Tag: BBBofC

Judge apparently on phone during fight to appear before BBBofC

Boxing judge Terry O’Connor will appear before the BBBofC over an image appearing to show him on his phone while he was scoring a fight.

Boxing judge Terry O’Connor will appear before the British Boxing Board of Control over an image appearing to show him on his phone while he was scoring the Lewis Ritson-Miguel Vazquez fight Saturday.

Ritson won by a controversial split decision, with many neutral observers — and even Ritson’s promoter Eddie Hearn — believing Vazquez should have been awarded the victory.

O’Connor was one of two judges to score the fight in Ritson’s favor, but his 117-111 margin was the widest of all three judges. Hearn described the scoring as “a disgrace”.

A photo has emerged on social media that appeared to show O’Connor glancing down at his phone instead of watching the action in front of him as the fighters exchanged blows.

Hearn has suggested the judge should be removed from his position if the image proves to be an accurate representation of events.

The BBBofC released a statement saying: “Mr. O’Connor will appear before the Stewards of the British Boxing Board of Control following his appointment to the boxing tournament at the East of England Showground Arena on Saturday, 17th October 2020.”

Mauricio Sulaiman, WBC president, tweeted: “This image is extremely troubling to any person involved in boxing.”

The comments come as Top Rank promoter Bob Arum expressed disgust over judge Julie Lederman’s 119-109 card for Teofimo Lopez in his unanimous-decision victory over Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday. Arum believes 11 rounds to one was too wide.

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Judge apparently on phone during fight to appear before BBBofC

Boxing judge Terry O’Connor will appear before the BBBofC over an image appearing to show him on his phone while he was scoring a fight.

Boxing judge Terry O’Connor will appear before the British Boxing Board of Control over an image appearing to show him on his phone while he was scoring the Lewis Ritson-Miguel Vazquez fight Saturday.

Ritson won by a controversial split decision, with many neutral observers — and even Ritson’s promoter Eddie Hearn — believing Vazquez should have been awarded the victory.

O’Connor was one of two judges to score the fight in Ritson’s favor, but his 117-111 margin was the widest of all three judges. Hearn described the scoring as “a disgrace”.

A photo has emerged on social media that appeared to show O’Connor glancing down at his phone instead of watching the action in front of him as the fighters exchanged blows.

Hearn has suggested the judge should be removed from his position if the image proves to be an accurate representation of events.

The BBBofC released a statement saying: “Mr. O’Connor will appear before the Stewards of the British Boxing Board of Control following his appointment to the boxing tournament at the East of England Showground Arena on Saturday, 17th October 2020.”

Mauricio Sulaiman, WBC president, tweeted: “This image is extremely troubling to any person involved in boxing.”

The comments come as Top Rank promoter Bob Arum expressed disgust over judge Julie Lederman’s 119-109 card for Teofimo Lopez in his unanimous-decision victory over Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday. Arum believes 11 rounds to one was too wide.

[lawrence-related id=14817,14761,14776]

Video: Ak & Barak discuss U.K. guidelines to restart boxing

The British Boxing Board of Control this week announced tentative guidelines under which it plans to restart boxing as early as next month. That includes banning the traditional spit bucket, although authorities have said they are discussing an …

The British Boxing Board of Control this week announced tentative guidelines under which it plans to restart boxing as early as next month.

That includes banning the traditional spit bucket, although authorities have said they are discussing an enclosed device that would allow fighters to expectorate during their fights.

Of course, a long list of safety precautions comprise the plan in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In this episode of The Ak & Barak Show, courtesy of DAZN, hosts Akin Reyes and Barak Bess discuss the guidelines.

The Ak & Barak Show is available on DAZN and Sirius XM Fight Nation, Channel 156.

[jwplayer sEao83wJ]

 

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Will coronavirus usher in new era for spitting in boxing?

 

Will coronavirus usher in new era for spitting in boxing?

The BBBofC is working on an “apparatus” that would allow boxers to safely spit between rounds as part of its latest plan to restart boxing.

