Anzi wrote:Frank Lynch, the chief medical officer for the British Boxing Board of Control, fears that the majority of promoters in white collar boxing take the easy route when it comes to safety.
He said: "A lot of promoters do it for charity and are looking to cut costs with the best of intent.
"I love boxing and because of that I am one of the cheapest medics around. But when I tell them it will cost £350 for me, the staff, the equipment and the ambulance, they say 'no way mate'."
Mr Lynch has seen the difference that having medical staff on hand can make.
He said: "When Johnjo Finnegan fought Ryan Clarke, it was a British Boxing Board of Control fight.
"All safety precautions were put in place, an ambulance was 25 yards away at the back door and security were briefed to part the crowd if anything went wrong.
"All that fell into place when he suffered from a bleed on the brain and was in hospital within 15 minutes and straight into a five-hour surgery. If all that had not been in place, he would have died, not be on the road to recovery that he is now."
The Post has heard differing accounts from witnesses of the fight on Saturday, some saying that medical staff were on hand and an ambulance was present, others saying the ambulance took 30 minutes to show up.
Mr Lynch has called for a shake-up of promoters, the majority of which he believes do not think of safety first.
He said: "We need to get rid of the cowboy promoters, the ones who don't check their medics out and the ones who don't have medics at all.
"I have been waiting for a death to happen for five years. It is a tragedy but I hope it serves as a wake-up call of the duty of care promoters have for their boxers."
Neil Perkins, a former amateur welterweight boxer, runs white collar boxing events in the Midlands but works with Mr Lynch to ensure fights meet British Boxing Board of Control standard.
He has called for a gold standard of boxing to be adhered to, including pre and post fight medicals, an anaesthetist and doctors ringside and a local neurological unit placed on standby.
He said: "From here each body can set its own gold standard depending on the demands of the level of competition. From what I have seen, the minimum standard alone would eliminate 80 per cent of the show shows going on in the country.
"If run correctly, white collar boxing can provide a fun, safe, once in a lifetime experience.
"But remember, you can play football, you can play rugby but you can't play boxing."
The Post's boxing writer, Leigh Curtis asks if Lance would still be alive if critics were heeded...
SENIOR figures in boxing have consistently voiced their concerns about white-collar shows because they allow any Tom, Dick or Harry to get into the ring.
Fighters on these shows do not have to undergo strict medicals – unlike professional boxers operating under the British Board of Boxing Control, who must have yearly MRI scans to ensure there is no evidence of brain damage.
If there is even a shred of doubt about their health, they will be refused a licence.
In fact, so strict are the BBoBC's medicals that some boxers have claimed they are too stringent and have subsequently launched court actions to overturn decisions not allowing them to compete.
But there are no such rules in white-collar boxing, in which a fighter will generally be given a once over by a doctor prior to going into the ring.
This is the bare minimum of health checks and certainly does not detect any underlying health complications.
And that is why promoters and senior figures within pro-boxing, including Dave Roden, chairman of the Midlands Area of the Boxing Board of Control, have attempted to highlight the dangers.
Such critics have always said that it wold be a matter of when, not if, somebody would be seriously hurt – or even die.
Sadly, nobody seemed to be listening.
Had somebody taken notice then perhaps Lance Prayogg's death could have been avoided.
STANDARDS: What ex-pro boxer Neil Perkins wants
Safe Boxing Standards Minimum
Paramedic crew ringside and ambulance on standby outside
Pre and post fight medicals
Pre-fight weigh-in where fighters fall within 10 per cent of each other's weights
Gold Standard
Paramedic crew ringside and ambulance on standby outside
Anaesthetist and doctors ringside and local neurological unit placed on standby
Pre and post fight medicals
Pre-fight weigh-in where fighters fall within 10 per cent of each other's weight
Full risk assessment
Matching criteria including check point spars
Approved and checked regulated gloves
Referee training
Approved rules and scoring criteria
Sanitisation of shared gloves between bouts
HIV and hepatitis B test for fights without head guards
Although its come to late for Lance Ferguson-Prayogg we may some good come of this and a lasting legacy on boxing in his name.
Similar to that which you have quoted above , a group of promoters (of which Damian has spearheaded) whom are workingly a lot of hours on bringing in a new standard (which i believe will be named after Ferguson-Prayogg) in which they are trying to get rolled out across the uk with as many promotions as possible and award those promotions with a standard they can advertise on their posters as adhering to.
Ive spoken to him at length today about this and he realises it will take a lot of work and hours to get everyone on board but his idea will be to issue an official license on a yearly basis afer completing a thorough medical (of which ive seen the initial work and boy it pisses all over what they aba do) with obviously still having pre fight medicals on the day, a specific set of rules including paramedics etc on scene at all times with ambulance on standby etc, and a full list of bouts included with licenses detailing the last bout and outcome to ensure boxers being stopped dont box within specific time range etc and also to avoid mismatching. all shows having to then provide dvd footage of entire show to check the matching and random drug testing which will include a minimum of 2 boxers being tested on EVERY show. Also a deal has been brokered to offer FULL insurance to every licensed boxer who is appearing on a show awarded the standard.
No matter what peoples opinion of Damian may be i genuinely have to commend what he and his group are doing here.
I think this may truly be the dawn of Semi-Pro boxing, i say that because there will still of course be promotions who want to go it solo and keep their own independant status etc and thus they would remain white collar/unlicensed and not under their jurisdiction.
This is in my opinion a HUGE step in the right direction and although there's a hell of a lot of work to do, he feels this is what he wants to do to both make his permenent mark on boxing whilst the death of lance is not in vain and causes change, although Damian is still currently adamant that he will never promote a show himself again.
he said he asked Neil Perkins (who mentioned his opinion of a standard in that above quote as printed in several articles) to try to take his views on board and bring him into the intiative but neil declined the offer due commitments in both working and personal life, this is despite the fact its no secret Damian and Neil havent always seen eye to eye, yet he was still willing to work together with him to help push the whole thing on and has so far also received backing from several ex pros.
I for one am definately interested to see how this develops.
As an update on those wishing to know whats happening with the Inquest, a postmortem has now been carried out and the coroner has said it may take several weeks for him to conclude his findings as some tests take a while to return results and also hes wanting to hear from a few witnesses (referee, the paramedics at ringside, the opponent etc etc) although there will be no police investigation.
