Kpakpo Seeks Rematch

The camp of ABU super featherweight champion, Joshua Kpakpo Allotey, is seeking a rematch against Briton Craig Docherty for the Commonwealth title.

But Team Kpakpo will have to wait till the next meeting of the Commonwealth Boxing Council (CBC) when it will discuss the possibility of handing the Ghanaian a rematch against Docherty.

In a fax message to the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA), the CBC acknowledged receipt of a protest letter from Team Kpakpo and advised that at least one official of the GBA attended the “meeting to present the case”.

In the main protest dated May 28, Kpakpo's managers complained of several inconsistencies in the title fight upon which basis they asked for a mandatory defence by the Scottishman against their ward.

Some of these inconsistencies, according to Kpakpo's trainer, Peter Essandoh, involved the premature and unnecessary abrupt end of the fight by sole referee/judge, John Keane.

Kpakpo was cut over the eye in the fifth round of the bout fought in Glasgow last April and the referee ended it all with a TKO decision against the Ghanaian in the sixth round.

Mr Essandoh found the stoppage most inappropriate since “Kpakpo was not in trouble”.

Last year, Docherty won a unanimous points decision over another Ghanaian, Malik Jabir, but the Briton's achievement was helped by a referee who allowed him to box with a cut sustained in just the first round from which blood blinded Docherty by the end of each of the remaining rounds.

Mr Essandoh said even Mr Keane's role as sole referee/judge was unacceptable in that high profile title fight. He also contended that there were no ringside doctors during the fight, an anomaly never entertained in modern day boxing