KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Malaysia Amateur Boxing Federation (MABF) today denied claims by former national boxer Mohd Farkhan Haron that there were not enough local and international boxing competitions.

MABF honorary secretary Mohamed Jani Ismail said the federation was busy lining up competitions for this year as well as identifying international competitions for local boxers to participate as part of preparations for the Myanmar SEA Games in December.

“We have organised many events locally but every time there was a selection, Mohd Farkhan fails to report for centralised training at the National Sports Council’s centre in Taman Keramat.

“We also look out for international tournaments through online initiatives but some of those identified events were cancelled for specific reasons and that is beyond our control,” he told Bernama, here, today.

Mohd Farkhan was quoted as saying that his decision to quit the national boxing team on June 17, was due to lack of competitions.

However, Mohamad Jani in refuting Mohd Farkhan’s claim that he had quit the national team, said the boxer was actually dropped by the MABF.

“If he (Mohd Farkhan) claimed that he had written a letter to say that he was quitting the National team, he should say to whom he had addressed the letter because we have not received any letter from him,” he said.

Mohd Jani added that Mohd Farkhan’s absence would not derail the National team’s focus as Rudy Petrus, a boxer from the Armed Forces, has been named to the squad after winning the 75kg category title in the Armed Forces competition.

“Even without Mohd Farkhan we are confident of winning three gold medals in the Myanmar SEA Games,” he said. – Bernama