"A proud boxing nation has been humiliated by what has gone on in Germany and both Dereck Chisora and David Haye should be ashamed of themselves. In an Olympic year our reputation for upholding the highest standards in sport must be protected more than ever before. These events have been a kick in the teeth for our reputation."

These are the words of Robert Smith, the general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, who are to hold an investigation into the moronic behaviour last weekend of a couple of brawling Brits abroad which besmirched Munich's Olympiahalle, where Olga Korbut so coquettishly strutted her stuff back in 1972.

Smith is a decent bloke, an ex-pro boxer himself and the son of Andy Smith, who trained another renowned British heavyweight, Joe Bugner. He was clearly shocked and angered by the repulsive behaviour of both Chisora and Haye which plunged the sport into the gutter at a time when it is regaining sufficient clout to be lauded for helping instil discipline among wayward youths and edging its way back into schools.

So the irony of the tawdry fracas will not be lost on him, especially coinciding as it did with the cycling's Track World Cup at the new Olympic Velodrome where we saw British sport at its best. The mayhem in Munich gave us a bitter taste of it at its worst.


The shameful occurrences before and after and Chisora's World Boxing Council heavyweight bout with Vitali Klitschko have been well chronicled, beamed in all their glory around the world.

What happens next is up to the board, whose inquisition panel on March 14 can draw on fistful of QCs, a feisty female Labour peer (Baroness Golding) and ex-heavyweight boxer Billy Walker, all stewards of a body which now must be seen to exert what its title demands: Control.

When Chisora appears before this August assembly in Cardiff he may well feel he is in a courtroom dock; to which, of course, he is no stranger. The guy has previous, both in and out of the ring.

There are so many aspects of this deeply unsavoury business  which included slapping, spitting and threats of shooting and burning, (all down to Chisora) and Haye's  provocative punch with a bottle-held fist (which, if proven as an assault carries a possible jail term if and when the German polizei catch up with him).

If only he had displayed such aggressive intent when abjectly releasing his toe-hold on the World Boxing Association title to Wladimir Klitschko last year rather than prancing passively around the Hamburg ring.

The board have always come down heavily on fighters who employ their fists outside the ring (fortunately few do) but they cannot punish Haye because he has relinquished his boxing licence. All they can, and must, do is refuse to hand it back – ever.

They should also be asking questions of those present at the media conference who did nothing to restrain Chisora from leaving his seat to move menacingly towards the taunting "Hatemaker".

I do not subscribe to the view that it was all a put-up job to promote interest in an eventual fight between them. It was far too realistically nasty for that.  In any case I doubt such an encounter will ever happen.


As for Chisora, he has already has had his own slap in the face from the WBC, who have withheld a third of his £200,000 purse for that weigh-in incident with Vitali and subsequently spewing water into Wladimir's face just before the bell. Now the Board, taking into account his earlier biting of an opponent, for which he was suspended for four months, will surely throw the book at him.

I expect to see them impose their own hefty fine and put him on gardening leave for at least a couple of years. Maybe they should also insist he sees a psychiatrist, because heaven knows what he might do if he ever climbs into a ring again.

Having said that let me emphasise that that two bad apples do not mean the sport is rotten to the core.

Far from it. In my experience most boxers truly are the noblest of sporting creatures, and boxing stands up well in terms of its integrity to several other sports, not least cricket, horse racing, even football, where results have been rigged and miscreants jailed. And it certainly can never be accused of racism.

It is just a shame that that such behaviour, which diminished the valiant challenge put up in the fight by Chisora, should have smeared boxing and insulted the classy Klitschkos, whose career-long trademark has been dignity and decency.

For me, the most tasteless aspect was not the post-fight violence of which there have been various similar incidents in the past both here and in the United States (witness Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier grappling with each other on the floor of a TV studio, and Mike Tyson gnawing Lennox Lewis's thigh while threatening to 'eat' his babies) but Chisora spraying the liquid contents of his foul mouth at Vitali's younger brother and cornerman Wladimir.


Luckily the erudite Ukrainian showed admirable restraint in not ending the fight before it started by decking "Del Boy" (what a pugilistic plonker!) there and then.

Imagine Wayne Rooney doing the same thing on the football field. They'd be bellowing in parliament for him to be banned, and Chisora deserves nothing less. Boxing can do without his spitting image for some time.

This brings me to the coverage of the fight by fledgling subscription channel BoxNation, which while largely excellent, curiously glossed over Chisora's misbehaviour. The team of pundits, which included experienced pros Jim Rosenthal, John Rawling and Steve Bunce, seemed particularly reluctant to condemn him for the spitting incident. Why?

We expected to hear words like "disgraceful" or "disgusting". Instead, we were told that underneath it all Chisora actually was quite a nice bloke. The impression given was that he was a simply a bit of a lad.

Really? Leaving aside the current episodes, tell that to the girlfriend he was convicted for slapping around, or the opponent whose neck he chewed. A bit of a lad?  More of a lout, surely.

One also must question the role of Robert Smith's boss, Charles Giles, the chairman of the BBBofC, who sat at ringside in a supervisory capacity yet appeared to do very little and has been somewhat silent since, leaving the capable Smith to take the flak and make the required pronouncements.

Boxing is the hardest game of all and needs strong leadership at the top.

So here's a thought. Lord Coe may be kicking his heels between the end of 2012 and 2015, when he hopes to be elected as President of the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Seb is an avid fight fan and like BOA chair Lord Moynihan, a former BBBofC steward. I doubt he would take much persuading to re-join it and would make a first-rate and internationally well-respected President of the Board.


Doubtless he too will have noted the contrast between what happened at the Velodrome, where there was genuine sporting rivalry between Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, and the unseemly brawl in the halle involving Chisora and Haye.

A golden weekend in London, a dirty weekend in Munich.

Which gives one clear message to the heavyweight hooligans.

On yer bikes.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire