“It’s close to defamation where he (Narayan) was speculating there was an injury, which is the nature of sports. The speculation could be obtained from an old injury report.”
Late Ubayd Haider.
The family of fallen boxer Ubayd Haider is looking at all their legal options.
This was disclosed by their lawyer Avinesh Reddy during a press conference in Suva yesterday.
This also includes taking the International Boxing Organisation (IBO) to court.
“There has been a lot of finger pointing,” Reddy said.
Haider fought for the IBO Asia Pacific super featherweight title to Australia’s Runqi Zhou on October 26, last year where he lost on a ninth round technical knockout. He collapsed soon after the fight and never recovered.
“We’ve done our researches and we’re looking at taking the international body to task. Why there was no drug test and a number of failures, which led to the damage. A life has been lost,” the Suva lawyer said.
The IBO headquarters is in Coral Gables in Florida, United States of America with the president Ed Levine. The IBO was founded in 1988 and incorporated in Illinois in 1992 by John W Daddano. The Nadi programme was sanctioned by IBO Fight Commissioner in Australia, Justin Kennedy, who was also present during the programme.
Reddy said they are also looking at what action to take against Boxing Commission of Fiji chairman Adi Narayan for the statement he made during an interview with FBC TV, where he said Haider’s family was to be blamed for his death.
“It’s close to defamation where he (Narayan) was speculating there was an injury, which is the nature of sports. The speculation could be obtained from an old injury report.”
Reddy said Narayan should stop making such comments.
“We’re not here to make money out of it. A life is lost and we want somebody to take responsibility of it,” he added.
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