(DEC 22) Last Wednesday in Bosnia, Jeannine Garside fought Irma Balijagic - Adler. After training very hard and traveling many, many hours--Jeannine fought a solid fight and clearly won. She did not get the decision.

Despite dropping Adler and thoroughly beating her--the win was taken away from her and given (along with the title and belt) to Adler. The crowd was shocked, the announcers were shocked, both fighters were shocked. To be the champion, you have to decisively beat the champion. Adler did not do that. Yet Ryan Wissow of the WIBA sat there and did nothing.

The round in which Adler was knocked down should definitely have been scored 10/8. It was scored 10/9.
Not only did the WIBA not provide three neutral judges--one judge was actually from Bosnia! And another one was from nearby Croatia.

This was total travesty.

Since he is the president of the WIBA, I assumed Ryan would do the right thing and either overturn the decision, call the fight a draw (by changing the 10/9 round to 10/8). or at the very least--declare the match a NC.

He refused to do anything to correct this injustice. Although he admitted (in writing) that Jeannine clearly won the fight--he has simply turned his cheek to it. His suggestion was a rematch within 8 months.

Is he kidding? Adler is supposed to walk around wearing a belt she did not win? Jeannine is supposed to fight her again to win back HER OWN belt? She already fought her and beat her! Why would any fighter want to fight for an organization that does nothing to insure fairness and integrity?

The WIBA gets another sanctioning fee if they fight again. Jeannine has no problem with that and would give Adler a rematch IF the decision is reversed and they are again fighting for Jeannine's belt. But why should Jeannine have to go back to Bosnia to regain something that is rightfully hers?

As long as decisions like this go unchallenged and accepted, boxing will continue to decline in the public eye. I defy anyone to watch the tape and say that Jeannine lost.
Jackie Kallen