WBA Press Release: Leonard Dorin's case
07.02 - The World Boxing Association (WBA) wants to make clear a few details concerning the possible confirmation of a fight between our current lightweight champion Leonard Dorin and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion Paul Spadafora as some misunderstanding seems to have occurred.
On February 17, 2002, the WBA Executive Committee ordered a direct rematch between Dorin and Raúl Balbi provided that the first fight (held on January 5, 2002) had a controversial outcome.
At the same time, it was decided that the winner of the mentioned rematch would have to face Miguel Callist next, as he was the mandatory challenger.
This was accepted by all three parties involved. Promoters Don King (DKP, Callist), Yvon Michel (InterBox, Dorin) and Osvaldo Rivero (Balbi).
On May 31, 2002, the rematch between Dorin and Balbi took place and Dorin unquestionably won on points, retaining the title.
A few months later, Dorin seriously injured his arm, being unable to defend it again. At the WBA Annual Convention held in Washington DC last September, Dorin's representatives announced that the fighter would be able to fight again as early as February/ March 2003 and thus honor his commitment of facing Callist.
However, some misunderstandings seem to have occurred since then and we would like to clarify the situation.
On December 20, 2002, we received a letter from Jan Edery (InterBox), announcing that InterBox was dealing with Top Rank for a possible fight between Dorin and Floyd Mayweather, on one side, and with ESPN, aiming to have the fight between Dorin and Callist held in Montreal, Canada on February 7, 2003.
This was followed by another letter from Mr. Edery, on January 6, 2003, in which he said the fight would now take place on March 7, broadcasted by ESPN.
Our Championship Committee Chairman, Mr. Renzo Bagnariol, spoke to Mr. Todd DuBoef (Top Rank) and Mr. Bob Yalen (ESPN) and they both claimed that there was not such a deal with InterBox. This was informed by Mr. Bagnariol to Michel on the phone.
On January 8 we received a further letter from InterBox in which they mention the "unforeseen opportunity" for Mr. Dorin to unify the titles with Mr. Spadafora, so we were informed that new negotiations would start to make it possible on April / May 2003.
As the WBA did not hear from InterBox again, and having all these facts into account, we decided to call for a purse bid on January 30, for the Dorin vs. Callist fight to take place. The established date for the purse bid was February 13 in the city of Miami.
The next day, January 31, 2003, we received a new letter from Mr. Michel in which he confirmed, "the conclusion of an agreement facilitated through Mr. Michael Acri (promoter of Spadafora) and Mr. Lou Di Bella", and asked for the WBA to sanction the fight between Dorin and Spadafora.
In such a letter Mr. Michel states that "WBA official representatives confirmed the WBA full agreement and support of the World Lightweight unification bout".
Mr. Michel probably refers to a conversation that Mr. Don Majeski had with Mr. Gilberto Jesús Mendoza, WBA Executive Director, in which the latter made it clear that fights have to be approved by the Championship Committee.
We want to make it clear that under any circumstances no single member of the WBA is entitled to approve a fight on his own. Every single fight has to go through the Championship Committee, which is a 9-member body that votes before making any decision.
Therefore, the WBA has not given its support to the Dorin vs. Spadafora fight whatsoever.
On the contrary, the WBA will honor the previous agreement reached on February 2002, in which it was clearly stated that Mr. Dorin had to defend his Lightweight title against Mr. Callist. Therefore, the purse bid called for February 13 will stand as scheduled and the WBA will not sanction any other fight involving Mr. Dorin.
