
Waited till the manager was alone, knocked her down, and hopped the counter.
Got away with a whole sackful of stones.
It takes some stones to pull off a job like this.
Evening, gentlemen.
What have we got? Well, you and I have got a dead boxer.
Nick, you're going to get to run this solo.
Yeah? Yeah.
We're tapped out.
Welcome to fight night.
Okay.
What are we looking for? Blinding agents in the Vaseline, stimulants in the water So basically, everything goes to tox.
Yeah.
Nice sport.
Well, it's only dirty if you make it dirty.
You know, boxing's about discipline.
It's two guys beating their brains out in a race for early-onset Parkinson's.
No, no, you know, it's mind and body.
Mind and body.
If you train one and not the other, you're half a person.
What'd you find? Saliva.
Oh, the spit bucket.
What's so funny? Smiling, uh represses the gag reflex.
This is coming from the same woman who processed fecal fat from a ruptured colon.
Every crim's got at least one problem area.
Mine is saliva.
Want me to get that for you? No, no.
You're sure.
Mind and body, right? Right.
Everybody knew they hated each other.
They fought two times before.
Title wasn't even on the line tonight.
Just pride.
How'd the other fights go down? I didn't get to ref them, but I saw them $39.
95 a pop.
Damn pay-per-view's just like stealing, but they were good fights.
Laroi won both of them.
First one was a knockout in the eighth off this sweet right hook.
The other was a a TKO in the tenth, yeah.
He really dropped the hammer on Molina that time.
Well, evidently, Molina hammered back tonight.
Two previous wins by knockout.
Tonight, he dies.
What's up with that? What do you mean? Did you notice anything out of the ordinary about either fighter? Slowed reactions, unusual strength? All I noticed is that boy took one hell of a beating.
I got a gun.
Make that two.
Put up a couple of booths, we could have ourselves a gun show out here.
Disposable firearms.
They know we can't link them to the weapons if we can't find the weapons on them.
Smith & Wesson.
40.
High end.
They're stealing their way to better guns.
And bringing them to Vegas for target practice.
Great.
That's everything he got.
What's it highlighted for? It's a Riviera necklace.
We loaned it to a couple for the fight, and they refuse to return it until we return the ring that they brought in for cleaning.
Which was stolen along with the other items, right? Exactly.
And they won't leave until we get this sorted out.
Can you help me out here? Sorry.
Mediation's not really my thing.
Thanks.
Mm-hmm.
O'Riley? Stokes.
Listen, I'm at a smash and grab.
Lots of glass, a little blood.
Do me a favor: Check the local hospitals.
Anyone comes in with a forearm laceration, it could be our guy.
Thanks, man.
I promoted this match, Mr.
Grissom.
I spent 16 months of my life stroking fighters, managers, handlers, and kissing a whole lot of ass that never got past junior high.
And I resent the implication that the fight was fixed, or that Laroi Steele's death was anything other than a tragedy.
These photographs are from? The last Steele-Molina fight.
What, does he use them for motivation? And for show.
Boxing is theater.
Well, according to your poster, this fight was about revenge.
Boxers fight for money.
The rest of it is just hype.
These Mr.
Molina's? Yeah.
From tonight's fight? Yeah.
Technically, after a fight, those gloves become property of the boxing commission.
Right now, they're evidence, so they belong to me.
What do you think you're going to find on those gloves? Liniment? Like Sonny Liston used to blind Cassius Clay? The sport has come a long way since then.
It's still two skulls and four fists.
It hasn't come that far.
What did you find? What appears to be a unique metal: Mercury.
Like in a thermometer? Amongst other things.
Looks like it was fight night for a lot of people.
It sure does.
And some guys get paid a million bucks for it.
Sorry to keep you waiting but, uh commission rules, you know? Before and after a fight.
Boxing and drugs don't mix, you know? All yours.
So que onda? What's the crime lab want with me? Well, for starters, we need to see your hands.
Why? No.
One more.
Who do you think you're looking at Who is that? Felix Trinidad is a fighter who was once accused of dipping his wraps in ice water before a fight.
It turns the tape and gauze into a hardened cast.
It's like punching with concrete.
And it also shreds your hands.
A fighter's lost his life.
We're just making sure that there was no unfair advantage.
All I did was out-punch Laroi.
Okay, you think I wanted it to go down like this? I mean, people are going to remember me now like Ray Mancini when he killed that Korean guy.
That's my legacy now.
Ah, this wasn't my fault, all right? He brought it upon himself talking all that trash saying I could never beat him.
Look he should have never came out in the seventh round.
He could barely stand up.
I knew it was over right then.
So why did you keep hitting him? Because real fighters don't stop hitting until somebody makes them, all right? When you're in the ring, your life's in the ref's hands.
Now, one word from that ref, and I would have stopped.
But he never gave the word.
How we doing, Bobby? Hey.
Well, good news.
All the bullets pulled from the vic are from the same gun.
Six right, .
380.
The bad news? We're 0 for two matching the bullets to the guns y'all recovered.
I did find something, though, on one of them shells, if you want to take a look.
It's set up for you over there.
Could be biological.
I'll send it to trace.
Well, I hope it gets you somewhere, 'cause all we got here is strike three.
Brass, Brown.
I need as much information as you can give me on a referee.
Hey, Sara.
Hey.
I'll be right there.
I have something to show you.
We gave Molina a ride in.
You did? He didn't say much, which is no big surprise, considering.
There's not much in here, but, uh I know how you like to see everything.
Thanks.
We checked vitals, cleaned his lacerations, and he wanted his hand wraps cut off, so we cut them off.
Is this it? Yeah.
He autographed it.
Nah, that's the inspector's signature.
Whoever watched him wrap up.
It looks like there's some kind of metal in the gauze.
Well, there's no mercury in any of our instruments.
We're fully digital.
How do you think it got there? I don't know.
Massive soft tissue damage, severe facial fractures.
Are they letting guys go at each other with clubs these days? Only on cable.
It never ceases to amaze me the damage one human being can inflict on another.
Or how much damage a human body can sustain.
A heavyweight can land a punch at 1,000 pounds per square inch.
