Sauerland Event: Valuev's TKO of McCline was legitimate

23/01/2007

Sauerland Event: Valuev's TKO of McCline was legitimate

Valuev's promoter says there is no basis for rematch

Press Release: After hearing that Jameel McCline's representatives had contacted the WBA about changing the results of McCline's technical knockout loss to Nikolai Valuev and requesting the WBA to order a rematch of Valuev's voluntary defense against McCline, promoter Sauerland Event issued a quick response to the WBA saying McCline has no reason to complain. The bout ended after three rounds when McCline injured his knee while throwing a punch. Chris Meyer wrote, "I have not heard of any rule that an injured boxer should receive a mandatory shot at the championship in a case where he lost due to his own inability to fight. In this case,  the injured boxer was even behind on points on the scorecards. Personally, I did not see any knee cap busting punch that Don King was speaking about, but under the rules, it does not matter whether the injured boxer could not continue because of a punch or because of some injury out of the blue. WBA rules clearly call this a TKO loss for McCline. Rule 12.2 clearly says, “self given wounds or those suffered by the boxers during the bout, as for example, fractures, sprain, twist of a join[t], swoon, etc. [if any of these prevent] a boxer from continuing the fight, he shall lose the contest by TKO. So there can be no basis for any decision other than TKO loss for McCline and no chance of that the WBA orders a rematch."