The Science of 8 Limbs

By Mike LNg

John Cockburn Tours China

When news first came out about the former President of Australian Muay Thai John Cockburn being expelled from his post the uproar among citizens of the Australian Muay Thai world was immediate.  Rumors began circulating about John Cockburn’s exit and the circumstances surrounding it.  It resulted in letters surfacing with communiques between Stephan Fox and John Cockburn much of which was less than flattering to the World Muay Thai Council (WMC) vice-president and International Federation Muaythai Amateur (IFMA) General Secretary Stephan Fox.

John Cockburn had no means of disputing rumors in a public forum so I have elected to give him the space to answer these questions in a public format.  I of course invite anyone from WMC to respond as well. My email contact is accessible from the about me page. In this segment Cockburn explains the specific issues he had with WMC and policy that resulted in his unexpected exit from Australian Muaythai Federation.

Question: I have seen on the WMC website Mr Fox’s gym being advertised as the WMC Gym. I have also seen an advert for the MTG Fight night – MTG is Mr Fox’s boxing brand label. Is this appropriate?

Answer: I have never seen any agreement authorizing such arrangements. The average person looking at the website would believe the WMC gym is run for the benefit of the WMC – not Mr Fox and his partner/s. Having a TV show named as Mr Fox’s own brand of equipment – looks very very poor. The TV show is to be aired in Australia but the 1st our Federation became aware of it was when an advertorial appeared in the International Kickboxer magazine – no notice to our national board – very tacky behaviour in my view.

I have seen letters where you are very concerned about the potential for conflicts of position and interest with Mr Fox.

The basis of my concern is that if you hold a position in an organization – the duty to that position must be paramount to your own interests. If there is to be a mixing of your position and your own commercial position there must be full disclosure and agreement by the organization to such mixing. I have never seen any evidence of such disclosure obligations having been met. If you visit Mr. Fox’s office you see a sign on the door saying WMC but when you walk in, there are MTG as well WMC staff and MTG gear being packed for shipping.

I have never seen an international sporting body which has its Secretary General star in a reality TV show but you can see why some IFMA Board Members are reluctant to speak up to get issues resolved.

IFMA/WMC has no named sponsors – look at the website. They do not have commercial/ strategic plans. In fact I don’t remember seeing audited financial accounts for the IFMA or the WMC presented to the Boards which is very disturbing. I say this not to accuse Mr Fox of impropriety with funds but simply to highlight how important it is to have proper disclosure of interests when he operates as a commercial operator in muaythai activities but also holds senior roles.

It was common knowledge just from reading the IFMA and WMC website you worked very closely with Mr Fox – why the problem with you?

I held the view that IFMA had involved itself in some sharp if not unlawful activities and was not operating according to proper corporate governance standards. I also took the view some of its dealings were inconsistent with the best interests of our member countries and the interests of the national Federation in Australia. As Secretary General/VP to the WMC Mr Fox.

The most basic example was when Mr .Fox refused to provide me with a current copy of the WMC Constitution. This was important because a letter had been sent out from the WMC headquarters saying that the national federations (NFs) of the IFMA were not members of the WMC and the WMC would operate directly with promoters across the world as it saw fit. You only need to look at the WMC website to see it holds out the NFs as its draw card for international recognition. I asked a number of our senior IFMA International Executive who confirmed they had never seen a recent constitution. The only 1 that existed had the IFMA as a sub committee of the WMC. Mr Fox found out about my concerns and then accused me of starting a conspiracy against him. As of today still no constitution and your guess is as good as mine as to who are the members of the WMC.

Give me an example of sharp practices

Until I put my foot down, at the World Championships, Mr Fox would have the Australian team compete for another 4 or 5 countries that did not send athletes – he did this to make it sound like IFMA had bigger championships.

Another example was when I discovered he was falsely telling a World Kickboxing  Network (WKN) promoter that I was using my influence as a lawyer to block a visa for a competitor from Belarus entering Australia to compete against John Wayne Parr for the WKN world title.

There were continual claims that IFMA membership far exceeded what it really was. Even at the last World Championships we were advised there were only paid up national membership of just over 60 countries. Mr Fox continues to hold out IFMA membership is over 120 countries. Having a gym in a country which says they support the WMC/IFMA isn’t a national federation member.