The energy of the punch is transferred through the cerebrospinal fluid, compressing the brain against the skull, temporarily disrupting neural activity.
Like a short circuit.
Too many short circuits, the brain shuts down.
And hence, a knockout.
This guy should have been so lucky.
This, uh bruising under the chin seems heavy.
Yeah, I thought so, too.
I did a postmortem angiogram.
It's a basilar subarachnoid hematoma the result of a massive vertical blunt force trauma to the chin.
The sudden forced rotation of the neck tears the vertebral artery, and blood pours out into the surrounding soft tissue.
It's called an uppercut.
You say tomato and I say "cause of death.
" Gil, I never had you pegged as a fight fan.
I'm not, really.
My first year as a criminalist, I thought boxing would be a good place to observe live blood spatter.
So, I went to a couple of bouts.
There wasn't much spatter.
Some interesting bruise formations, though.
So this is a socially acceptable live-subject laboratory for you? Yeah.
Not in this case.
Thank you.
Preliminary tox? Yeah.
Professional athlete.
Would have expected performance enhancers creatine, dianobol.
This man had sufentanil in his system.
Sufentanil? A sedative? Yeah.
So, if the fighter won't take a dive help him take a dive.
What's my cousin got to do with the fight? Your cousin bet 20 large on Javier Molina at five-to-one against.
Hey, he's always been a lucky guy.
Yeah, I know, I'm sure he is.
Well, you know how this works.
I mean, you hear the fight's fixed, you tip off your cousin for a piece of the action he tells a couple of friends, so on, so on.
They make a bet at the last minute, and the odds go south.
Hey, big fight, money moves around.
Oh, yeah, that's cool.
This is Vegas.
Money flows.
As long as it doesn't flow out of your pocket.
Maybe that's why you let the fight go on so long.
Yeah, you see a fighter in trouble, you give him a standing eight.
He comes out a winner, you're in the poorhouse.
So, what are you saying? That, if I'd stopped the fight, Laroi Steele would still be alive? Huh? You charging me with something? No.
Not yet.
You know where to find me.
Randy Wallace? I'm Detective O'Riley.
This is Nick Stokes of the crime lab.
Hi, there.
Where'd you get the cut on your forearm, man? You practicing for a job at Benihana? Hey, this is a hospital.
I got doctor-client privilege here, huh? Well, you don't get any privileges, Randy.
You're wearing stolen property.
You can trade that bracelet in for this one.
(handcuffs click) Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, wearing red leather, coming from the great fighting city of Everlast, USA the gloves that Javier Molina wore when he killed Laroi Steele.
This is a piece of boxing history.
Do you know how much this would go for on eBay? Greg, the residue on the gloves what is it? Half inorganic salts: Magnesium, potassium, etc.
And half organic derivatives: Urea, choline and uric acid.
Sweat.
Occasionally found at a boxing match.
Oh, but wait.
Fighting way out of his weight class, coming from that place that textiles come from, a cotton swab soaked in sufentanil.
Sufentanil? I did recover this swab from the victim's corner.
Time to talk to the cut man.
I would have got a bonus if we won.
Why would I mess with the guy who pays me? Why is for the lawyers.
Your corner, your swab, your drugs.
Suck it up.
I been doing this 28 years.
Back when every cut man around was using Monsels solution, getting it in kids' eyes, blinding them, I wouldn't touch the stuff.
And I didn't hurt Laroi.
I been in his corner six fights.
Every one, he fought hard and never stiffed me.
Him dying was a tragedy.
Molina trains here? Yeah, maybe.
He owns the place.
And you're looking for work.
Work comes to me.
Well, here's something else that's coming to you.
What, you want me to give you my bag? We're not asking.
It's kind of primitive.
So is boxing.
Did you get anywhere with that mercury? Yeah.
Ensenada, Mexico.
Molina has a personal physician down there.
It turns out that mercury is used in a folk remedy for empacho.
It's a chronic stomach condition.
And Molina has it? Medical history confirms it.
The guy eats metal.
It's not the eating that will get you.
The poison's in the mercury vapor.
It's toxic.
Well, I guess we're left with the sedative.
Any luck? Greg's working on it.
Three guns found at the scene.
None match the bullets recovered from the victim.
What does that tell us? Shooter kept his weapon.
Means he likes his gun, and may have Which is where the shell case and IBAS come in.
I'll run it against the national database.
Firing pin impressions and breech face marks a closer look.
Well, okay.
Got us a hit.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found shell casings from the same gun used in a gang murder two years ago.
They get a conviction on the suspect? No.
Guy beat the rap.
"Timothy Fontaine, aka 'Tiny Tim.
"' Member of the Snakebacks.
Current residence unknown.
I bet I could find where he stays in Vegas.
Hey.
I guess Tiny's mother can be proud of her son for one thing.
He sure knows how to clean a room.
Well, there is one Snakeback still in town.
Who's that? That guy right over there.
What's his dealio? I take care of my people.
That is Jerome Anderson AKA "The Man.
" The Man? The Man.
Technically, a former Snakeback who shed his skin and worked his way into the real world record producer, clothing designer, sports agent.
Why didn't you get a warrant for his room? We're working on it.
He's got an entire law firm on retainer.
five percent here, ten percent there.
Better get back in the ring, Laroi, and keep fighting.
See, what Laroi needed was a giver, not a taker.
That's why he came to me, The Man, so I could stand by his side and give him honest representation.
Police.
Another thing that The Man understands, because he comes from the same place as today's athletes.
I'm Detective Vega.
This is Catherine Willows from the Crime Lab.
We'd like to ask you a few questions.
The Man ain't got nothing to hide.
We're looking for members of the Snakebacks.
A Timothy Fontaine, in particular.
No idea.
The Man is here on business.
So are we.
Do you mind if I ask how The Man got the burn mark on his neck? Well, all the ladies say that The Man is hot.
I guess I must have just burned myself and forgot all about it.
Are you crazy? No, no, no, no.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Ooh, ooh I guess you are hot.
The Man is all about the new.
Did you get ahold of that cut man? Yeah.
We found sufentanil in a bottle of coagulant in the guy's kit.
Doesn't make sense.
