And it is not the kind of probe most of you romos enjoy.
COPIED FROM THE STAR (www.thestar.com)
XXX
The provincial government is investigating allegations that Boxing Ontario is repeatedly allowing mismatches to take place between amateur fighters.
According to the allegations:
A 13-year-old in only his third bout was matched in Timmins in 2002 against a 24-year-old fighting for the 14th time. Although the younger fighter outweighed his opponent by 54 pounds, the bout violated Canadian amateur boxing rules because of age and experience discrepancies.
A boxer with 91 bouts squared-off in Sudbury in 2002 with a novice who had only fought twice.
That summer, also in Sudbury, a 16-year-old boxer with 19 bouts behind him fought an 18-year-old who was entering the ring for his first time.
A boxer weighing 189 pounds fought in Blind River, Ont., in 2002 against one weighing 230 pounds, exceeding the maximum allowable weight difference by 28 pounds.
Information on these fights and others was obtained from weigh-in sheets submitted to Boxing Ontario, which sanctioned all of the fights.
"These are major violations," alleged Bill Mackie, one of two former Boxing Ontario officials who has complained to the province about mismatches, which he says violate Canadian Amateur Boxing Association rules. As a CABA member, Boxing Ontario is required to adhere to these rules.
Boxing Ontario president Val Ryan said flatly her organization has done nothing wrong. "I think there (is) no basis to the complaints," she said in a recent interview.
Mackie believes whoever agreed to allow these fights "is just nuts. It's just irresponsible." He added that all it takes is for one accident to happen. "If there was a serious injury, a lawyer would ask `Why did you allow this fight to take place when it violated the rules?'''
Records detailing the alleged mismatches are part of a file of complaints forwarded to Ontario's Athletics Commissioner in the spring by Ontario's Ministry of Tourism and Recreation.
"We're following up (on the complaints) to assess the accuracy of them," Athletics Commissioner Ken Hayashi said. He expects the probe to wrap up soon. Conclusions and recommendations will be sent back to Tourism and Recreation.
"We're looking at this mainly from the health and safety issues," Hayashi said.
Ryan declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations. "When the time comes for Ken Hayashi to meet with us we will answer to him. I am not answering to you."
She said that mismatches should not take place, but as a back-up precaution referees and doctors at ringside can stop fights that are one-sided.
"As far as we're concerned, safety has always been our No. 1 priority."
Boxing Ontario is a non-profit body that received $54,000 in provincial funding last year. It has 1,500 amateur boxers from age 11 and up as registered members. Last year the organization sanctioned between 700 and 1,000 bouts in the province, mostly club fights, which are typically three or four rounds with fighters wearing regulation head protection and gloves.
Taylor Gordon, a vice-president with the Ottawa-based Canadian Amateur Boxing Association, of which Boxing Ontario is a member, said he's aware of the athletics commissioner's probe into Boxing Ontario. If those making the complaints aren't satisfied with the outcome, they can take the matter up with the CABA, he said.
Many of the fights in question were held at racetracks two summers ago as part of a pilot project pairing gambling with boxing. But those close to amateur boxing claim the problem has also occurred and continues to occur in some "club fights," shows where boxing clubs match their fighters with boxers from other clubs.
"They're not being cautious enough," said Sherry Boone, a former regional chief official with Boxing Ontario, referring to Boxing Ontario. Boone was also a Boxing Ontario vice-president. She has also complained to the province about mismatches, and her allegations are part of the probe into Boxing Ontario. She says an independent oversight body needs to be formed to monitor the organization's adherence to its own safety guidelines.
"You don't play with young people's lives. They trust you to protect them in this high-risk sport. It's the duty of coaches, officials, trainers, referees, everyone," said Boone, who co-owns a Niagara Region boxing club with her husband.
Both she and Mackie have run afoul of Boxing Ontario. Boone was stripped of her membership in 2002 after the organization sent her a letter calling her "combative," "argumentative" and a detriment to Boxing Ontario. Boone says she lost her position over her complaints about the mismatches and other safety concerns.
Mackie, a former director of officials, was relieved of his duties in January 2003. He says he was pushed out after "raising alarm bells" about mismatches. The organization told him he lost his job for missing some tournaments and "endangering the safety of athletes" by not being present during those fights.
Mackie says he missed a few tournaments due to a death in the family and a relative's illnesses, but he appointed two officials in his stead.
As for the allegations concerning mismatches, those close to the sport say problems often arise when two fighters show up to box at a venue but don't match up with each other.
Before a fight is held, matchmakers from boxing clubs -- usually the coaches -- contact each other and are supposed to compare boxers to ensure safety and fairness, bearing in mind age, weight and experience.
Once the boxers arrive at a venue, they're weighed by a regional chief official from Boxing Ontario. There are five regions in the province, each with an official responsible for club shows who gives final approval for bouts. (A doctor is at ringside for every bout and decides whether a boxer is medically fit to fight.) A mismatch could mean calling off a show, so subtle pressure is exerted to break the rules, say insiders.
"I've seen it happen," said one trainer who works out of a Toronto club and asked that his name not be used. "If one bout gets cancelled that could jeopardize an entire show," he said.
Boxing coach Tony Morrison, a former Canadian professional who now works at Sully's boxing club in west-end Toronto, said sometimes it is boxers themselves who ask to fight even though there's a mismatch.
But Morrison said he's never seen mismatches like the ones alleged in the complaints.
In one, a 13-year-old named Justin Lalonde fought 24-year-old Chris Paulins in Timmins on June 14, 2002. Even though Lalonde outweighed Paulins by 210 pounds to 156, Paulins was 24, and had fought 13 times, compared to Lalonde, who had only fought twice.