Spitting in boxing might never be the same.

The British Boxing Board of Control is working on an “apparatus” that would allow fighters to safely spit out water – or whatever else — between rounds as part of its latest plan to restart boxing amid the coronavirus pandemic, although officials provided no details on the device.

The BBBofC is targeting a July return.

The five-page plan, which clarifies earlier guidelines, includes a line that reads: “No spitting from Boxers when in corners.” However, BBBofC General Secretary Robert W. Smith told The Associated Press it isn’t like to be a hard and fast rule.

“We’re working on apparatus in the corner where a boxer can refresh themselves in a safe and clean-as-possible way,” Smith said. “They’ll be able to refresh themselves with water and obviously gargle … and dispense with that water in as clean-as-possible way.

“An apparatus to do that will hopefully be in place. We’ll have to have something that’s closed.”

Among other guidelines the BBBofC plans to follow:

  • No fans will be in attendance.
  • Boxers, referees, trainers and other personnel will be transported to the venue wearing protective masks.
  • Boxers will fight without masks but referees and cornermen will be required to leave them on.
  • No ring announcers, round card girls or TV cameras will be allowed inside the ring.
  • The BBBofC will review all proposed venues, which  will be “cleaned to a medical standard” before the event.
  • Only essential officials, promoters and broadcasters can attend.
  • Those in high-risk categories — for example, the elderly or people with asthma — should not attend.
  • Everyone at an event will be tested for COVID-19.
  • Boxers, trainers and referees will self-isolate at a hotel until their test results are determined.

Another stipulation is that no championship fights will take place initially because more people would be required to attend.

“If procedures are working well, we bring in the championships,” Smith said. “The whole thing is up for discussion.”

Smith also said that the targeted month to restart the sport is flexible.

“It depends what is said on Sunday from the government, if we’re on lock down a further period of time,” Smith said. “It may end up in August, it may end up in September. We’re not over this crisis yet.”

Some boxing figures in the U.K. have not embraced the guidelines.

Promoter Eddie Hearn, with whom Smith said he’s on the same page, told the BBC that new regulations are “huge barriers to overcome,” including increased costs of staging an event.

Trainer Joe Gallagher Tweeted: “Why the rush and do things in half measures? Make sure everyone is safe and well and let’s look at getting going in September. Give everyone time to get back training, sparring and make sure everyone is safe.”

 

British authorities unveil plan to resume boxing this summer

The British Boxing Board of Control has announced a detailed course of action when the coronavirus pandemic allows boxing to resume.

The U.K. has a plan to resume boxing this summer.

The British Boxing Board of Control has announced a detailed course of action when the coronavirus pandemic allows it to put fighters back into the ring,

“At present there is no date for lockdown to end,” the announcement begins. “Public health and safety is everyone’s top priority and the British Boxing Board of Control is taking Government advice so that we can best advise all our licence (sic) holders as to when professional Boxing in the UK can resume. We recognise (sic) that licence holders will want to prepare for restrictions being lifted and sport resuming.

“It is important to recognise that when professional Boxing promotions can resume there may be restrictions in place.”

Among key points of the plan:

  • The BBBofC would have to approve all venues used for boxing.
  • Cards initially are likely be staged without a live audience.
  • All participants will be tested for COVID-19.
  • Strict social distancing will be required.
  • All participants might be required to wear personal protective gear
  • Participants will have been required to be quarantine before the event.
  • All cards will be limited to five fights, although that might be adjusted.
  • The BBBofC will work with medical authorities to have personnel in place.

The pandemic has brought sporting events to halt for more than a month, although a boxing card was staged in Nicaragua on Saturday.

Here is the compete BBBofC statement:

British Boxing Board of Control Statement to Promoters on resumption of Boxing post COVID-19 lockdown

At present there is no date for lockdown to end. Public health and safety is everyone’s top priority and the British Boxing Board of Control is taking Government advice so that we can best advise all our licence holders as to when professional Boxing in the UK can resume. We recognise that licence holders will want to prepare for restrictions being lifted and sport resuming. It is important to recognise that when professional Boxing promotions can resume there may be restrictions in place.