If the cut man did it, why would he hold on to the evidence? I was thinking the same thing.
I'm not convinced he actually knew it was in his kit.
The prints that I got off of the bottle came back to Gerry Barone, the victim's manager.
And I thought Don King was bad.
The reason my prints are in the system is I'm a foster parent.
Six kids in 30 years.
Treated them like my own.
Trained them, took them off the streets.
We know that.
We know you're a good guy.
So what made you dope up Laroi Steele? We found your prints on a bottle of coagulant.
It was laced with a sedative.
Found it in the cut man's kit.
I was trying to save Laroi.
By drugging him? We kept it out of the press but, in their last fight, Molina hurt him bad.
How bad? The signs were all there in training sagging eye, drooping shoulder, brain damage down the road.
Laroi couldn't handle another beating.
But I couldn't talk him out of this fight.
Molina got under his skin.
Laroi wouldn't let it go.
I taught him not to quit.
I was trying to get him out alive.
Laroi was 16 years old the first time I saw him fight.
And the only thing faster than his hands was his mouth.
There was this one time, he made his sparring partner laugh so hard the man pissed his trunks before he hit the mat.
Can you imagine that? We arrested the guy and recovered all the jewelry.
Thank you so much, Mr.
Stokes.
Not a problem.
I just need you to fill out some documentation, and then I can release your ring back to you, okay? That's not your ring.
Of course it is.
I'm telling you, that is not the ring I gave you.
That's a different cut.
Now I wore this ring on my finger every day for five years.
I think that I I bought you that ring.
Who do you think spent a week looking for the perfect stone for our first anniversary? Sir, I matched every item recovered to a log provided by the jewelry store, piece for piece.
Then maybe you should explain to me why I'm not looking at my wife's ring.
I need to explain to you? Come on, Mack.
How do I know you didn't switch this ring out? Man, I would not 'Cause that's not the way it works.
Oh, we screw the out-of-towners, and nobody's going to care, right? Are you making a formal accusation? You bet I am.
Knock yourself out, big dog.
Forms are at the front desk.
Okay It's about a month ago at a prefight press conference.
Check it out.
He lost the last couple of times.
I'm the one who did all the whupping.
And I'm just going to do a three-peat, baby, you know? What I'm saying is anytime, anyplace, Laroi.
You can't wait to get whupped, is that it? Steele is slurring his words.
Fast forward to the fight.
Watch his shoulder, how he keeps dropping it.
The manager was right.
Pugilistic dementia.
They say eight out of ten boxers suffer some form of brain damage later on in life.
The Greatest Muhammad Ali.
Steele must've known what was happening to him.
He would never admit it.
Fighters need to psych themselves up before a fight.
They got to believe they're going to win or they'd never fight.
In a way, every opponent Laroi Steele fought contributed to his death.
I don't know if he was incredibly stupid or just brave.
We'll contest this on the grounds that your request to the judge was based on a specious connection to the Snakebacks.
Contest all you want.
It's still coming after the fact.
Open.
The warrant was based on physical findings.
A burn mark? Could have happened anywhere.
Well, Jerome is under the misguided impression that he's a one-man pyrotechnic display.
Watch too many movies, and kids start to think that people actually shoot like that.
The most you're going to prove is my client was in the vicinity.
Period.
That's it.
If his DNA matches what we found on the shell casing, we'll be able to extend the scope of the warrant.
If it matches.
File says you're a smart guy.
Three years in Georgetown.
Why turn stupid all of a sudden? Give us the guy we're looking for.
Look, we all know that you forget what the word "loyalty" means as soon as you step away from the mirror, so what do the Snakebacks get you? R-E-S-P-E-C-T, baby.
I thought that's what college was for.
(chuckles) I went to school.
In fact, I have carefully analyzed business models of African American entrepreneurs such as Darian Daze at Dis-Kard Enterprises which grosses $250 million a year.
And my analysis has led me to understand that an emerging OEO needs to have as solid a command of flow charts and spreadsheets as he does a bad-ass street rep.
And let me tell you something, sweetness I got it all, coming and going.
So the more you try to stress me, the more you're just selling me to the people out on the streets.
So crime pays.
Oh, don't hate the player, hate the game.
Right, you don't make the rules, you just exploit them.
Ain't that a bitch.
Nice work on that jewelry heist.
Yeah, well, it's not done yet.
You got the guy.
Oh, yeah.
It was a little rough.
We had to check a few ERs, but we snatched him up.
Being efficient is not a bad thing, Nick.
Yeah.
Why you tossing me a softball, putting everyone else on real cases? You wanted to work solo.
Yeah, but it's like Night of the Pifflings out there, and I'm on a smash-and-grab.
Pifflings? Puffin offspring.
First time out of the nest every year, they crash land in this town near Iceland because they're attracted to the lights of human civilization.
It's the same way people flock to Vegas for a fight.
Animal Planet.
How come, when you talk about bugs, everyone says you're a genius, but when I talk about birds everyone says I watch too much television? I don't know.
Look, the next Night of the Pifflings, you get the first dead body.
Copy that.
The victim suffered tripod fractures of the zygomatic arch in two places.
There's also a fracture of the orbital floor.
This tripod fracture of the zygoma is what caused the flattening of the victim's face.
It indicates that he was struck with an extremely powerful blow.
Which couldn't be caused by normal boxing gloves.
We checked Molina's gloves.
There's nothing in them or on them.
Well, we're missing something.
We have a problem.
Pile it on.
Well, in the interests of posterity, I took it upon myself to establish provenance for the killer gloves I mean DNA-wise.
On my own time, of course, of which I have precious little, so that should count for something.
Greg, why are you always doing this? Because you make me nervous.
My point is, the epithelials found on the surface of the glove they're not Laroi Steele's.
Those aren't the gloves that killed him.
Gloves look brand-new.
Padding's still stiff.
It's like they've never been used.
What are all these dots? Looks like a little piece of red leather.
And more mercury.
Well, Molina does take it for his stomach, right? He's a sloppy eater.
Hmm.
Mercury's volatile.
It emits a toxic vapor at room temperature.
So you're saying if I find the vapor I find the mercury.
Grissom.
Hmm.
That your signature? Yeah.
