WBC appeals to the Argentine boxing federation to lift Mayra Gomez’s suspension
By Diego Morilla
WBC super featherweight champion Eva Wahlstrom will attempt to make a title defense at home when she faces Argentina’s Mayra Gomez in Turku, Finland. The key word is “attempt.”
But the fight scheduled for Saturday May 6 seems in danger of not happening after the Finnish federation has learned that Gomez has been suspended by the Argentine Boxing Federation (FAB, in its Spanish acronym) and barred from fighting both at home and abroad until at least July 7th, a date that will come three months after she violated the terms of her license by fighting in the undercard of the Alejandra Oliveras – Lesly Morales under the supervision of an “alternative” boxing entity back on April 8th.
Gomez (18-5, 4 KO) notched a win over Micaela Lagos in that card, which was supervised by the infamous WPC (World Pugilism Commission), a shady organization that has been accused of multiple wrongdoings, including reporting on the BoxRec website of fights that never took place, which caused at least two of the site’s editors to be fired.
The FAB has made it a custom to suspend WPC fighters (either those who started their careers under their supervision or those who jumped ship from the FAB itself) routinely if they engage in bouts supervised by this (WPC) organization, which incidentally is registered legally as the “WBC” (World Boxing Commission) in Argentina, just to add the right measure of extra confusion to this already dazzling mix-up.
After learning about the possibility of the fight being cancelled, the original WBC in charge of sanctioning the now endangered Wahlström-Gomez title bout has publicly pleaded to the FAB to allow the fight to be made, noting that Gomez is only under an “administrative, non-medical” suspension and sending an open letter addressed to FAB authorities urging them to “consider that the promoter has not incurred in any negative actions”.
“The promoters have incurred in important expenses, including costly airfare, and (…) they have requested to avoid canceling said fight, for this would bring important problems for the promoters, the world champion and boxing in their country,” said the WBC letter signed by president Mauricio Sulaiman, adding that “the WBC acknowledges the authority of the FAB and their nine decades of being the only sanctioning body recognized in Argentina” but offering to mediate and collaborate with Finnish authorities to “perform all corresponding medical exams and to open a channel of communication between national federations in order to avoid these type of problems in the future.”
The unusual move from the WBC to interfere in a legal matter on behalf of a promoter is rare enough to warrant a comment, but the mere suggestion of a lack of proper communication is especially intriguing giving the fact that the WBC has a local representative embedded at the FAB offices, who routinely receive (as every boxing writer and promoter does) a monthly list of suspensions of local fighters.
It would appear, then, that a lack of communication was not the issue here, but rather a case of ‘misguided initiative’ by the fighter herself, who may have decided to make herself available to travel to Finland even though she knew of her suspension, or after applying for a license to fight overseas from the WPC, which routinely “allows” local fighters to fight abroad even though only the FAB is recognized by the WBC to issue proper licenses, which in turn are also the only licenses recognized by Finnish authorities and most other national federations.
The issue comes on the heels of a previous cancellation that took place on April 20th, in which Melissa “Little Miss Tyson” St. Vil was scrapped as the challenger du jour. Wahlström’s promoter claimed that St. Vil backed out of the bout, but St. Vil claimed to have not been informed of any offer.
“I have never backed out of a fight,” said St. Vil to www.thePrizefighters.com “How can I cancel a fight that me and my team had no clue about?”
In the same night, Edis Tatli (29–1) is scheduled to defend his EBU lightweight title against Francesco Patera (17–2) and super middleweight contender Niklas Räsänen (13–1) will be facing Ricardo Marcelo Ramallo (22–11–1), another WPC fighter from Argentina who has been suspended indefinitely by the FAB.