French Boxing Federation threatens to ban the WBC

By Boxing News - 11/27/2014 - Comments

The French Boxing Federation (FFB) now lashed out against the attempted result manipulation of the World Boxing Council in the WBC “Silver”/WBF World unification fight at flyweight between their licenceholder Amira Hamzaoui (who won via split decision) and former champion Raja Amasheh of Germany in Saarbrücken on October 11.

Obviously, the decision went against the predetermined script of the WBC and when Amasheh protested on the grounds that she is “really upset and losing her trust” due to what she considers a “human error” by the judges, the WBC found a loophole after weeks of contemplation and suddenly declared (without informing Hamzaoui officially) together will the German Federation BDB the result a “No Contest”, in attempt to clean up the record of Amasheh and return their “Silver” title to her.

The dispute arose as the two very experienced WBF judges were the ones scoring for Hamzaoui, while the WBC judge – an utterly inexperienced official! – scored for Amasheh.

FFB president André Martin, amongst many other points, now wrote in his letter to the WBC:

“Your supervisor never complained about the jury of this fight (beforehand). Our French judges’ (Vincent Dupas) experience is recognized throughout the world. The (WBC) supervisor should have told before the fight if there was a lack of regularity to the WBC rules.

This decision (to not accept Hamzaoui’s victory) is unacceptable since our boxer fairly won the fight. That’s why I ask you to return to the original and fair decision and designate our French boxer as the winner.”

Mr. Martin closes his letter to the World Boxing Council in no uncertain terms, writing: “As I just can’t accept this injustice, I will undertake all necessary action to forbid French boxers and officials to take part in any WBC-organized fights nor will any WBC fight ever take place again in France from this day on.”

While it remains to be seen how the WBC will react to this strong stance against their manipulations, the World Boxing Federation has made it clear that they will continue to respect the original verdict of the officials, even the outrageous score of 6-2 in rounds (with 2 drawn) by neophyte WBC judge Steve Mertz, and continue to recognize Amira Hamzaoui as WBF Womens World Flyweight Champion.

This is in accordance with the ruling of the WBF Executive Committee, who turned down Amasheh’s protest. As a matter of principle, the WBF also declines to comment on the verbal abuse and threats made by members of Team Amasheh against their officials.

Raja Amasheh – Amira Hamzaoui ruled as a “no contest”

The German Boxing Commission (Bund Deutscher Berufsboxer – BDB) and the World Boxing Council (WBC) have jointly declared the WBC Silver flyweight championship between Raja Amasheh and Amira Hamzaoui as a “no contest” due to irregularities in scoring and with the officials.

On October 18th in Saarbrücken, Germany, Hamzaoui had originally been declared the winner by split decision of the fight, and the WBC title. The WBF world flyweight championship was also on the line. WBF judges Toni Tiberi (97-94) and Vincent Dupas (96-94) had scored the fight in favor of Hamzaoui, while WBC judge Steve Mertz clearly scored the fight for Amasheh (98-94).

Team Amasheh filed an official protest immediately after the bout because of inconsistent scoring and irregularities with the two WBF judges. After reviewing the fight with separate panels of neutral officials, both the BDB and the WBC came to the conclusion that Amasheh should have been declared the winner by a wide margin. It was a clear, unquestionable victory for Amasheh.

The “No Contest” ruling is supported completely by both the facts and the WBC Rules. The fight was conducted with two judges who are not WBC or EBU-certified. This was done at the urgent request of the promoter due to budgetary constraints. However, the contest remained at all times subject to the WBC’s Rules & Regulations.

WBC Rule 2.3 gives the WBC the right to revoke its sanction of any bout if it did not appoint all ring officials, and then the result of the fight is different from what it would have been if all officials had been appointed by the WBC. In this case, the WBC’s certified officials – the judge, referee, and supervisor – all clearly believed that Amasheh had won the bout, and that the scoring by the two non-WBC judges was both irregular and unjust, as was ruled by the WBC and BDB review panels.

“Normally, the ruling of the judges stands because we have faith in the judges, their impartiality, and professionalism. But in this case, we had no chance but to correct the injustice”, states BDB President Thomas Pütz. “There have been problems with the WBF and its officials in the past. We needed to set a sign to protect our sport.”

The WBC included the order of an immediate rematch in their ruling to give both fighters the chance to end the controversy fair and square in the ring. The free negotiation period for the rematch has started. Additionally, judges Toni Tiberi and Vincent Dupas have been suspended from all WBC activities.