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Many thanks for talking to us.
Can you first tell us how you
became involved in boxing and
give us a brief history of your
background within the sport.
Absolute pleasure. I became
interested in boxing at the age
of six through a neighbour of
mine and a great man by the name
of Simmy Lewis. He was and
still remains to this day at the
young age of 92 arguably one of
the finest boxing statisticians
worldwide. I watched hundreds
of fights as a youngster and was
then roped in to learn to become
a referee and judge. I
officiated since 1978 and have
worked in over 50 world title
fights as a judge, and probably
the same amount of South African
title fights in the capacity of
a referee and judge. I also did
a stint as a promoter, and have
also supervised close to a
hundred world title fights.
You recently re-formed the WBF
breaking away from the
Australian group led by Mick
Croucher who you worked closely
with for several years. Why the
split?
The split was indeed sad as I am
very fond of Mick. At the last
fight of Francois Botha in
Germany, I was approached to
have a meeting with several
disgruntled and high flying
boxing administrators from
countries around the world who
felt that the WBF under Croucher
could not be taken to a higher
level, and that it was their
intention to break away and
re-energise the boxing
sanctioning body. I was then
approached by this group to
preside over the new sanctioning
body. We approached Mick to be
part of the new team in an
extremely high executive
position, but sadly he declined.
We are setting high standards,
will have complete transparency,
and will strive for independent
ratings. We will be striving to
take the organisation to a much
higher level, both professional
and structurally.
What do you consider your
organization can offer fighters
and why should they fight for
WBF titles?
It’s about opportunities for
quality fighters who for some
reason or another fail to be
given title fight
opportunities. We aim to
empower boxers, trainers,
managers, officials and even
administators to realise their
dreams and ambitions. We intend
our champions not only to win
titles but to be role models and
icons for the youth of today,
who hopefully will aspire to the
levels of their heroes. We want
the very best in the world to
contest our titles.
You are looking to attract new
promoters to come and work with
the WBF. What makes you
different from the other
alphabet groups?
It’s not really what makes us
different and I would rather not
compare ourselves with the other
organizations and what they do.
Rather I would add, that it is
our intention in being a
completely transparent
organisation whose main aim is
to develop quality boxing
worldwide, we present an
affordable and quality
alternative to those promoters
who are unable to secure title
shots for their championship
boxers. Very often many of the
world’s top fifteen or so fail
to land big title shots – we
hope to remedy this problem
where possible.
Have all the champions from Mick
Croucher’s WBF aligned
themselves with you or are some
sticking with the Australian
version?
All the existing world champions
from the Foundation were offered
the opportunity to vacate their
titles and simply move over to
the Federation and automatically
become our world champions. All
have done so without any
hesitation. We have some really
outstanding champions within the
top twenty on Boxrec, including
our lightweight king, Mlungisi
Dlamini, 21-0, and our
heavyweight champ, Francois ‘The
White Buffalo’ Botha.
Where and when will be the first
WBF sanctioned fight since you
took over as president?
It’s really been hectic and
suddenly we are getting
promoters all over the world
interested in working with us.
Apart from our International and
Intercontinental titles taking
place in December and January,
our next world title fight is on
December 18 involving our
undefeated International
champion Tamas Kovacs. Then it’s
Francois Botha vs Evander
Holyfield in Uganda on 16
January, William Gare vs Marco
Antonio Rubio in South Africa on
22 January, and four others for
February still to be confirmed.
Let’s also not forget the world
title fight for Noni Tenge of
South Africa, a lady we believe
to be the very best welterweight
in the world today. Also in
Europe, things are taking off,
especially in the Franco-Italian
regions. Our female world
champion Myriam Lamare, of whom
we are very proud, is # 1 at
boxrec.
Many people will see the
addition of another world
governing body as just another
way of making money and
confusing the already clouded
championship picture. What would
you say to those people?
Certainly people will say that.
I would ask the true boxing
people to judge us on what we
do, the quality of the fights we
stage, and the commitment we
will give to our ideology of
developing boxing. Hopefully
we will let our champions do
both the fighting and talking
for the World Boxing Federation.
I have always believed that any
boxing organisation will be
judged on the quality of its
champions and that of the
championship fights. We would
like to be judged similarly.
Who will be compiling your world
championship ratings? Do you
have a ratings director?
We firmly believe in independent
ratings such as those of the IBO
and Boxrec. Ed Levine has done
a fantastic job with his
ratings, which preclude any
favouritism to special promoters
with special fighters. To
achieve this, we have entered
into a partnership with Boxrec
to adopt their ratings, which
makes us and the IBO the only
sanctioning bodies to accept
independant computer ratings. We
believe that all fighters should
be rated independently and in
turn, the organization will
exercise its professional wisdom
in selecting appropriate
fighters to contest its titles.
Will you be re-structuring the
WBF titles which are available?
Will there be the minor titles
such as Intercontinental,
International, All-Americas
belts or will you just
concentrate on world title
bouts?
A slight restructuring with most
of the titles staying the same.
There will be similar titles to
other organisations such as the
International and
Intercontinental titles, as well
as a few pertinent to specific
regions. However, there will be
no such thing as an eight round
title fight for any title
whatsoever.
Where do you see the new WBF in
a couple of years? Do you really
think you can achieve high
profile fights on the big
American cards or is it a case
of just being patient and
building up your reputation and
seeing what happens?
It’s a bit of both. We’re in
this business to make sure that
the World Boxing Federation is
taken very seriously indeed. We
will from the outset ensure
complete professionalism,
etiquette and honesty, and we
will strive to get the very best
fighters coming to fight for our
titles. Naturally the US market
would be one of our major aims,
and the way to enter this market
is to offer the very best
fighters in the world. We have
a great team at the Federation,
with much experience and
knowledge, and with great
connections. We will synergise
all our strength and give it our
all. World boxing deserves
nothing less than that.
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