That's my signature.
So what? Well, according to fight rules, you were supposed to watch Molina wrap his hands and sign them, then watch him put on his gloves, and then sign those.
Which is what I did.
Okay, you signed his wraps, but the gloves that we found were not the gloves used in the fight.
Molina switched them.
There's no way.
You watched Molina glove up? Not exactly.
Come on.
Get her out of here.
Look.
It was a big fight.
There was a lot of pressure.
You've got to give the fighters a little space.
So, no one saw him put his gloves on.
I guess not.
I should have called you first to apologize for my husband's unfortunate outburst.
You know what? You should apologize.
But not for your husband.
Excuse me? You know damn well your diamond isn't a diamond.
It's a substance called moissanite.
Really? Really.
White light refractions and inclusions of your stone are inconsistent with a real diamond's.
Then the thief must have switched the stone before you caught him.
The thief.
Yeah.
I don't think so.
Because, before the store could clean your ring, I was able to collect DNA.
Wow, that's very thorough of you.
Isn't it? You know, it's my guess you switched out the stone some time ago because, judging from your husband's response, he knew nothing about it.
(laughs) Mr.
Stokes, can I? You're from Texas, aren't you? 'Cause I can always tell.
I'm a criminalist for Clark Country, Nevada.
Yes, well, one's body might reside elsewhere, but one's heart never really leaves home, does it? Look, all you have to do is say that you recovered a fake diamond, which is the truth.
So you can file a false insurance claim, which is a felony? Better yet, why don't I have an adjuster come over to your place and check out all your rocks and see which ones are real and which ones you've switched out? No? Look, if you find yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is stop digging.
You know what I mean? Sounds like a plan.
Put it in motion.
I guess clothes do make "the Man.
" In this case, "the Man" makes the clothes.
And produces the music, and represents the athletes when he's not involved in street shootings, of course.
And, when you asked him what he was wearing the night of the murder, he couldn't remember? As far as he's concerned, murder is just another way to separate himself from the Calvins and Ralphs of the world.
Calvin and Ralph? Klein and Lauren.
Fashion.
Oh.
Well, for most CSIs, fashion is irrelevant.
Speak for yourself.
The only thing between me and a wardrobe like this is a few extra zeros on my paycheck.
Well, what's standing between you and this Tiny Tim character? The Mojave.
Highway Patrol is out looking for our guy.
Odds are that Tiny Tim is back in L.
A.
, evidence disposed of along the way.
That means my last chance of connecting the dots is somewhere along these racks fibers, GSR, blood.
Hey.
Guess who never left town? Calling card? Tiny's favorite piece.
Odds are it traces back to the original murder.
Same as it always does.
Somebody gets dissed.
Wrong place, wrong time.
Doesn't take much to set someone off.
Yo! You blind? What's wrong with you? Don't you know you'll get killed up in here? Are you out of your mind? Front.
Yeah.
Take care of this fool.
Wait.
The Snakebacks kill a Vandal.
Then the Vandals kill a Snakeback.
Everyone goes home satisfied.
Round and round and round it goes.
Where it stops, nobody knows.
There was this one case where a boxer put lead shot in his gloves to increase his punching power.
And also ancient Greek and Roman pugilists used a glove weighted with metal, called a "cestus.
" You making a classical reference? Yeah.
I thought you'd like that.
Question is, if Molina was using mercury to load up, how'd it get into his gloves? Well, he injected it.
Those circular pieces of leather that you found in Molina's locker are the same diameter as a 14-gauge needle.
Well, mercury's incredibly dense.
It could easily be contained in the leather in the form of a boxing glove.
The boxing gloves weighed eight ounces, so the question is, would a few ounces of mercury be enough to cause the damage that we observed on the victim? Right.
I smell an experiment.
All right.
Normal gloves.
Ready.
And go.
Good? A little more.
Good.
Loaded gloves.
Ready? And go.
Ooh, this thing's are heavy.
Good.
Good, good.
And mercury kills Steele.
Boxing is a combat sport.
Sometimes fighters die, okay? That's all part of the game.
Laroi Steele's death was a tragedy, not a murder.
It became murder when your client injected mercury into his gloves.
And your hands, Molina, literally, became lethal weapons.
Heavy gloves.
That's why you kept your hands to your side.
It also kept the mercury on the tip of your glove.
While, with every punch, a little bit got forced down through the padding, through the seams and on to your hands.
That's how it got on your wraps.
And into your lungs.
And, finally, out into your urine.
We tested the sample that you gave the boxing commission after the fight.
It came up positive for mercury.
I have empacho.
I take mercury for my stomach problems.
We didn't find mercury in your stomach.
We found it in your locker, on your gym bags, on your wraps When the fight was over, your trainer cut the tape off your gloves, and you took the pieces and put them in a hamper along with a pair of sparring gloves, just in case anybody wondered what had happened to them.
But the real gloves were in your gym bag at that hospital, weren't they? Steele had already kicked your ass twice before? Must have been humiliating.
You push a man too far, there are consequences.
You knew there was no way you could beat Steele in a fair fight.
The best way to punish a guy is to beat him to death in the ring in front of two million people on pay-per-view.
That's boxing.
No, that's murder.
I'll see you in court.
So that means the title's vacant, right? Not for long.
I heard it's Lopez versus Lewis at Caesar's in six months.
He's okay! We're going to dry it up, Laroi.
We're going to dry it up.
Take it, Paul.
I got that.
Suck it up.
Suck it up, son.
Suck it up, son.
Lo teine donde deseas! Me entiendes Io que te digo? El cuerpo siempre moviendo Laroi, listen to me! You keep your hands up, hear? He's killing you with that left.
Bum don't got the heart to put me down.
Yeah, well, you better start throwing your hands, hook to the body, hook to the head, uppercut.
Like we worked it in the gym.
(bell dings) (applause and cheering) Let's go.
(grunting) (cheering fades out) (thudding) (cheering fades in) One! Two! Three! Get a stretcher in here! Laroi! Laroi, talk to me! Come on, baby, talk to me.
Doctor, get in here! Laroi "The Fists of" Steele.
WFB welterweight champion.
One loss.
