OnThEGRiND BoXiNG

Saturday August 1st, 2009
by Jonny Stapleton

British Boxing Promoter Frank Maloney has claimed WBA World super bantamweight champion Bernard Dunne has been miss managed, as camp Dunne failed to negotiate a voluntary world title defense with European Champ Rendall Munroe.

Maloney also suggested everyone in team Dunne wanted the fight bar the champion’s promoter and decision maker Brain Peters.

The experienced promoter, who looks after the affairs of Ireland’s Olympic bronze medalist Darren Sutherland, publicly offered €200,000 to fight ‘The Bin Man’, and was willing to do battle in front of the raucous Dunne support in Dublin.

However negotiations for Dunne versus Munroe, a fight Dunne and Peters perused before the Irish hero dramatically defeated Ricardo Cordoba earlier this year, never got past phase one.

Maloney now believes Dunne has to fight dangerous mandatory challenger Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym for a smaller payday, and stressed the fans are missing out too.

“We made Bernard Dunne a couple of very good offers. We made private offers but went public with the offer of €200,000. However we had no correspondence from Brian Peters. Not one email or phone call. People from team Dunne intimated that they were very interested in the fight, but they said Brian has the final say. Bernard Dunne versus Rendall Munroe would have been a much bigger fight. It was one the fans would want and had a little bit of everything. You would have had the Ireland-England thing going on. The fact Munroe beat Kiko Martinez, the man who dethroned Dunne, also makes it a little more interesting. Dunne versus Munroe was a bigger fight with a much bigger draw. Dunne, who I think is a great fighter, now faces a very tough and risky clash. The Thai fighter will pose a lot of problems and Dunne might not make as much money as he would have if he faced Munroe. I think he has been mishandled and managed,” Maloney explained, rekindling his war of words with Peters, before revealing the potential match up could go ahead if both fighters emerge unscathed from their next bouts.

Maloney also revealed Sutherland will next enter the ring in October.

“I would love to make that fight and it could still happen if both fighters take care of their mandatory challenges. Darren Sutherland will return to action in October, hopefully October 16th. We wanted to have him on the undercard of Dunne-Munroe, that would have been great for Ireland.”