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Halloween in London: View from Jane Couch's Corner
WIBF Welterweight world champion Jane Couch,
Britain's "Fleetwood Assassin", wrote to Dee about her scrap with Australia's
Sharon "Wild Thing" Anyos for the WBF Women's Lightweight title in London on
October 31, 1999. Jane won a ten-round unanimous decision to take the vacant
title, but the Australian team wasn't happy about the events surrounding the
fight. Sharon's trainer/father Les wrote a scathing report
about how the arrangements for the bout were handled, and this is Jane and Tex's
response, originally posted on the Women's Boxing Page on 11 November 1999.
Jane's own view
Hi Dee, my coach wanted to write his version of the fight so I've sent it to
you. I think he sums it up quite well.
My feelings are pretty much the same as his. Sharon's camp were very
unprofessional. It was a good fight but she just lacked top level experience and
it showed. I blocked most of her shots and the referee had to warn her a few
times for slapping. As it said in
Boxing News, "Jane Couch blocked and slipped most of Sharon's right hand
slaps."
I'm sure she can learn a lot from the fight. I think the one thing they will
learn is ... top class fighters deal with situations.
The things Les mentioned about the gloves, the protectors, the
drugs test ... the same applied to me. We just dealt with it. Also the anthems.
I've boxed four times in the USA and no anthems were played either, so its not
just England. I was also drugs tested twice. Inconvenient, yes, but it was your
rules and I abided by them.
As for the canvas being slippy, it was later on in the fight as Sharon's corner
were pouring water all over her. So when she was coming out the water was
dripping all over the canvas making it slippy for me as well as her
because her inexperienced corner decided to throw water all over her.
But anyway we could carry on forever. The result is what matters, Jane Couch
won.
Hopefully now the Anyos camp can learn from this. But I think they would be in
for a big shock if they ever go to the States to box, as there rules are as
strict as ours in some states.
Trainer Tex's take!
Oh dear ... whinging Aussies ... there's a turn up for the books!!
It's supposed to be us poms.
Sure, you're going to get bad decisions in boxing. But Jane
Couch's victory over Australian trier Sharon Anyos wasn't.
Jane's superior experience and boxing skills always kept her in
front on the scorecards and in my mind, which is much more important to me.
I never had any doubts she was controlling the fight and,
unusually, I didn't even ask my corner assistant to verify my opinion.
As for Les going in to overdrive whinging about preparation and BBBC
stipulations ... so what? Jane and I had to go through the same routine.
The difference is, we have a calm professional attitude in our
camp and don't get fazed by local regulations. Try a few trips to the USA and
deal with Larry Hazzard and his merry crew!!
So Aussies, get your act together and preparations organised and remember ...
"failing to prepare is preparing to fail". P.S. Hope you like the tie.
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