Boxers have died in the ring before.
Why is this one a crime? Casino management got a heads-up from the sports book.
Five hours before the opening bell, Steele goes from a two-to-one favorite to a five-to-one underdog.
Fight fixing? Yeah.
That's a felony.
And, if death occurs during commission of a felony, that's a murder.
(beeping) Gang member.
Tenth Street Vandals.
Isolated incident, or they having a war? It's hard to tell.
Vandals are based in L.
A.
But, on a weekend like this brings knuckleheads in from all over.
Witnesses? They were all in the bathroom.
Aren't they always? (beeping) We are just trying to be reasonable here.
I am not giving this back unless I get my ring.
Mrs.
Ramsey, it is not our policy to allow clients to Oh, really? I guess you need a new policy, don't you? Now you are being unreasonable.
No.
I don't think so Left that behind.
How many guys? One.
Yeah.
Waited till the manager was alone, knocked her down, and hopped the counter.
Got away with a whole sackful of stones.
It takes some stones to pull off a job like this.
Evening, gentlemen.
What have we got? Well, you and I have got a dead boxer.
Nick, you're going to get to run this solo.
Yeah? Yeah.
We're tapped out.
Welcome to fight night.
Okay.
What are we looking for? Blinding agents in the Vaseline, stimulants in the water So basically, everything goes to tox.
Yeah.
Nice sport.
Well, it's only dirty if you make it dirty.
You know, boxing's about discipline.
It's two guys beating their brains out in a race for early-onset Parkinson's.
No, no, you know, it's mind and body.
Mind and body.
If you train one and not the other, you're half a person.
What'd you find? Saliva.
Oh, the spit bucket.
What's so funny? Smiling, uh represses the gag reflex.
This is coming from the same woman who processed fecal fat from a ruptured colon.
Every crim's got at least one problem area.
Mine is saliva.
Want me to get that for you? No, no.
You're sure.
Mind and body, right? Right.
Everybody knew they hated each other.
They fought two times before.
Title wasn't even on the line tonight.
Just pride.
How'd the other fights go down? I didn't get to ref them, but I saw them $39.
95 a pop.
Damn pay-per-view's just like stealing, but they were good fights.
Laroi won both of them.
First one was a knockout in the eighth off this sweet right hook.
The other was a a TKO in the tenth, yeah.
He really dropped the hammer on Molina that time.
Well, evidently, Molina hammered back tonight.
Two previous wins by knockout.
Tonight, he dies.
What's up with that? What do you mean? Did you notice anything out of the ordinary about either fighter? Slowed reactions, unusual strength? All I noticed is that boy took one hell of a beating.
I got a gun.
Make that two.
Put up a couple of booths, we could have ourselves a gun show out here.
Disposable firearms.
They know we can't link them to the weapons if we can't find the weapons on them.
Smith & Wesson.
40.
High end.
They're stealing their way to better guns.
And bringing them to Vegas for target practice.
Great.
That's everything he got.
What's it highlighted for? It's a Riviera necklace.
We loaned it to a couple for the fight, and they refuse to return it until we return the ring that they brought in for cleaning.
Which was stolen along with the other items, right? Exactly.
And they won't leave until we get this sorted out.
Can you help me out here? Sorry.
Mediation's not really my thing.
Thanks.
Mm-hmm.
O'Riley? Stokes.
Listen, I'm at a smash and grab.
Lots of glass, a little blood.
Do me a favor: Check the local hospitals.
Anyone comes in with a forearm laceration, it could be our guy.
Thanks, man.
I promoted this match, Mr.
Grissom.
I spent 16 months of my life stroking fighters, managers, handlers, and kissing a whole lot of ass that never got past junior high.
And I resent the implication that the fight was fixed, or that Laroi Steele's death was anything other than a tragedy.
These photographs are from? The last Steele-Molina fight.
What, does he use them for motivation? And for show.
Boxing is theater.
Well, according to your poster, this fight was about revenge.
Boxers fight for money.
The rest of it is just hype.
These Mr.
Molina's? Yeah.
From tonight's fight? Yeah.
Technically, after a fight, those gloves become property of the boxing commission.
Right now, they're evidence, so they belong to me.
What do you think you're going to find on those gloves? Liniment? Like Sonny Liston used to blind Cassius Clay? The sport has come a long way since then.
It's still two skulls and four fists.
It hasn't come that far.
What did you find? What appears to be a unique metal: Mercury.
Like in a thermometer? Amongst other things.
Looks like it was fight night for a lot of people.
It sure does.
And some guys get paid a million bucks for it.
Sorry to keep you waiting but, uh commission rules, you know? Before and after a fight.
Boxing and drugs don't mix, you know? All yours.
So que onda? What's the crime lab want with me? Well, for starters, we need to see your hands.
Why? No.
One more.
Who do you think you're looking at Who is that? Felix Trinidad is a fighter who was once accused of dipping his wraps in ice water before a fight.
It turns the tape and gauze into a hardened cast.
It's like punching with concrete.
And it also shreds your hands.
A fighter's lost his life.
We're just making sure that there was no unfair advantage.
All I did was out-punch Laroi.
Okay, you think I wanted it to go down like this? I mean, people are going to remember me now like Ray Mancini when he killed that Korean guy.
That's my legacy now.
Ah, this wasn't my fault, all right? He brought it upon himself talking all that trash saying I could never beat him.
Look he should have never came out in the seventh round.
He could barely stand up.
I knew it was over right then.
So why did you keep hitting him? Because real fighters don't stop hitting until somebody makes them, all right? When you're in the ring, your life's in the ref's hands.
Now, one word from that ref, and I would have stopped.
But he never gave the word.
How we doing, Bobby? Hey.
Well, good news.
All the bullets pulled from the vic are from the same gun.
Six right, .
380.
The bad news? We're 0 for two matching the bullets to the guns y'all recovered.
I did find something, though, on one of them shells, if you want to take a look.
It's set up for you over there.
Could be biological.
I'll send it to trace.
Well, I hope it gets you somewhere, 'cause all we got here is strike three.
Brass, Brown.
I need as much information as you can give me on a referee.
Hey, Sara.
Hey.
I'll be right there.
