IKPO IGBINOBA
Godwin Igelle (right)
World acclaimed keeper of professional boxing records of boxers around the globe BoxRec has been dismissed as a huge scam by former national light middleweight champion, Godwin Igelle.
Igelle has an axe to grind with the record keepers on account of his record on the site of the outfit.
According to BoxRec’s records, Igelle had just three fights with two losses and one win.
From the correct records which members of the Nigerian boxing community including the sporting press are aware of, Igelle had 26 fights in a career that spanned eighteen years from 1985 to 2003.
He had 17 wins (with eleven knockouts) 8 losses, and one draw. Igelle who was one time the president of National Association of Professional Boxers (NAPROB) was not just a crowd puller but also a crowd pleaser who was desperately sought by big time promoters during his fighting days.
Reacting to BoxRec’s record, Igelle queried “Where on earth did BoxRec get the record ascribed to me from.
“I am really at a loss where they got the so called record from. How can an organisation of that calibre publish such falsehood and arrogantly put it on the information super highway?”
Igelle said what BoxRec did was not just a disservice to him but to boxing followers who deserve to have the right information about boxers.
He described the organisation as a scam adding that they “should be yanked off the cyberspace”
According to Igelle “BoxRec is misleading the world about professional boxing and that is dangerous. If the organisation can’t take the pain to do the right thing, it should be kicked out”
Interestingly, Igelle, is not the only boxer to have been maligned by BoxRec. In fact the organisation is notorious for publishing fake records.
According to Wikipedia, BoxRec which was founded by an Englishman John Sheppard in the year 2000 has been criticised for not keeping correct records especially of historic boxers.
On account of such unreliable records, BoxRec lost the bid to be official record keepers for the Association of Boxing Commissions(ABC)in 2005 to Fight Fax.
While defending their decision to award Fight Fax the right, ABC revealed that they had investigated both websites.
According to the association,”while Fight Fax records were 100 per cent accurate, BoxRec’s was substantially lower”.
Curiously, in 2016, without an improvement in its output, BoxRec was recognised as official record keeper by the ABC alongside Fight Fax.
Igelle denounced the decision by ABC to recognise the controversial record keeper insisting that BoxRec remains a scam and disservice to boxing and boxers.