National pride was on display Saturday at Madison Square Garden as flags from Puerto Rico, Ireland, Spain and other countries accompanied the boxers into the ring. Oddly enough, when a boxer’s handler tried to bring an American flag into the ring for his bout on the Terence Crawford-Hank Lundy undercard, he was denied by a member of the New York State Athletic Commission.

The NYSAC later called the embarrassing incident an “error.”

Alex Devia was planning something special for when his son, undefeated junior welterweight Julian Rodriguez, entered the Garden Theater ring to face King Daluz. Devia’s parents are from Colombia but he was born in Queens, N.Y., and calls himself a proud American. Thus, Devia usually carries a small American flag into the ring before his son’s fights.

But Saturday was different. With the HBO cameras hovering and an energetic, sold-out crowd on hand, Devia started to carry the Stars and Stripes on a five-foot staff through the ropes but was stopped by NYSAC Chairman Tom Hoover, who told him he couldn’t bring the flag into the ring. The 6-foot-9 Hoover, a former NBA basketball player for the New York Knicks, was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January of last year as chairman and has quickly gained a reputation for being very hands on.

Puzzled by the order (even his opponent, Daluz, could be seen clinging to a flag inside the ring) Devia handed the pole to his assistant, Angel DeJesus, outside the ropes, not wanting to create any waves.

“I was confused,” said Devia, who lives in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. “I saw that (Hoover) was annoyed at me and he was like, ‘Hey, hey, you can’t bring that in the ring.’ So I fixed the situation. I said, ‘OK, no problem. I’m going to have my assistant hold it (outside the ring).'”

Hoover, 74, was concerned by the length of the pole “for the safety of the athletes and individuals inside the ring ÔǪ not the flag itself,” commission spokesman Laz Benitez wrote in an email to RingTV.com.

However, prior to the Rodriguez-Daluz match, someone in Devia’s camp had already asked a commission member if he could bring the flag into the ring and approval had been granted, unbeknownst to Hoover, the commission spokesman said.

“Unfortunately, due to the misunderstanding at ringside, the flag was not in the ring during the introduction,” Benitez wrote. “The Commission regrets the error.”

The easygoing Devia was a bit reluctant to discuss the incident because he didn’t want to sound as if he was complaining. He said he figured Hoover had an issue with the size of the pole even though he was mindful not to get in anyone’s way.

But he admitted the incident irked him because of what the American flag means to him and because it’s commonplace for boxers to show off their national colors by entering the ring with flags.

“This is where I was born and this is where I lived my whole life,” he said. “It’s the land of opportunity. There’s no country better than this. If you want to be rich, you can become rich. If you want to become poor and you don’t want to do anything? Then that’s what you’re going to get back. In this country, if you do what you got to do, this is the land of opportunity. When you go to other countries, they don’t have that. Same as in boxing, the harder you work, the luckier you get.”