I have something to show you.
We gave Molina a ride in.
You did? He didn't say much, which is no big surprise, considering.
There's not much in here, but, uh I know how you like to see everything.
Thanks.
We checked vitals, cleaned his lacerations, and he wanted his hand wraps cut off, so we cut them off.
Is this it? Yeah.
He autographed it.
Nah, that's the inspector's signature.
Whoever watched him wrap up.
It looks like there's some kind of metal in the gauze.
Well, there's no mercury in any of our instruments.
We're fully digital.
How do you think it got there? I don't know.
Massive soft tissue damage, severe facial fractures.
Are they letting guys go at each other with clubs these days? Only on cable.
It never ceases to amaze me the damage one human being can inflict on another.
Or how much damage a human body can sustain.
A heavyweight can land a punch at 1,000 pounds per square inch.
The energy of the punch is transferred through the cerebrospinal fluid, compressing the brain against the skull, temporarily disrupting neural activity.
Like a short circuit.
Too many short circuits, the brain shuts down.
And hence, a knockout.
This guy should have been so lucky.
This, uh bruising under the chin seems heavy.
Yeah, I thought so, too.
I did a postmortem angiogram.
It's a basilar subarachnoid hematoma the result of a massive vertical blunt force trauma to the chin.
The sudden forced rotation of the neck tears the vertebral artery, and blood pours out into the surrounding soft tissue.
It's called an uppercut.
You say tomato and I say "cause of death.
" Gil, I never had you pegged as a fight fan.
I'm not, really.
My first year as a criminalist, I thought boxing would be a good place to observe live blood spatter.
So, I went to a couple of bouts.
There wasn't much spatter.
Some interesting bruise formations, though.
So this is a socially acceptable live-subject laboratory for you? Yeah.
Not in this case.
Thank you.
Preliminary tox? Yeah.
Professional athlete.
Would have expected performance enhancers creatine, dianobol.
This man had sufentanil in his system.
Sufentanil? A sedative? Yeah.
So, if the fighter won't take a dive help him take a dive.
What's my cousin got to do with the fight? Your cousin bet 20 large on Javier Molina at five-to-one against.
Hey, he's always been a lucky guy.
Yeah, I know, I'm sure he is.
Well, you know how this works.
I mean, you hear the fight's fixed, you tip off your cousin for a piece of the action he tells a couple of friends, so on, so on.
They make a bet at the last minute, and the odds go south.
Hey, big fight, money moves around.
Oh, yeah, that's cool.
This is Vegas.
Money flows.
As long as it doesn't flow out of your pocket.
Maybe that's why you let the fight go on so long.
Yeah, you see a fighter in trouble, you give him a standing eight.
He comes out a winner, you're in the poorhouse.
So, what are you saying? That, if I'd stopped the fight, Laroi Steele would still be alive? Huh? You charging me with something? No.
Not yet.
You know where to find me.
Randy Wallace? I'm Detective O'Riley.
This is Nick Stokes of the crime lab.
Hi, there.
Where'd you get the cut on your forearm, man? You practicing for a job at Benihana? Hey, this is a hospital.
I got doctor-client privilege here, huh? Well, you don't get any privileges, Randy.
You're wearing stolen property.
You can trade that bracelet in for this one.
(handcuffs click) Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, wearing red leather, coming from the great fighting city of Everlast, USA the gloves that Javier Molina wore when he killed Laroi Steele.
This is a piece of boxing history.
Do you know how much this would go for on eBay? Greg, the residue on the gloves what is it? Half inorganic salts: Magnesium, potassium, etc.
And half organic derivatives: Urea, choline and uric acid.
Sweat.
Occasionally found at a boxing match.
Oh, but wait.
Fighting way out of his weight class, coming from that place that textiles come from, a cotton swab soaked in sufentanil.
Sufentanil? I did recover this swab from the victim's corner.
Time to talk to the cut man.
I would have got a bonus if we won.
Why would I mess with the guy who pays me? Why is for the lawyers.
Your corner, your swab, your drugs.
Suck it up.
I been doing this 28 years.
Back when every cut man around was using Monsels solution, getting it in kids' eyes, blinding them, I wouldn't touch the stuff.
And I didn't hurt Laroi.
I been in his corner six fights.
Every one, he fought hard and never stiffed me.
Him dying was a tragedy.
Molina trains here? Yeah, maybe.
He owns the place.
And you're looking for work.
Work comes to me.
Well, here's something else that's coming to you.
What, you want me to give you my bag? We're not asking.
It's kind of primitive.
So is boxing.
Did you get anywhere with that mercury? Yeah.
Ensenada, Mexico.
Molina has a personal physician down there.
It turns out that mercury is used in a folk remedy for empacho.
It's a chronic stomach condition.
And Molina has it? Medical history confirms it.
The guy eats metal.
It's not the eating that will get you.
The poison's in the mercury vapor.
It's toxic.
Well, I guess we're left with the sedative.
Any luck? Greg's working on it.
Three guns found at the scene.
None match the bullets recovered from the victim.
What does that tell us? Shooter kept his weapon.
Means he likes his gun, and may have Which is where the shell case and IBAS come in.
I'll run it against the national database.
Firing pin impressions and breech face marks a closer look.
Well, okay.
Got us a hit.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found shell casings from the same gun used in a gang murder two years ago.
They get a conviction on the suspect? No.
Guy beat the rap.
"Timothy Fontaine, aka 'Tiny Tim.
"' Member of the Snakebacks.
Current residence unknown.
I bet I could find where he stays in Vegas.
Hey.
I guess Tiny's mother can be proud of her son for one thing.
He sure knows how to clean a room.
Well, there is one Snakeback still in town.
Who's that? That guy right over there.
What's his dealio? I take care of my people.
That is Jerome Anderson AKA "The Man.
" The Man? The Man.
Technically, a former Snakeback who shed his skin and worked his way into the real world record producer, clothing designer, sports agent.
Why didn't you get a warrant for his room? We're working on it.
He's got an entire law firm on retainer.
five percent here, ten percent there.
Better get back in the ring, Laroi, and keep fighting.
See, what Laroi needed was a giver, not a taker.
