Lack of organization and late start frustrates boxers at Azalea Festival Tournament

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Sunday’s boxing event at the Azalea Festival in Wilmington started 86 minutes late. What appeared to be a lack of organization left a sour taste in the mouth of several parents, coaches and boxers. “People need to know this organization is a joke, the Azalea Boxing Festival,” Laz Morgan, a parent of a boxer said. “I flew all the way from California just to make this. It hurts the kids, parents are here and it’s hurting everybody. Money is being spent to be out here, and you come out and the organization is not up to par. It kills you.”

With 170 boxers on the boxing card this weekend, some people said, if anything, they should have started early. It turns out it was just the opposite. Sunday’s boxing action started 86 minutes late at 3:26pm instead of 2pm. A lot of folks were more than restless. “Wilmington is an amazing place, I travel all over the word for boxing events,” New England boxing coach Paul Iannuzzi told WWAY. “The only concern I had here is it was a little disorganized, they need more helping hands, more volunteers. Why not use a computer instead of paper and a copy machine? It would have been better to bring it up to the 2000’s”

Andre Thompson is the event coordinator for the Azalea Festival Boxing. “Some boxers forgot to weigh in this morning,” Thompson told WWAY. “That threw some things off, and you had some inexperienced coaches who had never been to a big tournament.” Even if that’s true, should that be enough to start nearly 90 minutes late? A handful of boxers said they won’t come back to Wilmington. The event just wasn’t organized enough for them to return.