Botha , Williams.... fight stopped early??? what the

schediuled for 12 ands after 10 with Williams out on his feet....sounds smelly imho

*scheduled for 12 and ends after 10

Had a bit on Botha, annoying end but always have to know hometown shenanigans can come into play.  Especially when the home town fighter is a celeb type novice. 

Reading the reports sounds like Botha got to him in the 9th and then after that round the decision was made to cut it to 10 rounds! lol  Only in boxing.  Barely survived the 10th as he hugged/held for dear life.

On par with the Macarenelli/Philbin farce last year.

fwiw b365 and vc have voided bets

LEADING betting agencies have refunded all bets on Francois Botha as the Sonny Bill Williams fight farce yesterday added another sorry chapter to Australian sport.

Bookmakers offered wagers for a 12-round fight and they had little option but to pay out six figures once the fight on Friday night was mysteriously reduced by two rounds.

TAB Sportsbet, Centrebet and Sportsbet refunded almost $150,000 in losing bets, with legendary trainer Johnny Lewis calling the debacle "another nail in the coffin" of boxing.

"We are more than happy to have refunded these bets," said Sportsbet spokesman Ben Hawes.

"It's the right thing to do for the punters."

Botha was naturally furious after Williams won the WBA international heavyweight title fight with a unanimous points decision after 10 rounds.

But under WBA regulations, sanctioned international title fights should go 12 rounds.


"There's this whole damn match fixing thing going on here, isn't this match fixing?" Botha fired.

Many experts believe Williams would have been knocked out if the fight continued.

Botha's promoter Thinus Strydom said they had agreed to a 10-round bout on the day of the fight, but fans, commentators, and judges weren't told.

There was also talk that Botha was kept in the dark because they didn't want to upset his preparations.

Lewis, though, was left bemused and angry by the mess.

On the back of the Crime Commission's accusations of match fixing and drug use in our football codes, the latest fiasco gives more ammunition for critics of Australian sport.

Manager Khoder Nasser remained adamant the fight was scheduled for 10 rounds despite the judges' official scorecards being marked as a 12-round fight.

Reports also indicated that at least two judges believed the fight should go 12 rounds.

Boxing officials, respected TV commentators and journalists at Brisbane's Entertainment Centre were all bemused when they discovered the fight was going to be cut short.

"What have they done to our sport?" Lewis said. "It's another nail in the coffin. I have never seen anything like that in my life.

"When you train for a fight, you know what you are training for. You know how long the fight is and that is how you prepare. This has never happened before.

"I have seen some crook decisions in my time, but this is as bad as it gets. The sport is suffering badly. Every bit of adverse publicity like this is just killing the sport."

Botha has demanded a rematch in South Africa and even said that Williams would be a "coward" if he didn't fight him again.

"In the 10th round I knew I had two more to go. I didn't get to finish him," Botha said.

But Nasser was equally determined to stand his ground.

"It is a WBA international belt, not a WBA world title. The Australian belt for example is a 10-rounder, the New Zealand belt is 10-rounder, world titles are the 12-rounders," Nasser said. "This was a 10-round fight."

Lewis warned that rugby league players turned boxers risked being seriously hurt and demanded a national body be formed to clean up the sport.

"We have got an authority but it is time to see if they have some balls," Lewis said.

"They need to do something and save this sport."

So let me get this right. The assertion is that telling the fighter he is fighting 10 instead of 12 rounds would interfere with his preparation? Well I guess if you look at it one way it would. Instead of pacing himself to last 12 and knowing that he has his man and still has two rounds to knock his man out he can take his time and do the job right instead of throwing everything into stopping his man immediately and risking gassing himself.

I look foward to the reaction this weekends football if they blow for fill time after 70 minutes or 60 in the next six nations rugby matches.

Botha: I was offered £100,000 to throw heavyweight fight with Sonny Bill Williams

By Declan Warrington
  13 February 2013

Francois Botha has claimed he was offered $155,000 (£100,000) to throw his fight against Sonny Bill Williams last week.

Williams' points victory was overshadowed by reports his South African opponent subsequently failed a drugs test but there was also uncertainty over the duration of the fight given it was originally scheduled to be over 12 rounds but was instead fought over 10.

Though adamant he refused any such offer, Botha, 44, alleges Williams' manager Khoder Nasser offered him the money three days before their fight.

'I think he's still in a daze,' Nasser responded to Fairfax Media. 'This is the same bloke who said he didn't know about the fight being 10 rounds, and then his promoter and he himself came out later and said it was 10 rounds.


'Then he said he wasn't drugs tested and then he said he was tested. Then he said he was tested by my brother, and now he has come up with this one. What is next?


'He has got to come to terms with the reality that he got his ass whipped by a guy who had had only five fights. It's all well and good to come out with all these allegations after, but where's his manhood?

'It's absolute madness. If it happened like he said, why didn't he come out and report it then? Or does it suit him now?'

Bookmakers refunded bets because of the confusion surrounding the fight's length. That a representative of the World Boxing Association was also not present has also raised concerns, given the vacant WBA international heavyweight title was ostensibly at stake.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk