A review of Martin-Milo in Hungary by Kevin Taylor Jun 11th 2007

Although Shanee Martin's shot at the WIBF-GBU title was over a month ago the debate about the outcome of the contest still continues, in this week's boxing news a letter appears from Charlie Payne a well known member of the boxing fraternity and an IBO official, who also says that Shanee was basically robbed in Hungary. Before the contest I expressed in a preview of the show that Martin's team seem to be going into the fight quietly confident of their girl's ability, but knowing that it is not going to be easy to get a win in Milo's homeland. This proved to be the case with referee scoring in Shanee's favour but both judges scoring it for the hometown girl, amazingly both judges hailed from Hungary a fact that brought this response from WIBF World vice-president Jurgen Lutz, "For sure, that was not correct for the fight to be in Hungary with two judges from there, I haven't heard about a rematch as yet, but I will use my full power to make sure there are neutral judges, with a maximum of one Hungarian. We'll also have a German supervisor." BBN have now recieved a copy of the DVD of the fight and here follows an unbiased review of the fight. Shanee from Colchester started well behind a good high guard and seemed to most of the attacking early on with the Hungarian happy to box off the back foot and try to pick Shanee off with her jab, a short left hook put down the Hungarian a minute into the opener and although she seemed to indicate she slipped, World rated referee Daniel Van Der Weile scored it as a knockdown, so a 10-8 round to Martin. The second again saw Shanee do most the attacking, working well behind the jab and looking for the overhand right on more than one occasion, another round for the Essex girl trained by former British champion Jason Rowland. Again the third followed the same sort of pattern as the previous ones with Shanee doing the attacking and landed the cleaner shots, but occassionally being caught by the jab of the Hungarian. Another 10-9 to Martin. Success again with the left from Shanee in the fourth although she was also caught a couple of times by the overhand right from Milo, she again won the fight by landing more and being more aggressive. A better round for the Hungarian but still Shanee did the attacking and the HUngarian was happy to box off her back foot. Even for me. The Hungarian looked tired in the sixth round and was fighting with mouth open, she did land a couple but again was on the back foot and basically was pawing at Martin's punches to try and keep her at bay, Martin rocked her head back with a good straight left which was followed up by a left hook as she again took the round. Again Martin was the most forceful and got through time and time again with her good lefts, Milo just didn't seem to have any answer to the aggression shown by Martin. A better round for Milo in the eighth as she finally landed a few, including a good overhand right. Martin seemed to be missing some although she was still up on her toes and boxing well. Finally a few more shots for the partisan Hungarian crowd to cheer but not until after Martin had landed a good combination, Martin returns to the corner with a nose bleed. The last saw the Hungarian a clear winner and she rocked Martin back a couple of times with left hooks, but there was no way she won this fight, I had it 97-93 at the end of the ten two minute rounds. Martin spoke to BBN correspondent Danny Coyne last week and had this to say, "I could not believe it, not only was there two scoring judges from Hungary who gave her the decision, but what made more laughable was the fact that the third judge, the referee, who in fact is one of the World's leading female ref's gave me the contest by three rounds” replied the popular Colchester fighter. Martin's Promoter Roy Hilder, also confirmed to Danny Coyne that the WIBF have called for an immediate rematch within three months. "It's disappointing for the kid to have a defeat against her record especially when she won the contest hands down." Hilder added "I can't understand why the WIBF allowed the contest to be judged by two home judges; in any other world title fight, and I've seen a few!, all the judges are neutral especially when the fighters are from different countries." But of course when fighters take on these away matches they can expect some dubious scoring and decisions to go against them, just ask Robin Reid!

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Cheers Charlie! Jun 11th 2007, 13:28:40 by metchampion We're delighted that Charlie Payne wrote regarding the Milo -Martin contest. He's a neutral, whose opinion we respect. His is worth more than any letter sent in by disgruntled Martin followers, who will be perceived to be biased. We knew beforehand that we had our work cut out. Imagine our dismay, afterwards when we discovered two of three scoring officials were Hungarian and one of them had apparently been distracted during the contest. No one likes a sore loser and we don't feel that we fall into that category. We do feel that we were robbed of a deserved and hard earned victory by two 'officials' whose scoring of the contest was laughable. Shanee Martin is a model professional. She applies herself and follows Jason Rowlands instructions to the letter. We, as a team, feel proud of her achievement in going abroad and dishing out a boxing lesson to a champion. A rematch with three neutral judges is no more than her endevours deserve. Richard Clark on behalf of team Martin.