NIR Sadeh described last Saturday's fight night at CedarBridge Academy as a roaring success.

But he would do. He was the promoter.

And if the crowd was a big as we're led to believe - estimated by Sadeh to have numbered around 500 - then there was likely a tidy profit to be made, particularly as none of the boxers, as amateurs, would have been entitled to pay.

Yet what seems to have gone unmentioned is that if organisers had adhered strictly to the rules of amateur boxing, then in all likelihood there wouldn't have been any card at all.

Several of the fights - and this information came from the organisers themselves - were total mismatches as boxers in completely different weight divisions were thrown into the ring together.

In one case, a heavyweight came up against a light middleweight - the difference was more than 30 pounds. Making it an even bigger mismatch was the fact that the boxers wore gloves of different size and weight.

No surprise what happened there. The smaller guy ended up flat on his back on the canvas in the first round.

In another case, a boxer was counted out and taken to hospital for scans, again having given away several pounds - 18 to be exact - to his opponent.

It was, in effect, a welterweight taking on a middleweight.

In another bout a light welterweight came face to face with a middleweight.

Those kind of mismatches aren't simply unfair. They're downright dangerous.

Boxing is a risky sport at the best of times, even with the fighters evenly matched and wearing headguards.

It becomes increasingly dangerous, almost criminally negligent on the part of the organisers, when boxers - regardless of their eagerness to fight - enter the ring with such an enormous weight disadvantage.

One has to ask whether the sport's local governing body, Bermuda Amateur Boxing Association, were aware of these discrepancies, and if they were why the fights weren't prevented from taking place.

It's understood that the card was sanctioned by BABA.

Twenty years ago boxing was a hugely popular sport in Bermuda with the likes of Olympic medallist Clarence Hill, Troy Darrell and Quinn Paynter attracting packed houses to regular Saturday night cards at BAA gym.

But as the programme at Pembroke Youth Centre - where most of the young pugilists honed their skills - fell away, so the sport slipped into a sharp decline.

Apart from the odd Police and Teachers Rugby Club card, which might provide entertainment but generally a woeful standard of boxing, there's been little interest in the sport in recent years.

If Sadeh wants to reestablish the sport and promote international as well as domestic cards as he has indicated this week, then good luck to him. Certainly, the Island appears still to have plenty of fight fans and many would love to see boxing back on the calendar.

But at this time it's clear that Bermuda simply doesn't have sufficient boxers with sufficient talent to put on a full card of fairly contested fights.

Nobody can dispute Sadeh or the boxers' enthusiasm. But the programme has to be developed carefully and cautiously.

The last thing Bermuda needs is a ring fatality - of which there have been far too many in countries elsewhere - to get that message across.

- ADRIAN ROBSON