When will BBBofC licensed tournaments commence?

Depending upon Government decisions it is hopeful that professional Boxing will commence in July 2020 and we will continue to use our best endeavours to do so and are working closely with our Promoters.

Will crowd attending tournaments / mass gatherings be permitted?

Initially, it is unlikely that crowd attending promotions will be permitted. In that situation the emphasis will be on minimal numbers of Officials, Licence Holder’s, members of the Promoter’s team and broadcasting personnel to facilitate a tournament that meets all BBBofC safety requirements.

Which venues will be used / available?

No tournament will be permitted to run unless the venue has been approved by the BBBofC post the Government lockdown being lifted.

Who should NOT attend tournaments?

Any person who has increased risk of severe illness from Coronavirus (COVID-19)

How many contests will be on each promotion?

Maximum 5 contests, however, this position will be reviewed by the BBBofC.

What COVID-19 precautions will be in place at tournaments?

There will be a pre-tournament medical form, COVID-19 testing and pre-tournament quarantine. Any person attending the tournament will be required to complete a BBBofC COVID-19 medical form. If a completed form is not received, then attendance at a tournament will not be permitted. All licence holders and those personnel in attendance will be required to undertake COVID-19 testing. The time frame for these tests will be confirmed at a later date. The BBBofC will be issuing guidance to all licence holders and parties involved on the requirement for personal protective equipment at tournaments in due course.

Social distancing:

It is highly probable that social distancing measures will be in place for some time after lockdown is lifted. With this in mind there will be strict social distancing measures put in place by the BBBofC and the Promoter for all tournaments. This is to protect all individuals attending the promotion.

Hospitals & Medical Officers:

BBBofC Head Office will directly contact hospitals identified as destinations for Emergency Department or Neurosurgical care. All doctors appointed to the promotion must be registered BBBofC Medical Officers. We will continue to follow the Government and Medical Authorities advice and keep the situation under review and when possible find a way of permitting Boxing when it is safe to do so. Further advice will be supplied to Promoters in due course.

We would like to re-emphasise that our thoughts are with everyone affected by COVID-19. Please stay home and stay safe.

Eddie Hearn planning series of cards ‘in unique environment’

Promoter Eddie Hearn is making plans for a busy four- to six-week U.K. boxing schedule – without spectators – in a “unique environment.”

Promoter Eddie Hearn is making plans for a busy four- to six-week U.K. boxing schedule – without spectators – in what he called a “unique environment,” according to the U.K.’s Daily Star.

Hearn must wait for government officials to ease social distancing regulations and the OK from the British Boxing Board of Control, which would ensure that medical personnel would be available amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hearn said he envisions a tightly controlled facility set up to handle what he has in mind but didn’t offer details.

An announcement on the timing could come the first week of May.

“We have to be more careful than other sports such as darts or snooker is because of the medical requirements,” Hearn said. “We have to make sure it’s safe. We are in the process of building a unique environment for boxing to return.

“That will be our own environment that we will self create for a period of probably between four and six weeks. We will stage a number of shows. It’s definitely a unique project. There is a lot of work to be done and don’t want to give too much away to competitors.

“It will be a unique environment that will focus on the safety of the boxers, focus on delivering fights for the boxers and delivering unique TV content for our broadcasters. We don’t want to take any chances. though.

“For the sake of a few months we are not going to put people at risk of contracting an illness which could potentially be fatal, so we won’t do it unless it is safe.”

Hearn doesn’t expect to stage major events during this period. For example, he doesn’t want the heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev to take place behind closed doors if it doesn’t have to be.

He could see staging that fight abroad.

“Some countries will start operations before others,” he said. “In America some states will be safer to work in than others. A.J. is quite adamant that this fight should take place in the U.K. but A.J. also wants to fight.

