THE BRITISH BOXING Board of Control (BBBofC) has suspended super-middleweight Tyan Booth’s licence for offensive comments made on social media about the recent death of fellow boxer Scott Westgarth.
Shortly after winning an English light-heavyweight title eliminator bout last Saturday, 31-year-old Westgarth was rushed to hospital upon falling ill. Tragically, he passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning.
This week, Nottingham native Booth took to Twitter to reference his death in an insensitive manner, writing: “Some people would enjoy it if I got killed in a boxing ring like Scott Westgarth #MANDOWN”
He followed up the tweet with another, which mentions former American fighter Gerald McClellan, who was left disabled with severe brain damage after a loss to WBC super middleweight champion Nigel Benn back in 1995.
It read: “To those complaining about my tweet about the boxer who got killed recently, I’m boxing myself in 2 weeks and I’ve spent the past 3 months drinking cider and not training properly so there’s a gud chance I’ll end up in a wheelchair like Gerald McClellan, so tune in #MANDOWN”
The suspension begins with immediate effect and although the comments remain online, Booth’s trainer Dominic Ingle has since posted:
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