From a Beating to a Robbery: Stacey Reile vs. Elina Tissen

By Ron Scarfone - 04/29/2016 - Comments

By Ron Scarfone – On March 26, 2009, Stacey “Stay Lo” Reile was at the pinnacle of her career, although she was not a world champion yet. Reile redeemed herself after her loss to WIBF featherweight champion Ina Menzer. Reile won by a TKO in the sixth round over super featherweight contender Crystal Delgado. Reile’s rating by BoxRec.com in the female featherweight division rose to No. 2 in the world. Reile became the No. 1 ranked featherweight contender by the Women’s International Boxing Federation (WIBF). Life was better for Reile, but things can take a turn for the worse.

Reile thought that she would get a rematch against Menzer because she was the No. 1 ranked contender, but it never occurred. Nearly a year after her victory over Delgado, Reile fought against Ada Velez. Reile lost the fight by unanimous decision and then Reile lost her mother who died of lung cancer. Several months later, Reile received a title shot against Elina Tissen for the vacant Global Boxing Union (GBU) female world featherweight title. Victory seemed to be in Reile’s grasp, but Reile realized that she was robbed after the judges’ decision was announced.

After Tissen won by unanimous decision over Reile, Tissen was considered to be one of the best female featherweight boxers in the world. However, it was really a sham. Tissen is a counterfeit champion. Tissen has been a world champion for the last several years, but Tissen’s rise to prominence began because of her win against Reile. It was a win that greatly helped Tissen’s career. Tissen achieved a lofty status at Reile’s expense. To understand how this could happen, you have to know about Tissen, her trainer/manager Maiki Hundt, and the sanctioning bodies that are involved. I have done extensive research into the pro boxing career of Tissen. The length of this article was necessary in order to fully explain this. As a result, this article is much longer than usual. I estimate that it will take about 90 minutes to read it.

According to Tissen’s German Wikipedia page, Tissen somehow met Maiki Hundt in 2005 while she was training as a dancer. Hundt noticed her fast footwork and said that she had a predisposition to be a boxer. Tissen tried boxing because of Hundt’s suggestion and she liked it. Tissen made her pro boxing debut in 2006. Tissen won her first two fights against boxers making their pro debuts. These two boxers that Tissen defeated never had any other fights again. It makes you wonder why they chose to become professional boxers in the first place. Did Hundt hunt for women with no professional boxing experience (or any boxing experience) who had no chance of winning to use as opponents for Tissen? We will probably never know. BoxRec.com shows these two fights as being unsanctioned, so I assume that the boxing commission in Germany refused to sanction them because they were both mismatches.

In Tissen’s third pro fight, she was matched up against another boxer making her pro debut. Her name was Nadia Raoui. The fight was scheduled for four rounds. Tissen lost by unanimous decision. Perhaps Hundt thought that Tissen was ready to fight a better boxer, but Raoui was not like Tissen’s previous two opponents. Raoui went on to have a successful pro boxing career and she eventually won a world title in the flyweight division. In her fourth pro fight, Tissen was matched up against a boxer who was not making her pro debut, but she had only fought once before. This opponent had a draw in her only fight, so her record was 0-0-1. Tissen defeated her by TKO in the third round. In her fifth pro fight, Tissen almost had a draw against a boxer with a losing record of 1-5-1. Tissen won by a close majority decision. Tissen won her next fight by unanimous decision against a boxer with a losing record of 2-15-2. In her seventh pro fight, Tissen won by TKO in the first round against a boxer making her pro debut.

After these seven fights, Tissen had a 6-1 record with wins over four boxers who had no previous pro boxing experience, two boxers with losing records, and one boxer with just a draw. The GBU apparently did not care about how Tissen achieved this winning record and the sanctioning body gave Tissen a title shot against Esther Phiri of Zambia for the vacant GBU female world super featherweight title in 2008. The fight occurred in Zambia which is a country in Africa. Phiri had a 7-1-1 record with her only loss to Fatuma Zarika in a four round bout that went the distance. An article on the Internet about the Phiri vs. Tissen fight stated that Tissen was scared and intimidated when she met Phiri for the first time prior to their title bout. Phiri defeated Tissen by unanimous decision. Phiri is currently a world welterweight champion. Phiri also previously won world titles at super lightweight.

Tissen never fought outside of Germany again. There was no way that Tissen was ever going to win a world championship unless the title fight was in Germany. Tissen needed the benefit of biased judging that Germany provides to its boxers. Also, she needed the assistance of the sanctioning bodies based in Germany that were willing to sanction title fights in which Tissen was matched up against boxers with losing records. Tissen’s next pro fight was for the vacant Global Boxing Council (GBC) female featherweight title. The GBC Office is in Germany. Tissen’s opponent was Daniela Elena Dima of Romania. Dima’s record was 0-4. Yes, that is correct.

Dima had a professional record of zero wins and four losses prior to this world title fight. This was supposed to be a world championship and a winless boxer gets a title shot. On BoxRec.com, there is information about the GBC. “The G.B.C. started its activities in 2005. The G.B.C. wants to give talented prospects and experienced boxers the opportunity to fight for a Championship Title in the categories World, Intercontinental, Youth, or Women’s.” Dima only had four fights, so she did not have much pro boxing experience. I guess the GBC felt that Dima was a talented prospect with no wins and four losses. Tissen won the fight by TKO in the fourth round. Just two years after her professional boxing debut, Tissen became a world champion.

Apparently, Hundt was not satisfied with this. He wanted Tissen to be a world champion in another weight class too. In Tissen’s next fight, she received another title shot. This fight was for the vacant GBC and GBU female super bantamweight titles. Like the GBC Office, the GBU Office is also in Germany. Tissen’s opponent was Bena Kaloki of Kenya. Kaloki’s record was 3-3 prior to this bout. Kaloki got her three wins against boxers on the bottom rung: a boxer making her pro debut and two winless boxers. According to an article on WBAN.com posted three days before this fight, Tissen had a BoxRec rating of No. 38. The referee Alf Sprung of Germany was also the sole judge and scored the fight 96-94 in favor of Tissen. The referee/judge was German, the fight was in Germany, and Tissen won by just a slim margin against a mediocre opponent. In her next two fights, Hundt had Tissen fight two boxers making their pro debuts. Tissen won both of them: one by a score of 40-36 in a four round fight and the other by KO in the third round.

According to Tissen’s German Wikipedia page, Tissen had a problem with her vocal cords. Tissen took a one year hiatus from being an active boxer in order to recover. According to Tissen’s website (www.elinboxing.de), Tissen wanted a comeback fight against a boxer in the top ten. I know the circumstances as to how Reile was able to fight Tissen. I never heard of Tissen before Reile told me about her. Tissen was not a world-class boxer and was rated low on the female featherweight ratings of BoxRec at the time. I do not recall what her exact rating was, but I remember that it was in the 40s when I checked it. This makes sense because Tissen’s rating was No. 38 just prior to her fight against Kaloki. Defeating Kaloki would not have improved Tissen’s rating that much.

Tissen probably dropped in the ratings to the 40s because other boxers were winning against better opponents whereas Tissen was winning against boxers making their pro debuts.

“I want to fight her,” Reile said to me. “I’ll see what I can do,” I replied. I later realized that I was very limited in what I could do. What can I do? I thought about it for a while. Then, I had an idea. I assumed that Hundt was reluctant to have Tissen fight Reile. Reile knocked out Crystal Delgado and achieved a very high No. 2 rating by BoxRec in the featherweight division. I believe that Hundt saw the videos of the Reile vs. Delgado fight on YouTube. Hundt would only risk having Tissen fight Reile if Hundt believed that Reile’s skills were beginning to decline. I decided to send a message on Tissen’s website. I would pretend that I was a German living in South Florida who adored Tissen and that I was watching Reile train in the gym. I wrote that Reile was in decline and that Tissen could beat her. Of course, I was lying. I wrote the message as if I was trying to communicate with Tissen, but I knew that Hundt was going to read the message. My email address was included so that he could reply to me.

I did not hear from anyone on Tissen’s team for several months. Hundt delayed contacting me until after Reile lost to Velez. I then received an email from Hundt. In Hundt’s response to me, Hundt seemed very eager to get in contact with Reile and he asked me if I knew Reile’s manager. She did not have a manager. I just forwarded his email to Reile so that she could contact him. As Tissen’s manager, Hundt makes the decision as to who Tissen is going to fight. It seems that the sanctioning bodies agree with whoever Hundt selects as an opponent for Tissen in order to collect the sanctioning fees. They sanction world title fights even if Tissen’s opponents are winless or mediocre. Hundt did not want Tissen to fight Reile until he believed that Reile was beginning to decline. Hundt obviously thought that was true after Reile lost to Velez, not necessarily because of what I wrote in the message that I sent. Nevertheless, Hundt is not stupid. Hundt is calculating and cunning. He knew that Reile was still better than Tissen even after she lost to Velez, but there are disadvantages for opponents to fight German boxers in Germany. Reile was a world-class boxer, but Hundt knew that Tissen would win by decision if the fight went the distance. The judges would make sure of that. Hundt also knew that if Reile was at her best, Reile was capable of knocking Tissen out. Reile had a feeling that the Germans would try to make her less than her best before the fight. She experienced this previously in Germany before her fight against Ina Menzer. Reile had a 9-2 record prior to her fight against Tissen. Her losses were to world champion Ina Menzer by a controversial stoppage and to former world champion Ada Velez by a controversial decision. Both Menzer and Velez were among the top pound for pound female boxers in the world at the time that Reile fought them.

When a visiting boxer goes to Germany, he or she must be prepared for what is going to happen there before the fight. Most likely, the boxer will not have ideal hotel accommodations. Reile’s hotel room in Rietberg, Germany was across the street from a bell tower which rang every hour. Having Reile stay in a hotel near a bell tower caused Reile to not get adequate sleep. Reile also claims that she could not get warmed up before the fight.

Reile said that she had to wait in a cold room. Then, she had to walk over a fire escape outside in the freezing cold before the walk-in to the ring. Doing these things to Reile affected her in the first half of the fight because she could not get properly warmed up. Reile also was not provided a stool to sit on, so she had to stand in the ring corner during the one minute break between rounds. When George Foreman came back to boxing after a ten year layoff, he did not sit on a stool between rounds. That was his choice. Reile prefers to sit on a stool and she purposefully was not provided one. Tissen had a stool to sit on and she sat on it between rounds. In spite of these disadvantages, Reile showed that she was still a better boxer than Tissen. Reile was able to obtain a video of the fight with the help of a German man and she uploaded it to Vimeo.com so that the world can see what really happened. The reason why a German man was willing to help Reile is because some Germans dislike Tissen because of the way in which she has been able to be a world champion. Some Germans did not like Ina Menzer either because she often benefited from biased judges and referees, but Menzer did fight many more legitimate contenders than Tissen. Menzer also was a better boxer than Tissen.

Here is a link to a video of the Reile vs. Tissen fight:

On my unofficial scorecard, I scored the first round 10-9 in favor of Reile. Reile was landing hooks to the body and Tissen landed almost nothing because she was very tentative. I scored the second round 10-9 in favor of Tissen. Tissen was more active in that round and she was landing more punches than Reile. I scored the third round 10-10. Both were landing punches, but the round was very close. I very rarely score a round even. I scored the fourth round 10-9 in favor of Tissen. Tissen hit Reile low with a right hook to the hip and then followed up with a left hook to the head that rocked Reile. It did not work out in the way that Tissen intended. After Reile took the best shot that Tissen had to offer, Tissen realized that she could not hurt Reile. Reile fought back furiously. Tissen circled the ring trying to avoid Reile while only throwing sporadically. I scored the fifth round 10-9 in favor of Tissen. Tissen simply landed more punches in that round, although not by much. It was obvious that not being properly warmed up affected Reile in the first half of the fight. It took a few rounds for Reile to be at her best. On my unofficial scorecard, Tissen was leading after five rounds.

The second half of the fight was totally different. The body shots from Reile began taking their toll on Tissen. I scored the sixth round 10-9 in favor of Reile. Reile was landing hooks and uppercuts to the body. I scored the seventh round 10-9 in favor of Reile. Reile was moving toward Tissen and landing more punches. I scored the eighth round 10-9 in favor of Reile. Reile landed several punches to the body and Tissen was usually just trying to protect herself and not throwing punches. I scored the ninth round 10-9 in favor of Reile. It was similar to round eight, although Tissen was fighting back a little more. I scored the tenth round 10-8 in favor of Reile.

Reile landed a left hook to the head which caused Tissen to bend over and touch both of her gloves to the canvas. Instead of the referee ruling it a knockdown which is what he was supposed to do, he intervened and then let the fight continue without doing a 10 count. Since this was supposed to be considered a knockdown, I scored it as if it was a knockdown. On my unofficial scorecard, I scored the fight in favor of Reile by a total score of 97-93. In my opinion, Reile won six of the ten rounds outright with one of them being a 10-8 round because Tissen’s gloves touched the canvas. I scored one of the rounds even. After the fight was over, the judges ruled in favor of Tissen by unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 99-91, 98-92, and 98-92. On the first judge’s scorecard, Reile won only one round. Tissen won nine of the ten rounds. On the second and third judges’ scorecards, Reile won only two rounds. Tissen won eight of the ten rounds. That is total bias to score the fight as if Reile won only one or two rounds.

An article on the Internet about the fight was titled “Tissen is in third place (translated from German)” which referred to Tissen’s No. 3 BoxRec rating after her undeserved victory. Tissen was not rated by BoxRec just prior to the fight because she had been inactive for more than a year. Tissen was previously rated in the 40s.

