By Ronnie Nathanielsz

World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman insists that the WBC did not approve the planned junior middleweight fight between  Charles 'Killa' Whittaker and champion WBC champion Vernon Forrest, which was scheduled to take place in the Cayman Islands in April as a title fight.

Prior to the cancellation of the fight, Whittaker’s manager Raul Alvarez had claimed that the WBC had approved the title fight and reports that it was not sanctioned were utterly false.

The Cayman News Service quoted Alvarez as claiming the Whittaker-Forrest showdown was always a serious fight and rumours that the WBC had not sanctioned the title bout (which was posted on BoxingScene) were utterly false. He said “why would a promoter of Shaw’s calibre be involved as well as the major network Showtime if there was any chance that the fight would not be sanctioned by the WBC?” He alleged that they had the written confirmation from the WBC that the fight was sanctioned.”

When BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports contacted  Don Jose in his home in Mexico and asked him  whether the WBC had sanctioned the fight he replied “absolutely not. We never approved that fight.”

Sulaiman suggested that one of the possible reasons for the cancellation of the fight by the Cayman Islands Minister of Tourism Charles Clifford was that they “knew the fight would not be for the title.”

Clifford who had initially approved the project announced after a Cabinet meeting that the cost of $1.85 million to stage the fight which was to be borne by the Cayman Islands and not promoter Gary Shaw was too much given the current economic crisis.

A purse bid is scheduled for March 13 for a fight between Forrest and the interim-champion Sergio Martinez.