Who said professional boxing in the country is in the doldrums?

Far from it, the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic halted all the promotions that were on the verge to be sanctioned.

Not only that our boxers were beginning to show their worth when the pandemic struck and brought everything to a halt.

Boxing Commission of Fiji (BCF) president, Subhash Appana likened it to a killer knockout punch.

“Fiji Boxing has had two knockdowns one in 2020 and one in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 before it came to its second stop.

Now, with everything normalising, the BCF’s immediate concern include the vaccination of boxers and officials, adhering to all ‘back to play’ protocols and ensuring that a promotion is staged in December or in January.

So, it has been happening for the sport.

But what has been the hallmark of these BCF directors is their no nonsense approach in cleaning up the sport.

• Boxers are being suspended for failing to honour their contract after not meeting the required weight limit they had signed for.
• Refusing unknown overseas boxing organisations from staging their world title fights here
• Boxers, trainers and cornermen being suspended for unruly behav- iour.
• Non performing judges and ref- erees were chucked out with new ones being trained.
• Never has this happened before.

We’ve got bear in mind the adage that ‘Rome was not built in a day’ and it’s going to take some time to put everything into place.

But so far, the BCF is on the right track and there’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the future of the sport.