Because Tissen got a win by unanimous decision against Reile who was a top ten contender, the computerized ratings of BoxRec rated Tissen as the third best female featherweight boxer in the world after this fight. Tissen’s nickname is “Elin the Machine,” but “the Machine” only works well when she is fighting in mismatches or when her opponent is purposefully put at a disadvantage like what happened to Reile. Reile was able to overcome that in the second half of the fight, but she could not overcome the biased judges. Instead of “Elin the Machine,” I think a more appropriate nickname for Elina Tissen would be “E.T.” because her first and last name start with those two letters and it reminds me of the movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

I could not find the article that I found on the Internet a few years ago referring to Tissen’s high rating on BoxRec because of her win over Reile. It is possible that it was deleted. Tissen’s biography on her website does not provide much information about this fight. In fact, all it stated was that it was a “crystal-clear point judgment (translated from German).” A similar statement was made in an article on the German news website Die Glocke (www.die-glocke.de). It was a very brief article about the fight and it was posted about six months after it happened. It stated that “…trainer and manager Maiki Hundt has fond memories of the clear points victory over the American Stacey Reile…(translated from German)” Notice that the Germans only write about the judges’ decision and not about the actual fight. If they did write about the fight, they would have to admit that Tissen should have lost. The only thing positive they can think of is Tissen winning by a wide margin on the biased judges’ scorecards. Tissen’s website has copies of newspaper articles about the fight. I translated a couple of the articles, but they basically stated that Tissen won in her comeback to boxing after a year layoff. The rest of the sentences were German gibberish that had very little substance regarding the fight itself. One article referred to the tenth round, but made no mention of the knockdown that should have been counted because of Tissen’s gloves touching the canvas. Of course, all of the German articles have photos that show Tissen landing a punch and no photo shows Reile landing a punch.

Tissen’s next opponent was Juliette Winter of the United Kingdom with a record of 4-7-1. Although Winter had a losing record, three of her four wins were against boxers with a winning record at the time she fought them. Three world female featherweight titles (GBC, GBU, and WIBF) were at stake. Winter weighed 115¼ pounds for this fight which would be considered a bantamweight. Winter was barely above the 115 pound weight limit for super flyweight. She was a bantamweight only because she weighed ¼ pound above the super flyweight limit. The weight limit for bantamweight is 118 pounds. The weight limit for super bantamweight is 122 pounds. This was a world featherweight title fight, so both boxers are supposed to be above 122 pounds and no heavier than 126 pounds.

Tissen was within that range for this fight because she weighed 122¼ pounds. Winter was two weight classes below what she should have been. Not surprisingly, Tissen won by TKO in the third round. Winter looked gaunt and it was an obvious disadvantage for her. This has happened to Winter before. According to Winter’s biography on WBAN.com, Winter was at least a weight class below her opponent Esther Schouten of the Netherlands in 2004. It also states that Winter was offered the fight and she did not want to refuse because she had few opportunities to fight. Schouten defeated Winter by TKO in the fourth round. There are no weights listed for this fight on BoxRec, so I am assuming that the information on WBAN is correct regarding Winter. The Schouten vs. Winter fight was not for a world title. However, Tissen vs. Winter was for three world featherweight titles. The three sanctioning bodies approved it knowing that Winter was not a featherweight. A video of the fight is on YouTube.

Hundt only allows videos of Tissen to be seen by the public when she is dominating her opponent in a mismatch. The video of the Reile vs. Tissen fight is only on the Internet because Reile uploaded it to Vimeo.

For her next fight, Tissen went back to the super bantamweight division to fight for the GBC female super bantamweight title. This was one of the titles that she won previously when she defeated Kaloki of Kenya. This time, Tissen was facing Fatuma Zarika who was also from Kenya. Zarika defeated Esther Phiri. Phiri defeated Tissen. I know that styles make fights, but I thought that Zarika was a better boxer than Tissen. Zarika was a legitimate contender with a record of 23-4-1. She was a former world champion, having won the interim WIBF super bantamweight title in 2008. Her four losses were to boxers with undefeated records. Of course, the Tissen vs. Zarika fight was in Germany. Zarika had no chance to win by decision. As long as the fight went the distance, victory for Tissen was a sure thing. I was not surprised that Tissen won by unanimous decision. However, I was very surprised at the judges’ scores.

Two judges scored the fight 99-94, 99-94, and referee/judge Ibrahim Barakat scored the fight 99-95. When you see a score of 95-95 for a ten round bout, that means the fight is a draw. How did Zarika get 95 points on the scorecard of one referee/judge while Tissen received 99? There is only one logical explanation. The judges scored some of the rounds even, giving 10 points each to Zarika and Tissen in those rounds. This is very unusual. Judges are allowed to score a round even, but it is not often done. There are times when a round is too close to call in favor of one boxer or another, but I believe that a good judge can usually determine who the better boxer is in rounds that are close. The third judge scored it 99-95 which means that he most likely scored four of the ten rounds even at 10-10 each. That would also mean that Zarika won only one round with a score of 10-9. In the other four rounds that Zarika received a 10, Tissen did as well. It is improbable that a fight would be so close that four of the rounds would be scored even (ties). On the other two judges’ scorecards, three of the ten rounds were likely scored even. That is also improbable. By not scoring those rounds outright for Zarika, it gave her no chance at winning by decision. The fact that these judges felt the need to score a few rounds as ties shows me that Tissen probably should have lost. There is no way that Tissen can beat a legitimate contender if the judging is fair and impartial. There is no video of this fight on the Internet. You can see Tissen fight Winter on YouTube because Tissen looked dominating against an opponent who was two weight classes below what she should have been for a featherweight title fight, but you will not see Tissen fight Zarika. You would think that if Tissen is so great that Hundt would want people to see her win against a legitimate contender like Zarika. The only reason I can think of is that Tissen should not have won.

I am not the only one who feels this way. According to an article on the German news website Neue Westfalische (www.nw.de), there were “…boos mingled with the applause…(translated from German)” after the judges’ decision was announced. There were some spectators who did not agree with the decision. However, Hundt believed that the judgment was correct. “If you want to win as a challenger, you must either knock out the opponent or do twice as much (translated from German),” Hundt said. Hundt basically admitted that challengers to Tissen must do much more than Tissen in order to win against her. Do you ever see this in other sports? If the defending Super Bowl champion plays in the next Super Bowl, does the other team have to win by four touchdowns or one point? The writer of this article stated the obvious. “The chances of winning are not necessarily equally distributed among counterparts (translated from German).”

The article stated that both Tissen and Zarika seemed not sure who would be announced as the winner after the fight was over. “Neither Tissen nor Zarika showed the usual poses which celebrates the supposed winner before the decision itself. The tension had apparently not yet been resolved, both were in their cause not one hundred percent sure (translated from German).” I am not surprised. Any visiting boxer is going to be unsure of a decision in Germany no matter how well he or she does. Zarika must have beat the sauerkraut out of Tissen from beginning to end for Tissen to be unsure of whether the decision would be in her favor. If Tissen is unsure after a fight whether she would win by decision, then that means she should have lost.

The article described the action of the fight. “Tissen struck innumerable air holes because Zarika dodged thanks to her nimble responses (translated from German).” This means that Tissen was punching only air numerous times because of Zarika quickly dodging the punches. The article stated how Tissen felt after the decision was announced. “Tissen was visibly relieved when she took the gold glittering GBC belt in reception. ‘That was my toughest fight so far,’ she said…(translated from German)” Tissen said that it was her toughest fight ever which means that it was, in her opinion, tougher than her fight against Reile. Reile should have won her fight against Tissen, so that means that Tissen should have lost to Zarika if she felt this was a tougher fight than when she fought Reile. The caption under the photo of the fight was also revealing. It appears that the photo was taken just after Tissen landed a punch to the head of Zarika. The caption stated that “a clear hit like this that Tissen got against Zarika was rather rare (translated from German).” That means that Tissen rarely landed a punch in the fight. There is no video available of Tissen vs. Zarika, but I can only assume that Zarika deserved to win because of the questionable scores from the judges, Zarika being a legitimate contender, and the information in the article from the German news website Neue Westfalische.

Tissen returned to the featherweight division for her next fight. The GBC, GBU, and WIBF featherweight titles were all at stake. Tissen’s opponent was Doris Koehler of Austria with a record of 8-9-1. Out of her eight wins, only one win was against an opponent with a winning record. Tissen won by unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 100-89, 100-89, and 100-91. Hundt still was not satisfied. He wanted Tissen to be a world champion not only at super bantamweight and featherweight, but at super featherweight as well.

In her next fight, Tissen fought Jane Kavulani of Kenya for the vacant GBC female super featherweight title. Kavulani had a winning record of 14-11-2. Hundt chose another boxer from Kenya, but someone not as good as Zarika. In fact, Kavulani had lost to Zarika on points in a four round fight. Kavulani had a couple of wins against boxers with winning records, but she lost whenever she stepped up in competition. As expected, Tissen defeated Kavulani by unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 100-91, 100-94, and referee Ibrahim Barakat scored the fight 99-94. You may recall that Barakat was the referee/judge who scored Tissen’s fight with Zarika 99-95. When Tissen scores 100, it means that she received a 10 for each of the ten rounds for a total of 100 points. The first judge gave Kavulani a 91. That means that one of the rounds was scored 10-10. Kavulani received scores of 9 for nine rounds which totals 81. She received a 10 in the round that was scored even which totals 91. Tissen received a 10 in that round as well which prevented Kavulani from winning the round outright.

The second judge gave Tissen 100 points, so we know that she received a 10 in each round. In the four rounds that Kavulani scored a 10, she won none of them outright because Tissen received scores of 10 as well in those rounds. I believe that Tissen won six of the rounds by scores of 10-9. By scoring the other four rounds 10-10, it makes it seem as if Tissen dominated the fight because it gives her a perfect score of 100 points. By not allowing Kavulani to win any of the rounds outright, Tissen gets a total score of 100 and there is a wider gap in the total scores. If those four rounds that were scored 10-10 were scored 10-9 in favor of Kavulani, the total scores would have been 96-94 instead of 100-94 on the second judge’s scorecard. Barakat scored the fight 99-94. On his scorecard, I believe that he scored one round 10-9 in favor of Kavulani. Tissen received a 10 in each of the other nine rounds. A score of 10 for nine rounds totals 90 and then add the 9 for the round that Tissen lost which totals 99 for Tissen. Kavulani lost six of the rounds that were scored 10-9 in favor of Tissen, so Kavulani received scores of 9 for six rounds which equals 54. Three of the rounds were scored 10-10. Three times 10 equals 30. As I stated, one round was scored 10-9 in favor of Kavulani, so 54 plus 30 plus 10 equals 94. Because the judges give Tissen scores of 10-9 in a majority of the rounds (at least six of the ten rounds) in all of her fights, it almost guarantees that Tissen will win unless her opponent was able to knock Tissen down in the other rounds or knock her out. Tissen attained a perfect score of 100 on two of the judges’ scorecards because they scored some of the rounds 10-10 instead of Tissen losing a round or more.

A brief video of this fight is on YouTube. Only about a minute of the fight is shown which, of course, shows only Tissen landing punches. I believe that Tissen probably deserved to win the fight, but I think that the fight was closer than the judges’ scores would indicate. In an article on the German news website Westfalische Nachrichten (www.wn.de), the writer stated that “the decision was fair (translated from German).” That is not surprising. Kavulani lost whenever she stepped up in competition. Kavulani barely has a winning record and loses almost as much as she wins. I do not think that Kavulani deserved a world title shot. After this fight against Tissen, Kavulani went 2-2-2 in her last six fights: two wins against winless boxers, two losses against top ten world-class boxers, and two draws against the same mediocre boxer.

Tissen returned to the featherweight division and had a rematch against Doris Koehler. Koehler’s record was now 11-12-2. The GBC, GBU, and WIBF featherweight titles were at stake. Koehler did not win a round. Tissen won by unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight 100-90. Tissen’s next fight was very interesting. It was only for the GBU female featherweight title. The GBC and WIBF did not sanction it. BoxRec shows the fight as being unsanctioned, but the GBU sanctioned it. This probably means that the boxing commission in Germany was not willing to sanction it. This is not surprising to me. Tissen’s opponent was Djendji Fleis of Serbia. Fleis had a record of 16-19-1. Fleis’ wins were mostly against winless boxers or boxers making their pro debut. The biggest shock to me was that Fleis was usually a super flyweight which has a weight limit of 115 pounds. The weights of Tissen and Fleis are not listed on BoxRec for this fight. What could Fleis have weighed for her fight against Tissen? In her previous fight, Fleis weighed 114¾ pounds. About a month and a half after the Fleis vs. Tissen fight, Fleis weighed 111¼ pounds in this fight after facing Tissen. It is possible that Fleis weighed between 122¼-126 pounds against Tissen, but I doubt it. Fleis would have still been at a disadvantage if she fought Tissen above 122 pounds when she normally fights three weight classes below that. If she weighed about 115 pounds for her fight against Tissen, she also would have been at a disadvantage if Tissen weighed above 122 pounds.

All three judges scored the fight 100-89. Tissen probably knocked Fleis down which would have given Tissen a score of 10-8 in one of the rounds. The other nine rounds were scored 10-9 in favor of Tissen. It seems that the GBU does not always follow the rules regarding weight limits. Fleis previously fought for the vacant GBU female world super featherweight title against Irma Balijagic Adler. According to BoxRec, Adler weighed 126 pounds which means that Adler was really a featherweight for this fight. Fleis weighed 116¾ pounds which means that Fleis was really a bantamweight for this fight. If Adler weighed just ¼ pound more, she would have met the requirements to be a super featherweight. On the other hand, Fleis was three weight classes below what she should have been for her super featherweight title fight against Adler. This leads me to believe that Fleis was not really a featherweight for the GBU featherweight title fight against Tissen. I would estimate that Fleis weighed about 115 pounds when she fought Tissen and Tissen probably weighed about 125 pounds, so that is a 10 pound difference.