That's why he came to me, The Man, so I could stand by his side and give him honest representation.
Police.
Another thing that The Man understands, because he comes from the same place as today's athletes.
I'm Detective Vega.
This is Catherine Willows from the Crime Lab.
We'd like to ask you a few questions.
The Man ain't got nothing to hide.
We're looking for members of the Snakebacks.
A Timothy Fontaine, in particular.
No idea.
The Man is here on business.
So are we.
Do you mind if I ask how The Man got the burn mark on his neck? Well, all the ladies say that The Man is hot.
I guess I must have just burned myself and forgot all about it.
Are you crazy? No, no, no, no.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Ooh, ooh I guess you are hot.
The Man is all about the new.
Did you get ahold of that cut man? Yeah.
We found sufentanil in a bottle of coagulant in the guy's kit.
Doesn't make sense.
If the cut man did it, why would he hold on to the evidence? I was thinking the same thing.
I'm not convinced he actually knew it was in his kit.
The prints that I got off of the bottle came back to Gerry Barone, the victim's manager.
And I thought Don King was bad.
The reason my prints are in the system is I'm a foster parent.
Six kids in 30 years.
Treated them like my own.
Trained them, took them off the streets.
We know that.
We know you're a good guy.
So what made you dope up Laroi Steele? We found your prints on a bottle of coagulant.
It was laced with a sedative.
Found it in the cut man's kit.
I was trying to save Laroi.
By drugging him? We kept it out of the press but, in their last fight, Molina hurt him bad.
How bad? The signs were all there in training sagging eye, drooping shoulder, brain damage down the road.
Laroi couldn't handle another beating.
But I couldn't talk him out of this fight.
Molina got under his skin.
Laroi wouldn't let it go.
I taught him not to quit.
I was trying to get him out alive.
Laroi was 16 years old the first time I saw him fight.
And the only thing faster than his hands was his mouth.
There was this one time, he made his sparring partner laugh so hard the man pissed his trunks before he hit the mat.
Can you imagine that? We arrested the guy and recovered all the jewelry.
Thank you so much, Mr.
Stokes.
Not a problem.
I just need you to fill out some documentation, and then I can release your ring back to you, okay? That's not your ring.
Of course it is.
I'm telling you, that is not the ring I gave you.
That's a different cut.
Now I wore this ring on my finger every day for five years.
I think that I I bought you that ring.
Who do you think spent a week looking for the perfect stone for our first anniversary? Sir, I matched every item recovered to a log provided by the jewelry store, piece for piece.
Then maybe you should explain to me why I'm not looking at my wife's ring.
I need to explain to you? Come on, Mack.
How do I know you didn't switch this ring out? Man, I would not 'Cause that's not the way it works.
Oh, we screw the out-of-towners, and nobody's going to care, right? Are you making a formal accusation? You bet I am.
Knock yourself out, big dog.
Forms are at the front desk.
Okay It's about a month ago at a prefight press conference.
Check it out.
He lost the last couple of times.
I'm the one who did all the whupping.
And I'm just going to do a three-peat, baby, you know? What I'm saying is anytime, anyplace, Laroi.
You can't wait to get whupped, is that it? Steele is slurring his words.
Fast forward to the fight.
Watch his shoulder, how he keeps dropping it.
The manager was right.
Pugilistic dementia.
They say eight out of ten boxers suffer some form of brain damage later on in life.
The Greatest Muhammad Ali.
Steele must've known what was happening to him.
He would never admit it.
Fighters need to psych themselves up before a fight.
They got to believe they're going to win or they'd never fight.
In a way, every opponent Laroi Steele fought contributed to his death.
I don't know if he was incredibly stupid or just brave.
We'll contest this on the grounds that your request to the judge was based on a specious connection to the Snakebacks.
Contest all you want.
It's still coming after the fact.
Open.
The warrant was based on physical findings.
A burn mark? Could have happened anywhere.
Well, Jerome is under the misguided impression that he's a one-man pyrotechnic display.
Watch too many movies, and kids start to think that people actually shoot like that.
The most you're going to prove is my client was in the vicinity.
Period.
That's it.
If his DNA matches what we found on the shell casing, we'll be able to extend the scope of the warrant.
If it matches.
File says you're a smart guy.
Three years in Georgetown.
Why turn stupid all of a sudden? Give us the guy we're looking for.
Look, we all know that you forget what the word "loyalty" means as soon as you step away from the mirror, so what do the Snakebacks get you? R-E-S-P-E-C-T, baby.
I thought that's what college was for.
(chuckles) I went to school.
In fact, I have carefully analyzed business models of African American entrepreneurs such as Darian Daze at Dis-Kard Enterprises which grosses $250 million a year.
And my analysis has led me to understand that an emerging OEO needs to have as solid a command of flow charts and spreadsheets as he does a bad-ass street rep.
And let me tell you something, sweetness I got it all, coming and going.
So the more you try to stress me, the more you're just selling me to the people out on the streets.
So crime pays.
Oh, don't hate the player, hate the game.
Right, you don't make the rules, you just exploit them.
Ain't that a bitch.
Nice work on that jewelry heist.
Yeah, well, it's not done yet.
You got the guy.
Oh, yeah.
It was a little rough.
We had to check a few ERs, but we snatched him up.
Being efficient is not a bad thing, Nick.
Yeah.
Why you tossing me a softball, putting everyone else on real cases? You wanted to work solo.
Yeah, but it's like Night of the Pifflings out there, and I'm on a smash-and-grab.
Pifflings? Puffin offspring.
First time out of the nest every year, they crash land in this town near Iceland because they're attracted to the lights of human civilization.
It's the same way people flock to Vegas for a fight.
Animal Planet.
How come, when you talk about bugs, everyone says you're a genius, but when I talk about birds everyone says I watch too much television? I don't know.
Look, the next Night of the Pifflings, you get the first dead body.
Copy that.
The victim suffered tripod fractures of the zygomatic arch in two places.
There's also a fracture of the orbital floor.
This tripod fracture of the zygoma is what caused the flattening of the victim's face.
It indicates that he was struck with an extremely powerful blow.
Which couldn't be caused by normal boxing gloves.
