Ghana's Bastie Samir and Nigeria's Idowu Rasheed fought each other contested on Saturday April 13th, in Accra, Ghana. At stake was the the vacant UBO Africa light heavyweight title. Boxingtalk does not normally mention regional titles, but the UBO deserves recognition here for standing up for principles of fair play. The fight showed just how unfair a home advantage can be. Rasheed seemingly won the fight by second round knockout, flooring Samir twice with left hooks, the second ending the fight. But it was soon announced that the Ghana Boxing Authority officials at ringside had declared the fight a technical draw, due to a [suposed] illegal blow from Rasheed.  After watching several videos of the fight, there did not appear to be any illegal blow.

 

Promoter Lou DiBella, who had no interest in either boxer, wrote, "The wanton, desperado nature of boxing is worldwide. Check out this African heist. Ref's bias obvious throughout this clip. Now please try to explain away this decision!"

 

The UBO wrote: "No championship sanctioning organization, including the UBO, has power to overturn an official result, as this is something only the local boxing commission, in this case the Ghana Boxing Authority, can do. But due to the fact that the title remained vacant, the UBO is in a position, and has power, to extraordinarily decide on its ownership. Since we cant see that Rasheed did anything wrong, that he was in fact a victim of a blatant injustice and put on an amazing performance, we feel it is only right that Rasheed is recognized as the UBO Africa light heavyweight champion. We have since been informed in writing by the Ghana Boxing Authority that they indeed intend to overturn the announced result and declare Rasheed the official winner by second round knockout. It is human to make mistakes, and we are glad that the Ghana Boxing Authority has reportedly made the right decision in regards to the official result, and will report this accordingly to all record-keepers and other relevant parties.