Heavyweight boxer Newfel Ouatah, who just so happens to be a cousin of Real Madrid footballer Karim Benzema, was the talk of the sport over the weekend.
Ouatah dropped out of a fight against WBC-rated Simon Kean in seconds, with some believing the French-Algerian was pulling out of the clash.
The real reason is that Ouatah, 36, did not get clearance 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 that he had to stay out of action for six months. Ouatah had not completed the suspension period ordered by the French Boxing Federation after a break.
The fighter discovered that he did not have insurance after initially accepting the fight with Kean. It was televised on ESPN after Top Rank signed Kean hours before the contest.
Explaining what happened, Ouatah told ESPN: “The French boxing federation sent me a letter today to say that I did not have insurance in case of a problem.
“Others have privileges, but I don’t.” stated the French boxer after the fight.
“This fight I wanted to do; I took a month and a half to prepare 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 it all falls apart. A shocking mistake has taken place somewhere along the line.
French Boxing Federation
An investigation by World Boxing News revealed that Ouatah fought in June of last year, not this year. Therefore, there is a massive error on the part of YouTube or boxing record keepers, who claim that Vladyslav Sirenko’s KO occurred in 2021.
Alternatively, the FBF hasn’t figured out that Ouatah hasn’t fought in fifteen months.
Someone has made a considerable mistake in this case. There will no doubt be more fallout due to the events WBN uncovered.
World Boxing News has contacted Eye of the Tiger Management with those findings.
The views expressed in this article are the views of Phil Jay.
WBN editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Additionally, he follows WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
