The Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) has, once again, cracked it’s disciplinary whip by slapping three of it’s licensees with various heavy bans. Joseph Kweifio, Michael Patterson and Solomon Otoo Lartey a promoter/match maker were sanctioned with bans after they were found guilty of conspiring to fix a bout.

The WBC Youth World Welterweight title bout staged in Accra on September 20, saw Frank Dodze knock out his Algerian opponent, Jamel Nasreddine Dahou, in the third round only for his corner to rather throw in the towel.

The GBA launched an investigation subsequently and discovered the bout was fixed. As a result, Joseph Kweifio and Michael Patterson have been banned from any boxing activity for the next two years, with retrospective effect from October 1, 2013.

Mr.Solomon Otoo Lartey the promoter/match maker who was described in a release from the GBA as the chief architect of the conspiracy is to be banned from all boxing activities for a period of four years with retrospective effect from October 2013. Licenses of the three individuals have also been revoked. A portion of a release from the communications division of the Ghana Boxing Authority said “the chief second Mr.Robert Okai, who became aware of the conspiracy moments before the fight be commended for refusing to be part of it and urging his boxer to go out there and win the fight on merit.”

It also further stated that the the second / corner man Marcel Nii Amu Tetteh who climbed onto the apron of the ring and signaled the referee to end the fight without authorization is to be banned until further notice from entering any boxing ring or the inner perimeter during any contest sanctioned by the GBA pending the determination of his license status.

The report by the GBA did not find  Referee Michael Neequaye who officiated the bout liable for misconduct but notes that he should have taken his signal fr the stoppage of the bout from the chief second and no one else. This action by the Ghana Boxing Authority comes months after a boxing referee Roger Barnor was also banned indefinitely for poor officiating in a WBO title bout between Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe and Ronald Pontillas of the Philiipines. The ban was eventually lifted and Referee Roger Barnor has bee reinstated.