In the story, Cherchi dismissed claims by Daws and Burbedge that there may have been an illegal substance used on a cut suffered by Di Rocco in the fight, which the Italian eventually won on points, and also stated that further complaints of mishandling of the Briton in the build-up were wide of the mark.
Upon reading the comments from Cherchi published on August 23, Burbedge has now contacted WBN to put his side across in a continuation of the disagreement that is now in its third instalment.
“Christian Cherchi stated in the article that we were making a fuss about the result of the fight,” Burbedge told World Boxing News. “Whilst I disagree about the decision, our sport is one of opinions and to be perfectly honest we knew if the fight went the twelve rounds and was close we were never going to get it.
“He also stated that we were unhappy about our stay and again we were prepared for ‘logistical’ problems and this wasn’t a point of contention with us either.
“Our only real complaint has been the substance used on Di Rocco’s cut. As I’ve said many times we knew we wasn’t going to get a decision out there, so therefore we only had two ways of winning the fight; a knockout, or stoppage by punches or cuts.
“Lenny cut Di Rocco with a legitimate punch (confirmed by the referee) in the second round and the cut was a bad one – hence the yellow substance to stop it.
“The use of the yellow substance which Christian has been quoted as saying; ‘He doesn’t know the name of it but it’s an anti infection agent,’ this in itself proves it’s an illegal substance as it stopped the bleeding. There is no haemostatic in an anti-infection agent so how did it stop the bleeding? If the yellow substance was legal why was it then covered in white Vaseline?”
Burbedge continued: “I sat in the rules meeting with Christian and it was clearly stated that only white Vaseline and 1/1000 Adrenalin be used during the fight and that is confirmed in rule 22.1 of the EBU rules so the use of the yellow substance is clearly breaking the rule which says that any use of any other substance will lead to disqualification of the boxer involved.
“So the fact that this rule has been broken so blatantly should lead to Lenny being crowned as European Champion.
“At the very least, and this should answer another of Christian’s statement in the previous article, this is an extra ordinary circumstance to warrant a rematch between Lenny and Di Rocco.”
“As I’ve said many times we bear no ill will to Michele Di Rocco, but because there was no EBU official in the Di Rocco corner they were able to administer the illegal substance on the cut and this took away one of Lenny’s chances of winning so there’s no other way to describe it other than cheating.
“This has always been our argument, and the fact that this substance still hasn’t been named even three months after the fight proves that something untoward has gone on.”
A return was categorically denied by Cherchi, although it seems this is not the end of the matter for Burbedge and Daws, who still want an investigation into what was used in the corner of the newly-crowned EBU title holder.
