Deon Potgieter boxing The future of boxing received two serious blows last weekend in two world title bouts featuring South African fighters.
On Saturday Mbulelo Botile hammered a brave Paul Ingle into a critical condition in their International Boxing Federation featherweight world title bout in England. The night before, Dingaan Thobela was robbed of his World Boxing Council (WBC) super-middleweight world title in Canada.
It is a tragedy when any boxer is seriously injured and the calls for boxing to be banned as a barbaric sport have again echoed around the world. The choice to announce Botile’s new nickname of “the Slaughterer” immediately after the Ingle bout was in bad taste and one hopes it will not cast an ill omen over the fallen fighter. At time of writing Ingle was in a stable condition, after a blood clot had been removed from his brain.
At the risk of sounding cold and that is not my intention the incompetent decision rendered by the WBC-appointed judges that stole Thobela’s world title from him and awarded it to Canadian Dave Hilton, has done more harm to the sport than the ill-fated Ingle bout.
Serious injuries to boxers have never put fight fans off, it’s part of the sport. Bad decisions have.
The fact that a fighter runs the risk of being seriously hurt or even killed every time he climbs into the ring underlines the injustice done to Thobela. These men are not playing games and they deserve to be treated in an honest and just way.
This latest points debacle is another of a long line of bad decisions delivered this year and it all adds up to either pure incompetence by the judges, or arranged decisions. Whichever the case may be, it will be the ruin of a once noble sport.
ENDS