Clarification about Daniel McGowan and Yokkao Boxing
This statement follows the previous article that has been misunderstood by lots of people who wrote several negative comments in offensively way on what happened. Bangkok 15th October 2014, Dear all, I would like to clarify all the issues regarding what happened at YOKKAO 11. It wasn’t my aim to not give the possibility to Daniel Mc Gowan and his team to pay respect during Yokkao 11 to their trainer Liam Robinson who recently passed away. I understand and respect the suffering of the people who are having this loss. Daniel Mc Gowan's fight has been in Liam Robinson's memory. Vinnie Shoreman made a speech in the ring than there has been a minute of silence. The statement regarding Daniel McGowan has been misunderstood from his family for a word referred to Daniel McGowan that hasn’t been used in the correct way on our previous article. Our articles are written by our staff in Bangkok and not by Stefania Picelli as somebody thought. I personally asked to Stefania Picelli to talk in my behaviour with Mr. Paul Mc Gowan (Daniel Mc Gowan's father) in order to clarify this situation and I am happy that they clarified. The "non-professional" acting was not referred to Daniel McGowan as fighter but to the fact that our regulations have been broken without authorization. As a matter of fact that our regulations have not been respected from their corners during most of the fights at YOKKAO 8 wearing corner jackets, during YOKKAO 11 wearing their T-shirts and also from the fighter when he entered into the ring with a fighter robe and changed the t-shirt after the fight at YOKKAO 11. The fighter entered into the ring also with the T-shirt provided by Yokkao as requested. I can understand that the act at YOKKAO 11 has been made for a good reason, the only problem was the lack of communication between this team and Yokkao Boxing, lack of communications because there were no one spokesman of this situation. If things were been done in proper way, I would have gladly accepted this exception also because it was a thing correct to do from both sides. I would have declared the winner than I would have accepted to stop the event and I'd have authorized them to wear their t-shirts while Vinnie Shoreman would have made the speech. A speech that everyone knew that was happening except us. Behind a show there are several people who work to control the lights, the graphics, videos etc. We also have some rules to follow in order to guarantee a successfull event. Everything would have been accepted if asked properly. What I cannot accept is that fighters or trainers decide by themselves if it's correct or not to follow our rules during our events. I’d like that you all understand that this event has been really complicated to manage for the promoters and all the people involved in the organization due to what happened. This statement is not meant to belittle the suffer of the team involved in the article. I really appreciated Daniel McGowan decision to come to fight. At his young age he demonstrated to be a fighter not just in the ring but also in the real life and this makes the difference to be a champion or not. I wish all the best to his career and I wish to have the possibility to see him fighting in a Yokkao event in the future. The biggest disappointment was seeing negative comments, if not to say insults or worse, from people who do not know what happened entirely, but I passed this ball to our lawyers. This people have attacked Yokkao and in particular our promoter Stefania Picelli who has always done her job with passion and doesn't concern anything with our articles or statements. Just to say one thing, we have been accused of maintaining Muay Thai a niche sport. Nothing could be further from the truth because, from our first promotion, we have always promoted freedom of any fighters to partecipate in our events. We have revolutioned the promotion of this kind of shows because all the people who work with and for Yokkao, they love Muay Thai and what it is. Daniel's father Paul McGowan agreed that maybe things could have been done in different way and communication could have been better but asked us to realise that these young men have been thrust into a situation they have not wished to be in and acted with their trainer's memory in mind and as most young men would probably act. I personally apologize Liam Robinson's family, Daniel Mc Gowan and his family if they felt to be personally attacked from this situation, but our intention was just to underline that rules must be respected during our events. Exceptions can be done as well if communicated in advance and approved by our board of directors. Regarding the comments on facebook I hope that the people will think again what they wrote about us and will apologize as I did. Yours in Muay Thai, Mrs. Doungjaj Tananan President of Yokkao Boxing Ltd.
