Sky News Online
 
 
Billy Dib 'shouldn't receive punishment'
Updated: 21:56, Friday July 10, 2009

World-ranked featherweight boxer Billy Dib is adamant he shouldn't receive any punishment for the chaos that followed his controversial win over Japanese fighter Kenichi Yamaguchi at Luna Park on Thursday night.

In the aftermath of Dib's first-round stoppage, the referee was pushed by Yamaguchi, who was in turn shoved by Dib who clashed with his opponent's trainer Justin Footit, with followers of both fighters charging into the ring.

There did not appear to be any serious scuffles and order was restored fairly quickly by security staff.

Boxing Authority of NSW chairman Terry Harrtmann told AAP on Friday his organisation would meet at the earliest opportunity to view television footage of the incident and consider whether to take any action.

Harrtmann said because of a heavy boxing schedule in NSW over the next fortnight the meeting could be delayed to the latter part of the month.

Yamaguchi returned to Japan on Friday but his Australian trainer Footit revealed he would file a protest with the Boxing Authority of NSW and the World Boxing Organisation, whose Asia Pacific interimfeatherweight title was at stake.

Dib said he had no control over what the referee or spectators did.

'I was a little bit disappointed with the way things happened. I just want people to understand that what happened after the fight wasn't in my control,' Dib said.

He said he only pushed Yamaguchi because he thought he was about to be attacked.

'When he (Yamaguchi) pushed the referee and then he came at me I was like this guy is coming to attack me' so I pushed him away and then Justin Footit came at me,' Dib said.

Footit said there had been a breakdown of communication between the two camps and he was merely trying to keep his fighter away from Dib.

'When Yamaguchi ran over towards Dib after the fight I saw it in the corner of my eye and ran over to get Yamaguchi,' Footit said.

'But they thought I was coming over to get Dib, so there was a misunderstanding there. I came to get Yamaguchi away from Billy and then Billy saw me coming over to that direction and have a go at me.'

Footit said he was looking for the result to be changed to a no-contest as referee Les Fear had made an error.

Dib knocked Yamaguchi to the canvas in the closing seconds of the first round and the Australian appeared to strike him again while he was down.

'A foul was committed and the referee didn't take the proper action,' Footit told AAP.

'At the end of the day the rules were broken by the referee. Our boxer should have been given time to recover from a foul and if he didn't recover it was a disqualification, or make it a no-contest.'

Dib said his last punch was not intentional and he was still dazed at the time from being inadvertently kneed in the head by Yamaguchi when the Australian slipped to the canvas earlier in the round.

'It was very unintentional, it wasn't out of malice or anything like that, because he was crouching down so low,' Dib said.'

The promotion was the first of four weekly Superboxer promotions being shown on the ONE HD, the free-to-air all-sport digital arm of the Ten Network.

Sectors of the boxing community feared the post-fight ruckus might prompt ONE HD to reconsider their coverage of the three remaining promotions.

However, the Ten Network's program manager of sports Gus Seebeck told AAP his network was 'totally committed' to the three remaining shows.

 
SEEK Job Search
Online T&C | SMS Alerts T&C | SMS Voting T&C | Parliamentary Coverage T&C | Privacy Policy | TV Care | About Sky News | Contact | Employment
Copyright Australian News Channel Pty Ltd - ABN 28068954478