Sebastiaan Rothmann won a second world title on Saturday night on what should have been a joyous occasion. Instead the fight was a no contest and should be declared as such by the International Boxing Organisation (IBO), which sanctioned the bout.
While this would mean Rothmann would be stripped of the title, it would allow his promoters and match- makers the opportunity of matching him against a credible opponent.
The man Rothmann beat for five rounds before the referee eventually called a stop to the non-event, New Zealander Anthony Bigeni, was a bum and had no business being in the ring, let alone challenging for a world title.
”We were tremendously embarrassed by the fight,” says Maurice Owen, vice-president of the IBO in Africa. ”When we received the application for the fight we went in believing it would be a credible match and certainly the issue needs to be looked into. The matchmakers must also carry some of the blame. If they thought they were putting a good fight together they can’t have much knowledge of boxing. Rothmann is a damn good fighter and deserved better than that.”
The referee on the evening could have spared the disgruntled spectators the pain of watching Rothmann pulling his punches and appearing afraid of seriously injuring his opponent by stopping the fight after the second round, instead he kept telling Bigeni to ”show me something”.
All Begeni showed was how to collect a pay cheque for being a punching-bag and a bad one at that. ”The buck must unfortunately stop with Boxing SA,” says former acting CEO of the commission, Dumile Mateza. ”The problem is Boxing SA does not have a strong sanctioning committee in place to ensure that these mismatches don’t happen. This results in a lot of our boxers being matched with cannon fodder.”
It is not practice in South Africa to withhold a boxer’s purse for not fighting, so Bigeni did receive payment for his little trip to Africa.
In other boxing news, Naseem Hamed’s conqueror Marco Antonio Barrera will face Johnny Tapia in Las Vegas this weekend. Both are celebrated pugilists who have transcended the need to contest world titles. Barrera is the 5-1 favourite.
Between them both boxers have fought the who’s who of the featherweight division and a victory for either would lead to another big payday against the likes of Erik Morales.
Billed as the battle of the warriors, this bout is sure to deliver thrilling fight action between two men who won’t quit.