On the German news website Westfalische Nachrichten, an article was posted about the fight. A photo shows Tissen throwing a left jab, but missing Fleis who had her gloves on both sides of her face and was just defending herself. Tissen’s arms looked huge compared to the scrawny arms of Fleis. The caption under the photo stated that “the Serbian Fleis…moved repeatedly…and thus prevented a quick end of the…campaign, which finally went on for the next ten rounds (translated from German).” The article also stated that “Fleis…from Serbia had…no real chance to leave the ring as the winner (translated from German).” I agree. When a boxer with a losing record who weighs probably three weight classes below what they are supposed to for a featherweight championship is fighting against a German champion and the fight is in Germany, I would say that the odds are stacked against her. I was right about interpreting the judges’ scores that Tissen knocked Fleis down in one of the rounds before I read the German article. “After three rounds, namely it all could be over…The Serb went to the ground and was down for the count…, then it went on – the full distance (translated from German).” Tissen said afterwards at the press conference that she thought she could end the fight in the third round, but she did not have enough time. I understand. Tissen only had seven more rounds to finish the fight early. Regarding the knockdown, the article stated that “Djendji (Fleis) quickly recovered and held until the final round (translated from German).” This reminds me of the first Rocky movie in which Rocky goes the distance against the champion Apollo Creed. This is even more impressive. Tissen looked like The Incredible Hulk compared to the diminutive Fleis. Fleis is knocked down in round three, gets up, and then fights for seven more rounds! When is the Fleis movie coming out?

In Tissen’s next fight, the GBU and WIBF featherweight titles were at stake. Tissen’s opponent was Jasmina Nadj of Serbia. Nadj had a record of 4-4-1. Tissen’s previous opponent Fleis was also from Serbia, but Nadj was a better boxer than Fleis. Nadj defeated Fleis on points by a score of 40-36 in a four round fight. Only one judge was used in that fight and there was another person who was the referee. Three of Nadj’s four wins came against winless boxers and the other win was against Fleis. In Tissen’s fight against Nadj, the judges’ scores were 100-91, 100-92, and a ridiculous score from the third judge of 110-90. Tissen scored 110 points? That means instead of scoring a 10 in each of the rounds, the third judge gave her 11 points in each round. I have heard of the 10 point must system, but I have never heard of the 11 point must system. Maybe he gave Tissen extra credit.

Tissen’s next opponent was originally scheduled to be Irma Balijagic Adler of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Adler is currently the World Boxing Foundation female lightweight champion. Adler is currently rated No. 23 in the world in the lightweight division. Adler was previously a world champion at featherweight and super featherweight. Tissen has a common opponent with Adler because they both fought Fleis. Tissen won by unanimous decision against Fleis, but Adler won by TKO in the second round against Fleis. In an article on the German news website Westfalische Nachrichten, the writer stated that Adler cancelled the scheduled fight against Tissen at short notice and that Gabriella Busa of Hungary was the new opponent. “For weeks, boxing world champion Elina Tissen had adjusted to a bout with Irma Balijagic (birth name) who cancelled at short notice, the new opponent is Gabriella Busa…Four days before the fight…Elina Tissen has to adjust to a new opponent (translated from German).” Oh really? Do you really think that Hundt would allow Tissen to fight with only four days of preparation for a new opponent? The German media wanted to know why Adler would cancel just a few days before the fight, but Hundt was not providing any answers. “Irma Balijagic Adler had cancelled during the week, the reasons wanted but Maiki Hundt, trainer and manager of Elina Tissen, would not comment further. ‘We have now shortly before the fight other things on my mind,’ he added (translated from German).”

Adler wanted to set the record straight as to why she did not fight Tissen. In an article on WBAN.com, Adler revealed that Hundt contacted her in regards to if she would like to fight Tissen. Adler said that she gave her answer as a positive (which means that she accepted), but Adler never received any further response from Hundt.

Adler considered that Hundt not responding meant that she would not be fighting Tissen. Adler stated that not long after, she found out that the fight (Tissen vs. Adler) was announced on BoxRec without her knowledge. Adler then contacted Hundt and Hundt responded to her in an email which stated that “it was a mistake between me and matchmaker.” Adler said that this statement by Hundt implies that she did not cancel the fight as it said in all of the German press and that the fight was never really set between the two of them which means that Busa was NOT a replacement for Adler. Adler intentionally capitalized the word.

Hundt claims that he and a “matchmaker” had made a “mistake” as to having Adler’s name listed as Tissen’s opponent on BoxRec. I understand. It was a mistake that Hundt contacted Adler. It was a mistake that the schedule on BoxRec originally showed that Adler was Tissen’s opponent. It was all a mistake. Hundt contacted me, remember? Hundt sent me an email asking about Reile. This proves that Hundt does the matchmaking himself for Tissen. There may be a matchmaker who is working on the other bouts on the fight card in the events that Tissen is on, but Hundt is Tissen’s trainer and manager. Hundt has carefully orchestrated Tissen’s career and he obviously contacts or tries to contact opponents that he wants Tissen to fight. Maybe he changed his mind about choosing Adler with only a few days remaining before the fight or perhaps he planned this from the very beginning. Here is why I believe that Hundt changed Tissen’s opponent from Adler to Busa within just a few days of the fight. I believe that Hundt scheduled Adler to be Tissen’s opponent when he had no intention of having Adler fight Tissen. However, Hundt has to make it appear as if he is trying to schedule good opponents for Tissen occasionally. By saying that it was Adler who cancelled the fight, Hundt can save face when he changed Tissen’s opponent to Busa instead. Hundt can schedule a mediocre opponent in place of Adler and not be criticized because he said that it was Adler who decided to cancel. Hundt was probably preparing Tissen for Busa even after he scheduled Adler. Hundt may have not even told Tissen of his intentions, but trained her for a game plan that was actually for fighting Busa and not Adler. I don’t think Tissen’s training was affected at all. On the other hand, Busa had only four days to prepare because she was offered the fight late. She was not really a late replacement for Adler.

An article posted on the German boxing news website BoxWelt.com elaborates on the change in opponent for Tissen. The article claims that there was a Facebook announcement that “Elina Tissen wants to compete against the well-known Irma Balijagic Adler (translated from German).” It is possible that Tissen wanted to fight Adler, but that Hundt felt that it was too much of a risk because of Adler’s abilities. The article also stated that Adler was never given a contract to fight Tissen. The writer of this German news article was not sure about whether Busa would be the definite opponent of Tissen instead of Adler. The writer did not agree with Busa being named as the opponent and even advised people not to attend the event if that happened. “The Hungarian (Busa) possibly as ‘replacement opponent’…, so do not go (translated from German).” The article states that Busa was rated No. 43 by BoxRec and the writer thought that this was not high enough of a rating to be deserving of a title shot.

“This qualifies her apparently to fight against Elina Tissen…The audience will be thrilled when Ms. Tissen shows off her opponent over 10 rounds confidently. One has to wonder why both her coach, as well as her management, do this to her. Elina Tissen is without a doubt over the years matured into a good boxer that would deserve better opponents (translated from German).” The writer seems to think that Tissen’s coach and management are separate people. Her coach (trainer) and management (manager) is Hundt. He is the only one who makes these decisions regarding Tissen’s opponents.

An article was posted on March 11, 2015 by the Malta Boxing Commission titled WBF, WIBF & GBU Aim for Legitimacy in Women’s Boxing. The article stated that the World Boxing Federation (WBF) merged with the WIBF and GBU in order to have a “unified” world champion and title in female boxing. There was still going to be other female world champions from other sanctioning bodies. All this did was unify the WBF, WIBF, and GBU belts. The article stated that meaningless titles seem to be flooding professional boxing solely for the sanctioning bodies’ financial gain. The article also stated that no “unified” champion can defend only one or two of these belts and that the “unified” title will always be at stake without any exceptions. Tissen’s title fight against Busa occurred after this article was posted by the Malta Boxing Commission. Only the GBU and WIBF featherweight titles were at stake and not the WBF title. Why did the WBF not sanction Tissen’s fight after the “unified” title was created? I initially thought that the WBF said WTF when they found out who Tissen would be fighting against. However, the WBF had no problem with the chosen opponent Busa. They had a problem with Jurgen (also spelled Juergen) Lutz. Lutz works for both the GBU and the WIBF.

In an article posted on the WBF website (www.worldboxingfederation.net) on June 7, 2015, the WBF stated that their partners (GBU and WIBF) were unable to meet their high standards. As a result, they amicably split just hours before the planned “unified” title bout between Tissen and Busa. The WBF discovered that “severe manipulation” occurred behind their back. Lutz admitted that he had allowed Tissen’s management (Hundt) to not just choose the “all-German based” officials, but two of the officials “had no traceable connection to professional boxing.” When those facts became known to the WBF less than 24 hours before the start of the fight, the WBF pulled out. The WBF also stated that Lutz previously claimed that the German Federation BDB (Bund Deutscher Berufsboxer) would appoint the officials, but that was not true.

The WBF stated that Lutz did something else that concerned them. Lutz appointed a licensed manager as a judge for the Eva Voraberger vs. Nina Stojanovic fight which was for the vacant “unified” super flyweight title involving the GBU, WIBF, and WBF. Stojanovic of Serbia was undefeated at 7-0, but her opponents in those seven wins were three winless boxers, two boxers with losing records, one boxer making her pro debut, and only one boxer with a winning record and that was Gabriella Busa with a 2-1 record at the time. Voraberger of Austria was the more seasoned veteran with a record of 19-3 and actually was the WIBF and WBF super flyweight champion before the WIBF and WBF decided to create a “unified” belt. As a result of that decision, Voraberger fought Stojanovic for the vacant “unified” super flyweight title, so she officially was not the world champion at the time of this fight since the WIBF and WBF titles that she previously held were combined with the GBU to form a “unified” title. Even though Voraberger was the better boxer than Stojanovic and the fight was in Voraberger’s home country of Austria, Voraberger lost the fight by a split decision. Stojanovich became the first “unified” women’s super flyweight champion. I wonder if the licensed manager who was appointed as a judge for this fight was the manager of Stojanovich.

The most damaging evidence of corruption that the WBF discovered, the smoking gun, was that the WBF stated that its partner (Lutz) turned out to not just influence officials, but basically let promoters buy results beforehand in order to secure a sanctioning fee. By making this declaration, the WBF implied that the officials (judges) that Lutz allowed Hundt to select himself were going to score the fight in favor of Tissen if the fight went the distance which it did. The WBF stated that this can never be the way of the World Boxing Federation and that the WBF always prefers honesty and fairness towards all boxers and fans. The WBF ended its statement by declaring that it will retain all “unified” champions as world champions of the WBF which means that it will not take away the WBF belt from any of the existing “unified” champions. Out of all the weight classes, there are only a few female boxers who hold this “unified” title involving the GBU, WIBF, and WBF. In the other weight classes, there are a few other women who hold just the GBU and WIBF titles. There are also a few women who hold just the WBF title. As a result, total unification involving the GBU, WIBF, and WBF in all the weight classes was never accomplished. Here is a link to the WBF Statement.

Busa had a record of 3-2 when she was the opponent of Tissen. Busa’s three wins were against two winless boxers and a boxer with a losing record. Tissen won by unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91. Tissen had all the advantages in this fight: an opponent with only five pro boxing fights that had only four days to prepare and Lutz allowed Hundt to select all the officials himself. The WBF statement was evidence that there was collusion between Hundt and Lutz. This was discovered prior to the fight only because the WBF was involved because of the “unified” title, so the WBF withdrew their involvement. What happened in Tissen’s other title fights before the decision was made to form a “unified” title? Was there collusion between Hundt and Lutz in Tissen’s previous title defenses involving just the GBU and/or WIBF titles? Were the results in those title fights bought beforehand? Did Tissen’s promoter Miriam Bohn know what was going on or was Hundt colluding with Lutz beind Bohn’s back?

In Tissen’s most recent fight which was in November 2015, Tissen had a rematch against Jasmina Nadj. Nadj’s record was 5-10-2. The GBU and WIBF featherweight titles were at stake. Since her first fight against Tissen, Nadj must have improved. In September 2015, just two months before her rematch against Tissen, Nadj had a draw against Melanie Zwecker of Germany. The referee was also the judge in that fight and he scored it 57-57 in a six round bout. The fact that the fight was a draw against a German world-class boxer in Germany makes this even more remarkable. Zwecker is currently rated No. 19 in the featherweight division by BoxRec. Hundt made the same observation that I did about Nadj based on her draw against Zwecker. The German news website Westfalische Nachrichten posted an article about Tissen’s upcoming rematch against Nadj. Hundt revealed his opinion about Nadj’s boxing abilities. “The result against Zwecker shows that Jasmina Nadj must have greatly improved (translated from German),” Hundt said.

In Tissen’s rematch against Nadj, Tissen won by unanimous decision. However, the judges’ scores were different when compared to their first fight. The first judge scored it 100-93. The second judge scored it 97-93. The third judge scored it 97-95. On the second judge’s scorecard, Tissen scored a total of 97 points. This means that Tissen won seven of the rounds by a score of 10-9. Tissen lost the other three rounds by a score of 10-9. 10 times 7 is 70. 3 times 9 is 27. 70 plus 27 equals 97. When Nadj scored a 93 on the second judge’s scorecard, Nadj lost seven of the ten rounds by a score of 10-9 in each of those rounds. Nadj won three of the rounds by a score of 10-9. 9 times 7 is 63. 10 times 3 is 30. 63 plus 30 equals 93. On the third judge’s scorecard, Nadj scored a 95. Two of the rounds were scored 10-10. Nadj won three of the rounds by a score of 10-9. Nadj lost five of the rounds by a score of 10-9. 2 times 10 is 20. 3 times 10 is 30. 9 times 5 is 45. 20 plus 30 plus 45 equals 95. If the two rounds that were scored even at 10-10 each by the third judge were instead scored 10-9 in favor of Nadj, the third judge would have scored the fight a draw with a total score of 95-95.

In an article titled “Lackluster title defense by Elina Tissen (translated from German)” posted on the German news website Westfalische Nachrichten, the one photo used for this article shows Nadj punching Tissen in the nose as Tissen was coming in. The caption under the photo states “An image with a rarity (translated from German)” as if Tissen hardly ever gets punched in the face. The truth is the German photographers rarely take photos of Tissen getting punched in the face. The article stated that “…the highly anticipated rematch between Tissen and Nadj – the German had defeated the Serb clearly on points a year ago- proved to be a real bore. This was mainly because the challenger knew to withdraw from a slugfest successfully and almost exclusively tried to run away from Tissen (translated from German).” Of course, there is no video of the entire fight on the Internet.