We checked Molina's gloves.
There's nothing in them or on them.
Well, we're missing something.
We have a problem.
Pile it on.
Well, in the interests of posterity, I took it upon myself to establish provenance for the killer gloves I mean DNA-wise.
On my own time, of course, of which I have precious little, so that should count for something.
Greg, why are you always doing this? Because you make me nervous.
My point is, the epithelials found on the surface of the glove they're not Laroi Steele's.
Those aren't the gloves that killed him.
Gloves look brand-new.
Padding's still stiff.
It's like they've never been used.
What are all these dots? Looks like a little piece of red leather.
And more mercury.
Well, Molina does take it for his stomach, right? He's a sloppy eater.
Hmm.
Mercury's volatile.
It emits a toxic vapor at room temperature.
So you're saying if I find the vapor I find the mercury.
Grissom.
Hmm.
That your signature? Yeah.
That's my signature.
So what? Well, according to fight rules, you were supposed to watch Molina wrap his hands and sign them, then watch him put on his gloves, and then sign those.
Which is what I did.
Okay, you signed his wraps, but the gloves that we found were not the gloves used in the fight.
Molina switched them.
There's no way.
You watched Molina glove up? Not exactly.
Come on.
Get her out of here.
Look.
It was a big fight.
There was a lot of pressure.
You've got to give the fighters a little space.
So, no one saw him put his gloves on.
I guess not.
I should have called you first to apologize for my husband's unfortunate outburst.
You know what? You should apologize.
But not for your husband.
Excuse me? You know damn well your diamond isn't a diamond.
It's a substance called moissanite.
Really? Really.
White light refractions and inclusions of your stone are inconsistent with a real diamond's.
Then the thief must have switched the stone before you caught him.
The thief.
Yeah.
I don't think so.
Because, before the store could clean your ring, I was able to collect DNA.
Wow, that's very thorough of you.
Isn't it? You know, it's my guess you switched out the stone some time ago because, judging from your husband's response, he knew nothing about it.
(laughs) Mr.
Stokes, can I? You're from Texas, aren't you? 'Cause I can always tell.
I'm a criminalist for Clark Country, Nevada.
Yes, well, one's body might reside elsewhere, but one's heart never really leaves home, does it? Look, all you have to do is say that you recovered a fake diamond, which is the truth.
So you can file a false insurance claim, which is a felony? Better yet, why don't I have an adjuster come over to your place and check out all your rocks and see which ones are real and which ones you've switched out? No? Look, if you find yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is stop digging.
You know what I mean? Sounds like a plan.
Put it in motion.
I guess clothes do make "the Man.
" In this case, "the Man" makes the clothes.
And produces the music, and represents the athletes when he's not involved in street shootings, of course.
And, when you asked him what he was wearing the night of the murder, he couldn't remember? As far as he's concerned, murder is just another way to separate himself from the Calvins and Ralphs of the world.
Calvin and Ralph? Klein and Lauren.
Fashion.
Oh.
Well, for most CSIs, fashion is irrelevant.
Speak for yourself.
The only thing between me and a wardrobe like this is a few extra zeros on my paycheck.
Well, what's standing between you and this Tiny Tim character? The Mojave.
Highway Patrol is out looking for our guy.
Odds are that Tiny Tim is back in L.
A.
, evidence disposed of along the way.
That means my last chance of connecting the dots is somewhere along these racks fibers, GSR, blood.
Hey.
Guess who never left town? Calling card? Tiny's favorite piece.
Odds are it traces back to the original murder.
Same as it always does.
Somebody gets dissed.
Wrong place, wrong time.
Doesn't take much to set someone off.
Yo! You blind? What's wrong with you? Don't you know you'll get killed up in here? Are you out of your mind? Front.
Yeah.
Take care of this fool.
Wait.
The Snakebacks kill a Vandal.
Then the Vandals kill a Snakeback.
Everyone goes home satisfied.
Round and round and round it goes.
Where it stops, nobody knows.
There was this one case where a boxer put lead shot in his gloves to increase his punching power.
And also ancient Greek and Roman pugilists used a glove weighted with metal, called a "cestus.
" You making a classical reference? Yeah.
I thought you'd like that.
Question is, if Molina was using mercury to load up, how'd it get into his gloves? Well, he injected it.
Those circular pieces of leather that you found in Molina's locker are the same diameter as a 14-gauge needle.
Well, mercury's incredibly dense.
It could easily be contained in the leather in the form of a boxing glove.
The boxing gloves weighed eight ounces, so the question is, would a few ounces of mercury be enough to cause the damage that we observed on the victim? Right.
I smell an experiment.
All right.
Normal gloves.
Ready.
And go.
Good? A little more.
Good.
Loaded gloves.
Ready? And go.
Ooh, this thing's are heavy.
Good.
Good, good.
And mercury kills Steele.
Boxing is a combat sport.
Sometimes fighters die, okay? That's all part of the game.
Laroi Steele's death was a tragedy, not a murder.
It became murder when your client injected mercury into his gloves.
And your hands, Molina, literally, became lethal weapons.
Heavy gloves.
That's why you kept your hands to your side.
It also kept the mercury on the tip of your glove.
While, with every punch, a little bit got forced down through the padding, through the seams and on to your hands.
That's how it got on your wraps.
And into your lungs.
And, finally, out into your urine.
We tested the sample that you gave the boxing commission after the fight.
It came up positive for mercury.
I have empacho.
I take mercury for my stomach problems.
We didn't find mercury in your stomach.
We found it in your locker, on your gym bags, on your wraps When the fight was over, your trainer cut the tape off your gloves, and you took the pieces and put them in a hamper along with a pair of sparring gloves, just in case anybody wondered what had happened to them.
But the real gloves were in your gym bag at that hospital, weren't they? Steele had already kicked your ass twice before? Must have been humiliating.
You push a man too far, there are consequences.
You knew there was no way you could beat Steele in a fair fight.
The best way to punish a guy is to beat him to death in the ring in front of two million people on pay-per-view.
That's boxing.
No, that's murder.
I'll see you in court.
So that means the title's vacant, right? Not for long.
I heard it's Lopez versus Lewis at Caesar's in six months.