03-05-2015, 01:53 PM
Brian Minto barred from attending Joseph Parker fight and says move is 'childish'
LIAM NAPIER
FIGHT TIME: Kiwi heavyweight Joseph Parker and Jason Pettaway square off in Auckland tonight.
American boxer Brian Minto has been barred from attending Joseph Parker's fight against Jason Pettaway in Auckland tonight.
Minto did not come out after the seventh round in a one-sided bout against Parker last July - and has since confirmed he fought with a broken nose.
The injury was sustained in sparring with Auckland's Commonwealth Games silver medallist David Light, one week before the Parker fight.
'CHILDISH': Brian Minto is not amused by Duco Events to bar him from attending the Joseph Parker fight.
Parker's handlers, Duco Events, were riled by Minto's recent comments after he announced a return on rival promoter Sky Arena's Super8 cruiserweight format at the end of the month.
Duco have, therefore, told Minto he's not welcome at tonight's fight.
The 40-year-old is frustrated he can't attend.
"It's childish," Minto said. "That's what young kids do when they're mad at other people. I'm actually shocked.
"It's not fair they won't let me in the fight because they think I'm being dishonest about something that happened."
Follow live updates from the Parker-Pettaway fight night on Stuff.co.nz from 8pm
After breaking his nose, Minto did not ask for the Parker fight to be postponed, but claimed Dean Lonergan's son, Liam, was at the gym when the incident occurred.
"Dean Lonergan's son was there at the time," he said. "There was a whole pool of fighters in the gym. It didn't take a rocket scientist to look at my nose and know it was broken.
"By no means did I want to postpone it. As a fighter you think you can get through certain things but it was much harder than I thought.
"They always treated me fairly and I'm not trying to put blame on them for anything. I'm just saying the facts and the way it occurred.
"I was hoping to go to Parker's fight but I guess I'm not allowed to. It's disappointing."
Duco promoter David Higgins said had Minto told them about his broken nose they would have postponed the fight.
Higgins pointed to similar occasions - Shane Cameron's broke hand before his fight with David Tua and Tua's strained calf before facing Alexander Ustinov - as times when they had been accommodating previously.
"Apparently Minto hurt his nose in sparring before the Parker fight," Higgins said.
"If it was broken he hushed it up. He didn't ask for the fight to be postponed. Never once did he request a delay. If he did, we would have.
"Instead of taking it on the chin he's suggesting we are greedy mercenary types who forced him to fight injured, which is a disgusting defamatory allegation.
"He's a sore loser and we've got no time for that. I'm sure he wants to grandstand and talk about if his nose wasn't sore he would have beaten Joseph. We're not a platform for that so he's not welcome."
Minto, meanwhile, expects Parker to make light work of Pettaway, who owns a barbershop in Ohio. His only loss in 18 pro fights came via a fourth round TKO against Russian southpaw Magomed Abdusalamov (18-1) in 2012.
Parker yesterday weighed in at 106.7kg, two kilograms heaver than his last bout in December and 6.6kg bigger than Pettaway (100.1kg).
"Joseph is a very good fighter and I have a lot of respect for him. His speed is very mesmerising for the heavyweight division. You have to experience it to believe how fast these punches are coming," Minto said.
"If Jason is the technician he says he is maybe we'll have a fight on our hands.
"But I expect Joseph to win by knockout. Kevin Barry always has him prepared."
LIAM NAPIER
FIGHT TIME: Kiwi heavyweight Joseph Parker and Jason Pettaway square off in Auckland tonight.
American boxer Brian Minto has been barred from attending Joseph Parker's fight against Jason Pettaway in Auckland tonight.
Minto did not come out after the seventh round in a one-sided bout against Parker last July - and has since confirmed he fought with a broken nose.
The injury was sustained in sparring with Auckland's Commonwealth Games silver medallist David Light, one week before the Parker fight.
'CHILDISH': Brian Minto is not amused by Duco Events to bar him from attending the Joseph Parker fight.
Parker's handlers, Duco Events, were riled by Minto's recent comments after he announced a return on rival promoter Sky Arena's Super8 cruiserweight format at the end of the month.
Duco have, therefore, told Minto he's not welcome at tonight's fight.
The 40-year-old is frustrated he can't attend.
"It's childish," Minto said. "That's what young kids do when they're mad at other people. I'm actually shocked.
"It's not fair they won't let me in the fight because they think I'm being dishonest about something that happened."
Follow live updates from the Parker-Pettaway fight night on Stuff.co.nz from 8pm
After breaking his nose, Minto did not ask for the Parker fight to be postponed, but claimed Dean Lonergan's son, Liam, was at the gym when the incident occurred.
"Dean Lonergan's son was there at the time," he said. "There was a whole pool of fighters in the gym. It didn't take a rocket scientist to look at my nose and know it was broken.
"By no means did I want to postpone it. As a fighter you think you can get through certain things but it was much harder than I thought.
"They always treated me fairly and I'm not trying to put blame on them for anything. I'm just saying the facts and the way it occurred.
"I was hoping to go to Parker's fight but I guess I'm not allowed to. It's disappointing."
Duco promoter David Higgins said had Minto told them about his broken nose they would have postponed the fight.
Higgins pointed to similar occasions - Shane Cameron's broke hand before his fight with David Tua and Tua's strained calf before facing Alexander Ustinov - as times when they had been accommodating previously.
"Apparently Minto hurt his nose in sparring before the Parker fight," Higgins said.
"If it was broken he hushed it up. He didn't ask for the fight to be postponed. Never once did he request a delay. If he did, we would have.
"Instead of taking it on the chin he's suggesting we are greedy mercenary types who forced him to fight injured, which is a disgusting defamatory allegation.
"He's a sore loser and we've got no time for that. I'm sure he wants to grandstand and talk about if his nose wasn't sore he would have beaten Joseph. We're not a platform for that so he's not welcome."
Minto, meanwhile, expects Parker to make light work of Pettaway, who owns a barbershop in Ohio. His only loss in 18 pro fights came via a fourth round TKO against Russian southpaw Magomed Abdusalamov (18-1) in 2012.
Parker yesterday weighed in at 106.7kg, two kilograms heaver than his last bout in December and 6.6kg bigger than Pettaway (100.1kg).
"Joseph is a very good fighter and I have a lot of respect for him. His speed is very mesmerising for the heavyweight division. You have to experience it to believe how fast these punches are coming," Minto said.
"If Jason is the technician he says he is maybe we'll have a fight on our hands.
"But I expect Joseph to win by knockout. Kevin Barry always has him prepared."