However, there is a brief approximately half a minute video of the fight on YouTube. I saw Nadj circling Tissen and showing lateral movement. I did not see Nadj running away at all. Nadj made Tissen miss landing punches with her movement. I guess the German media expect Nadj to be a human heavy bag and just stand in one place while Tissen punches her continuously. “Jasmina Nadj…had nothing to offer except for fast legs and looked technically completely immature (translated from German).” I understand. Because Nadj’s boxing technique was immature, Tissen had a lackluster performance. A technically immature boxer caused Tissen to have a subpar performance. That makes sense. “‘I’m not happy with my performance (translated from German),’ Tissen said.”

The writer tried to explain why Tissen did not land many punches. “Against the unorthodox active opponent, they’ve just ‘not managed to find the right distance’ (translated from German).” If an opponent is active with movement and makes a German boxer miss punches or not able to land punches, then the boxer is labeled as “unorthodox.”

Sometimes, a world champion German boxer or her trainer will say before a fight that a good opponent is “unorthodox.” Before Reile fought Ina Menzer of Germany for her featherweight titles, Menzer and her trainer Michael Timm described Reile’s fighting style as unorthodox, but Reile actually uses an orthodox stance. Reile does not fight southpaw. Germans do not like to fight opponents who make it difficult to create a game plan for. The Germans want to have total control over the fight and they can’t have it. They can affect the judges, the referee, the hotel where the visiting boxer stays, the room where the visiting boxer waits for the walk-in to the ring, whether or not the visiting boxer has a stool to sit on between rounds, and even give money to the visiting boxer’s trainer in order to make victory more certain for the German boxer, but they cannot make a boxer fight a certain way. They want the visiting boxer to fight like an automaton. Labeling the opponent as unorthodox is a preemptive excuse if the German boxer does poorly in an upcoming fight against a legitimate contender. They may also say this about an opponent after a fight if the German boxer had a poor performance. It takes the blame off of the German boxer. The German boxer can say, “It was not my fault that I had a poor performance. She was unorthodox. I expected her to fight like a robot.”

A German boxer or trainer may also describe an inferior or mediocre boxer that does better than expected against the German boxer as a “strong opponent” or a “tough opponent.” This is said in order to make people believe that the inferior/mediocre boxer is really better than he or she is. If the German boxer does not win convincingly against a mediocre boxer, the opponent is labeled as “tough” or “strong” so that the German boxer’s performance which did not meet or exceed expectations can be justified. Sometimes, a German boxer or trainer will say that the inferior/mediocre opponent is “tough” or “strong” even before the fight takes place. This is said in order to convince people that it will be a good fight that they should buy tickets for and attend. It can also be said in order to justify the opponent receiving a title shot. In an article on the German news website Westfalische Nachrichten, this was said about Busa. Busa had a 3-2 record in boxing, but Hundt said that the fight was sanctioned because Busa was a former kickboxer. “‘This is why the world federations WIBF, GBU, and WBF have approved the fight against Elina,’ said Hundt. He (Hundt) is confident and expects a strong and unpleasant opponent (translated from German).” Regarding Tissen’s fight against Kaloki, Tissen’s biography on her website states that it was “difficult to work with the strongly occurring Kenyan Bena Kaloki in a 10 round fight (translated from German).” Kaloki had a mediocre record of 3-3, but is labeled as “strongly occurring” to make it seem as if Tissen defeated a strong opponent.

The most recent article on Tissen’s website stated that promoter Miriam Bohn of MiBo BoxPromotion which promoted Tissen’s fights has taken leave as of 12-31-2015 for “personal reasons.” I “personally” believe that Bohn decided to get off the Tissen Titanic that Hundt is the captain of to avoid going down with it too. I think Bohn sees the iceberg up ahead and envisions the Tissen Titanic ship crashing into it and subsequently sinking. Tissen’s rematch against Jasmina Nadj was on 11-28-2015. Bohn decided to leave about one month after Tissen’s lackluster performance. I do not think this is a coincidence. I believe that Bohn is aware that time is running out on the reign of Tissen. The only way to ensure that Tissen’s reign is maintained is for Hundt to select the officials for the fights so that Tissen can receive preferential treatment. I don’t think that Bohn wants to be involved with that anymore. Bohn was probably concerned about what was revealed regarding Hundt picking the officials for Tissen’s fight against Busa because Lutz allowed him to. The last straw for Bohn appeared to be Tissen having the worst performance of her career against Nadj. The last statement of the article was that “Elinboxing Boxpromotion will thus occur in future sporting events… (translated from German)” Obviously, the name Elinboxing is derived from Elina Tissen’s nickname “Elin the Machine.” It looks like Hundt is now not only Tissen’s trainer and manager, but also her sole promoter as well. Will Hundt still be allowed to pick the officials for Tissen’s title defenses himself?

Who does Hundt match Tissen up against when her skimpy skills may be getting worse? When you are not a good boxer/athlete, Father Time comes earlier for you. Even the MMA fighter Ronda Rousey knows this. Rousey said that she does not want to fight when she is in her 30s. Tissen is 29 years old. That is the same age that former female featherweight champion Ina Menzer was when she lost her featherweight titles to Jeannine Garside.

In Menzer’s previous two fights before that, Menzer won only because of the judges and referee. Menzer won by a controversial majority decision against Esther Schouten and won by TKO against Ramona Kuehne when the fight was stopped due to a cut on Kuehne. I don’t believe that if Menzer had the same type of cut on her head that the fight would have been stopped.

Tissen’s record is currently 20-2, but I believe that her record should be 17-5. I do not believe that Tissen deserved to win against Stacey Reile and Fatuma Zarika. Tissen would have lost to both Reile and Zarika if the judging was fair and impartial. I also believe that Tissen should have lost her rematch against Nadj based on the judges’ scores, the article about Tissen’s lackluster performance, and also the fact that Nadj has improved.

Nadj recently had a rematch against Zwecker which resulted in another draw. The referee was also the judge and scored it 75-75 in an eight round bout. All of Nadj’s wins have been in her home country of Serbia. All of Nadj’s losses or draws have been in her opponents’ home countries which may mean that Nadj has been robbed of victory on more than one occasion. Even with a losing record, Nadj can now be considered a legitimate contender after her second draw against Zwecker.

Tissen has not fought a legitimate contender since Zarika which is more than four years ago. Obviously, Hundt does not want to take any more risks with Tissen and therefore chooses to schedule mediocre boxers who usually have losing records for Tissen to fight. Tissen’s last seven opponents since Zarika had a combined record of 61-67-9 which is a losing record. Dividing the number of wins (61) by the total number of wins and losses (61+67=128) is 61 divided by 128 which equals .477 or a winning percentage of 47.7%. This means that, as a whole, Tissen’s last seven opponents lose more often than they win. These opponents were Jane Kavulani, Djendji Fleis, Gabriella Busa, Doris Koehler twice, and Jasmina Nadj twice. Hundt’s unwillingness to schedule world-class opponents (unless he plans on changing the opponent) is evidence that Hundt has lost confidence in Tissen since the Zarika fight.

If you calculate the winning percentage of all Tissen’s opponents throughout her entire career so far, it is mediocre. The combined record of her 22 opponents at the time she fought them is 110-108-16. It is a winning record, but just barely. Dividing the number of wins (110) by the total number of wins and losses (110+108=218) is 110 divided by 218 which equals .505 or a winning percentage of 50.5%. That is a mediocre winning percentage.

Tissen’s opponents only win about half the time. By the way, this winning percentage includes the records of Reile and Zarika. When their records are taken out of the equation, the winning percentage of Tissen’s opponents is lower at 43.3% which, as you know, sucks. Hundt usually schedules opponents for Tissen who lose more than they win. The quality of Tissen’s opponents is the primary reason why she has been a world champion for so long. The secondary reason why is the biased judging which enabled Tissen to win against Reile, Zarika, and Nadj in the rematch. Considering that the WBF found that the judges were going to score the Tissen vs. Busa fight in favor of Tissen unless Tissen was knocked out, Tissen’s win against Busa who was 3-2 is tainted. I already explained why Tissen’s wins against Reile and Zarika are tainted. Therefore, the only boxer with a winning record that Tissen has defeated without controversy is Jane Kavulani who had a record of 14-11-2 at the time Tissen fought her. 14-11-2 is a winning record, but not by much. Kavulani’s current record is 16-14-4 which is still mediocre. Kavulani wins about as much as she loses. Nadj’s two draws against Zwecker were better accomplishments than Tissen’s two wins against Reile and Zarika which were not legitimate wins.

Tissen was rated No. 3 after her fight against Reile. Tissen is now rated No. 12 and her rating will probably drop even further this year. That is what happens when a boxer frequently fight opponents with losing or mediocre records. Even if the boxer wins, the boxer’s rating will either stay about the same or drop. Tissen is rated No. 12 at featherweight by BoxRec primarily because of her bogus wins against Reile and Zarika. Those two wins made it appear as if Tissen is a world-class boxer even though she is not. If Tissen’s record was 17-5, her BoxRec rating would be much lower. Reile and Zarika are the only two legitimate contenders that Tissen has ever fought besides Esther Phiri who Tissen lost to in Africa. Tissen’s other loss was to Nadia Raoui, but Raoui was not a contender or champion at the time because she was making her pro debut. Nadj is currently rated No. 21 and Zarika is rated No. 25. I think Tissen is worse than both of them. However, I think that Tissen is still better than Kavulani who is rated No. 54, but not much better. I think that Tissen would be rated at No. 49 if her record was 17-5. This rating is in the 40s which is in the range Tissen was rated just prior to her fight against Reile, but it is almost out of the 40s. Her boxing abilities are probably worse than they were at the time she fought Reile. Tissen is not a world-class boxer and she never has been. Just because Tissen can go the distance against world-class boxers does not mean that she is a world-class boxer herself.

In Reile’s pro boxing career, Reile has lost to Ina Menzer, Ada Velez, Elina Tissen, and Dahiana Santana. Reile defeated Santana by split decision to win the first International Boxing Federation (IBF) female featherweight title, but Reile lost by unanimous decision in the rematch. Santana is now a super featherweight, so a third fight between Reile and Santana is unlikely to happen. Reile cannot have a rematch against Menzer or Velez because they are both retired. Velez’s last fight was when she was 42 years of age. Menzer retired at 32 years old. I predict that Tissen will retire from boxing at either 30 or 31 years of age because I think she will lose a fight or retire because of declining skills. Her reign as champion could end in her next fight, but it all depends on who Tissen has to defend against and how biased the judges are going to be. Tissen is still a featherweight and Reile would like a rematch against Tissen, but Reile told me that she would have to be paid at least $10,000 to agree to fight Tissen in Germany. I do not believe that Hundt would allow a rematch anyway, so it probably will never happen.

The GBU which is based in Germany and the WIBF which is based in the United States seem like separate organizations, but they are virtually the same. The boxers that hold the GBU titles also hold the WIBF titles. The news on the GBU website (www.globalboxingunion.com) and WIBF website (www.boxingfederation.org) are identical. The websites both state the same thing about Tissen’s rematch against Nadj. It was written by someone (a German?) who is not good at English grammar and punctuation:

“In this fight dominated Elina Tissen her opponent in every round. She had clean punches and hooks. At the end the result was 3:0 for Tissen,” It states that Tissen dominated Nadj in every round and that the three judges scored the fight in favor of Tissen. If she dominated every round, then why were there two judges’ scores of 97-93 and 97-95? Nadj must have won or tied some of the rounds. Winning by unanimous decision does not necessarily mean a dominating win, as you can see from two of the three judges’ scores.

Depending on what source you believe, the WIBF was formed in either 1989 or 1993. According to the Facebook page of the WIBF, it was the first sanctioning body for female boxing. Barbara Buttrick is its founder and the WIBF President. Buttrick was born in the United Kingdom in 1930. Buttrick now lives in Miami Beach, Florida and is 86 years old. Buttrick is considered to be a pioneer of women’s boxing. Known as “The Mighty Atom of the Ring,” Buttrick boxed in the 1940s and 1950s when she was in her prime. Buttrick was the first world champion in women’s boxing and won world titles in the flyweight and bantamweight divisions. According to her biography on WBAN.com, Buttrick retired in 1960 with a record of 30-1-1. However, Buttrick’s record on BoxRec includes only two of her fights which were both against Phyllis Kugler and resulted in one draw and a win by Buttrick in the rematch. Buttrick is a member of the inaugural class that was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014. Kugler was a member of the second class of inductees in 2015.

On the WIBF website, the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the three WIBF officials are listed. Lana Keeton of Miami Beach, Florida is listed as an official. The other two officials are Barbara Buttrick and Jurgen Lutz. Lutz lives in Germany. In the WBF’s Statement regarding the corruption involving Lutz, the WBF referred to Lutz as the WIBF President. On the BoxRec website, it shows that the GBU President is Jurgen Lutz and Barbara Buttrick. If this is true, then the GBU and WIBF have the same two people presiding over them and their female world champions are the same. Their world champions either hold the GBU and WIBF titles or what they call their “unified” title which also includes the WBF title. However, there is an inconsistency in information on the Internet regarding who the WIBF President is. On BoxRec.com, only Barbara Buttrick is listed as being the WIBF President. Lutz is listed as the WIBF Vice President.

I wondered why the GBU and WIBF were sharing champions and Presidents/Vice Presidents. I knew that women’s boxing was not as popular in America as it was in Europe, so it made sense to me that Buttrick would want to ally herself with Lutz who lives in Europe where women’s boxing is more popular. I also believe that Buttrick wanted to work with Lutz because the title fights are often in Europe. Lutz could be the supervisor of these fights so that Buttrick would not have to travel to Europe. Lutz is often the supervisor of WIBF/GBU title fights. They appear to be two separate organizations because of the different acronyms and belts, but they are essentially the same. In fact, if you do a Google search for “Global Boxing Union,” the address shows Buttrick’s address in Miami Beach, Florida which is in the United States. However, the GBU website and BoxRec.com shows that the GBU Office address is Lutz’s address in Germany.

