(NOV 29) WBAN received a
statement from Ed Pearson, Chairman, WBC Female Championships,
in regards to the Wallberg-Gerula WBC Title fight that just took
place in Sweden on November 27th. Ed Pearson said the
following:
"I have had questions from others as well, so I am including
these people as well on the response. "
"The Swedish law does not permit more than 8 rounds. But, a bit
of background information."
"Professional boxing was outright banned in Sweden in 1970.
Through the unbelievably lengthy efforts of Olof Johanssen (Mr.
Boxing in Sweden) and Bjorn Rosengren (Member of the Olympic
Committee and President of the Swedish Boxing Commission), they
were successful in getting the ban lifted in the early 2000s.
However, they only allowed 4 round fights (men or women).
I was
approached a couple years ago to allow a 6 round WBC
International Female Championship match, which despite the
opposition at the time from some, we allowed it (Sandell vs.
Perozzi). That was the 1st 6 round fight since 1970. A couple
months ago, I was again approached to all a title fight between
either Ann Saccurato or Olivia Gerula and Swedish fighter Frida
Wallberg.
Again, there was some opposition, but we used the same
logic as the first one, and that was if we help the Commission
do a high profile match for a WBC title, slowly but surely we
will eventually get the authorities to allow 10, and hopefully
(for men) 12 round fights.
So up till now, with the help and
support of the WBC, the Swedish Commission has been allowed by
their politicians, to slowly increase from a ban in boxing, to a
6 round fight to now an 8 round fight. My information is that
there is great hope and expectations, that the authorities will
allow a 10 round female title fight in the new year (a rematch
between Olivia Gerula and Frida Wallberg). The media interest in
this fight was incredible. The event was sold out (9000+)."
"That is the reason we permitted this fight and the previous
one, was to help improve boxing in Sweden (and overall). The
Swedish Commission was an excellent one to work with, and their
preparations were impressive. They were under great scrutiny
from the government officials, press and public, and did a
fantastic job in preparing for this event. It was an honor and
pleasure working with them, and we certainly look forward to
doing so again in the near future."
"The fight was a excellent one, and was hotly contested. It was
very close, with several rounds having mixed scores from the
judges – it was that close. It was closer than the score
indicate because of the closeness of many of the rounds, but in
boxing, with the 10 Point Must System In the end, one boxer gets
10 and one gets less than that. Wallberg eked out several close
rounds, and got a narrow victory over Gerula, who was obviously
distraught over the decision."
JUST FOR THE RECORD – HERE IS THE OFFICIAL RESULT:
Frida Wallberg, Sweden - WIN UD 8 – over Olivia Gerula, Canada
Hovel Arena, Stockholm, Sweden, Sweden Professional Boxing
Commission (Bjorn Rosengren, President; Olof Johansson,
Secretary); WBC Supervisor Ed Pearson, Canada
Scoring as follows:
Bela Florian, Hungary: 77-75; Daniel Van de Wiele, Belgium:
78-75; Jurgen Langos, Germany: 78-75.
Best Regards,
Ed Pearson
Chairman, WBC Female Championships
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