Moments ago President of Star Boxing, Joe DeGuardia sent Boxingtalk.com the following statement in response to Sycuan Ringside Promotions. "Scott Woodward and Sycuan should be ashamed of themselves for putting out any release related to their unprofessional actions while negotiating and agreeing to a Campbell-Diaz bout. Star Boxing certainly agreed with Sycuan on February 17th to a Campbell-Diaz bout.  There was no room for doubt that an agreement was in place.  Doug Loughrey of ESPN was on the conference call with DeGuardia and Woodward for the entire call and can confirm that an unconditional agreement was reached between DeGuardia and Woodward for the April 7th bout to take place on ESPN2 in Tampa, Florida.  Further, in spite of a contract being sent to Woodward that day and confirmation emails, Woodward didn’t even have the courtesy of informing anyone that the deal was off, and everyone involved proceeded under the belief that the Agreement was in place. 

Star Boxing only learned that the deal was off when informed by Doug Loughrey, who hadn’t even heard from Woodward, but rather Jim Hunter via an email.  The professed reason for the change of heart of Woodward was claimed to be on account of Native American Indian Tribal Matters. 

 

Mr. Woodward owes an apology to Star Boxing, Joe DeGuardia, ESPN, the IBF, Terry Trekas and Nate Campbell for his actions.  One can only hope that his conduct was not condoned by Sycuan, or that he didn’t read his own release.

 

 

Editors Note : DeGuardia didn’t contact Boxingtalk on the Diaz pull out but rather was called by Boxingtalk to confirm that the Diaz-Campbell bout was off.  DeGuardia at the time confirmed the bout was off, but didn’t want to go into the reasons, as he said he wanted to be professional and not reveal his discussions with Sycuan.  However, as a result of Sycuan’s release, DeGuardia said he felt he was no longer professionally obligated to refrain from talking about what he consideres unprofessional conduct by Sycuan's Scott Woodward.