Another most embarrassing incident for IFMA President, Dr.Tapsuwan, was when Mr Fox went behind his back and agreed to Muslim girls from a number of countries not being required to wear the IFMA proper uniform. Dr.Tapsuwan only found out about it when the athletes were presented for competition and he refused to let them compete. Mr. Fox then tells me that he told Dr.Sakchye he would take all the IFMA members across to the World Muay Thai Federation (WMF). I then have to go and broker an arrangement to allow them to compete with Dr.Sakchye when I should have simply let Mr Fox’s deceit take its course.

Dr. Tapsuwan

There was an issue about visas?

Mr Fox was approaching embassies in Bangkok with a very senior Thai official and attempting to coerce local Thai staff in the embassies into refusing visas for athletes to compete in non WMC events outside Thailand. There are emails confirming this. This is a very fundamental breach of the UN Charter of Human Rights. It isn’t up to a sporting organization to interfere with visas particularly when it would interfere with an athlete’s ability to earn their income.

Mr Fox wanted my ”jpeg” signature for the files so he could use it on letters in support of this practice and I refused.

What about Mr Fox interfering in Australia?

This has been an ongoing problem which started when our National Board resolved to approach Fox Sports directly in 2006. At that time Mr Fox’s good friend Mark Castagnini held the contract with Fox Sports which was worth a lot of money. It was our Board’s intention to start negotiations with Fox Sports directly with the aim of essentially cutting out the middle man and having the money find its way into the sport and particularly our athletes’ pockets. Anyway Castagnini was told, he rings Mr. Fox and Mr. Fox rings me for over ½ an hour from Bangkok giving me a tirade about how important Castagnini was to the sport and even telling me Castagnini had, had a gun put in his mouth in support of the sport.

It has always been my position that Castagnini should have a role as a celebrity commentator and be paid for that but not have him be in a position to control what muaythai would appear on Fox Sports.

What is the relationship between Castagnini and Mr Fox?

Castagnini and Mr. Fox have run annual 2 week tours to Thailand for over 10 years which Mr Fox has told me is worth $500 per student to him. Castagnini’s magazine provides what, to me, is really no more than advertorial support of Mr Fox and his commentary on Fox Sports is very often further advertorial support of Mr Fox. Mr Fox was best man at Castagnini’s weeding several years ago. I have seen an email where Castagnini implores Mr Fox to get him the role as commentator for the final of the Contender Asia series which did eventuate.

I believe Mr Fox was instrumental in having Castagnini commentate the Tyrone Spong/ Nathan Corbett bout which was very embarrassing to Australian muaythai when Castagnini seemingly lost control and commentated his offer to fight Spong’s manager.

Mr Fox has even taken Castagnini to Kazakhstan and had him sit with the Kazak Prime Minister.

I take it Castagnini doesn’t send you Christmas Cards?

He seemed to think I am his enemy rather than the President of an organization looking to look after the interests of its members. He seems to think that his loyalty to and friendship with Mr Fox puts him in some special position beyond being a commercial operator.

Why is Fox so concerned about Australia?

Mr.Fox still travels on a German passport but his wife and child live in Perth Western Australia and he has permanent residence in Australia. Mr. Fox established the Australian federation and I think he still thinks he is responsible for Muaythai’s growth in Australia – even though he hasn’t lived here for 10 years.

How is muaythai in Australia at the moment?

At the elite athlete level we are very strong and we are having regular large promotions but at the grassroots level the sport the sport has now stalled.

In May 2009 we successfully compete muaythai as part of the Arafura Games. July 2009 we are accepted into the Australian Sports Commission as a national sporting organization which means muaythai is now recognized as a sport for funding etc by government. This put us at the forefront of countries outside Asia and Europe as being recognized by our government. Countries like England, Canada, USA and New Zealand are not recognized.

I am aware that your long standing national coach Joe Hilton and your Doctor resigned earlier this year.

So did our Queensland President, our replacement national coach, our Secretary General and our Sports Administrator. The Board became dysfunctional in my view because of continued communications from Fox. I resigned eventually because the Finance Director on the Board wouldn’t withdraw from his position when it was established he didn’t hold the requisite period of membership to hold office. This was even after we paid for a barrister’s advice which confirmed he couldn’t stay on the Board. It was open for me to take court proceedings to force the issue but I decided it was time for those left on the Board to have a go at moving the sport forward without my assistance.

