British Boxing Board of Control

[David Guyatt]

The familiar unfolding story of sport fixing:

Haye-shaker! David faces fine for betting on himself to win Audley Harrison mismatch

By JEFF POWELL
Last updated at 7:41 AM on 15th November 2010

David Haye's heavy wager on himself to knock out Audley Harrison in the third round is to be probed by the British Boxing Board of Control.
That inquiry will be conducted against a background of national outrage at Harrison's feeble performance after all his hype drew more than 700,000 viewers into buying the pay-TV broadcast at £14.95 a time.



With so many of the public already feeling they were conned on Saturday night, Board general secretary Robert Smith confirmed on Sunday night: 'It is against our regulations for boxers to bet on themselves.'

It was rumoured that Haye's tip was worth £100,000, although his camp refused to confirm how much he made.

Read full story HERE

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Haye sidesteps betting row

By GAVIN GLICKSMAN
Published: Today

DAVID HAYE will not be punished by the British Board of Control following claims he bet on himself to beat Audley Harrison in the third round on Saturday night.
After destroying Harrison in Manchester, the WBA heavyweight champion boasted he and his friends had placed wagers on the outcome of the fight.

But the Hayemaker categorically insists he did not place a bet himself — and BBBofC secretary Robert Smith has accepted the Londoner's version of events.

Read the full story HERE

***

Meanwhile for the independent and objective minded, I've copied verbatim Haye's interview immediately following the fight (yup, at my son's urging I was one of those 700,000 who paid £14.95 to watch two rounds of unarmed dancing followed by one round of ferocious boxing (by Haye) on the one hand, and one round of ferociously undefended falling to the canvas (by Harrison) on the other.

Sky Interviewer: ... “...were you always convinced you were going to crush Audley Harrison?”

Haye: “Yeah, from, er, I’m convinced I can crush anyone in the world, er, I’m in great condition as you can see, I can punch and land punches whenever I choose to, that’s why this fight went to er, the third round, I put a lot of money on the third round, a lot of my friends and family did, so I didn’t want to let them down by doing him too early.

Sky Interviewer: “You’re serious? That was the round you choose? That was why it was such a slow start?”

Haye: “ Yeah, ask around I told everyone I’d knock him out in three rounds - and that was exactly what I did. There was no way he was going into that fourth round...” “I could’ve took him out earlier if I really put my foot on the pedal.

The problem: the last thing the BBBC need is a betting scandal after so many sport betting scandals over the recent years - including international cricket match fixing in recent weeks.

Solution: simply accept a weak and dishonest - but coached -answer as the gospel truth.

It's so good to see the boxing plod keeping up with their uniformed cousins, and not keeping up with the law they are paid to uphold.

The moral of this thread is this: let's keep the home of the Mother of Parliamentary democracy as well as the originator of most of the popular world sports of today, safe for organized crime syndicates, other crooks, con-men and profiteering privateers.

[Jan Klimkowski]

The only reason this is even coming out is because some of the bookies got screwed on the "Harrison goes down in the third round" bet.

This "World Title Fight" was actually far more of a fixed circus farce than the wrestling of WWF etc. At least the wrestlers put on a show for 20 minutes or so. They also perform genuinely athletic moves, and frequently get badly injured.

Haye and Harrison was a complete disgrace.

But then so is the modern sport of boxing.