It states on Tissen’s website that the WIBF named Tissen the Female Boxer of the Year in 2010. The only fight that Tissen had that year was her bogus win over Reile. It is also interesting that the WIBF gave Tissen the award, but Reile vs. Tissen was a GBU title fight. This leads me to believe that it was Lutz who chose to give Tissen the award since he is the GBU President. The fact that the WIBF gave Tissen an award for winning a GBU title fight is an indication that the GBU and the WIBF are one and the same. Tissen’s website also states that Tissen was inducted into the WIBF Hall of Fame.

I decided to call Buttrick because I had questions that I wanted her to answer. However, I felt that I needed to prepare for the interview by doing more research on Buttrick. I looked in a book titled A History of Women’s Boxing by Malissa Smith. I read that Buttrick was against mismatches. One specific example in the book was about Jane Couch in a bout against Simona Lukic. The fight was not for a world title. Lukic had a record of 1-4-1 prior to facing Couch who was the former WIBF super lightweight champion. Couch had a record of 7-2. As you can see, Couch had a winning record and Lukic had a losing record. Couch defeated Lukic by TKO in the second round. Buttrick voiced her concerns about the fight even before it happened. Buttrick stated that the WIBF offered a good opponent, but they were turned down by the promoter which means that the WIBF was willing to sanction the fight if this good opponent was used. Since the promoter rejected the good opponent and used an opponent with a losing record instead, Buttrick did not sanction the fight as a world championship. Buttrick also stated that this fight made a mockery of female boxing.

If Buttrick thought that way about this fight between Couch and Lukic, what would she think about the many mismatches with Tissen? What would she think about boxers with losing records fighting for world titles from her sanctioning body? Was Buttrick being persuaded or pressured by Lutz to have the WIBF sanction these title fights in which Tissen’s opponents were obviously inferior or was Buttrick not aware that this was happening? What would Buttrick think about Juliette Winter being two weight classes below what she should have been for a WIBF title fight? Does Hundt tell Lutz who he wants Tissen to fight and then Lutz agrees to sanction it as a GBU/WIBF world championship? If Lutz is selecting Tissen’s opponents who are not legitimate contenders and even boxers who are below the weight that they are supposed to be, then Lutz is not doing his job correctly by purposefully scheduling mismatches. If Hundt is selecting these opponents and then Lutz accepts any opponent that Hundt recommends, Lutz is then corrupt? It seems that because the GBU/WIBF title fights are frequently in Europe, Lutz can do whatever he wants with little oversight from Buttrick who is living in the United States.

The SunSentinel which is a major newspaper in South Florida has an article on its website that was originally published in 1997. The article states that Buttrick formed the WIBF four years ago (which means that it was formed in 1993) to improve matchmaking, prize purses for women’s boxing, provide guidelines and championships, and to make sure that the girls are not taken advantage of. I was not aware of the WIBF in the early 1990s, so I don’t know how the WIBF operated in its infancy. Based on what is happening now, it seems to me that Buttrick’s goals for the WIBF are not being achieved. I have already explained the horrible mismatches in Tissen’s title fights, although I understand that the WIBF has not sanctioned all of them. I do know that the WIBF sanctioned Tissen’s fight against Juliette Winter who was under the required weight. The prize purses for women’s boxing are still far below what the men receive in general. That is why women are choosing to fight in Mexico where they can earn much more money than they can in the United States. However, they can only choose to fight in Mexico if they are offered a fight there. Reile said that she wants to fight in Mexico, but she believes that she has not been offered a fight there because the sanctioning bodies do not want her to beat any of their world champions who are Mexican. Boxing is one of the most popular sports in Mexico which is why female boxers can earn more money there. Female boxing is televised in Mexico and the female title fights can take place in large arenas. The WIBF provides championships and guidelines, but the weight requirement was not enforced in Tissen’s fight against Winter.

I do not have absolute proof of what Fleis weighed for her fight against Tissen, but I do have proof that both Adler and Fleis were not the required weight for their GBU female super featherweight title fight which occurred in 2013. Even though the WIBF did not sanction this fight, the WIBF is merged with the GBU which means it essentially is one organization that has two sanctioning bodies. One of Buttrick’s goals was to make sure that the girls were not taken advantage of. I think that Reile was taken advantage of in Germany, but that was in a GBU title fight and not for a WIBF title. Nevertheless, the GBU and WIBF were already merged when Reile fought Tissen in 2010. An article posted on WBAN.com on September 1, 2008 states that the first WIBF-GBU Convention was held in Germany. The article also states that WIBF President Barbara Buttrick and GBU President Jurgen Lutz were present at the convention. Does Buttrick have the same goals now that she had before becoming business partners with Lutz, but that Lutz betrayed her trust?

I had many questions, but no answers to those questions. Since I saw the phone numbers of the WIBF officials on the WIBF website, I knew that I could talk to Buttrick. I called Buttrick and she answered the phone. I told her that I wanted to interview her for a boxing article. Buttrick did not have the time to talk to me, so we scheduled the following day in the evening for me to call her again when both of us would be available. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Below is a transcript of our conversation:

Buttrick: Hello?

Scarfone: Hello, Ms. Buttrick. I am the guy who called you yesterday.

Buttrick: Yeah, I recognized your number.

Scarfone: I wanted to interview you for an article I’m writing for a boxing website. I’m calling about one of your world champions.

Buttrick: Who is that?

Scarfone: Elina Tissen.

Buttrick: ……

Scarfone: Hello?

Buttrick: Elina?

Scarfone: Yeah, Elina Tissen. She’s a German featherweight.

Buttrick: Eh…Okay, um.

Scarfone: Do you…I mean…You’re the President of the WIBF, right?

Buttrick: Yeah.

Scarfone: And the GBU has merged with the WIBF?

Buttrick: Yeah, it’s another sanctioning body. It also has men’s fighting. Jurgen Lutz is handling most of Germany. I used to go to Germany all the time and supervise the fights, but he’s mainly running that now. So if you tell me all you would like to know about that, I can have a conversation with Jurgen
.
Scarfone: Well, I have information about him myself. I’ve done a lot of research. I figured that being that you are in the United States, it would be hard for you to travel back and forth to Germany all the time or to Europe. I would imagine that Jurgen Lutz is running a lot of the things over there in Europe.

Buttrick: Yes. As a matter of fact, since we lost Universum (Box-Promotion, promoted Ina Menzer when she was featherweight champion), our big promoter there, I haven’t been over to Europe. We were talking about maybe me going over there this year and getting more familiar with it, but I haven’t heard from him for a while.

Scarfone: There was a fight recently with Elina Tissen, your featherweight champion. She has the GBU and WIBF titles. She was fighting Gabriella Busa of Hungary. I guess you know about the fact that the WBF was doing a unified title with the other two belts that you own. The WBF discovered that Jurgen Lutz was allowing Elina Tissen’s trainer to select the officials for the fight, so the WBF pulled out of the event. The WBF also claimed that Lutz said that the German Federation BDB would appoint the officials, but that was not true.

Buttrick: Well, when I was going over there, the BDB would choose the officials. We didn’t really choose the officials.

Scarfone: The fight happened on June 6, 2015. Then, the WBF made their statement on June 7 which was the day after. They also found that Lutz appointed a licensed manager as a judge for the Eva Voraberger vs. Nina Stojanovic fight which was for the vacant unified super flyweight title involving the GBU, WIBF, and WBF titles. That fight happened on May 30, 2015, so these two events happened last year within about a week of each other. Are the events, the championships, mostly held in Europe? Does the WIBF have any events in the United States?

Buttrick: No. (According to BoxRec, the last WIBF title fight to take place in the United States was in 2011. Molly McConnell won the WIBF and GBU super lightweight titles in El Paso, Texas.)

Scarfone: None. Just in Europe.

Buttrick: Yeah. The men’s organizations kind of took over. It’s hard to deal with them because managers want the men (male boxers) to be in good with the men’s organizations. The men’s organizations want to use the girls (female boxers) and that’s the way it goes. I found that there were too many small promoters that wanted to use girls that were not qualified. It’s a matter of “Well, she lives close by and we don’t have a plane fare to pay. She’s had a couple of fights, lost one, but she’s good” sort of thing and that’s not good enough.

Scarfone: But that’s what’s happening though with this champion Elina Tissen and she’s your champion. She’s allowed to fight these girls with losing records or mediocre records almost all the time. The only times she ever fought two legitimate contenders, those two times, the girls were robbed of the decision because the fights were in Germany and they’re not Germans. I found out that the WIBF awarded Tissen the Female Boxer of the Year award in 2010 and she’s also been inducted into your Hall of Fame. Did Lutz make that decision or did you make that decision to induct Tissen into your Hall of Fame?

Buttrick: Who is in the Hall of Fame?

Scarfone: Elina Tissen, your featherweight champion.

Buttrick: What Hall of Fame?

Scarfone: The one that you have for your sanctioning body.

Buttrick: The only Hall of Fame that I know of (for women’s boxing) is the one that (Sue) Fox is running (The International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame).

Scarfone: The one that you were inducted in, right?

Buttrick: Yeah.

Scarfone: So there is no WIBF Hall of Fame?

Buttrick: Well, probably Jurgen has put one.

Scarfone: There have been fights for the WIBF and/or GBU titles and the opponents are coming in under the weight that is required of the weight class. For example, Elina Tissen fought Juliette Winter who was two weight classes under the featherweight limit and it was a mismatch because, not only did she have a losing record, but she was also under the required weight, and Tissen was, of course, much stronger. It seems to me that Jurgen Lutz is not abiding by the weight class limit requirements. In my opinion, if both boxers’ weights are not within the range of the weight class, then it should not be sanctioned as a championship fight.

Buttrick: Well, in this day and age, no. When I was fighting, I could get away with as much as 30 pounds, but that was back in the day when you didn’t have enough fighters. As long as you were under the weight limit, it didn’t matter. That’s what we used to do. We used to have some arguments with the commissioners. There just weren’t enough fighters to do that (both boxers within range of the weight class), but now they’ve got the weight limits and they’ve got the fighters to come in at those weight limits.

Scarfone: Did you form the WIBF in 1993?

Buttrick: Yeah, 1993. I was working with Jimmy Finn. He was over here (in the United States) for four years and we were working on it together. We put a lot of (our own) money into it. It was hard to get anything really moving the way we wanted. I keep it going here, registered and everything, to see if we can get it going again in the (United) States and get some promotions going. I’ve always said that we need somebody with money behind them to promote our own fights. To work with the small promoters doesn’t work out very well. The WBC has taken over (women’s boxing) quite a bit. They have a lot to do with the (International Women’s Boxing) Hall of Fame. (The WBC is a sponsor of it.) They help (Sue) Fox out a lot.

Scarfone: I read in an article that a couple of your goals were to improve matchmaking and to make sure that the girls aren’t getting taken advantage of, but apparently that’s what is happening in Germany. There’s a lot of biased judging. I saw one of the fights on video (Reile vs. Tissen) and the judges’ scores for that fight prove this. The judges are also scoring many rounds even, like 10-10 instead of scoring in favor of the visiting boxer so it looks like the German boxer is doing a lot better than she really is. Also, when Stacey Reile fought Tissen, they didn’t even let her have a stool to sit on, so she had to stand up between rounds, so that affected her along with the biased judging. When she landed a punch that caused Tissen to bend over and her gloves to touch the canvas, the referee didn’t rule it a knockdown like he was supposed to. The referee was obviously biased in favor of the German girl, so she won and the American girl lost. And also with Winter being two weight classes under for a WIBF featherweight title fight against Tissen, it doesn’t look good for the WIBF.

Buttrick: No, it isn’t good at all. I’m glad you called me.

Scarfone: You merged your organization with Lutz’s. Are you both presidents of both organizations?
Buttrick: I’m the President of the WIBF and he (Lutz) is the Vice President (of the WIBF). He is President of the GBU and I am the Vice President (of the GBU).

Scarfone: Tissen usually defends her GBU and WIBF titles against below average to mediocre boxers. The only two legitimate contenders that she defeated were robbed of victory by the judges and that is why she has been world champion for the last several years. It doesn’t help the sport, in my opinion. I read about a fight involving Jane Couch that you talked about and you said that the mismatch was a travesty. But now, girls that are mediocre are fighting for your WIBF title, so it’s even worse because it’s for your title. Stacey Reile really should have won the GBU title if the judges were fair and impartial, but they were not. She lives in Miami Beach, the same city as you.

Buttrick: The only one (female boxer) I know who lives in Miami Beach is Melissa Hernandez.

The interview ended with the agreement that Buttrick and I would talk again in the future for a second interview, but we did not schedule a definite day and time. I emailed Buttrick a link to the WBF Statement so that she could read it on her own and then we would talk about it later. I had to give Reile some boxing equipment at her home in Miami Beach a few days later, so I decided to stop by Ms. Buttrick’s home afterwards since I was near Buttrick’s home which was also in Miami Beach. Buttrick was at home when I arrived and she let me in. I saw plaques on the wall related to her being honored for her boxing career. I saw Buttrick’s computer and it looked like it was from the 1990s. I am surprised that it was still capable of getting on the Internet. Buttrick let me try going to a couple of websites. I went on BoxRec.com, but it did not look right. It was unreadable. I then went on WBAN.com and it worked okay for whatever reason. I printed a copy of the WBAN featherweight rankings. Buttrick wanted to see the Reile vs. Tissen fight, but she told me that her computer was not capable of playing any video. I tried to play the video on Vimeo.com myself and it would not play. It was not possible to play the video on her cell phone either. Buttrick showed me her cell phone which looked like it was from the 1990s too. It wasn’t one of those really old brick cell phones, but it was definitely made about 20 years ago.

She said it doesn’t always work. At least she has a landline phone. We watched some of the Reile vs. Tissen fight on my iPhone. While we were watching the fight, Buttrick commented that Reile was moving forward. Reile was usually the aggressor. After we watched the fight, I resumed the interview.

Scarfone: I see on the WIBF website that there are three WIBF officials: you, Lutz, and Lana Keeton of Miami Beach, Florida. As an official, what does Keeton do for the WIBF?

Buttrick: She was planning a promotion with our organization, but she has no role at the moment.

