Kiwi camp upset by British referee
Joseph Parker’s handlers are ‘‘dismayed and appalled’’ at the decision to appoint a British referee for his WBO world heavyweight title defence against Hughie Fury.
Britain’s Fury and Parker clash in Manchester on September 24.
The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC) has appointed British referee Terry O’Connor - the same official in charge of Hughie Fury’s last two bouts - to control the fight.
‘‘We’re frankly appalled by this. We have petitioned the BBBoC multiple times to see sense, but to no avail. Serious questions need to be asked of the BBBoC,’’ Duco Events director David Higgins said yesterday.
Fury’s last fight against Cameroon’s Frank Kassi in April last year, ended in a technical decision to Fury when O’Connor called off the fight after the Briton suffered a cut to the eye in the sixth round.
Duco say a written request from the WBO to the BBBoC to follow its guidelines with regard to the neutrality of officials for world championship bouts has also been rejected.
‘‘This appointment of ‘home town’ officials contravenes the WBO’s guidelines that officials should be neutral, and clearly leaves the contest open to speculation about bias and impropriety,’’ Higgins said.
‘‘WBO president Paco Valca´rcel wrote to the BBBoC politely requesting that ‘the same procedure applied by the British Boxing Board of Control in the Anthony Joshua versus Wladimir Klitschko bout, should be used on this occasion’.
‘‘Inexplicably the BBBoC has ignored that. This is disgraceful.’’
Higgins said the appointment of a referee who has controlled Fury’s last two fights breached the fight contract. ‘‘It’s contrary to the spirit of the deal and the letter of the contract struck with Hennessy Sports for the title fight, the governing principal being that it would be a fair fight,’’ he said.
Higgins feared the appointment would fall into the likely game plan of Fury.
‘‘The entire world knows Hughie Fury is going to run away from Joseph Parker, clinch, elbow, headbut and do whatever he can to steal a result. Having a referee with whom he is familiar clearly provides an unfair advan- tage.
‘‘Mr O’Connor refereed Hughie Fury’s last two fights, so it is patently inappropriate for him to have any influence over this fight.
‘‘We might have expected this sort of thing had the bout been held in a banana republic, but to see this lack of neutrality and fair play in a nation like Great Britain is staggering.’’
Parker’s safest option to defend his title under these circumstances is to remove the referee and judges from the equation by knocking out Fury, a method of victory is eager to attain in an effort to stamp his name on the buoyant British heavyweight scene.
Higgins said Duco Events had lobbied BBBoC successfully to have a New Zealander added to the judging panel to balance the presence of a British judge, however the BBBoC had refused repeated requests to appoint a neutral referee.
‘‘We’ve formally raised these issues with BBBoC and its response has been quite frankly pathetic. They could not provide an adequate reason why they did not want a neutral referee.’’
The latest controversy signal the dangers of taking Parker’s title on the road.