Oriental Quarries Boxing promotions manager Christopher Malunga has revealed that the World Boxing Council (WBC) has instituted investigations into the bout between super bantamweight champion Fatuma Zarika of Kenya and Zambia’s Catherine Phiri.
And Malunga says the promotion neither agrees, nor disputes the verdict of the judges to declare Zarika winner of Saturdays bout in Nairobi, Kenya.
Phiri lost the bout to the Kenyan in controversial circumstances prompting numerous Kenyans and Zambians to take to social media disputing the verdict.
In an interview with Goal Diggers, Malunga revealed that the promotion raised several issues with WBC, citing the improper conduct of the Boxing Board in Kenya, including the move by the master of ceremonies to cheer-lead fans during the bout among other issues.
“To the fans at home and the fans in Nairobi, I think that Catherine now has a lot of fans in Kenya. The Kenyans disputed the results of that fight, you can always see from social media. It’s not coming from us. Even when we were going to the airport the Kenyans disputed the results of the fight saying that our boxer was robbed. Now us as Oriental [Quarries Boxing Promotions], we do not act out of emotions. We have just come from Kenya, we have to do a post mortem of that bout. To make sure that we analyse all aspects of the fight. We are going to sit down and give independent people even those from the media to analyse the fight, and those who have fought before to analyse the fight. Those with knowledge in boxing to analyse the match, then come out with a report,” Malunga said.
“But there are other issues which have nothing to do with the promoter in Kenya, but have something to do with the Boxing Board of Control which were brought to the attention of the World Boxing Council (WBC). These are serious. There are serious issues which were not followed, issues that were violated by the Boxing Board of Control in Kenya. And the matter was taken to the commissioner while we were in Kenya, that this has been violated and certain organisation in Kenya did not perform certain issues when it was mandatory to do so. I will not give the details not because WBC is investigating what we have raised. The commissioner in Kenya was given instructions on what to do, he never did what he was supposed to do. Then the master of ceremonies started cheering people during the match, where have you seen an MC cheering fans during the match? This means that the integrity of fair play was at stake.”
And Malunga says the promotion neither agrees nor disputes the verdict of the judges to declare Zarika winner of Saturdays bout in Kenya.
“Get it clear from me, as Oriental quarries boxing promotions, we are not agreeing with the results and we are not disputing the results. I’m not disputing the results, and I’m not agreeing because I have to do the post-mortem. I think it would be pre-mature for us to state whether we won the fight and we were robbed or whether we lost the fight. You know what happens in boxing, the boxing fight is determined on who is aggressing, who is taking the fight to who? Those are the things you are supposed to consider then secondly you look at who is scoring? If you look at that girl, she was almost going down three times. That’s the way it goes in boxing.”