(Coincidentally, Ms. Keeton called Ms Buttrick while I was there. I spoke to Ms. Keeton on the phone after Ms. Buttrick talked to her. Ms. Keeton said that, due to health reasons, she had to retire from promoting boxing and was unable to do any promotions for the WIBF. Ms. Keeton was a boxing promoter from 1998-2001. Ms. Keeton is still an avid boxing fan and she remains good friends with Ms. Buttrick.)

Scarfone: Did the WBF ever contact you regarding its WBF Statement about Hundt picking the officials and Lutz allowing him to, Lutz appointing a manager as a judge, and that Lutz let promoters basically buy results beforehand in order to secure a sanctioning fee?

Buttrick: No.

Scarfone: Did the GBU President Jurgen Lutz ever inform you of this WBF Statement?

Buttrick: No.

Scarfone: Could you, as the WIBF President, provide me with a WIBF Statement regarding the WBF Statement?

Buttrick: I would prefer that Lutz responds to it because he was the one who was involved. (Ms. Buttrick called Lutz in Germany so that I could talk to him, but he was not there.)

Scarfone: I read on the WIBF website that the Abbreviated Rules and Regulations state that “A champion must defend her title every six months. If at that time she has no contract to defend, she can be stripped of her title. After one year with no defense, the title will be declared vacant.” Tissen’s most recent fight was on November 28, 2015, so therefore Tissen would have to make a title defense by May 28, 2016 which is in a month or else Tissen can be stripped of her WIBF title. (According to BoxRec, Tissen does not have a fight scheduled yet.) What does that mean? Is it at the discretion of the WIBF whether to strip a title from a champion if the title was not defended within six months? I see that if there is no defense after one year that a champion is definitely stripped because the title is then declared vacant.

Buttrick: They are due to defend every six months. They can fight in less time or pretty close to six months.
Provided they are attempting to get an opponent or the manager has attempted to get them an opponent and defend their title within a reasonable amount of time, they wouldn’t be stripped. If there is no one there for them to fight, then they would just hold the title. But if they are not responding to opportunities to fight…

Scarfone: How do you know that they are making an attempt to find an opponent? How do you verify that they are contacting promoters and trying to get an opponent for the world champion?

Buttrick: If there is a fight there for them, they need to make the effort to make the fight with the promoter.

Scarfone: Is there anything in your entire Rules and Regulations that states what the challengers have to be rated in order to qualify for a title shot? (I did not see anything about this in the Abbreviated Rules and Regulations on the WIBF website.) I know that WBAN does not rate all the boxers in the weight classes and BoxRec does and I know that you follow WBAN. Most of Tissen’s opponents could not have been rated by WBAN at the time Tissen fought them because they were not good enough. Do you have a policy regarding what the boxers have to be rated to get a title shot?

Buttrick: Well, they should be rated probably in the top 6.

Scarfone: Top 6???

Buttrick: For a title, yes.

Scarfone: That’s unrealistic.

Buttrick: The top 10 anyway. (Tissen isn’t even ranked in the top 10 herself. Tissen is ranked No. 12 by BoxRec and No. 13 by WBAN.)

Scarfone: Here’s the problem though. The top 10 have belts already. They are not going to want to go to Germany and get robbed of a decision against Elina Tissen when they already have a belt and they can fight in their own country. Because of the amount of sanctioning bodies in the world today and titles that are available, it is unrealistic to expect the world champions to always fight boxers in the top 10 in a weight class because many or most of them in the top 10 already hold titles. My belief is that BoxRec has a better ranking system than WBAN.

Buttrick: These (WBAN) rankings should be close to BoxRec.

Scarfone: Sometimes, sometimes not. They use different formulas to do their rankings. I don’t always agree with WBAN’s rankings, but you can continue using them. (In the current WBAN featherweight rankings, the last boxer that is rated is Jessica Arreguin Munoz. WBAN shows her record as 9-1, but she is really 10-1. WBAN does not have her last bout on record and BoxRec does have a record of it. Munoz is rated No. 26 by WBAN, but is rated No. 35 by BoxRec.)

Buttrick: When I was more involved, going back a few years, I used to do our (women’s boxing) rankings. At that time, BoxRec, WBAN, and mine (when I did the WIBF rankings) used to come in pretty close. When I stopped doing them, they switched over to using BoxRec. (GBU still uses BoxRec to rank male boxers. The GBU and WIBF now both use WBAN rankings for female boxers.)

Scarfone: Well, not for everybody. Just because one ranking system is computerized doesn’t mean that another computerized ranking system is going to be identical or similar to it. There is an old saying relating to computers: Garbage In, Garbage Out. You are going to get garbage out if that formula is not correct and that is why they tweaked the formula for the (computerized) college football rankings. The thing is this. My point is that I already know that they are not usually picking Tissen’s opponents from WBAN’s rankings. WBAN only ranks the top 20 or 30 women per division whereas BoxRec ranks up to however many active boxers there are in the division. Is Lutz deciding who Tissen fights or does he just take the recommendation (for an opponent) from Tissen’s trainer (Hundt)?

Buttrick: I couldn’t tell you. He might take the opponent that the promoter offers for all I know. (Tissen’s promoter was Miriam Bohn, but she resigned recently. I highly doubt that Bohn decided who Tissen’s opponents were going to be. It is much more likely that Hundt told Bohn who he wanted Tissen to fight and Bohn agreed to promote it. It appears that Hundt is Tissen’s new promoter along with being her trainer and manager.)

Scarfone: Okay. I’ll have to ask him about that. You’re the WIBF President, so you have the authority to decide who Tissen has to defend her WIBF title against. You can decide whether or not the WIBF sanctions Tissen’s next title defense if the opponent is not rated by WBAN.com. From what I have observed in the weight classes, I see a significant drop in talent after No. 25 in a weight class which is why I usually consider the top 25 per division on BoxRec as being world-class. Because you are the WIBF President, you could say that Tissen has to fight certain women ranked by WBAN and if she fights other boxers who are not as good, then I think the WIBF should refuse to sanction the fight. If they are just going to choose opponents who are mediocre, then I don’t think the WIBF should approve it. What do you think about that?

Buttrick: Well, it shouldn’t be a title fight if the girl (opponent of Tissen) is not ranked high enough for the title shot.

Scarfone: But that’s happened several times. Because you’re the WIBF President, would you enforce that this time? Would Tissen have to fight someone ranked by WBAN or rated in the top 25 of BoxRec in order to have it approved as a WIBF title fight?

Buttrick: I’ll talk to Germany about it and ask what’s happening and why.

Scarfone: I also think that the German Federation BDB should appoint the officials if the fight is in Germany. If the WIBF sanctions Tissen’s next title defense and assuming it is in Germany, I think that the German Federation BDB should appoint the officials. Lutz should not be allowed to let Hundt to select the officials again. If Tissen cannot make a title defense against someone in the BoxRec top 25 or rated by WBAN with judges and a referee appointed by the German Federation BDB or appointed without corruption, then I think that the WIBF should refuse to sanction Tissen’s next fight.

Buttrick: I always thought that the German Federation did appoint the officials because that’s the way it used to be.

Scarfone: But the WBF said that wasn’t the case in that fight (Tissen vs. Busa) and I believe that this happened for prior fights involving Tissen before the WBF discovered this. I believe that the (German Federation) BDB did not choose the judges in those fights because the judging was so biased.

Buttrick: Well, I have to check that out.

Scarfone: I know. I’ll ask Lutz about it. I believed before I interviewed you that you were not involved with Germany (when Tissen won against Reile and Tissen’s other title defenses after that). As a former female boxer, you would never knowingly allow this (Lutz’s actions described in WBF Statement) to happen on your watch being that it is your sanctioning body.

Buttrick: I appreciate that.

The interview ended. Based on the interview, I know for a fact that Tissen was inducted into the WIBF Hall of Fame because it was created by Lutz without Buttrick’s permission in order to give Tissen another award. As the WIBF Vice President, Lutz made changes and decisions without getting approval from WIBF President Buttrick first. Buttrick told me after the interview that she and Lutz founded the GBU together as a second sanctioning body so that they could sanctions men’s fights. The WIBF obviously cannot sanction men’s title fights because it is only for women. I was surprised about the fact that she helped Lutz form the GBU. I thought that they were separate organizations that had merged, but really the GBU is more of an offshoot of the WIBF. They agreed to make Lutz the President of the GBU when it was first formed and Buttrick was named the GBU Vice President. Lutz was named Vice President of the WIBF while Buttrick remained the WIBF President.

Buttrick was examining the WBAN featherweight rankings before I left, so we will see if Tissen’s next opponent is ranked by WBAN or not. Unfortunately though, there are ways that Hundt can choose a weak opponent even if she is selected from the WBAN rankings. After the interview, I examined the featherweight rankings of WBAN and BoxRec myself. I noticed inconsistencies, but the worst one I noticed was the rankings of Diana Makumbe of Zimbabwe. WBAN shows her record as being 3-7-3 whereas BoxRec shows it as a record of 3-8-3. WBAN ranks Makumbe as No. 24 in the featherweight division. According to BoxRec, Makumbe is actually in the super flyweight division. The last time she was a featherweight was eight years ago in 2008 when she weighed 126 pounds. Makumbe weighed 114½ pounds for her most recent fight which was on 6-20-2015. BoxRec ranks Makumbe as No. 72 in the super flyweight division. Do you see the problem here? She has a low ranking on BoxRec in the super flyweight division and a high ranking on WBAN in the featherweight division. I can envision Hundt selecting Tissen’s next opponent from the WBAN featherweight rankings: “Let me see, I vill pick Diana Makumbe of Zimbabve. Makumbe will have to move up to featherveight. Zhen, Makumbe vill be a vorthy opponent for Elina (spelling errors are intentional).”

If Hundt selects Makumbe and she agrees to fight Tissen, then Hundt will have met the requirement of selecting a boxer ranked by WBAN. If Makumbe did not accept an offer to fight Tissen, Hundt can instead select an opponent that is ranked by WBAN in another weight class such as in the super bantamweight or bantamweight divisions. The opponent would have to move up in weight just like Makumbe would and be at a disadvantage fighting against Tissen who is a featherweight. Unless Buttrick limits the boxers that Hundt can choose from the WBAN rankings, Hundt is going to select an opponent that would be advantageous for Tissen to win: someone who is not currently a featherweight and/or someone who is not a world-class boxer. Both WBAN and BoxRec have errors regarding the weight class that a boxer belongs in, but I see these errors more often in the WBAN rankings. Also, the errors on BoxRec regarding weight classes tend to be minor like one weight class away. This error on WBAN with Makumbe’s ranking is a major error with the weight class and with the numerical ranking itself. Makumbe’s record is 3-8-3. Her three wins came against two boxers making their pro debuts and a boxer with a 0-1-1 record. This enables her to be the 24th best featherweight in the world on WBAN? Obviously, whatever formula that WBAN uses for its rankings needs to be not just tweaked. It needs a major overhaul.

I went to a local supermarket to buy an international prepaid phone card so I could call Lutz who is in Germany. I called Lutz two days later. I did not edit this interview for brevity and clarity because I did not need to.

Below is a transcript of our very brief conversation:

Lutz: Lutz

Scarfone: Hello, is this Jurgen Lutz?

Lutz: Yes. (He doesn’t sound happy that I called. Lutz does not know exactly where I am calling from because I am using a prepaid phone card. I’m speaking English, so he probably knows I’m not German. He must have anticipated my call.)

Scarfone: Hi. I am writing an article for a boxing website. May I ask you a few questions?

Lutz: ……

Scarfone: Hello?

Lutz: (Lutz hangs up the phone.)

Lutz obviously did not want to talk to me. I immediately called him back. A voicemail greeting talked in German and then in English: “The call party does not answer. If you would like to send an SMS (Short Message Service/Text Message) requesting to call back, press 1. If not, just hang up.” I called Buttrick to tell her that Lutz hung up on me. I also wanted to know what Buttrick said to Lutz. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Below is a transcript of our conversation:

Buttrick: Hello?

Scarfone: Ms. Buttrick?

Buttrick: Yes.

Scarfone: This is Ron Scarfone. I called Lutz and he hung up on me.

Buttrick: He doesn’t really understand English. (Lutz answered “Yes” when I asked if he was Jurgen Lutz.)

Scarfone: He understands English. I know because Stacey Reile talked to him (when she was in Germany). I told him that I am writing an article for a boxing website and could I ask him a few questions and he hung up on me. Does he know why I am calling? Does he know it’s about the Stacey Reile vs. Elina Tissen fight (and other topics)?

Buttrick: He seemed to think you were trying to make a fight when I talked to him. He said we can’t get that promoted yet. I don’t know. I’m confused too because he doesn’t come through real clear.

Scarfone: He knows how to talk English. I know that he knows English. Most of the Germans do know English.
Buttrick: Well, he does know English. We talk all the time. I know sometimes when I say something to him, he’s thinking.

Scarfone: Well, he hung up on me (after he thought about it). He obviously does not want to answer any of my questions. I called him back and he’s not answering now. I’ll try to call him back tomorrow. Regardless of whether he answers my questions, I am going to put out the article. I don’t think that he wants to answer them anyway. Any answer that he gives me is not going to be very good for him. What’s he going to do? Deny the WBF Statement?

Buttrick: I don’t know.

Scarfone: You trusted him (Lutz). You trusted your business partner and he did not follow your goals for the WIBF. He violated those goals basically.

Buttrick: Well, when we had Universum (Box-Promotion), we had a lot of good fights going. When he lost that, he was trying to get another promoter and you have to understand that promoters have a lot of control over what happens.

Scarfone: I know that they want to make fights and they (the sanctioning bodies) are trying to work with the promoter. If the promoter has a world champion (like Tissen), they don’t want to match her (Tissen) up against tough opponents a lot. In order for Lutz to continue getting sanctioning fees and getting these fights, I think he acquiesced to Hundt in order to let him pick the opponent who is usually mediocre. That’s what happened. You can make money that way in the short run, but in the long run, the GBU looks really bad because people see a pattern there. You can schedule mediocre opponents once in a while, but when you do it all the time, it just looks bad in my opinion. The fact that he hung up on me, he knows what’s going on. He doesn’t want to answer my questions. You told him it was about the Reile vs. Tissen fight, right?