“With regards to Saudi [Arabia], I’m not sure we can say the Pulev fight can take place there but what we can say is that the Pulev fight could take place in an alternative country to the U.K. if the U.K. is not ready.

“I don’t want to do A.J. behind closed doors but there will come a point where we can’t stall his career any further, and if there comes a point where we have to do it behind closed doors then we will.”

British boxing officials hoping to restart sport as soon as June

British boxing authorities have tentative plans in place to resume the sport as early as June.

British boxing authorities have tentative plans in place to resume the sport as early as June.

The British Boxing Board of Control has canceled all cards through the end of May but believe shows, likely without spectators, could come soon after that if a government-ordered lock down to battle the coronavirus is lifted.

“We hope to be back in early June or at least by the end of that month and July at the outside,” Robert Smith, general secretary of the BBBofC, told BoxingScene.com.

Smith went on: “There may be a situation that we are limited with the amount of people who are allowed to attend, so we may not be looking at any big arena shows at the moment. The first shows could be behind-closed-doors.”

Of course, the availability of medical personnel at boxing cards is an issue.

Doctors, nurses and paramedics are as busy as they’ve ever been dealing with the pandemic. Can any of them be spared to for ringside duty? And what if a fighter must be treated at a hospital? Will medical personnel have the time and space to accommodate him or her?

“We have 125 doctors that we work with,” Smith told BoxingScene.com. “I’ve spoken to several about what will be possible. As well as what the boxers have been going through without earning any money, we have to be appreciative to what our doctors have been dealing with over this time.

“A lot of the private ambulance and paramedic companies we work with are working for the NHS right now. It is always the case that before a show goes ahead, the nearest hospital with a neurological unit is informed in advance to ensure there will be space in the event of an injury.”

British boxing authorities cancel all cards through May

The British Boxing Board of Control canceled all scheduled cards through the end of May because of the coronavirus pandemic.

More fights are off.

The British Boxing Board of Control canceled all scheduled cards through the end of May because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to talkSPORT.

That includes the May 2 heavyweight fight between Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin, which has tentatively been pushed back to July 4 at Manchester Arena. Katie Taylor was scheduled to defend her lightweight titles against Amanda Serrano on that card.

Also, a lightweight title eliminator between Lee Selby and Geroge Kambosos Jr. scheduled for May 9 in Cardiff, Wales has been pushed back to July 11.

The heavyweight fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Dereck Chisora, which was postponed and rescheduled for May 23 in London, is off again. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing reportedly is working on a new date.

And Hearn told talkSPORT that the Anthony Joshua-Kubrat Pulev title fight scheduled for June 20 at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is unlikely to happen on that date. He said July 25 is a possibility .

“Every sport is looking at their calendar but nobody knows when [it will resume],” Hearn said. “We all hope we can return to some kind of boxing in June, whether that is behind closed doors at first, whether that is back in small hall shows, and then we hope we can get to the bigger stuff by the end of June, early July. But we are completely guessing.”

As for Joshua-Pulev, Hearn said: “We have looked at alternative dates for everything without knowing anything concrete. We have ongoing conversations with Tottenham to say that if the Premier League extends and does get played in June then we’ll be pushed back.

“We do have a date of July 25 held at Spurs as well, which is more realistic. It is five weeks after June 20. But we haven’t gone on sale with that, we haven’t made an official announcement in terms of seat details and on-sale dates, so we have got less pressure on that. There is more pressure for Anthony to fight twice this year.

“… I know there is a bigger picture going on but everybody in sport, eveybody in business right now, needs to be working on a solution, the outcome, what happens when we get through this because it is going to be a horrifically messy time for all businesses, all sports, everything, when we do come out the other side.

“The world won’t be the same again and, in a lot of cases, we will have to start from scratch.”

Billy Joe Saunders’ boxing license suspended by BBBofC

Billy Joe Saunders has done it again. The super middleweight has been suspended by the BBBofC after posting a disturbing video…

Billy Joe Saunders is doing his best to be headline fodder these days.

