Boxer Passes Up Match for Outside Fracas

The bell had just started for the beginning of the third and final round when boxer Geoff McCreesh saw another fight erupt just outside the ring.

He couldn’t resist it.

McCreesh leaped into the front row of the seats to join in the brawl.

“There was a disturbance going on in the crowd and the next thing, he just dived straight over the ropes and into the public at ringside,” said Peter Blenkinsopp, secretary of the Midlands division of Britain’s Amateur Boxing Association. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

ABA officials began an investigation Monday into what prompted the second unconventional conclusion to a British bout in six months.

In September, professional light-heavyweight Steve McCarthy was floored by the mother of opponent Tony Wilson. Minna Wilson climbed into the ring during the third round and clobbered McCarthy with her high-heeled shoe. The fighter need three head stitches.

In Saturday’s incident at Longbridge, a suburb of this English midlands town, McCreesh was quickly grabbed by his cornermen after abandoning his amateur welterweight fight, a national semifinal, against Robert McCracken.

He was ushered back into the ring but the damage was done. McCreesh was disqualified.

Newspaper reports said the crowd disturbance may have involved McCreesh’s father and supporters of McCracken, a local Birmingham fighter. Officials said that whoever caused it, McCreesh was still out of order.

“I’m not saying it was anybody’s fault, but I would blame the boy for leaving, whatever the provocation,” Blenkinsopp said. “He should have been sticking to his job.”

Neither McCreesh nor McCracken were available for comment.