The Federation also had very high powered educational and indigenous liaison officers who were senior in Government and who were actively supporting major initiatives we were planning. They both have now withdrawn their support of the Federation

I have seen letters where Fox challenged your re-election.

That’s correct. Mr Fox, as I have already indicated, in my view, has little concern for or knowledge of corporate governance. Even after we obtained a barrister’s opinion that confirmed the election was in order he still disputed my election. I think it was more a matter that he didn’t want me re-elected ( this was prior to my expulsion from the IFMA).

He then went and alleged that I had not sent out voting papers/notice of the meeting to our members. This straight away blew up in his face because he apparently didn’t understand that it is the role of the Sec Gen to post out meeting/voting materials and he was thereby alleging our Sec Gen was involved in a conspiracy with me. My election was uncontested by any other candidate so it was a stupid thing to try and make an issue of.

Fox’s home state of West Australia is now the home to the WKN and WBC in Australia?

True. If you take out Qld then nearly all major international events are run by bodies other than the WMC. In 2008 Mr Fox started dealing directly with some people in West Australia as if they were not only members of but Executive members of the Australian Federation. Neither had held membership of the federation. I objected to his interference and Mr Fox became quite irrational and even wrote open communications as if they already held roles on our national executive

I eventually had to write to the Chairman of the West Australia Combat Sports Board on a confidential basis to ensure the Govt was not confused by these people holding out Mr Fox’s letters as legitimizing their alleged role with the national and world bodies. Mr Fox became aware of same and made threats of violence against me.

On another occasion he met with them and next thing we know they have established an organization known as the Australian Muaythai Federation (which was the name Mr Fox told them was to be the new name of our Federation after our acceptance into the Australian Sports Commission). I’m not suggesting Mr Fox told them to do that but the reality was that his dealing with them placed us in a very awkward position and he confused the WA gyms as to who was who.

It seems to me that there may be further questions to be asked.

As I said I was happy to have accepted the umpire’s decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport but since IFMA was not but prepared to do the honorable thing then I am happy to deal with issues publicly. I have already been subject to various threats of violence and otherwise as a result of having raised my concerns.

Posted in Interviews
Tags: Australia, john Cockburn, Muay Thai, WMC

By  Mike LNg

John Cockburn former Australian Muay Thai president

When news first came out about the former President of Australian Muay Thai John Cockburn being expelled from his post the uproar among citizens of the Australian Muay Thai world was immediate.  Rumors began circulating about John Cockburn’s exit and the circumstances surrounding it.  It resulted in letters surfacing with communiques between Stephan Fox and John Cockburn much of which was less than flattering to the World Muay Thai Council (WMC) Vice-President and International Federation Muaythai Amateur (IFMA) General Secretary Stephan Fox.

John Cockburn had no means of disputing rumors in a public forum so I have elected to give him the space to answer these questions in a public format.  I of course invite anyone from WMC to respond as well. My email contact is accessible from the about me page.

The interview with John Cockburn is in 2 parts and this is the first of those parts. In this part John Cockburn details some of the causes for the dispute between he and Stephan Fox and some of the interworkings of IFMA and WMC as well as the details leading up to Cockburn’s exit from the Australia Muaythai Federation.

Question – Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed John.

John Cockburn – No problem. Given that International Muay Thai Federation Amateur (IFMA) wouldn’t agree to have my expulsion reviewed by the international court for sport as the independent arbitrator I am comfortable answering questions. The expulsion was really about Mr Fox having to shoot the messenger. I am still very good friends with many of the IFMA Board but IFMA needs to be able to properly govern itself if it wishes to be a true international sporting body.

I had asked for an independent inquiry into a number of serious irregularities in relation to the governance of the IFMA and WMC so the best they could do was to shoot the messenger.  You have the letter calling for the Inquiry.

Why wouldn’t they agree to have the expulsion reviewed?

That is really a question for Mr Fox but I can say that my appeal would expose the wrongdoings I allege against Mr Fox. Equally the disciplinary process was so badly flawed it was embarrassing for all concerned. Mr Fox  talks up IFMA’s mission for IOC acceptance but when its gets its 1^st opportunity to act like an IOC sport and have its decisions  scrutinized by the court for sport –  it refuses. This is particularly worrying when the complaints against me were made by Mr Fox and I had openly expressed my concerns that he had involved the IFMA in improper activities and he had acted against the interests of our Australian federation.

