AFTER a hearing yesterday (March 9) with the British Boxing Board of Control, the suspension of Birmingham’s former British and Commonwealth welterweight champion Frankie Gavin has been reduced from a year to six months. Backdated to the date on which Britain’s only male world amateur champion was found guilty of affray, November 25 last year, Gavin is eligible to compete again from May 25.
Gavin was given a five-month prison term suspended for 12 months. He was also made to perform 180 hours of unpaid work for the community and pay costs of £1,800, plus £75 to each of the six victims, after violent altercations during a family holiday in Somerset. The Board originally suspended him for a year but Gavin and his legal team presented new evidence that showed he was not the main instigator of the incidents in question.
“They’ve got all the evidence through now and they know I wasn’t the one behind it all,” Gavin told Boxing News. “I want to get back as soon as possible so if there’s a show on the weekend of May 27-28 (Friday-Saturday) I’d like to be on it. I’ll speak to [promoter] Eddie Hearn and we’ll sort something out. There was talk of me being on the May 7 show [in Manchester, headlined by Anthony Crolla vs Ismael Barroso] but obviously that can’t happen now. It’ll definitely be at welterweight at least at first.”
