EUROPEAN BOXING NEWS
Posted on | June 18, 2008 | No Comments
Former EBU cruiser champ Johny Jensen announced his retirement after failing a brain scan, which is bad enough – unfortunately the story doesn´t end there. According to Danish websites sporten.dk and politiken.dk Jensen failed the brain scan twice before: first before his upset win over Italian Vincenzo Cantatore in Rome in December of last year and then again as he lost the title to Frenchman Jean Marc Monrose in Marseille in May. In both cases it appears the Dane came in with a document saying he had failed the MR scan but with permission to fight from the Danish Federation.
How this could happen isn´t easily explained. Jesper D Jensen, head of the Danish Federation, comments to Danish media that he´s not a doctor and only confirmed that in the permission to fight that all documents were enclosed. Jensen then passed the final medical exam in both Italy and France where the medical documents where supposed to be checked but somehow no-one noticed or cared to check. The hospital that performed the brain scan says they dutifully sent the result to the doctor who had sent Jensen to them – what happened there is anybody´s guess but the info wasn´t passed on. Jensen’s been promoted by Team Palle throughout his career but it was apparently trainer Poul Duvill that took care of the paperwork on the road. The incident overshadowed today´s press conference in Copenhagen where Dmitri Sartison and Mikkel Kessler met eye to eye. The two fight for the vacant WBA supermiddle title June 21 in Brondby.
Ex-pro Fredrik Alvarez lost the case against Swedish medical authorities. Alvarez had sued for damages for malpractice. After a fight in 99 the fighter slipped with a bottle in his hand and was badly cut. The wound healed but the pain remained although Fredrik fought on and it wasn´t until later it was discovered that there was a piece of glass left in the hand. Alvarez and his lawyer claimed the damage the piece of glass had done had ruined his career. The medical authorities have paid some compensation already and acknowledges the mistake made and that Alvarez can´t use the left hand properly but the court didn´t see that the injury in effect had ended Fredrik´s career. The case may still be appealed.
The Sinan Samil Sam vs Paolo Vidoz, Odlanier Solis vs Fransois Botha show set for July 4 have been moved from Istanbul to Ankara. Sam vs Vidoz is for the vacant EBU and IBF I/C heavyweight titles.
Slovenian welter Jan Zaveck outscored German Marco Cattikas last night in Maribor to win the vacant IBF I/C title. Zaveck is now getting ready to fight EBU champ Jackson Osei Bonsu July 26 also in Maribor.
UPDATE:
Contrary to what was reported last night then EBU cruiser challenger Johny Jensen arrived – according to politiken.dk and confirmed by Italian agent and matchmaker Alessandro Ferrarini – to Rome in December of last year with a clean bill of health – at least on paper. His MR scan showed irregurlarities to the point where he shouldn´t had been allowed to fight. However, a doctor looked at the documents, signed that everything was ok and neither Jensen or his handlers was told that something was wrong. Dr Peter Angermann tells Politiken he don´t remember the results of the scan but says that as far as he could tell everything looked allright. Jensen then stopped Vincenzo Cantatore in the first round of a big upset. The next fight came May 3 in Marseille against mandatory challenger Jean Marc Monrose. Again, the MR scan showed irregurlarities. It appears that trainer Poul Duvill, an experienced trainer who´s been involved with some of the best Danish pros for quite some time now, had noticed something was wrong with the champ during training. Sparringpartner Anders Hugger tells stiften.dk that he himself had seen nothing wrong. Still, Jensen went off to France and was stopped in the first round. Mogens Palle, who wasn´t in neither Rome or Marseille, told media during the Kessler-Sartison press conference that he first heard something was wrong with Johny when Duvill called him after coming home from France.
Jensen himself is currently on vacation in France but tells sporten.dk he is doing badly, got problems with his eyesight, have problems with being around people and feels the damage is permanent. Another paper quotes Jensen saying he´s able to keep his dayjob and live a normal life. He is still employed by Vola in Horsens and the company have sponsored him throughout his career. Jensen have contacted a lawyer and is looking into suing the responsible for this tragic incident for damages but the question appears to be who is reponsible?
Many have asked why Jensen didn´t pull out himself if he was feeling bad but he says to sporten.dk he didn´t start feeling bad until a week after the Monrose fight.
The Danish Federation had all the necessary medical examinations performed and an apparently permanently brain damaged fighter could still slip through the net.