French heavyweight boxer Newfel Ouatah, who is a cousin of Real Madrid star Karim Benzema, was at the centre of an extremely strange non-fight on Friday night in Canada.
The 36-year-old returned to the ring for the first time in 15 months, but did not throw a single punch and decided to quit as soon as the first bell rang.
Bizarrely, Ouatah took a knee and raised one fist in protest when the fight was supposed to begin.
His bemused opponent Simon Kean walked over to him regardless, ready to start the bout.
Kean even hit Ouatah with a punch while he was down on one knee and almost knocked him over.
Thankfully though, this shot was not a very hard one and did no serious damage.
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At this point the referee stepped in and got down to Ouatah’s level so he could communicate with him.
After establishing that the Frenchman would not be fighting, he waved the contest off and awarded Kean a first-round stoppage victory.
At the time, the reason behind Ouatah’s protest was unknown.
What was that? #boxing #eyeofthetiger #SimonKean pic.twitter.com/Ma6gGrMZHc
— Pat Talbot (@weleylamotte) September 10, 2022
He has since taken to social media to explain that the reason was an insurance dispute.
Ouatah has claimed his local commission (Federation Francaise de Boxe) were refusing to cover any injuries or grave consequences he could have potentially suffered in the fight.
The local event promoters have disagreed with his version of events.
Ouatah had an 18-4 record going into the bout and is now 18-5.
He previously represented Algeria at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but was beaten by Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Glazkov and did not medal.
His cousin Benzema is yet to comment on the situation.
