A FURIOUS war of words has broken out after a leading promoter was banned from staging boxing nights at Dudley Concert Hall over council crowd safety concerns.

The prestigious St James's Road venue has been a top venue for Midlands boxing over the last few years with numerous high-profile fight nights.

But now council bosses have pulled the plug on boxing events run by promoter Paul PJ' Rowson claiming "crowd safety and over capacity" at previous events.

Under Rowson, Dudley was starting to blossom thanks to the likes of Priory fighter Darren McDermott .

The superstar boxer, nicknamed the Black Country Bodysnatcher', was even in action at the venue in front of the Sky Sports TV cameras last year.

But starting next month he has decided to move all of his boxing nights from Dudley to Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

Angry Paul, who has staged events at the site between October 2003 and June last year, has fought back against the controversial decision.

He said: "What a shame for Dudley.

"The town has not got a lot of sports things. The boxing in Dudley was always well supported.

"I spent a number of years building Dudley back into a well respected boxing venue. It is one of the great halls in the country.

"I have been promoting shows in there for years and we've never had any problems or issues there at all. It's always gone quite well.

"It seems such a shame that after building it up that no serious reasons why boxing can't continue. I feel sorry for all of the boxers concerned.

"The bottom line is Dudley's loss is Wolverhampton's gain.

"We were going from strength to strength at Dudley and we were doing up to six shows a year."

Heavyweight fighter Neil Perkins, who has trained at near-by Priory Park Boxing Club for the last five years, said: "It's disappointing, I was due to make my professional debut there.

"I've boxed for Priory Park for the last five years, I have family in Dudley, its always nice to have a home show."

A council spokesperson said: "Dudley Council has a responsibility to ensure all events at the borough's halls are properly organised and run to a high, professional standard.

"A number of concerns, however, were raised relating to the running and management of recent events organised by Mr Rowson, particularly relating to crowd safety and over capacity.

"Every attempt has been made to improve the standard but, despite meeting several times withy the organiser, these concerns have not been fully addressed and we have not been convinced they will be addressed in the future.

"We have therefore taken the decision not to allow further hires by Mr Rowson.

"This does not mean the end of boxing at Dudley Concert Hall.

"The venue regularly hosts amateur boxing events and will continue to welcome professional, well organised and safe boxing events in the future."

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