Promoter tells commission to act after boxing scoring blunder

India’s female boxer Aarti Hooda and her team were disappointed after the decision of her win against New Zealand’s Emma Nesbitt was overturned.

Hooda was announced winner following their minimum weight bout before the decision was changed to a split draw- one and half hours after the fight due to an incorrect count by one of the judges.

The bout was under the Zeg Boxing Promotion at Suva’s Vodafone Arena on Saturday night.

Team India manager Neeraj Redhu said he brought a strong team and to be treated this way was not fair.

“She lost a lot of weight for this weight division,” Redhu said.

“I’m not against any boxers; I’m just against the decision.

“This is not good for boxing and for us coming all the way from India,” he added.

He added that Varun Phartyal should also have won the main about, which was clear with the way he fought. Phartyal lost the PBCNZ super bantam weight title to Fiji’s Junior Binnu Singh on split points decision

A distraught Hooda and supporter Vyas Deo Sharma that they’ll seek legal advice regarding the issue.

“We’re going to hire a lawyer tomorrow (yesterday),” Sharma said.

“How can they do that? There should have been proper procedures to follow if they want to overturn the decision.

“Making decisions like this is why Fiji is behind in all sports.”

Zeg Boxing promoter Alfaaz Mallam said he was only the organiser of the event and not a decision maker in the ring.

“Every decision that is made inside the ring is from the judges. It has nothing whatsoever to do with us,” Mallam said.

“The judges made a decision to first award the win to Aarti. They later realised that they had calculated the points wrongly, so they came in and verified, and they announced what the honest thing was.

“Which I think is good. I mean, they could have just sat there and not said anything. But they did the right thing and announced that it’s a draw.

“So for both parties, they’re going home- they haven’t lost, and we can always have a rematch.”

He said as far as the main bout was concerned the judges were confident that Singh won.

“If the boxer from India is unhappy because he lost, then there is always the next time.

“We can’t just keep changing decisions because one boxer is upset. Otherwise, it will be a whole night thing.”

Mallam said he had highlighted to Boxing Commission of Fiji chairman Adi Narayan certain issues that needs to be addressed.

“The mistake that they made with miscalculating the point. I mean, it’s a very simple thing.

“How can they make a blunder? And it causes a lot of pain to a lot of people. So, I have spoken to Adi Narayan that he needs to talk to his team, and then we will see where to from there.”

He added that promoters spend a lot of money on their promotion as they try to lift the standard of boxing in Fiji.

“If we start doing these things, then it starts to upset a lot of people.

“If it’s always going to be a controversy, no one would want to support the sport. And here we are, we’re trying to build this sport instead of it being a dying sport.”

Meawhile, newly crowned PBCNZ South Pacific super bantamweight champion Junior Binnu Singh has called on Runqi Zhou for a rematch for the WBA (World Boxing Association) Oceania super bantamweight title.