STUDDARD PITS BSA AGAINST THE WBF 

By Monwabisi Jimlongo

Joshua Studdard has pitted Boxing South Africa (BSA) against the World Boxing Federation (WBF) in the wake of his recent defeat by Akani Sambu. 

This looming fight between the two boxing bodies is set to follow after the WBF reversed a decision which had declared Studdard as the winner after he faced Sambu in a vacant intercontinental bantamweight title contest in Pretoria more than a week ago. 

A mistake committed by two judges was picked up after the outcome of the fight had already been announced. And WBF president Howard Goldberg, who was the fight supervisor, quickly changed the outcome to a unanimous decision victory for Sambu. 

That has, however, not gone down well with Studdard, who wrote a letter to BSA seeking the regulatory body’s intervention. 

Acting BSA chief executive officer Erick Nsikayezwe Sithole engaged the WBF through Goldberg. And the WBF boss told Sithole that Studdard’s fight against Sambu had nothing to do with BSA as it was sanctioned by his organisation. 

“We have informed Mr Goldberg that we received an official complaint from Joshua. We can’t ignore the complaint, it must be attended. Joshua wants us to look at the entire process of reversing the decision,” Sithole revealed.

“He wants us to start from the beginning to how the matter was handled. That’s where we are going to focus. We believe that something has to be done. We have to satisfy all the affected parties, to see if the WBF decision was right or wrong. We will look at it from our side. We will look at everything Studdard is complaining about.” 

Apparently, Studdard wants BSA to force the WBF to uphold the initial outcome of the fight and let him be the champion.

Contacted for comment, Goldberg said: “I have told BSA that the matter has nothing to do with them because that was a WBF fight and we have corrected the error the same way they took three days to correct an error. We corrected ours in 15 minutes after the judges informed me that they had scored for Sambu to win the fight. 

“Our integrity is very, very important to us. I’m happy to talk to the BSA team. They can call me, with pleasure. It’s a very simple situation. The guys changed the corners before the fight and the judges scored according to the colours, not according to the names. We reversed the decision after I saw that the score cards were a little bit strange. I told the judges that they were expected to have scored according to the names, not the colours. 

“On the Sunday night of the fight I informed my executive director and the head of the disciplinary committee about what happened. They both said that I did the right thing.”