Berman just keeps going

IF RODNEY Berman, pictured, was in any other sporting business his nose would be skewed at the unfortunate events that have lurched through his Super Eight series.

First he had to put Ran Nakash on a flight back home because the Israeli failed to make the cruiserweight limit.

Then nanny-minded referee Tony Nyangiwe did not allow the bout between Flo Simba and Thabiso Mchunu to unfold as it should have.

Berman's solution to that problem - a rematch - created a fresh issue: there would no longer be a place in the line-up for Johnny Muller, Nakash's opponent. That meant Muller had to be pacified with the promise of another fight, against Ryno Liebenberg, which is not part of the Super Eight.

If the Nakash no-show was a stiff jab, the Simba-Mchunu situation was a wicked left hook and the Muller muddle a right cross fetched from the heels.

All that seemed left for Berman was to fall over and be counted out before the Super Eight reaches its second stage at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.

But because he is in the boxing business, none of this bothers the Golden Gloves boss. In fact, he wouldn't want things any other way.

He knows trouble is paradise in the fight game and that the sport would not have what sets it apart if everybody shut up and played nice.

"If there's one thing I do know, it's marketing, and I know that controversy creates interest," Berman said.