Buttrick: I said that it was about the Stacey Reile vs. Elina Tissen fight and he said we are trying to put that fight together. He’s got a lot of pressure and I know the man has worked very hard to do things right.
Scarfone: No, he has not. He’s worked hard to get sanctioning fees. Not all the WIBF/GBU champions are low quality. I’m just talking about Tissen. I’m sure that the other fighters are at a world-class level. I’m talking about one boxer. The fact that he would say that they are trying to make that fight: Really? They didn’t contact Stacey. Stacey has been inactive for four years.

Buttrick: When did the (Reile vs. Tissen) fight take place?

Scarfone: The fight took place in 2010.

Buttrick: Well then, he probably doesn’t think I’m talking about that fight.

Scarfone: I don’t know what he’s referring to. He’s trying to make that fight? It already happened six years ago.

Buttrick: Maybe he’s trying to remake it. I don’t know.

Scarfone: Maybe they are because they think that Stacey is past her prime. That’s a possibility. Stacey is still in shape. I don’t think that Hundt would be willing to let Tissen come to America to fight because she benefits from the biased judging in Germany. I don’t think there is any way that her trainer is going to allow that to happen. Stacey would like to fight her here (United States) or in Germany. She doesn’t care where she fights Elina Tissen. She doesn’t care where she fights in the world. She goes anywhere. She’s fought all over the world. She’s not a boxer like Tissen who just stays in her country and gets biased judging. She’s been on the road and had to deal with biased judging in her career. That’s just something that she accepts because she doesn’t have a promoter backing her and when you don’t have that, that’s what you have to do to get fights.

Elina had MiBo Boxpromotion and the promoter Miriam Bohn quit. I believe that she resigned because she was embarrassed at what happened with Tissen’s trainer/manager picking the officials. Also, she resigned after Tissen’s last fight in which Tissen had a lackluster performance. I think when you put those two together, she didn’t want to be involved in it anymore. Now, I believe that Tissen’s trainer/manager made a new promotional company called Elinboxing which refers to Elina and that’s the new company that’s going to be promoting her fights. It seems that Hundt is now her promoter as well as her trainer and manager. Because of that, he is going to have more control over who Tissen fights. He even controlled it before when Miriam Bohn was there. I am sure that he told Bohn who he wanted Tissen to fight and then Bohn just accepted that opponent.

Buttrick: I am trying to pull up what you sent me. I’m not getting to it. (I had sent Buttrick an email with a link to the article on the WBF website about the WBF Statement.)

Scarfone: It’s not coming up?

Buttrick: I’m down at the bottom where you sent it into something else. If it’s on the actual email, it comes up on my screen.

Scarfone: It’s on the email. Oh, I see. The link is on there, not the actual (WBF) statement.

Buttrick: I don’t get links very easily.

Scarfone: All right. I’m going to copy and paste the WBF Statement into the email and you can read it directly in the email. (Buttrick’s vintage computer apparently does not accept links in emails for some reason.)

I decided that I was going to call Lutz one more time, but I felt that he needed some persuasion to want to talk to me. I went on the GBU website and sent him a message. I stated my name and that the article will be on the Internet whether he talks to me or not. I wrote that this article is not just about Reile vs. Tissen, but about Tissen’s entire pro career. I wrote that I included the fact that he hung up the phone during our conversation. I told him that I did extensive research for the article. I wrote that the article does not show him or Hundt in a positive light. I stated that I am giving him one more chance to talk to me. I informed him that I would be calling at 12:00 noon for his time in Germany. There is a six hour time difference between Florida and Germany, so I called him at 6:00 AM eastern standard time. Lutz was much more willing to talk to me this time. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Below is a transcript of our conversation:

Lutz: Lutz

Scarfone: Hi, you want to talk to me now?

Lutz: Who do I have on the phone?

Scarfone: I’m Ron Scarfone. Are you Jurgen Lutz?

Lutz: Yes. What I can do for you?

Scarfone: You hung up on me yesterday.

Lutz: I hang not up.

Scarfone: Yeah, you did.

Lutz: I didn’t hang up. No. What I can do for you? Talk with me.

Scarfone: Okay. I have questions and I want you to answer them. Okay?

Lutz: Yes. What’s the questions?

Scarfone: Why did you allow Tissen’s trainer Maiki Hundt to select the officials in the Tissen vs. Busa fight instead of the German Federation BDB?

Lutz: I don’t know from what you talk. (I thought that I made myself clear.)

Scarfone: When Elina Tissen fights, do you choose the opponents or does Hundt choose the opponents? Do you let him choose the opponents and you accept it? Is that what happens?

Lutz: He make not a fight in the moment with Tissen. There is nothing in the moment.

Scarfone: I’m not talking about in the moment! I’m talking about in the past! For all of Tissen’s opponents, who makes the decision as to who Tissen is going to defend her titles against? You or Hundt?

Lutz: Hundt makes it. (This means that Hundt had lied when he said that the world federations approved Tissen to fight Busa because they desired to have her. It was Hundt who made the decision and Lutz agreed to it.)

Scarfone: But why? You’re the sanctioning body (of her GBU and WIBF titles). Aren’t you supposed to decide who Tissen fights? Why does Tissen fight boxers that always have mediocre or losing records all the time? Why doesn’t she fight legitimate contenders? She hasn’t fought a good contender in four years. Why is that?

Lutz: I don’t know.

Scarfone: You don’t know? You control it though.

Lutz: What does the WBC (World Boxing Council) and WBA (World Boxing Association) do also? They have really left certain active girls in the world. (I am assuming he means there are world-class female boxers who never receive a title shot while boxers who are not world-class get title shots. There is some truth to what Lutz is saying, but I do not totally agree with him. The WBC/WBA featherweight champion Jelena Mrdjenovich who is rated No. 2 by BoxRec defeated No. 3 rated Edith Soledad Matthysse recently, so this was not a situation where one superior boxer was fighting an inferior one. However, IBF featherweight champion Jennifer Han who is rated No. 5 by BoxRec won the vacant IBF title by defeating Helen Joseph who is rated No. 37 by BoxRec. Han is scheduled to defend her title against Liliana Martinez who is rated No. 44 by BoxRec.) What do you want to pay for opponents? It’s bull****. I make the women’s boxing 20 years ago in 1993. (This is the same year that Buttrick formed the WIBF. Buttrick told me that Lutz was not involved when she founded the WIBF. She said that Jimmy Finn was helping her in the WIBF’s early years.) That was good money. At the moment, nobody have money. Nobody have opponents. Women’s boxing is dead. In this moment, when the WBC, WBA, IBF come in, the bull**** comes. If I agree not to an opponent, the next federation make this fight. (I do not believe that another sanctioning body is going to choose Jane Kavulani, Djendji Fleis, and Doris Koehler for a world title shot.) This is the problem in the moment. The men’s boxing is another world.

Scarfone: Are you saying that when the major sanctioning bodies got involved (in women’s boxing), your business suffered? Elina Tissen could still fight better opponents.

Lutz: She can fight better opponents, but this promoter have not money.

Scarfone: The promoter doesn’t have the money? Tissen has major sponsors like Taxofit.

Lutz: What kind of sponsors? Nobody sponsors from here. (Tissen has sponsors who are based in Germany. Tissen has quite a few sponsors listed on her website. A few of these companies have their logos on what Tissen wears in the ring. They have to be paying something to get that kind of publicity.) From where you come from?

Scarfone: I’m in Florida. I talked to Barbara Buttrick. I live near her.

Lutz: I am in only Europe.

Scarfone: Yeah, I know. Barbara Buttrick told you I was going to call, didn’t she?

Lutz: Yeah. We must look what we make with Tissen in the future. In the moment, we make nothing. Inactive. (Lutz is saying that Tissen is an inactive boxer. Tissen has not fought in five months.) No fights. Nothing in the moment with Tissen.

Scarfone: I know that. (Tissen has a lot of companies that sponsor her which enables Elinboxing to support themselves financially even if Tissen is not fighting.) Maiki Hundt is now Tissen’s promoter because Miriam Bohn quit, right?

Lutz: This promoter Maiki Hundt makes in the moment beginner fights, bad boxing. He has very little money in the pocket. (Lutz may be referring to a boxing event with boxers who are beginners making their pro debut. On Tissen’s Facebook page, there is an announcement of a 10 fight boxing event that Elinboxing Boxpromotion is going to have on May 14, 2016. This event is not listed on BoxRec yet. I do not believe that Tissen will be fighting on the card because the boxer in the main event is a man. A female boxer is also mentioned as being on the card, but it is not Tissen. I cannot find the names of the male boxer and female boxer on BoxRec, so it is possible that they are both making their pro debut. Tissen has no opponent scheduled on BoxRec right now. Lutz says that Hundt has hardly any money. However, Hundt has the money to promote a boxing event with 10 fights. Hundt probably does not have to pay much money to the boxers if they are making their pro debuts which means he keeps more money for himself.) The big promoter in the moment is Sauerland. Sauerland don’t like the women’s boxing. (Mikaela Lauren of Sweden is the WBC female super welterweight champion and rated No. 1 in the world by BoxRec. According to WBAN.com, Lauren signed a long-term promotional contract with Sauerland who is a major promoter in Europe. According to WBAN, promoter Nisse Sauerland was delighted to have Lauren sign with Sauerland. I do not understand how Lutz could say that Sauerland does not like women’s boxing when they signed Lauren.) Sauerland is possible to bring (women boxers) from USA, from Australia, from all over, but he likes not. Hundt is a normal people. He’s not rich. I am not happy about this bull*** about women’s boxing. I don’t like this. There is too much in the market. (Lutz is referring to the amount of sanctioning bodies that sanction women’s boxing today.) At the moment, we have 12 federations who make (sanction) women’s boxing. That’s bull****.

Scarfone: Okay. But the thing is that the judging was very biased for Stacey Reile’s fight against Tissen.

Lutz: I could say if Maiki Hundt would make next fight defending the titles with this girl. I can make this. It’s no problem. (I believe that Lutz is trying to appease me by saying that he will give Reile a rematch against Tissen. I just want Tissen to fight a legitimate contender and not necessarily Reile. Now I realize what Buttrick was saying to me about Lutz trying to make the fight. Lutz thinks that by giving Reile a rematch, it is going to right the wrongs of the past and make me withhold my criticism.)

Scarfone: Stacey will fight her, but she wants $10,000 and Hundt is probably not going to pay that.
Lutz: The money is not there.

Scarfone: Do you want Tissen to fight better opponents?

Lutz: Yes, I want this. The problem in Europe is the money. Maybe pay for world titles 2 or 3 thousand. Maybe 4,000 Euros. But that’s all.

Scarfone: Reile only got about $3,000 for her fight against Tissen.

Lutz: Ha! This is the problem.

Scarfone: Why is the judging so biased in Tissen’s fights? The judges are not scoring the fight right like Reile should have won against Tissen.

Lutz: The (German Federation) BDB make this.

Scarfone: But the BDB didn’t pick the officials in Tissen’s fight against Busa a year ago and the WBF pulled out of the event because of it. Do you remember that?

Lutz: …No, I don’t know.
Scarfone: You don’t remember that? It was last year.

Lutz: Oh. Send me the name of the girl for a fight for Maiki Hundt and I tell him “You fight this girl or you fight nothing.” (He is changing the subject. He doesn’t want to answer the question. How could he not remember this incident? He is trying to appease me again. A rematch is very unlikely to happen. Hundt would never allow a rematch especially with Tissen being a worse boxer than she was a few years ago while Reile tells me she is in the best shape of her life. I really don’t care if Reile fights Tissen again. The damage was done six years ago. A rematch is not going to change the past. I just want the truth to come out regarding their fight in 2010 as well as Tissen’s entire pro career.)

Scarfone: Do you know why Miriam Bohn, the MiBo promoter, resigned?

Lutz: Bohn has no money like Hundt. The same.

Scarfone: It seems like they made money. They’ve got a lot of sponsors and shows (boxing events) every six months. Why do they have no money?

Lutz: He pays not so much for this. For these shows is nothing. Maybe 3,000 (Euros) for a world title, something like that. The other federations have the same problems like me all over. I know this. (I don’t agree. I don’t think all the other sanctioning bodies have these problems.)

Scarfone: Can you require that Tissen fights a legitimate contender instead of these girls with losing records or strip her of the title?

Lutz: We can make this, but with the Tissen promoter (Hundt), he goes directly to the lawyer. He says, “I go to the lawyer.” (How is Hundt able to afford a lawyer if he supposedly does not have much money?) It’s crazy in Germany. It’s so crazy in the moment. (Yes, I agree. And Lutz contributes to its craziness.) But send me please by email the name of this girl who want fight and then we can make this. (I thought Lutz was afraid of Hundt’s lawyer. Now, Lutz is going to demand that Tissen fight Reile again? I think Lutz is more afraid of me now. I think if I told Lutz that I wanted Tissen to defend her titles against a kangaroo, he would sanction it.)

Scarfone: You know Stacey Reile.

Lutz: Stacey Reile, I know she’s long time in the market (boxing business).

Scarfone: Yes. She’s still in shape. She just hasn’t fought in four years.

Lutz: I know she fought a girl from Universum (Ina Menzer) in the past. No money in Germany for the moment in boxing.

Scarfone: Why? Because there are no more televised fights (of women’s boxing) in Germany?

Lutz: Television, nothing. Regina Halmich (of Germany) worked for me. She make millions. (Buttrick also said the same thing to me about the amount of money Halmich made. Halmich was the WIBF champion in the light flyweight, flyweight, and super flyweight divisions.) The WBC see the millions and then they go in the business. Mr. (Jose) Sulaiman (former WBC President) say to me “Never in my life will one girl go in the ring while I’m the President.” Then he sees the millions from Halmich and sure he was in.

Scarfone: There is a lot of money to be made in Mexico if women fight there.

Lutz: Maybe in Mexico there is money, but not the millions.

Scarfone: They can make $30,000 though which is more than they make in Germany or America.

