Thursday 14 September 2017 17:56, UK
The British Boxing Board of Control are standing by their choice of a British referee for Joseph Parker-Hughie Fury, despite angry protests from the New Zealander's team.
Duco Events, who promote the WBO heavyweight champion, have raised their concerns with the BBBofC after Terry O'Connor was appointed referee for Parker's second title defence against Fury in Manchester on September 23.
The WBO have also contacted the Board about the choice of official, but General Secretary Robert Smith did not believe there were valid reasons to bring in an overseas referee.
"Our standard policy is to have a British referee, a British judge, an official from the country where the boxer is coming from and another from a neutral country [on the judging panel]," Smith told Sky Sports.
"We advised the WBO some time ago our referee we want to appoint is Terry O'Connor and the judge being Marcus McDonnell.
We take on board what their thoughts are, we don't agree. We feel on this occasion, there is no need to deviate from our standard policy.
"We asked them to supply us their names for the other two. They supplied us two other names, which didn't include a New Zealander. When that was questioned, we said we are very happy for a New Zealand judge, absolutely right, got no problem with that at all. But we still haven't had any New Zealand judge sent to us from the WBO for approval. That's ultimately their responsibility.
"As far as we're concerned, we've had a bit of correspondence from Parker's team. We have heard nothing from the actual promoter in this country, Mick Hennessey, but we certainly had something from Parker's team, giving us their thoughts.
"We take on board what their thoughts are, we don't agree. We feel on this occasion, there is no need to deviate from our standard policy."
Duco Events director David Higgins has voiced his dismay, citing WBO guidelines about officials not having the same nationality as the challenger.
"We've formally raised these issues with BBBofC and its response has been quite frankly pathetic," said Higgins. "They could not provide an adequate reason why they did not want a neutral referee."
Anthony Joshua's world title fight with Wladimir Klitschko was overseen by American official David Fields, but the Board remain confident that Terry O'Connor, one of their most experienced referees, should remain in charge for Parker-Fury.
"A lot of the time we do get requested for particular reasons etc," said Smith. "We do not deem it correct to change our standard policy on this occasion. Mr. O'Connor is a world class referee. We are satisfied.
"This is not something which we just do to upset people, this is a standard policy. We do not feel the arguments they put forward warranted us to change our standard policy."
