TUESDAY, October 12th, 2004, AT 6:30 PM, PT

IKF Says No To Co-Sanction
Half Point System Breaks Co-Sanction of IKF & ISKA For World Title Bout

A few days ago the IKF announced it would co-sanction with the ISKA the Pro Super Middleweight FCR World Title between undefeated and number 2 IKF ranked Super Middleweight Brian Schwartz of San Jose, California and number 2 IKF ranked Middleweight Tom Bottone of New York, New York, USA. However after a disagreement in the rules of the scoring of the bout today, there will be no unification of the vacant title.

It was only 24 hours ago that the IKF was informed that ISKA's Cory Schafer (Right) was not willing to use the universal 10 point must system IKF uses that is used worldwide in boxing and kickboxing. Despite being requested by the IKF, Schafer stayed his ground and wanted to use the iska "Half-Point" scoring system, a system IKF will never allow to be used on an IKF sanctioned bout due to its many flaws.

"We had already made several concessions while only asking the iska to make 1." Said IKF President Steve Fossum (Below Right). "However, Cory was not willing to use the universal scoring system which we thought was a fair request for everyone involved. Knowing the half-point system has flaws (EX: May K-1 USA Smith Vs McDonald) there was no way we would allow the half-point scoring system for such a high-profile title bout. Because of this, and since the promoter and ISKA have such strong ties, there was only 1 decision we could make and that was to withdraw the IKF Sanctioning from the bout."

As mentioned this title is vacant in the IKF however how it became vacant in the iska was a little more complicated. When the discussion of this bout first came up it was a challenge by Schwartz to current iska World Champion and current number 1 IKF ranked Randy Pogue (Left) of Pennsylvania, USA, who won the title last year. However Pogue discovered due to a vision problem (The State would not allow him to fight with his contact lenses in) he was unable to fight in the State of California where the challenge was made. Instead of allowing Pogue an option of hosting a title defense in another State, Schafer (iska) stripped him of his title and made it available for Schwartz and soon after, Battone was selected for his opponent.

We here at the IKF wish both Brian and Tommy the best of luck in this bout. Both are deserving Champions and it's too bad politics got in the way of what could have been a great bout for the unification of such a title. We look forward to the winner facing Randy Pogue for the IKF title in the future.

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