Boxing: McCallum walks out after fine

Published on Monday 12 October 2009 10:01

GILMERTON'S two-time British youth lightweight champion, Conor McCallum, has quit amateur boxing after a disciplinary dispute.

McCallum, 16, was fined 50 and put on probation for 12 months after an incident during an international tournament in Germany earlier this year.

The boxer and his club boss Rab Young had both claimed that he had only intervened in an outside-the-ropes altercation in Frankfurt. Confirmed Young: "During a multi-nations tournament in Germany, there was an incident which involved one Scottish boxer attacking another boxer from Edinburgh outside the ring.

"Conor was so concerned at the violence of the situation that he intervened only to stop both boxers doing something more serious to each other –he wasn't otherwise involved in any way.

"I think that this action was so wrong given our belief in McCallum's innocence. There is no provision to fine any Scottish amateur boxer for misconduct under existing ABS rules. My appeal failed to obtain the response on Conor's behalf that we were hoping to get so I resigned as a Director of Amateur Boxing Scotland as I think that it is absolutely unjust to penalise a boy who was only trying to stop an ugly situation becoming even more serious than it was.

"It is absolutely tragic, too, that a boxer with Conor's outstanding record at domestic and international level has decided to walk out of amateur boxing because he feels that he has been unfairly treated."