Strange decision at fistic fury

Ghanaian boxing fans "positively defied" a strange verdict by three judges in an International catch-weight contest between Ayitey Powers, National Welterweight Champion and Beninois Victor Kpadoenu, Africa Welterweight Champion staged at the Globe Cinema in Accra. Judge Clement Ashong recorded the fight 77-75, Confident Hiagbe had it 75-79 while Emmanuel Brenya made it 74-78 in favour of the Ghanaian who was convincingly beaten by the Beninois in the early hours of Sunday.

The decision was met with a spontaneous uproar and boos at both the Ghanaian boxer and the judges resulting in a commotion forcing the promoter Arthur Don to deploy security personnel to curb the situation.

The other bouts for the night had to be temporarily suspended, fans thronged the podium to verbally attack the officials, while Kpadoenu refused to leave the ring calling for a review of the decision.

The boxer's frustration was epitomised by the promoter who insisted that the judges reversed the decision in conformity with what was the obvious. But this was equally met with strong opposition by the judges whose spokesman Confident Hiagbe insisted the decisions were correct.

It took close to 20 minutes for an official of the Ghana Boxing Authority to mount the ring and announced to the fans that, "the protest of the Beninois has been duly registered and within 72 hours a decision will be announced."

The bizarre verdict capped a night of comedy and mismatches, as either boxers who had been advertised to fight were absent or were just not prepared for the bouts. The show dubbed "Fistic Fury" was in contrast of what transpired - unfortunately the only bout, which matched up to the title, was floored with a strange verdict.

The main bout for the night, the African Super Middleweight championship between Rasta haired Charles Adam and fellow Ghanaian Prince Mama had to be cancelled at the last minute because Mama could not make it. Instead Adamu had to battle an Ashaiman neophyte Joe Addo who gave up in the fourth round in an eight round contest.

In the other bouts for the night co-sponsored by TV3 and NTHC, Philip Kotey knocked out Samuel Nartey in two minutes 43 seconds of the third round in their scheduled six round Welterweight contest.

Former Bantamweight champion Malik Jabir intensified his search for Raymond Narh for the Super Featherweight title with a fourth round TKO over Iron Cutter Cujdoe while Kpakpo Allotey also registered a second round TKO over Sulley Issah in an eight round Super Featherweight contest.

Veteran Adamu Mohamed could not stand the strength of young Alfred Tetteh as the young man had a technical knock out over his opponent when his corner men threw in the towel after the second round of their scheduled 10 round Bantamweight contest, while Samuel Turkson won with majority decision over Robert Nartey in a six round Super Featherweight contest.

The fights between Alex Ali Baba and Rufus Adebayo, James Toney and Olubi Severigin and Alfred Odai and Ali Alabi could not be staged for no apparent reason while the Abdulai Amidu-Adjaho Ange bout was declared an exhibition bout.