Commonwealth Council to review O’Donnell’s position
John O’Donnell’s status as Commonwealth welterweight champion is in doubt. A statement from the Commonwealth Council released yesterday said: “The future status of champion John O’Donnell will be considered during the Spring Meeting of the CBC on 20th and 21st April following the non fulfilment of the mandatory defence against Ghana’s Philip Kotey which the CBC had been advised would be taking place on 5th March.”
O’Donnell’s promoters, Hennessy Sports, originally notified the Commonwealth Council on 12th February that O’Donnell-Kotey would take place “at a venue to be advised in the UK on 5th March”.
However, CBC Honourary Secretary Simon Block revealed to BoxRec News on 2nd March that he was still awaiting confirmation of the venue. ““Unless the fight is taking place in a private members club that I haven’t been informed about it doesn’t look like the fight is going ahead on 5th March,” Block told me.
O’Donnell has yet to defend the Commonwealth crown he won by outpointing Manchester’s Craig Watson on a disputed split decision last April and could now be stripped unless he defends against Kotey, or anyone else for that matter, in the near future.
“O’Donnell could have defended his Commonwealth title against Tom Glover in September but chose not to for some reason (the fight went ahead as a non-title affair) and then he pulled out of a scheduled defence against Kotey in December through illness,” said Block to BoxRec News on 2nd March.
“The Kotey fight has been re-arranged for 5 March but if it doesn’t happen we will have to revaluate O’Donnell’s status as Commonwealth champion which would be a shame as I’m sure John likes being a title holder,” added Block.
In the interests of providing balance, BoxRec News contacted Hennessy Sports for an explanation on 3rd March. A Hennessy representative provided the following timeline which could exonerate Team O’Donnell for the failure of his scheduled defence against Kotey to take place.
10th Feb: We won purse bids for (the British welterweight title defence) O’Donnell v (Kell) Brook (reigning British welterweight champion)
11th Feb: We notified the Board of the 5th March for Brook v O’Donnell 11th Feb: We became aware of problems with the Brook fight
12th Feb: We officially notified Team Kotey and Simon Block of the new date via email
19th Feb: We issued a new contract to Team Kotey at their request.
25th Feb: After repeated requests for Kotey’s medicals we sent a final request giving the deadline of 5pm on the 25th to send medicals and confirmation that their visas had been issued.
26th Feb: At 9am we chased a reply to our email on the 26th regarding medicals.
26th Feb : We received the Ghana Commission’s authorisation letter but was advised medicals would be sent on Monday.
1st Mar: We received confirmation that visas were OK and a copy of a medical dated May 09 which did not even include an eye test and was informed that the brain scans would be have to be done in the UK.
2nd March: Sent email to Team Kotey and CC’d Simon Block re missing medicals (eye test & current fit to box).
It remains to be seen whether the above chain of events will persuade the Commonwealth Council to show leniency towards John O’Donnell as Kotey’s medicals were far from in order. However, given the fact that O’Donnell hasn’t defended his title since winning it, and doesn’t appear to have a title defence scheduled in the immediate future, his status as champion must be in doubt.
