Two days later, Yvon Michel still carries in his heart the defeat of Kim Clavel by a split decision by the judges on Saturday in Laval.
However, the promoter denied in an interview on TVA sports show “JiC” on Monday that he verbally attacked officials in the locker room after the brawl, columnist Martin Leclerc reported on the Radio-Canada website.
“Of course I am disappointed with the decision. I’m very proud of the way Kim handled herself and the fight she put up. I am particularly disappointed by the exaggerations that I read everywhere, by what people write who were not there, who have only heard from hearsay. Things are much simpler than what seems to be reported in many places,” he argued.
So what are the specific events that occurred in the locker room? Michel gave his version of the facts.
“Of course the outcome of the fight upset us a little. What I read on social media is like I broke down the locker room door and yelled at everyone, but that’s not what happened at all. My goal was to ask questions and try to get answers and understand.”
However, he mistook Benoît Roussel, one of the two referees who gave the advantage to Clavel’s opponents, for the referee Albert Padulo.
“I mistook Albert Padulo for Benoît Roussel and asked him how he came to this conclusion. He smiled at me and told me that I wasn’t talking to the right person, but that Benoît was on the other side. I went there and told Sylvie (L’Écuyer, the person in charge of the officials) that if she had accepted our request (not to elect Roussel as judge), we would not be in this situation. Jean Douville (from the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux) put his hand on my shoulder, asked me to go out and told me that we would talk about it again tomorrow.
“I left immediately without hesitation. I wasn’t warlike. I didn’t shout nonsense, I didn’t offend. I just wanted to ask questions.”
A risky choice
Michel is angry at the official in charge because he did not rule out Roussel’s candidacy as he wanted.
“In the ring I said to Sylvie L’Écuyer: Your decision to appoint this judge made the difference.” At the press conference I was very calm. I just said that we had asked that judge Benoît Roussel not be chosen for this fight. Nothing negative about his career, I am very aware that he is a very good judge and is in demand almost everywhere in the world, but we felt uncomfortable and asked the Régie if he could forego this fight, but she refused . ”
He claims to have no particular disagreement with Roussel.
“There was never anything between us and Benoît Roussel. We just had statistics showing that in close fights he tended to condemn the other side. We just didn’t want to take any risks. We never said he was incompetent. We wanted to give Kim as many chances to win as possible. We definitely didn’t want to neglect anything. We thought it was a risk to have this judge. If our request for a change of judge had been granted and there had been a similar result, we would have simply given in. This created emotions and anger.”
Michel misses the time when Michel Hamelin was in charge of martial arts at the Régie des alcohols, des courses et des jeux du Québec.
“We had constant dialogue and collaboration with Mario Latraverse and Michel Hamelin. Michel had special knowledge of professional boxing and knew the intricacies of this sport. That’s what we’ve lost since Michel left. There is no one who has his knowledge and experience. There is a lack of someone to support the existing staff.”
The full interview with Yvon Michel can be found in the video above.