Wardley pulls out late knockout to extinguish Huni’s hopes or gatecrashing the party.

In what was to originally be heralded as a show stopping homecoming, Ipswich heavyweight Fabio Wardley 18-0-1 (17 Ko’s) was due to meet the colourful Jarrell Miller outdoors at Ipswich Towns, Portman road soccer stadium. Like most things in life, the schedule headliner fell apart and the unlikely Australian Justis Huni 12-0 (7 Ko’s) answered the late call to substitute as a considerable underdog. Last night the lightly regarded Huni outhustled and outlanded the heavy handed favourite with intelligent punch picking and fast feet for 9 rounds, before Wardley finally sprung to life with a perfectly timed overhand right to close the show and extinguish Huni’s dreams of a career defining upset and the WBA interim title strap. John Latham counted out the stricken visitor at 1.42 of the round. It’s likely now that Wardley meets Michael Hunter in the summer with a view to meeting the winner of the Usyk v Dubois match later in the year. 

Duane Ford steps down as president of the NABF after lengthy service.

 Last week the executive committee of the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) met in Houston, Texas, to celebrate Duane Ford, who decided to step down from his long term presidency of the organization, paving the way for an historic event. Joanna Aguilar, from New Mexico, USA, was elected the new president of the NABF, becoming the first woman to lead this organization, which was founded in 1968. It was a very emotional meeting in which memories flooded back to everyone who took the microphone and knows the deep and loyal contribution that Duane has devoted to the sport.  Ford began with a very short career as an amateur boxer eventually leading him to fully love and understand the sport where he would serve as a judge and official before being recognised for his merits and being appointed as the commissioner for the Nevada state athletic control board. Duane presided over the commission during the golden age of boxing, during the time of the Four Kings (Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, and Durán). He has been a member of the World Boxing Council’s Board of Governors, a judge with over 300 world title fights, and finally, president of the NABF until last Saturday.

The WBC has however appointed Duane as the NABF Vice President for life.He was a great boxing commissioner, and as chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, actively participated in the process of important changes that the WBC implemented in the rules that have changed our sport in many ways, most importantly in the protection of fighters’ health and life after boxing.

During those years, the famous Muhammad Ali Act did not exist. It was created when a handful of American politicians used boxing as a means to generate massive publicity for their campaigns and won their respective elections. They then abandoned our sport. This law created a terrible divide between boxing organizations and the U.S. boxing community.

The law prohibits commissioners from that country from belonging to any organization, and that’s how great commissioners like Duane Ford and Dickie Cole had to decide between becoming commissioner of their state or of the NABF or the WBC.

To this day, commissioners are prevented from participating in the organization, and a large valuable gulf has been created. Not having commissioners in international organizations has created a great rift and has caused important changes that the WBC has implemented in the rest of the world.