December 28, 2000 Belgium
A
fter the problems IBF had in the USA with fraudulous practices which at
this moment have been cleared, it seems that owing to a certain Mr.
Montella from Italy, the IBF is looking for trouble in Europe.
We witnessed at a Belgian ringside how corrupt the IBF can be.
The onset of the story begins when a seemingly professional looser Bea
Diallo, at that time 7-13-1, is "selected" or "invited"» to fight for the
intercontinental crown IBF in the middleweights against an even worse
french guy, Mercier. Diallo won because everybody, the elderly newspapermen
at ringside included, would have clobbered the french bum.
The joke was to be continued by defenses against the Nebraska-boys Bleakly
and Corn. Fighters whose records are composed of village fair fights.
Those fights were approved by the European IBF-leader Benedetto Montella
whose declarations shocked the Belgian press when he declared seconds
before the Diallo-Corn fight that according to his principles the promoter
was entitled to select the referee and the judges. This time he not only
confirmed his point of view, he went even further by allowing Diallo's
manager to pick a substitute for a Russian judge who didn't show up for the
Diallo-Tatevossian fight. After a few calls everything became crystal-clear
when we were informed by the president from the Russian Boxing Federation,
Igor Mazurow, that at no time there had been contacts with a Russian judge.
So from the beginning Montella and the Diallo camp knew that the jury for
the fight was composed of a Belgian referee, an Italian judge, a Belgian
neutral judge and a friend of Diallo himself who had no previous
international experience. Montella refused to designate one of the three
world-rated referees which Belgium possesses. That such a mess resulted in
another "shame and scandal"-affair for boxing can't surprise anybody.
Tatevosyan was the winner of the fight by miles for everyone at the venue,
only the Italian judge and his Belgian colleague saw it the other way. But
their verdict was sufficient to let Diallo keep his crown.
This is the way in which Montella thanks promoters who allow him to travel
with family and friends (6) for many days on their expenses. In Belgium
there have been talks of other allowances in respect with Signore Montella,
but as far as I know they haven't yet been established. That could be a
matter for a law judge.
Anyway, an intercontinental IBF title fight is nothing more than trash, the
belts that go with it belong nowhere else than in the dustbin.
Ringside Belgium:
http://www.sportchiefs.com/ringside/
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