Gord Dowd, who was the chief official for that fight, said "the rules were followed to the limit," despite the apparent violation of CABA rules regarding differences in age and experience.
When asked about the discrepancies, Dowd referred further queries to Boxing Ontario.
Gord Appolloni, who coaches both Lalonde and Paulins at the Ontario National Training Centre in Sudbury, says he did nothing wrong in matching the pair.
"It all depends on the individuals like those in our club," said Appollini, a former Canadian national team coach. "They were not trying to win anything, they (were) showing technique, and that is the purpose of an exhibition.
"It is a team sport and we know that nothing is going to happen. It is Olympic-style boxing with no brute force being used."
No formal winners or losers are declared in exhibition fights, which are supposed to be fought with less force. However, the safety rules do not specifically provide an exception for exhibitions, and Mackie says most of the exhibitions he has seen were fought full out.
In 1982, a provincial task force issued a report with a list of safety recommendations that were adopted by Boxing Ontario.
But in 1991 one boxing coach complained in the Toronto Star about top Boxing Ontario officials "recklessly" breaking their own rules and "endangering" young fighters.
Denis Bradley, at the time a chief official for Boxing Ontario, admitted then to routinely using what he termed "common sense" to override rules set up to protect boxers' safety.
A short time later the province responded to the complaints by appointing a safety commissioner for one year.
END COPY
Another blow to getting santioning for "human cockfighting".
Damn barbarians.
I can't believe this. Ryan better get taken to task by Hayashi. If they are so hard on MMA they better hold boxing to the same damn standard.
I heard the 13 year old actually ate his opponent!
I've seen exhibition bouts where the fighters go
'all-out', some being warned to go easier, and others
never being warned by the ref the entire fight. Even
after there has been a knock-down, neither fighter
was warned to tone the pace down. But for the most
part, an exhibition is just that, where the fighters
practise technique, and generally don't try to take
each others heads off.
If the article is specifically about mismatches in
only exhibition bouts, well, I feel that whomever
is complaining about mismatches in these types of
bouts should check themselves. Exhibitions are
just that, and mostly by opponents of the same club
or from a club that is close, and all the parties
involved have known each other for quite some time.
Proof that the whole athletic commission needs looking at and MMA should be included.
Boxing is so much more brutal than mma imo. It can't be too good for someone to get knocked down 5-6 times only to get up and get ktfo!
My second fight as a amateur was in Ontario (1988) I fought Wayne Johnson who had 88 bouts. I hit him once and never touched him again, in the 3x3min rounds. So my coach put me in a beginner tournament after that and I won. Then he turned me open to fight Joe Lowe with 111` bouts and I didn't win but I was in the fight. Afterlosing to these guy's for a year I started beating them .I remember being 15 looking across and seeing a bald guy with a harry chest. It was great times!
I coach now and got a 17 year old superheavy who I put against a 25 year old, 242lb guy(undeafeted).My guy lost but was in the fight the whole time. Then I matched him up with a 27 year old superheavy in Calgary. My guy lost,but when I took my guy to fight for the intermediate canadians in Qeubec he won a gold and got to go to Poland to represent Canada. He has only had 11 bouts on his way to poland this year.
If you get in a mismatched fight, then it is your coach's fault. He should be looking after you. Rounds are only 2 min now and the officials than I've seen and the coaches are very quick to stop a fight if a fighter is taking a beating.
I've seen boxers with only a few fights do well against more experienced fighters. So there can't be a rigid rule. Again – your coach has to take of you.
Sometimes there are exhibition matches thrown in just to make a show. Most are members of the same club. Some have been the most entertaining of the show. We have some fighters with just a few fights, but they have been training for 10-15 years. They can handle more experienced people. They might have just a few boxing matches, but they are second degree black belts, with thousands of rounds of sparring.
In short, you can't make a firm rule. This fighter has this many fights and weighs this much – can only fight this type of fighter. The coaches of both fighters must be allowed to make a judgement with the coaches and officials taking care of them
I agree that the coaches are definitely culpable in this matter - they should be looking out for their fighters' health no matter what. Fighters will always want to fight despite sometimes daunting odds - that's why there's coaches and rules to protect the fighters from themselves. However, Val Ryan sounds like an arrogant ass when she says she'll only answer to Hayashi. Ms. Ryan, if you can't even follow your OWN rules, maybe you should drop the attitude before someone sues you for criminal negligence. Hopefully things work out for the boxers. Maybe this could be an opportunity for the MMA scene in Canada to show how much safer MMA is than boxing.
Heh heh heh...the title says "probed."
=)
"I agree that the coaches are definitely culpable in this matter - they should be looking out for their fighters' health no matter what. Fighters will always want to fight despite sometimes daunting odds - that's why there's coaches and rules to protect the fighters from themselves".
pattidue's a smart gal. ; )
It is worth noting that this happened on Hayashi's watch. There are those that think might be the time to put pressure on the powers that be for Hayashi's resignation or firing. MMA people are not the only athletes who do not like this guy.
Regarding mismatches etc, Johnny Kalhben (Cabbagetown Boxing) has been around this stuff for a long time and has never seen anything worth mentioning. He is the sort of coach that one wants - always putting the safety of his fighters first.
I've been too numerous Amateur boxing events and have seen some horrible mismatches...I'm talking BIGTIME. Literally, people yelling at the ref and cornermen to stop the bouts...craziness.
Boxing Ontario, IMHO, is well organized and structred very well. This article may seem to discredit how it is run, but I think it has more to do with people error than with the organizations error.
Internal Politics can also be a factor here.
Can some one give me more reasons why Hayashi ought to retire?