Untrue allegations on Malta boxing fight

With respect to your story ‘Scott Dixon’s boxing gala cancelled after Swedish promoter ‘runs off’ with event money’ of 27 September, I would like to declare that I took no money, nor left Malta. I am innocent of these charges.

There were no ticket sales. The only tickets sold were by Scott Dixon and Ramona McArthur, who gave away 170 VIP tickets to boxers to sell, instead of paying them for the fight. They are not famous fighters so they should not even get paid.

I have not sold one ticket, and have tickets left and a screenshot of online sales by Shows Happening. When they gave away 170 VIP tickets the budget totally crashed. And there were 710 seats instead of 1,200 that were in the budget. 

Scott Dixon was the one who asked me to be Co-promoter for the event, and I saw a chance to show off some of Team Jerry Salo’s fighters and artists. 

Dixon himself was supposed to feature on Friday in a fight against Steffen Sparborth for the World Boxing Union (WBU) Middleweight Championship, in what was supposed to be the last match of his long and successful boxing career.

But Dixon is banned from boxing after not doing a drug test after losing his last fight. And the fight on 30th September was not sanctioned by any organisation. So this fight is not legal.

When I met my lawyer, he recommended that I cancel the event from my end. While Dixon said his team invested €10,000 as seed money for the event, it would be nice to see where this money came from, because nothing was paid for posters and tickets. So where did this money go? I got invoices for €17,500 for the Hilton conference centre, which Dixon said was free; and my team in Sweden paid for all the flights for Swedish fighters.

My only job was to get sponsors but nobody wanted anything to do with Scott Dixon and Ramona McArthur. Dixon did not give me any money, and I told him and McArthur that everyone had to sign for all the tickets given away so we would know where they are and how much money they have. This was not done and there was no control over cost or money.

With Dixon’s criminal record, no sanction from a boxing organisation, banned from fighting, and money missing from previous events, this got me thinking. I left Malta on 4 October after speaking to my lawyers. I have no money from that event because no tickets were sold.

I really hope Scott Dixon holds this event to make things right for the people he sold tickets to. I wish them good luck, but I will not be involved in any way in this.

Jerry Salo
Sweden