Frank Warren has been left baffled by a contractual mistake that has thrown Ben Whittaker vs Liam Cameron into chaos.
Earlier this week, Cameron came on talkSPORT to declare that Whittaker’s promotional outfit, BOXXER, was trying to reduce the number of rounds for their rematch on April 20 to 10 despite him already signing to compete in 12.
Warren, who promotes Cameron, shed further light on the situation during an interview with BoxNation on Wednesday.
“BOXXER have sent two [different] contracts out to two fighters,” he said.
“To Liam, they sent him a contract for terms that were agreed for a 12-round fight, and that is reflected in the contract, and that is signed by all parties, including BOXXER.
“I understand Ben Whittaker was sent a contract for ten rounds.
“Our position is that we have signed a contract for 12 rounds, and Ben Whittaker is contracted for 10 rounds.
“The respective managers have negotiated on behalf of their fighters what they feel is best for their fighter, and for some reason, BOXXER have sent two different contracts that don’t reflect what each of them should be getting.
“As far as we are concerned, it should be a 12-round fight; that is what we have signed for.”
According to Warren, both parties have been working to resolve the situation for a couple of weeks now.
As BOXXER are staging the show, it will be down to them to smooth things over.
Asked whether they would accept financial compensation to make the fight a 10-rounder, Warren replied: “Well, if they do and Liam is happy for that, then they can go ahead and do it.
“For me, I think they should stick to 12 rounds… I’ve never heard of this before. This is like amateur night out.
“Sometimes you get lawyers that draft the contract and in the drafting they might make a cock up but in boxing, the amount of rounds in a fight is very crucial and there was no doubt it was negotiated for a 12 round fight.
“And if it wasn’t, do BOXXER, [Ben] Shalom, whoever signed it, are they signing contracts without reading what they are sending out?”
Whittaker and Cameron’s inaugural encounter last October ended in controversy.
Towards the end of the fifth round, both men took a tumble over the top rope, resulting in Whittaker sustaining injuries that left him unable to continue.
Cameron had been on the ascendancy when the fight was waved off and insisted that Whittaker had ‘looked for a way out’.
As four rounds had been completed, the fight went to the judges’ scorecards, with the bout being declared a split draw.
They are now set to settle their score on Easter Sunday at the BP Live Arena in Birmingham.
