Dubai: Edward Mendy, the Chief Financial Officer of Lion Heart Boxing Promotions, has apologised to fight fans after Francois Botha’s bout with Hany Atiyo at Emirates Golf Club was cancelled at short notice on Thursday.
New York-based Mendy was forced to refund over 1,000 spectators after Botha, 45, a four-time heavyweight boxing world title challenger, missed a connecting flight to Dubai from his native South Africa.
Botha, ‘The White Buffalo’, famous for defeats to Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko and Evander Holyfield, was the headline in an eight-card event named May Day Mayhem, which was meant to be the second event in the Thursday Fight Night series.
Last year, Mendy also had to postpone the first event in the series at Yas Island when visas for several fighters were delayed due to the Eid holidays. The event — featuring former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Danny Williams, who is famous for beating Tyson in 2004 — finally went ahead on December 19.
Mendy is now pledging to re-arrange last Thursday’s event within the coming months.
“Disappointed is an understatement, I am absolutely devastated,” Mendy told Gulf News. “We are meeting this week to try and reschedule the event for the nearest available date. This will become clear in the coming days. In the meantime, ourselves and Francois Botha can only extend our regrets and apologise to boxing fans.
“It was really just one of those things, Francois’ connection would have got him into Dubai in the early hours of Wednesday morning, but after missing that he couldn’t find another seat to get him in before Thursday’s fight.”
Mendy said that despite the setbacks he wouldn’t give up hope of bringing live boxing to the UAE.
“We want to believe there is potential in the UAE for these types of events and we have been amazed by the feedback from fight fans and local media,” he said. “There are a lot of regulations and permits to obtain before staging such events but we have complied with every one, and each authority has been very helpful. This is not the reason for previous postponements.
“We haven’t yet gone to the local government or tourism authority to ask for support because our brand is still unknown and boxing here is still in its infancy, but that time will come.”
