‘Don’t cry wolf then dance with the wolf’: Johnny Nelson defends boxer suspended over sexual assault allegations

Sheffielder Johnny Nelson, former boxing world champion, called the allegations “foolish” and said it “makes a mockery” of women following careers in the sport.

It comes after Kubrat Pulev, heavyweight boxer, was suspended by the California State Athletic Commissioner for forcefully kissing a female reporter on the lips during an interview.

Pulev denied the reporter had taken offence saying they were friends, despite only meeting for the first time the day before. He also tried to defend himself by saying ‘she’s not my type’.

Pulev’s team later posted a video of the reporter sat on the lap of Pulev’s teammate at their post-fight after party, hours after the kiss had happened. Mr Nelson says this has contradicted her claims.

Mr Nelson’s opinions were made clear in a video posted by iFL TV on YouTube where he reacts to the news for the first time.

In the video he goes on to say: “You see what you see. For women that have been sexually assaulted, like properly sexually assaulted, that lady is doing none of them any favours at all, she’s putting them back 10, 20 years. Don’t cry wolf when the next minute you’re dancing with the wolf in his dressing room.

“She doesn’t seem as shocked or shook up as she’s now trying to claim she was.

“The main issue is going to be that there are a lot of young women trying to get into boxing so when a woman does this which clearly contradicts what they’re trying to say and do, it’s not doing females any favours whatsoever.

“Any judge with any common sense would say ‘get out of my courtroom’, I can’t see that anybody will sit there and say ‘yeah, you’re right girl, go for it’.

“She’s making a mockery of the whole set up. Girls are trying to be reporters, fight and be legit in our sport and something like that is just blowing it straight out of the water.“The man shouldn’t have gone to kiss her or say they’ll be friends or whatever. But she didn’t seem that devastated.”

Jenny ‘SuShe’ Ravalo said she was “humiliated” by the kiss and has since hired Gloria Allred, a high-profile lawyer specialising in sexual assault cases, to represent her.

The CSAC released a statement announcing Pulev has been suspended, which read: “Before he will be licensed to fight in California again, boxer Kubrat Pulev must appear in front of the commission and demonstrate that he will conform to this principle of respect.”