I will again dedicate this article to boxing as we just completed an unprecedented program at the FMF Gymnasium in Suva on June 10.
Boxing fans have been unanimous in their verdict that boxing is up and running in Fiji.
Ex-promoter Hasmat Ali called it “international class”. Longtime trainer Gyan Singh described it as “excellent” (bahut badhiya). International amateur boxing referee Seru Whippy said “kudos to the engaged stakeholders for their brilliant effort and results.
Take a bow Subhash Appanna and team”.
Prolific sports commentator Rajnesh Lingam wrote” “hats off to the organisers for hosting the 2023 FMF Fiji Boxing Series organised under Tuwai Boxing Promotions”.
It needs to be noted that all four comments being cited here are from initial sceptics.
Let me share with you what we have been doing to fine-tune boxing in order to convert these sceptics and take Fiji Boxing to “overseas levels”.
I had outlined in earlier articles details about opportunities and challenges faced along the last three years and 10 months that we have administered/ managed boxing in Fiji.
There are a number of key players without whom any sports, let alone boxing, will have difficulty propelling itself into the public domain and remaining there for any sustained period of time.
This is where interest from the media plays a key role. This interest, however, initially comes from personal acquaintances and connections between reporters and boxers or trainers or promoters.
If we want sustained interest, a number of more substantial things are necessary.
We need good boxers, great matchups, well organised programs, predictability in the rules being applied, consistency in requirements for boxers, programs and promoters, etc. All this calls for a trusted framework within which decisions are made.
And respect for these decisions. This respect requires the ability of Boxing Commission of Fiji to accept queries and explain its decisions openly.
Let me take us through each of these key players and explain how we have managed to take boxing to the levels being acknowledged above.
Promoters
At the outset in September 2019, we had only two active promoters: South Pacific Boxing Promotions (SPBP – Freddy Chand) and Kiran’s Boxing Promotions (KBP – Ben Krishna).
They were joined in January 2022 by Alan Kumar of Bula Boxing Promotions (BBP). A little later, Olympian Winston Hill managed to engage legendary Aussie trainer Johnny Lewis to set up Lewis-Hill Boxing Promotions (LHBP).
Recently, we got Jerry Tuwai, a hitherto quiet boxing fan to team up with Kumar and establish Tuwai Boxing Promotions (TBP).
It goes without saying that promoters play a key role in both organising, promoting and keeping boxing alive in a country.
However, history has shown that promoters can engage in all sorts of innovative business practices that could damage the sport.
This is because after all, contrary to what they espouse publicly, they view their involvement in boxing as a business enterprise.
Let me share with you some of the things that promoters have attempted to do with varying degrees of success over the years.
Fight match-ups
It is not uncommon for promoters to have close links with certain boxers or clubs. Chand is the manager of Seaside Boxing.
His financier Mohammed Shameem is the main sponsor of the Naliva brothers of Ba. Fiji is still waiting for a return fight between Savenaca Naliva and Joseph Kwadjo, but Naliva is not willing to fight in Suva and Kwadjo does not trust Ba for his safety.
The financiers involved with Naliva will not allow him to fight under any other promotional banner. We have there a stalemate. We have also had favoured boxers being set up in “soft matches”.
Bula Boxing had one in July 2022 in Nadi where a boxer brandishing “international” standings was matched against one who had been dormant and did not stand a chance.
BCF queried this, but a social media attack on personal vendetta was levelled against me.
The end result was a mismatch where boxing was the ultimate loser because of credibility issues.
Sabotaging programs
This is done in various ways, some ingenious. One, engaging in a social media blitz as soon as a program by a rival promoter is announced. The mischief includes announcing a forthcoming program that is merely in the discussion stages with BCF.
This tends to dilute the focus on the immediate program that all stakeholders should be focused on in order to ensure its success and consequently the success of Fiji boxing.
Two, they post photos and programs from the past confusing fans in the process — they do not know what to expect.
A low-blow was dealt by someone closely linked to SPBP just before the program last Saturday.
He posted that the whole program would be livestreamed. In other words, fans did not really have to purchase tickets. These types of dirty tactics do not stop there.
It is no secret that Kumar and TBP had worked hard on matching James Singh against Puna Rasaubale for the program that we just witnessed last Saturday. The interference of a rival promoter led to that bout being jettisoned.
The same promoter had tried to cripple Kumar/ BBP’s first program in July 2022 by pulling Ronald Naidu out of his eagerlyawaited return bout with Nathan Singh. Naidu submitted a sicksheet at the 11th hour.
BCF and the promoter tried to contact him for a second medical check-up using a BCF-sanctioned doctor, but he turned off his phone and went incognito very conveniently.
We then suspended him for six months amid criticisms of unfairness and favoritism from … you guessed it, the same gang linked to the rogue promoter.
The more important outcome was that this interference led to the demise of BBP because Nathan Singh v Ronald Naidu was supposed to be the main drawcard for this first program.
Fortunately for Fiji boxing, from the ashes of BBP arose Tuwai Boxing Promotions (TBP) just like the Egyptian Sphinx. And despite the withdrawal of Puna through promoter interference, the program was a thundering success.
There is much more that promoters (this one in particular) do to enhance their promotional success without realising that they do not need to engage in shady dealings and use unethical cut-throat tactics.
It will take much effort to cut and cauterise this because old habits are hard to change and ultimately they die hard.
BCF will need resolute institutional backing to take this to its logical conclusion for the good of Fiji Boxing.
Let me now move focus to the media and its personnel as without them boxing cannot maintain its presence in the public eye.
Media
Boxing stakeholders will have noted the regularity with which boxing received coverage for the final two weeks in the lead-up to last Saturday. The Fiji Times’ Meli Laddpeter, Rohit Deo and John Chetty.
The Fiji Sun’s Leone Cabenatabua. FBC’s Tarun Patel and his team as well as Fiji One need to be thanked for their sustained coverage of boxing.
This was particularly remarkable because the Drua mania was sweeping Fiji at the same time with soccer reviving up all around us.
Despite this, we got sustained coverage and the fans flocked in. There is little arguing that the scribes have always had a direct hand in the amount of interest generated by any public event.
Those who are keen followers will remember that it was the heat generated by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that toppled Richard Nixon from the US Presidency on August 9, 1974.
That is the kind of power that the media can wield. We used to have focused boxing reporters in the past.
One of the most boxing-focused of these was my tau Iliesa Tora.
He not only knew about boxing, but also made an effort to include a bit of history and analysis to his reporting in order to make his reports more interesting.
USP’s head of journalism Professor Shailendra Singh also had a good grasp of the sport as well as personal interest to pen some highly interesting pieces. And we cannot leave Cabenatabua out of this mix.
We wish to thank each of these members of the media without whom boxing will not be able to sustain its presence in the public domain. I hope readers have learnt some more about Fiji boxing here. We will continue with more next week.
• DR SUBHASH APPANNA is a USP academic who has been writing on issues of historical and national significance. He is also the Chair of Boxing Commission of Fiji. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper or his employers subhash.appana@
usp.ac.fj
