WASHINGTON - A House committee voted yesterday to crack down on the prizefighting business but stopped short of banning felons, in part because the biggest boxing promoter, Don King, served time for two Ohio killings decades ago.

The legislation is intended to protect young fighters from exploitation.

Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Texas, said he tried a no-felons amendment on an earlier boxing bill but it became too controversial because people called it the "King amendment.''

Hall said that wasn't the intent, even though "I have mixed feelings about Mr. King.''

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., suggested the legislation was still intended to target King, the flamboyant promoter of champion bouts with such boxers as Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.

"I think that this bill is primarily aimed at one particular promoter,'' Rush said. "I think we're setting a precedent that we will come back to regret.''

A King spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment about the legislation, written by Rep. Mike Oxley, R-Ohio.

Before becoming a major force in boxing, King served time for two different killings:

- In 1954, King killed a man who was robbing a numbers house he operated in Cleveland. It was ruled justifiable homicide but only after he served his sentence.

- In 1967, he was convicted of second-degree murder for stomping to death a rival numbers runner. The charge later was reduced to manslaughter. He served nearly four years in prison and was pardoned in 1983 by then-Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes.

King also has been the target of numerous lawsuits from boxers including Felix Trinidad Jr., who alleged that King and his companies held his career hostage unless he agreed to let them promote his future bouts.

The legislation, which now can be positioned for a vote in the full House, eliminates so-called coercive contracts, in which a boxer is required to sign away rights for more than 12 months or grant rights to another promoter as a condition of getting to fight a particular bout.

It also includes conflict of interest rules and would require promoters, judges, referees and sanctioning bodies to fill out financial disclosure forms.

In response to the outcry over the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title fight March 13, the measure would require all boxing referees and judges to be certified and approved by state boxing commissions.

It addition, the bill specifies that boxers can be suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The House Commerce Committee deleted language limiting fighters' contracts to five years, but voted down Rush when he tried to delete criminal penalties for those who violate financial disclosure and conflict of interest rules.

The bill is named in honor of Ali, and the former heavyweight champion testified in favor of it in the Senate.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wrote another version of the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously. McCain's bill was more far-reaching; it included restrictions on fight broadcasters, who would not be not allowed to have a direct or indirect financial interest in a boxer's manager or management company.