Boxing chiefs suspended WBO super-middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders’ licence yesterday after he offered men advice on how to hit their female partners during the coronavirus lockdown.
The British fighter released a video on social media using a punchbag to describe how to “hit her on the chin”. He apologised, saying he would “never condone domestic violence” and has now said he will donate £25,000 ($31,000) to domestic abuse charities. But the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC) has announced the two-weight world champion’s licence has been suspended, pending a hearing.
Saunders, 30, told Talksport radio it was a “silly mistake”. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get upset about it,” he said. “There are people dying all around the world with coronavirus and I was just trying to take the heat off that a little bit. It clearly hasn’t done. My sense of humour is not everyone’s cup of tea.”
The boxer said he had received death threats and had deleted his Twitter account. Promoter Eddie Hearn said he was appalled by the “idiotic” comments.
Saunders issued an apology earlier this month after he called an airline to say a friend was displaying coronavirus symptoms. The friend was removed from the flight along with Saunders’ trainer Ben Davison and stablemate Josh Taylor. The friend subsequently tested negative for Covid-19. In 2018 Saunders was fined £100,000 and issued him with a severe reprimand about his future conduct by the BBBoC after video footage emerged of him appearing to offer a woman drugs. His actions were filmed from his car and seemingly showed him offering drugs to the woman to perform a sex act, as well as asking her to punch a passer-by, which she did, before he drove off.
Whyte fight rescheduled
as Hearn eyes boxing behind closed doors
Dillian Whyte’s heavyweight clash with former world champion Alexander Povetkin has been rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic but British promoter Eddie Hearn said boxing could return behind closed doors in June. Matchroom Boxing yesterday confirmed the postponement of all their events scheduled for May, including bouts involving Whyte, Ireland’s Katie Taylor and British fighter Dereck Chisora. That includes the scheduled bout at the Manchester Arena on May 2 between Britain’s Whyte and Russia’s Povetkin. That fight is now in the diary for July 4. The BBBofC yesterday further extended its suspension of tournaments under its jurisdiction to cover the whole of May. Britain is the home of heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua and Fury’s recent demolition of previously unbeaten WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder has led to talk of an all-British showdown.
Hearn said July 25 would be a more realistic date for Joshua’s defence of his IBF, IBO and WBA title belts against Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He said the scheduled date of June 20 could fall within the domestic football season if that was resumed.
Hopkins, Mosley entry to Boxing Hall of Fame delayed to 2021
Legendary world champions Bernard Hopkins and “Sugar” Shane Mosley will have their inductions to the International Boxing Hall of Fame postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both US fighters were to have been enshrined along with the complete Class of 2020 on June 11-14 in ceremonies at the facility in Canastota, New York, which has temporarily closed due to the deadly virus outbreak.
Instead, the 2020 inductees will be included in a double ceremony with the 2021 inductees on June 10-13, 2021, the Hall announced in a website posting. Official plaques for 2020 inductees will be displayed later this year.
Hopkins, who went 55-8 with two drawn and 32 knockouts, was an undisputed middleweight champion during a 10-year reign from 1995-2005 and became the oldest champion in boxing history during a light-heavyweight reign that ended at age 49 in 2014. Mosley, 49-10 with one drawn and 41 knockouts, was a former world champion at lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight. The group also includes promoters Lou DiBella, Kathy Duva and Dan Goosen and Mexican fighter Juan Manuel Marquez, an ex-world featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight champion. The 2021 inductees are to be announced in December.
British Boxing Board of Control announced Billy Joe Saunders’ licence has been suspended.
