No more than 2 title bouts

BOXING COMMISSION MAKES CHANGES

THE Boxing Commission of Fiji will not allow more than two title fights on a programme to give different promoters an equal chance to showcase their events.

There was a proposal by the South Pacific Boxing Promotion to allow for four title bouts per programme to make events lively and better for boxers with bigger payouts but this has been rejected by the parent body.

Commission chairman Subhash Appana said they rejected the idea because there was a small crop of boxers in the country.

“What I saw when I came in is that the promoters were trying to hog boxers through large numbers of bouts so that they are not available for the next programme,” he said.

“Also the programmes used to go up until midnight, some even after that.

“That certainly does not make any sense to me because how can we have people from Ba, Sigatoka and Suva at a venue like Nadi watching fights and going home after that. “What we want is to finish all programmes by 10pm or before that.

“The waiting time between bouts has to be changed as we do not have long breaks like listening to music.”

The BCF has also rejected a proposal to hold 12 fights per program keeping it to a maximum of eight with a few extra exhibition bouts.

“Each program will have eight bouts,” Appanna said.

“The BCF has been scrutinising the match-ups because there were many mismatches.

“This is only in the interest of boxing. There is a proposal of 12 bouts per programme with four to five title fights on the same bill.

“What that means is that the next promoter will not get a title fight on his programme so we don’t want that to happen.

“We want to give all promoters an equal chance to hold title fights.”

THE Boxing Commission of Fiji will work with all registered promoters to see how overseas boxers can feature in local programmes.

Australian champion King Davidson featured on the South Pacific Promotion programme in Nadi last week, securing an unanimous points victory against Isikeli Senidoko in a 6x3 minute contest.

Commission chairman Subhash Appana said the cost element to get overseas boxers to Fiji was a bit of a constraint.

“But if we really have a star boxer here then surely there will be someone willing to box in the country,” he said.

“We need to have someone here through whom overseas boxers are willing to come.

“It will also need to work in a reciprocal way so our boxers can also go overseas.”

Ni-Vanuatu Masing Warawara and Australiabased Puna Rasaubale were the other boxers that fought in the country this year.

Appana said there were good boxers from Vanuatu who wanted to fight in Fiji.

“For the Suva program, there was a Vanuatu boxer (Warawara) who fought well,” he said.

“Rasaubale came to fight and we had Davidson in the last programme.

“For next year we have a couple of promoters who are talking about holding two programs per month.

“We were trying to allow it this month. One was supposed to be in Suva and the other one in Nadi. Unfortunately that did not happen.

“We will rely on the promoters for next year’s programmes.”