Veteran trainer Lepani Wilson has called on the Boxing Commission of Fiji (BCF) to stop making public comments since the investigation on Ubayd Haider’s death is still going on.

Wilson was reacting to last Friday’s BCF press conference led by chairman, Adi Narayan and board member Eroni Loganimoce.

During the press conference, they briefed the media on the suspension of South Pacific Boxing Promotions (SPBP) license alleging that it was because of promoter Fred Chand’s outbursts on social media.

“This is sad because we’ve got the investigation going on and we should respect it,” Wilson said.

“Let’s give respect to where it is due.

“This is a serious issue where life matters. In situation like this they should exercise a lot of maturity because we’ve got a family grieving over the death of their loved one.”

Wilson said he is making the comments because he faced a similar situation in the 1990s over the death of boxer Filimoni Takayawa while he was the president of PBWA (Professional Boxing Wrestling Association).

“We worked together with the boxing body, promoter, legal and government representatives to try and resolve the issue and put in place safety measures to protect the boxers.

“We went to court several times and sat with our lawyers for countless hours.

“We didn’t play the blaming game because common sense should prevail here because a young life has been lost and what should be done to ensure that it does not happen again because life matters.”

Wilson said from his experience the fault cannot only be with one person or say the promoter in this case.

“Everyone shares the blame because there were processes not followed by those that were supposed to do it.

“Now, it’s only a matter of enforcing it and putting the extra bits to make it safer.”

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