By Ronnie Nathanielsz

International Boxing Organization president Ed Levine says he personally “administered the review process” undertaken by the IBO following a formal protest lodged by promoter Rodney Berman over the hugely controversial loss of South Africa’s Zolani Marali (19-2, 13 KO’s) to Australia’s Billy Dib (21-0, 11 KO’s) in a super featherweight title fight in Sydney last July.

Levine informed insidesports.ph, Manila Standard and Viva Sports that the three neutral officials who reviewed a tape of the fight were John Rupert, Roark “Rocky” Young and Frank Brunette.

He said that after the review process, the decision was  then “ approved” by the IBO Championship Committee.

The three judges who watched the videotape scored the fight in favor of Marali prompting the IBO to order a rematch which should take place within 90 days.

Interestingly, two of the judges who scored the fight  for Dib were from Thailand while the third judge was from Australia . Juge Kriangsok Thonghong scored it 116-112 and Cherdchai Srirat 114-113 while Gary Dean scored it 116-114 also for the 23 year old Dib despite the fact that Dib who was knocked down in round three and generally out-fought by the 31 year old Marali, a former IBO super bantamweight champion.

Promoter Berman told Super Sport in South Africa he “never doubted that Marali was given a raw deal in Australia and after the IBO’s ruling I feel vindicated.”