Unlit stogie in hand, Bert Sugar brought a little boxing aura to the Senate last week. The legendary “sweet science” author and historian, wearing a brown fedora and tweed coat, testified before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the problems facing the sport.

In often witty and straightforward testimony, Sugar accused the boxing industry of corruption, saying the sport has “fallen apart.”

The hearing examined the success of federal regulations and legislative proposals to improve the industry, including the creation of a federal regulatory entity to oversee the sport.

Sugar urged the committee to provide more oversight of the International Boxing Federation and a court-ordered government monitoring body.

“For although boxing is a sport in its own right,” he told the panel, “it is also a sport in its own wrong.”