GBA doctor threatens to quit…over interference

Head of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) Medical Committee, Dr. Samuel Armah Quaye, is contemplating resignation following attempts by the chieftains of the Authority to interfere in his work.

“They don’t allow me to do my work professionally. They are frustrating me.

“Normally, I always insist to have blood samples of boxers taken myself ahead of fights, but these boxers would tell you they had done their own tests already. Believe me, when I insist, my own GBA people will press on me to let it go and I think it’s not proper.”

According to Dr. Quaye, this trend had been going on for a long time, “but my efforts to fight it had always hit a wall, hence my decision to resign.”

“It happened during the Bukom Banku-Ayitey Powers fight last year and it’s still going on,” he stressed.

The last straw that broke Dr. Quaye’s back may have been triggered by the decision of the GBA to allow a previously-disqualified Joe Sabbah to fight Ayitey Powers in a non-title cruiserweight fight last Friday night.

The frustrations of the GBA Medical Team head is also shared by a member of the Promotional Committee of the GBA, Alhaji Murtala Tofik, who has called for a level playing field with regard to selection of boxers for fights.

He decried the situation where boxers who had been disqualified on medical grounds would be ‘smuggled’ in to fight while others suffering the same fate were denied the opportunity to mount the ring.

“This is simply unacceptable and it does not augur well for the development of the sport,” he stormed,

Alhaji Tofik pointed to a scenario in September last year when GBA disqualified John Napari from fighting Bukom Banku on health grounds and was stunned to see an equally unfit and ineligible Joe Sabbah allowed to fight against Ayitey Powers last weekend.

The flabby and unimpressive Sabbah was knocked out in the fourth of a scheduled 12-round contest at the Wembley Park at Kotobabi in Accra.

“There are a number of promoters who want to come into boxing and they would be put off when they hear of such horrible stories,” he stressed.

With the current development, Alhaji Tofik is calling on the GBA Promotional Committee to permit boxers who had failed medicals in the past or declared unfit, to be given the chance to fight “since this is now the way to go.”

Chairman of the Promotions Committee, Fred Ghartey, ignored repeated calls on his phone when contacted yesterday.