Two days after the super middleweight titleholder apologized for posting a disturbing video joking about inflicting physical harm to women, the British Boxing Board of Control, the regulatory body that oversees professional boxing in the U.K., suspended the boxer’s license. 

In the video, Saunders explains how men can deal with their frustrations with women during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has forced citizens around the globe to stay indoors.

“If your old woman is giving you mouth and you try to be patient, you try to be calm, but after the seventh day or sixth you’re about to explode,” Saunders says, before ripping a hard one-two on the heavy bag. “So, as she comes in, she’s just about to say something and you explode and hit her on the chin.”

That didn’t go over well with the BBBofC.

“The British Boxing Board of Control having considered comments made by Billy Joe Saunders on social media have suspended his boxer’s licen[s]e  pending a hearing under the Board’s misconduct regulation, at a time and venue to be confirmed as soon as possible,” the organization said in a statement on their website. 

In a now-deleted tweet, Saunders, 30, offered an apology, saying that he would “never condone domestic violence. He Tweeted: “If I saw a man touch a woman I would smash him to pieces myself. Apologies if I offended any women.”

Saunders was projected to face Canelo Alvarez on May 2 in Las Vegas, but the fight, along with scores of other cards worldwide, has been tabled as a result of the pandemic.

This isn’t the first time Saunders’ clownish behavior has run afoul of regulatory protocol. He was fined £100,000 ($132,000) by the governing body in 2018 for posting a video online in which he offered a female passerby drugs to perform a sex act on another person.

Deontay Wilder trainer/manager leery about fight in U.K. after Dillian Whyte debacle

Jay Deas, Deontay Wilder’s handler, is leery about a U.K. fight after the way officials there handled Dillion Whyte’s last bout.

Deontay Wilder trainer and co-manager Jay Deas has concerns about fighting in Britain because of lingering questions involving Dillian Whyte, whose suspension was lifted after he was cleared in a UK Anti-Doping investigation.

Whyte tested positive before a victory over Oscar Rivas in London last summer. UKAD ruled last week that the test was contaminated.

Deas told the Daily Mail that the fact Rivas was not informed of the test before the July 20 fight is a concern.

“I know that they cleared him (Whyte) of the drug thing but still, when they had a positive result and did not tell the opponent, that’s problematic,’’ Deas told the U.K. newspaper. “I think that’s potentially criminal. That’s a big, big issue for me.’’

Deas also said that Rivas’ corner was not able to examine Whyte’s gloves after he changed them before opening bell.

Wilder and his team would need answers from the British Boxing Board of Control before he would agree to defend his title in the U.K.

“There would have to be a lot of things that we would have to talk about, relative to the BBBofC, and making sure that it was a level playing field because those things were horribly handled, and, in my opinion, set British boxing back quite a few years,’’ Deas said.

Wilder is scheduled to defend his title against U.K. heavyweight Tyson Fury in a rematch on Feb. 22. Whyte was reinstated as the mandatory challenger for the winner on Wednesday. Meanwhile, there’s been speculation about Joshua fighting the winner after the U.K. heavyweight reclaimed his titles by a decision over Andy Ruiz Jr. in their rematch Saturday.

“He’s fought in the U.K. and he’s also travelled over several times on his own, so he loves it there,’’ Deas said. “That’s really not the issue. It’s just making sure that everything is on the up-and-up and it’s sad. That didn’t used to be a concern, but lately that has been a concer, and we’d just have to sort all that out.”

BBBoC General Secretary Robert Smith responded to Deas, saying:

“We’re disappointed in the comments. All the anti-doping procedures in this country are carried out by UKAD and we carry out their rulings. The gloves used on the evening are approved by the BBBoC so we have no argument with that. They’re gloves that everybody is well aware of. We find no substance in that discussion at all.

“Mr. Wilder has boxed in Britain previously and was looked after well and would be looked after well again this time.’’