A fortnight ago, we brought you an interview with Monaghan boxer Christina McMahon following her farcical suspension - via Facebook chat no less - by the World Boxing Council.
The suspension arrived when, following five months of broken promises about a world title rematch with Zulina Munoz, McMahon went public regarding the horrendous safety and anti-doping procedures she endured after the pair's original clash in Mexico , via an exposé by our colleague Joe O'Neill of Irish-boxing.com.
Having come under increased scrutiny from various Irish media outlets in the past fortnight, including Balls.ie, Irish-boxing.com, Northern Sound, the Irish Daily Star and the Irish Sun, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has been forced to respond to very serious allegations on social media on a number of occasions.
Following his most recent assertion that Team McMahon have manufactured what he described as "lies and threats," Lightning McMahon herself finally hit back on Twitter.
It's a very unfortunate case of lies and threats that her team have created https://t.co/4gDAXHpTLP
— Mauricio Sulaiman (@wbcmoro) September 9, 2016
@J0E_90 @wbcmoro @GavanCasey How dare you call me a liar. Take this seriously as I won't be bullied. I stand by the facts, U weren't There!
— christina mcmahon (@chrisyproboxer) September 9, 2016
With momentum gathering behind McMahon's quest for justice and her ultimate, simple goal of a deserved rematch with Munoz, the WBC have moved to 'clarify' their suspension of the 42-year-old Monaghan super-flyweight. The Mexico-based organisation has released the following strongly-worded and outstandingly non-specific statement explaining their decision to ban McMahon from all WBC-related activities:
The World Boxing Council considers it necessary to clarify Christina McMahon’s status with the WBC in light of recent events. Specifically, in the last few weeks, boxer Christina McMahon has used numerous media outlets to further her and her management’s campaign to disseminate scandalous and slanderous accusations against the World Boxing Council and its President through social media and the press.
The WBC Constitution unequivocally condemns her and her management’s actions. In fact, Article A. VIII of the WBC Constitution (Code of Ethics) specifically states: “Never – whether you are a boxer, manager, promoter, trainer, matchmaker, official, commissioner, or any member of the WBC – use the communications media to slur, slander, libel, or otherwise defame, humiliate, or insult other members of the boxing community and thereby damage the sport itself, but instead expose, respectfully, actions by persons who unfairly hurt others.”
Ms. McMahon’s actions are in direct contravention to the Constitutional principles under which the WBC is founded. It is regrettable that for some reason she has chosen to relaunch the attacks towards the WBC, as more than 4 months ago , the WBC disclosed the facts, the actions taken and even the withdrawal of her appeal . The WBC respects all fighters and has been a leader in the Women´s boxing dignifying world wide , a leader in the fight against abuse of power and discrimination and a leader in clean boxing and antidoping testing. The WBC thoroughly looked into all claims made by McMahon and attended every single aspect of it.
In light of her continuing, persistent and unfounded campaign to smirch the WBC’s reputation and to contravene our organization’s constitutional principles, the WBC is left with no other recourse than to remove her from the WBC Ratings and suspend her indefinitely from any WBC activity.
The statement goes on to cite a press release from May, which the WBC deemed (and still deem) to deal with the "factual background" of the situation. Naturally, it does not. As per Irish-boxing.com's Joe O'Neill, that May release fails to address any of the following issues which were raised by Team McMahon in recent weeks:
- Why “very experienced supervisor” Dr. Lorenzo Soberanes had not ensured that there was proper anti-doping testing measures in place on the night.
– Why McMahon was assured on the night of the fight that Muñoz had given an unseen urine sample.
– Why Muñoz’s sample was tested at the Laboratorio Médico del Chopo – which is not a World Anti-Doping Agency-approved facility.
– The claim that the WBC appointed an ‘officials panel’ to review the fight directly contradicts the e-mails of WBC Chief Legal Council Alberto León who told McMahon that “the WBC Female Committee reviewed a video of the subject fight and scored it without any sound to avoid biases.” The WBC Female Committee have no official experience whatsoever in judging and scoring bouts.
– Why there were no 30 or 7-day checkweights, which is standard procedure for all WBC title bouts.
– Why there was no rules meeting ahead of the fight, which again is considered standard.
– Why there were there no corner supervisors until they were insisted upon by Team McMahon.
– Why “very experienced supervisor” Dr. Lorenzo Soberanes did not have in his possession a spare pair of gloves after Munoz's were allegedly covered in Deep Heat or a similar substance.
McMahon's team have started a petition for her suspension to be lifted and for a rematch to finally be granted, which can be signed here.
McMahon also today revealed to Balls.ie that she spent three hours on the phone with WBC Female Championships Chairman Malte Muller-Michaelis on Friday night, who repeated that the WBC do care about the sport and fighter safety, and how McMahon should reflect on her actions.
For more on the shady goings-on in Mexico which started this entire farce, check out our extensive interview with McMahon, containing images of the cups from her post-fight anti-doping tests in Mexico which quite conspicuously have holes at the bottom.
