Argentine boxing chief laughs off riot

MANILA, Philippines - To the president of the Argentine Boxing Commission, the riot that took place last Saturday at Mar Del Plata in Argentina was just fine.

Johnriel Casimero scored a 10th round knockout of Argentine Alberto Lazarte in their battle for the vacant IBF light-flyweight crown.

But Argentine fans did not take it sitting down and threw all kinds of debris at the Filipino boxer, his promoter Sammy Gello-ani and trainer Pingping Tepora.

A few of them managed to get inside the ring, and attacked the three Filipinos, who suffered minor bruises. It took authorities more than 10 minutes to restore order.

When the smoke cleared, more than a dozen chairs were in the ring.

Osvaldo Bisbal, the president of the Argentine Boxing Commission, said there’s no one to punish for the incident as he laughed off possible sanctions against his commission.

“There is no one to punish. Everything was fine,” he was quoted by Argentine daily El Clarin as saying.

“According to what I saw, I can’t find anyone to punish. Who you want to punish? The boxer? The promoter? They complied with everything. The Once Unidos Stadium had nothing to do with it. There is no one to punish,” he said.

Earlier, the World Boxing Council, through its president Jose Sulaiman, called for an immediate action from local authorities in Argentina regarding the incident.

Sulaiman asked all boxing federations and commissions around the world to review the incident, in the hope of finding ways and measures to avoid any repetition.

But Bisbal sees no problem at all even when faced with sanctions from the IBF.

“We laugh off the sanctions of international sanctioning bodies. They have no authority to do so,” he said.

To the rest of the boxing world, it’s no laughing matter.