Comments Thread For: WBA Rep Goes After The Williams vs. Botha Organizers

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

A WBA representative has lashed out at organizers of the Sonny Bill Williams, Francois Botha fights saying they "defrauded" the Australian public.

WBA Oceania representative Brad Vocale has lashed out at the organisers of Sonny Bill Williams' so-called title fight, saying they have "defrauded" the Australian public.

The legitimacy of what was purported to be a WBA international heavyweight title fight between the former All Black star and South African veteran Francois Botha was thrown into extreme doubt on Friday night.

Williams defeated Botha in a unanimous points decision in Brisbane, but the fight ended after 10 rounds, instead of 12 as per WBA rules and as had been advertised.

Bookmakers refunded bets on Williams's controversial win and 44-year-old Botha has challenged the rugby star to a rematch.

"In my view, they defrauded the fight-paying public of Australia," Vocale told Fox Sports on Saturday.
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[White_Knight]

The whole thing is bizarre. The judges, commentators, and announcer thought it was a 12-round fight. Even if Botha's camp had agreed to shorten the fight to 10 rounds, it terrible service to inform viewers at the start of the 10th that there will be no 11th and 12th rounds.

Regardless, I don't think SBW has much of a future in boxing. Despite having very good speed and coordination, he lacks power and a chin. You can succeed if you lack 1 but have the other. If you lack both, however, opponents are just going to walk in and knock you down.

[joe strong]

one thing for sure is botha & his trainer thought it was 12 rounds. in the post fight interview the trainer was yelling about it being a 12 round fight. i thought botha won 95-93, the crowd clearly thought botha won but the judges & the commetators thought otherwise. so they claim botha's management team forgot to inform their fighter of 60 pro fights that the fight had been changed from 12 to 10 rounds? that sounds odd. i can say they didn't change it to save their fighter but the situation was handled very poorly. the ref was terrible & it's such a shame everyone who watched it live had to witness the fight come to an end like that. there was a good sized crowd & they were very much into the fights.

[komandante]

That's how they do boxing here in Oz, SBW like Billy Dib is a disgrace in boxing..

[jameshepenstall]

i forked out $40 for this because of the WBA belt on the line, Nasser is in serious **** now for advertising this and not having the WBA sanction. SBW won the fight for sure and had it been advertised as a 10 round non title fight nothing would be untoward about the whole thing. He did very well to beat Botha given his inexperience. But it was a 12 round fight and he would have been ko'd had it gone 12. Nasser needs to be outed from promoting indefinitly. I personally would like to see SBW take on Joe Parker for the NZ title. Parker would dismantle SBW i rekon!!

[brently1979]

Problem is people actually buy these PPVs. It's sad but they do.
I wouldn't have watched this if it was free on Fox Sports or any network let alone paying $40 for it.
This is not PPV boxing material it's a circus, we can thank Mundine in Australia, he started the entire PPV circus.