Heavyweight boxer Newfel Ouatah, who as it turns out is Real Madrid footballer Karim Benzema’s cousin, was the talk of the sport over the weekend.
Ouatah quit a fight against WBC-rated Simon Kean in seconds, with some believing the Algerian-Frenchman was backing out of the clash.
The real reason is that the 36-year-old Ouatah did not obtain authorization from the French Boxing Federation to compete against Kean.
Newfel Ouatah
He had been knocked out on June 12, 2022 [say the FBF]. This scenario meant he had to stay out of action for six months. Ouatah had not completed the suspension period laid down by the French Boxing Federation after a stoppage.
The fighter discovered he didn’t have insurance after agreeing to the bout with Kean initially. It was televised on ESPN after Top Rank signed Kean hours before the contest.
Explaining what transpired, Ouatah told ESPN: “The French boxing federation sent me a letter today to say to me that I did not have insurance in the event of a problem.
“Others have privileges, but I don’t.” affirmed the French boxer after the fight.
“This fight I wanted to do; I took a month and a half to prepare myself and the costs of it. What I did was protest.
“I apologize to everyone, especially Eye Of The Tiger Management. We don’t play boxing.”
Now, this is where the whole thing comes apart. A shocking error has taken place somewhere along the line.
French Boxing Federation
A World Boxing News investigation revealed that Ouatah fought in June last year, not this year. Therefore, there’s either a massive mistake on the part of YouTube or the boxing record keepers, who both state the Vladyslav Sirenko KO happened in 2021.
Alternatively, the FBF has failed to realize that Ouatah hasn’t fought in fifteen months.
Someone has made a considerable error in this case. There will undoubtedly be further fallout due to the events that WBN uncovered.
World Boxing News has reached out to Eye of the Tiger Management with those findings.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Furthermore, follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