Lutz: So much federations on the market. One WBF, the second WBF, two WBFs make women’s boxing. (Lutz is referring to the World Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Foundation. In order to distinguish themselves from the World Boxing Foundation, the World Boxing Federation shows on their championship belts that its actual acronym is the W.B.Fed. However, the World Boxing Federation usually is known as the WBF.) For the men, it’s no problem (if there are many sanctioning bodies). You can send me the name of the girl and I say “Hundt, you (Tissen) fight this girl or I give away the title right here.” (Why couldn’t Lutz demand that Tissen fight a legitimate contender for the last four years? Now all of a sudden that he is being scrutinized, he says he is going to tell Hundt that Tissen has to fight someone good or else she will be stripped of the titles. Usually, world champions have one year to defend their title. If they cannot, they are stripped of their title and the title is declared vacant for two other boxers to fight for it at a later time.)

Scarfone: Hundt is not going to pay Stacey what she wants to fight to Germany again.

Lutz: In America, the WIBF is dead. She (Buttrick) needs a power promoter on her side who makes the matches. In Europe, we have the problem with the BoxRec. They make the girls back. They make the girls in front. The make the girls back. (Lutz is referring to the changes in the BoxRec ratings because they are updated daily and are adjusted based on the results of the fights that occur in the world.)

Scarfone: Why is BoxRec a problem? I don’t understand. It is a website that ranks boxers by computer.

Lutz: A problem between our promoters in Germany. They come together for a meeting and they make a new BoxRec.

They have a top man and he make many millions and he make the new BoxRec. It will be (known as) BoxingInfo.

Scarfone: There is only one BoxRec that I know and it’s called BoxRec.

Lutz: BoxRec is not alone in one year.

Scarfone: Okay. No one has to follow a new website that ranks boxers.

Lutz: This is what I can say from the news from the boxing world.

Scarfone: BoxRec is the best (for rating boxers) and everyone knows it.

Lutz: At the moment. Not everyone is happy about it. The second BoxRec comes.

Scarfone: From Germany? There is a second boxing records website coming from Germany?

Lutz: I don’t know. Maybe from France. Maybe from Germany. (I highly doubt that this new boxing records website is coming from France. I think Lutz knows that it is going to be based in Germany, but he doesn’t want to pinpoint what country their office is going to be located.)

Scarfone: Why do they (the promoters) want to replace BoxRec? Why do they have a problem with it? They don’t like where their girls are ranked?

Lutz: They are not happy with the work of this. Maybe come not, but I suppose it will come. (It seems to me that the promoters in Germany want to control where their boxers are rated and they cannot do that right now since BoxRec has a computerized rating system that they have no ability to manipulate and BoxRec is the most widely recognized rating system for pro boxers in the world.)

Scarfone: You created the WIBF Hall of Fame. You inducted Elina Tissen into it. Is she the only boxer in the WIBF Hall of Fame? (I asked him this because Jeannine Garside defeated WIBF featherweight champion Ina Menzer and was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame. Garside is not in the WIBF Hall of Fame to my knowledge and Tissen is.)

Lutz: Tissen is in the Hall of Fame? Tissen is a top European boxer, not world-class. (Lutz admitted to me that Tissen is not a world-class boxer which is my opinion of Tissen as well and yet Tissen is the GBU/WIBF world champion. Why is she a world champion if she is not a world-class boxer?)

Scarfone: I know, but you apparently created a WIBF Hall of Fame. It says on Tissen’s website that she won the award. Did you create a WIBF Hall of Fame for Buttrick’s sanctioning body?

Lutz: …No, I didn’t. I’m sure of that. This is so heavy. You run against the world. This is bull**** in the moment. Maybe in a few years, it come back to the roots, but in the moment, I see no good future for women’s boxing. I bring women’s boxing to Europe from America. (Buttrick started the WIBF in America and then later agreed to have Lutz work with her in a separate sanctioning body based in Germany named the GBU.) What I see from the start to now is bull****. The beginning was great. We make 9 world titles in Las Vegas.

Scarfone: So the business slowed down primarily because of the WBC getting involved? (I think it could be the economy in Germany that caused business to decline. Perhaps the people of Germany are tired of seeing a fake world champion like Tissen who is not a world-class boxer fight against someone who is not a world-class boxer either. Maybe the German people are also fed up with the biased decisions that Tissen receives in her favor.)

Lutz: I don’t know. It was interesting to speak with you. Very interesting. Send me a message about the name of the girl and I say to Maiki Hundt that he (Hundt’s boxer Tissen) must fight this girl or we can strip him out (of the titles).

Scarfone: Well, you don’t have to do that as far as Stacey is concerned. I don’t care if she fights Stacey. Tissen should fight a legitimate contender soon or else she should be stripped of the titles. (Buttrick and Lutz could say who Tissen must defend her WIBF/GBU titles against rather than Hundt choosing Tissen’s next opponent.

Because the WBAN ratings are not always reliable, I would prefer that the boxer who Tissen has to fight next be someone who is rated in the top 25 of BoxRec at featherweight. To comply with the fact that the GBU/WIBF adopted the WBAN ratings, then this boxer can also be rated by WBAN. However, I would recommend that this boxer be rated in the top 25 of BoxRec as well.) Thank you for talking to me. Bye.

Lutz: Bye.

The interview ended. There were a couple of other questions that I was planning on asking Lutz such as why the title fights are being sanctioned even if one or both of the women do not weigh enough or why Reile was not provided a stool to sit on between rounds, but I think he would say that he doesn’t know. He denied that he created the WIBF Hall of Fame and I know that Buttrick did not create it. He said he did not recall his actions as described in the WBF Statement. I understand that the women’s boxing business is not as profitable in Europe as it was several years ago. However, I believe though that the cream rises to the top. There is increased competition, but there are some sanctioning bodies that are flourishing while others are languishing. The World Boxing Federation is doing well. Johnny Najjar of Masis Boxing Belts told me that the WBF is big in Europe. Masis Boxing Belts makes the championship belts for the GBU, WIBF, and WBF. A press release on WBAN.com written by the WBF states that the WBF had championship fights in the main events of big shows in Japan, France, and Switzerland last weekend. The WBF is doing well in spite of Lutz’s pessimistic views on the state of women’s boxing. As the WBF stated in its statement regarding Lutz, the WBF conducts their business with honesty and fairness. The WBF understands that when you have ethical business practices, you will have better business relationships and therefore a better reputation. When you do the opposite of that, you can end up like Lutz who complains about his competitors instead of trying to emulate what they are doing right.

Lutz allowed Hundt to control the GBU because of his demands for mediocre opponents, challengers sometimes not weighing enough, and picking the officials (judges and referees) himself. I do not believe that the German Federation BDB chose the officials in the Reile vs. Tissen fight. The judging was way too biased in that fight and I think that Hundt would have done whatever he could to increase his chances of Tissen winning. Reile’s boxing career could have been permanently derailed after losing to Tissen. Reile should have been the GBU female featherweight champion, but it was planned that Reile was going to lose and she did not make much money from her fight against Tissen either. Reile was fortunate that the IBF got involved in women’s boxing and offered her a title shot. I do not believe Lutz that Hundt has very little money. Tissen has more companies that sponsor her than any other boxer I have ever seen, including the men. If Hundt has very little money, how does he afford to pay for himself, Tissen, everyone else on Tissen’s team, promote shows, and pay the sanctioning fees to Lutz? How does he afford to pay for a lawyer that he supposedly is going to use to sue Lutz if he does not get his way regarding who Tissen defends her titles against?

While being business partners with Buttrick, Lutz adversely affected the WIBF and violated the goals that Buttrick had made for the WIBF. The WBF stated that severe manipulation by Lutz took place behind the WBF’s back, but it was also behind Buttrick’s back. Buttrick was not there in Germany and Lutz was representing the GBU as its President and the WIBF as its Vice President. However, Buttrick did tell me after I interviewed Lutz that he has helped women’s boxing more than hurt it and that he has worked very hard for women’s boxing. While I was talking to him, I can see that he does have a heart. I have to admit though that he compromised his principles in order to continue receiving sanctioning fees from Hundt and business eventually suffered because of that. His business taking a nosedive was not solely because of the increased competition from other sanctioning bodies getting involved in the women’s boxing business. Lutz’s unethical business practices affected the careers of female boxers who fought Tissen and should have won against Tissen because of biased judging and other things done before and during the fight in order to help Tissen win. Lutz’s leadership of the GBU is ludicrous. If Lutz truly wants to get the GBU back to what it was, then he needs to do what is right. Hundt should not be allowed to control the GBU/WIBF any longer. If the promoter of Tissen who is now Hundt will not let the GBU/WIBF select good opponents for Tissen, then the GBU/WIBF should refuse to sanction her fights. I understand that Hundt is not as big of a promoter as Sauerland, but there are still world-class opponents in Europe for Tissen to fight and travel expenses would not be that much if the opponent came from Europe or Africa which is nearby.

Hundt can have Tissen fight Jasmina Nadj again or Fatuma Zarika again. I have no problem with that. They are both rated in the BoxRec top 25 at featherweight and I think that they would defeat Tissen if the judges and referee were fair and impartial. They should have won against Tissen, so I have complete confidence that they would win if everything is on the level. The officials (judges and referee) should be chosen by the German Federation BDB if the fight is in Germany. The officials should not be chosen by Hundt.

The recipe for Tissen to remain as world champion for as long as possible is a triangular tactic with Hundt at the helm selecting the mediocre opponent with a losing record or barely winning record, Lutz agreeing to sanction it as a world championship so that he will collect the sanctioning fee, and the officials (judges and referees) continuing to be biased in favor of Tissen. However, there is something else outside of this trio that may matter more to Tissen and her team. It is whether the sponsors will continue to financially support them. The jobs and livelihoods of Tissen and her team depend on this. Ticket sales from the fight cards which only happen once or twice per year would not generate enough money to sustain all of this. Tissen has a sponsor related to boxing. Paffen Sport provides the boxing gloves for Tissen and her opponents in the title fights.

I believe that Tissen’s three biggest sponsors that contribute the most money to Tissen’s team are the following three companies which are located in Germany. WFA Manufaktur makes bathroom fixtures. ASO Safety Solutions makes sensors and technology regarding the safety of automatic doors on elevators and trains. Taxofit makes their own line of products related to health such as vitamins and energy bars. There are other companies that sponsor Tissen too, but these seem to be the major ones because she advertises them on her outfits when she fights and clothing that she wears. Also, these three companies are at the top of her sponsor list. Do you think that Tissen’s sponsors will want to continue allowing Tissen to represent them and endorse their products in light of all the information in this article? Do you think that they want to have their company brand name and logo associated with a counterfeit champion whose trainer has selected the officials when she has defended her titles? The alliance between Lutz, Hundt, and the officials allows Tissen to remain as world champion, but this alliance will not last for long if the sponsors no longer have Tissen endorse their companies and consequently stop financially supporting Team Tissen.

Tissen has changed what it means to be a world champion. In Tissen’s case, it means nothing. Tissen is the chosen one, the privileged one. By hook or crook, Hundt got what he wanted. The dancer who became a boxer defeated Stacey Reile. This happened because Reile was unfairly treated before the fight as to her lodging and circumstances while waiting to walk in to the ring, during the fight because of a stool not being provided for Reile to sit on between rounds and the referee who did not count the knockdown of Tissen when her gloves touched the canvas, and after the fight when the biased decision was announced. There are female boxers with greater abilities than Tissen who will never become world champions. They will either never get a title shot or, if they do, they will be robbed by the judges. Challengers to Tissen’s throne have almost no chance to win. The opponents of Tissen are just pawns who are scheduled to lose so that Tissen can stay atop her perch. Tissen’s reign as world champion is a charade that does not deserve a parade. Tissen was the heir apparent to be the German media darling after Menzer retired. However, there is a big difference between Menzer and Tissen. Menzer usually fought world-class opponents and was rated No. 1 by BoxRec for a few years. The highest rating Tissen ever got was No. 3 and that was after her win over Reile by a blatantly biased decision. Tissen’s boxing career is like a fairy tale, but without the happy ending. Tissen’s reign as a world champion will eventually be done like a Thanksgiving turkey and I think that it will happen sooner rather than later. Now after reading this article, you know how Elina Tissen could become a world champion in three different weight classes (super bantamweight, featherweight, and super featherweight) and make many successful title defenses over the past several years. Even with all Tissen’s accomplishments and accolades, she will forever be known as a counterfeit champion. It could happen only in one country on Earth. No, Don King. Not “Only in America.” “Only in Germany.”

You can contact Tissen’s team at www.elinboxing.de by clicking “Kontakt” at the bottom of the website. This is what I did when I sent my message to Hundt about Reile. “Anrede” means Salutation. “Frau” means Mrs. “Herr” means Mr. “Firma” means Company. Choose one of those. “Vorname” means first name. “Nachname” means last name. E-Mail means email (Germany uses the English word). “Ihre Anfrage” means Your Request. This is where you type your message. “Prufziffer” refers to the CAPTCHA. This proves you are a human being and not a computer by typing the letters and numbers that a computer cannot read. “Bitte Text eintragen” means Please enter text. This is the small rectangular box where you enter the CAPTCHA. You can change the CAPTCHA by clicking the red curvy arrow if you want to change it to something easier to type. The website will tell you if you try to send the message and the CAPTCHA you entered does not match. “Absenden” means send. You click that box to send your message. By the way, they understand English. I used Google Translate to change my English to German before I sent what I wrote to Elinboxing about Reile, but Hundt replied to me in English. Hundt probably knew that I wasn’t really German. See, I told you that Hundt is not stupid. But as you can see from this article, neither am I.

Comic book style art for this article was illustrated by Nathan Anderson. The German news website Die Glocke took photos of Reile vs. Tissen, but did not give me permission to use the only two photos showing Reile landing punches (What a surprise!), so I hired an artist to replicate them in an illustration. Nathan Anderson’s website is www.nathanandersonart.com where you can see more of his great artwork and can hire him to do artwork for you! You can show your support for Reile by visiting her Instagram page which is www.instagram.com/champstaylo where you can see numerous photos of Reile including photos of Reile vs. Tissen.