GUERNSEY’S head boxing coach has denied that Matt Jennings’s top-of-the-bill fight last Friday was called off because of a disagreement over the number of rounds. At the time the reason given as to why the island’s top boxer’s bout with Michael Matthewsian did not go ahead at the St Pierre Park Hotel was because the Southampton fighter’s medical card had mysteriously disappeared.

But rumours have since surfaced that the fight was called off because there was an argument between the Guernsey camp and their opponents, the London Select team, over the format of the rounds.

It has been suggested that Matthewsian wanted three three-minute ones while Jennings was interested only in three of two minutes each. Allegedly a comprise of four two-minute rounds was put forward to the home team but this was refused and hence the fight did not go ahead.

‘That’s absolute rubbish,’ said Guernsey coach Graham Guilbert.

‘It was nothing to do with the number of rounds at all. There was no mention of the number of rounds.

‘Jennings is not allowed three-minute rounds. Their class is four two-minute rounds.’

The man in charge of the London Select side, Paul Armand, agreed with Guilbert.

He pointed out that initially there had been a problem with Jennings’ medical card.

‘There was a stamp missing from Jennings’s card and Matthewsian’s coach Stewart Gill, who is the southern area coordinator, was running around like a lunatic trying to get hold of the top man of the western counties to get the fight on. He said that it wasn’t going to go ahead without the stamp,’ said Armand.

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‘The stamp was then found in the bag that had all the medical cards. I was warming the boys up in the changing room when another official came in and said, we’ve lost Matthewsian’s card.

‘Jennings’s card was up to date when the other boy’s card went missing.’

Guilbert is certain that there has been foul play going on by the Southampton camp and he has accused Gill of deliberately hiding his boxer’s card.

According to Guilbert, Matthewsian is due to fight again this weekend which is impossible if he has lost his medical card.

‘He [Gill] tried earlier on in the night to get the fight called off when he saw Jennings had gone 19 bouts unbeaten,’ said Guilbert.

‘Someone put it away and it had to be him: that’s what happened. It’s his own show this weekend and it takes 10 days to get a new card.

‘How’s he going to get one by then? It’s totally out of order.

‘I’ll never bring him [Gill] over here again.’

Armand is not sure what happened to the card but he is certain that Matthewsian, who is the current British novice champion, did not cry off from the fight and that there was no wrongdoing by the 26-year-old boxer and his coach.

‘The kid was dying to fight and that was the first time I’ve met him but he was really up for it,’ said the Londoner.

‘He was sat in his room all weekend afterwards. I’ve spoken to the Southampton coach and he’s not got the card.

‘It was one thing then another. The fight was doomed from the beginning.’

A match between Jennings and Matthewsian still looks on the cards, with the Sarnian possibly going to the UK for the fight.

‘I think it will be a bit of a grudge match,’ said Armand.

‘It will happen over the next couple of months, maybe in England. The Southampton coach wants it.’

Guilbert says he and Jennings are also keen. But the coach wants assurances that it will go ahead.

‘I want them to guarantee that the fight will be on,’ he said.

‘We’ll pay the airfare and for the hotel but if it doesn’t go on, they’ll have to pay for it.’