GLOVES are off between Boxing SA and its licencees, warned acting chief Loyiso Mtya yesterday.

GLOVES are off between Boxing SA and its licencees, warned acting chief Loyiso Mtya yesterday.

"We will apply the full punch of this Boxing SA Act of 2001 to people found to be working against it," he said.

This act, agreed to by former president Thabo Mbeki on August 14 in 2001, was set to promote interaction between boxers associations, managers, promoters, trainers and Boxing SA.

Mtya said "some" people have been going against it and were treated with kid gloves.

"They will in future be answerable to their wrong doings," he said.

His sudden burst follows Micky Croucher's portrayal of Boxing SA as a guilty part in a financial matter between World Sports Promotions (WSP) and fighters, WBF featherweight champion Takalani Ndlovu and Oscar Chauke. Croucher is the president of the Australia-based WBF.

Mtya wrote a letter to Croucher which read:

"On the weight of your unfair criticism, you or your representative in South Africa, Howard Goldberg, is hereby called upon to, within 10 days of receipt of this correspondence, present yourself to Boxing SA's offices in Johannesburg to clear your media statement that has put boxing into unnecessary disrepute."

But Croucher insists that they were misquoted. "The fault of the non-payment lies clearly with the promoter. Howard will have a meeting with BSA on Monday," he said from Australia.

Meanwhile WSP's tournament scheduled for July 18 has been cancelled. Mtya said owners failed to make the deadline of 30 days to make arrangements with Boxing SA.

Promoter Paul Tshehla and Solly Matsimela (BSA's service provider in Mpumalanga) will appear in a hearing on Monday.

There are allegations that Tshehla use old and worn out boxing gloves in under-card fights of the tournament he staged in Secunda last weekend.