It seems to me to be a very serious thing to expel an organization’s Vice President and Chair of its Legal Commission.

Ordinarily it would represent some form of major scandal having occurred. If I was advising the IFMA I would have advised that the exact allegations should have been disclosed publicly and independent lawyers brought in. The most senior lawyer in the IFMA Legal Commission was not even asked to assist. IFMA even had non English speaking/reading people form part of the Judiciary Committee.

What were the actual complaints against you?

I’ll give you the complaint or charges documents and you can post them up if you wish. The documents really amount to meaningless verbiage. While I do disciplinary work in my legal practice, I engaged both a barrister and lawyer at my own expense to act for me.  They suggested the “charges” were drafted by someone trying to impersonate a lawyer’s language.

Did IFMA have its own lawyer?

Certainly – 1 of IFMA’s own people – though I would be very surprised if he was responsible for the very poor documents that were sent to me. Unfortunately when my lawyers wrote to the IFMA lawyer seeking clarification of the charges and pointing out some difficulties the IFMA lawyer would not respond. I eventually met with the lawyer at the world championships – the day before the world meeting (by accident)  and he told me that he was under no responsibility to communicate with them and he refused to talk with them. Hardly openness and transparency.

Is that legal?

Not illegal but bordering on an abuse of the process – especially when he was dealing with me as the long standing international Vice President and the Chair of the Legal Commission. I had asked for an independent lawyer to be brought in to avoid the process looking bad because of perceived influence by Mr Fox. A General Secretary making complaints about the organization’s own lawyer would be exactly the sort of matter where an independent lawyer should be brought in. I even wrote and asked that an independent Inquiry be established into my various concerns but that letter was not even responded to.

Why do you say influence?

In mid 2009 Mr Fox had written to me and others saying that if I was not expelled from the IFMA he would resign from the IFMA ( this was well before any issues that I was “charged” with). Mr Fox has telephoned another member of the Legal Commission – a very senior lawyer – asking that he get me to resign from both the IFMA and the Australian Federation. He refused and then rang and told me what had happened. Mr Fox has never spoken to him since. Mr Fox also spoke to our other Australian IFMA Executive Board member trying to influence him to get me to resign and Mr Fox was told to butt out of Australian muaythai affairs.

The other Australian IFMA Executive Board member was then cut out of all communications from IFMA Head Office and wasn’t invited to any IFMA meetings. The Australian federation complained about this a number of times but never received a response from Mr Fox.

So Mr Fox was telling you that he would have you expelled in mid 2009 but it took until mid 2010 for that to happen?

That’s right. Even worse was that the “charges” that I was expelled for seemingly related to conduct in January and February 2010 – 9 months after he was already telling people I had to be expelled. Very strange.

You say the charges against you were not proper charges but you must have some idea what they related to.

As best I can understand it there were 2 issues about me having to speak to other muaythai bodies. Bear in mind that I never received any documents or statements for me to know what the issues were.

The 1^st was when I found out that Mr Fox had advised the WKN Australian promoter that I was trying to use my power as a lawyer to block the WKN Wayne Parr World Title fight. I wrote to the WKN promoter and advised him this was not the case and I was very disappointed by Mr Fox’s allegations against me.  In fact Mr Fox should have been subject to disciplinary action for making such false claims which he has never sought to dispute.

The 2^nd was when I responded to a letter offering support from the WMF Sec General, Master Woody who I had never met or spoken with before. I said to him that I was disappointed I had been charged by  IFMA and would let him know the outcome of the court for sport proceedings which I believed would have to occur to clear my name.

You have both documents – please make them public if you see fit.

Stephan Fox, Vice President of WMC and IFMA General Secretary

Is that it? Surely there must be more to it.

That’s it. Please ask Mr Fox. Look the whole thing was a charade and a circus because I had challenged what I saw as falsifications in our membership claims, irregular  practices and a lack of proper protocols in the way IFMA and WMC operated. Moreover the Australian federation was starting to look to take up a direct media position and this cut across how Mr Fox saw how muaythai was to be presented in Australia. Mr Fox had even secretly emailed ( and not to our Federation) to the major promoters in Australia saying that he would arrange a meeting  between them, the current middle men and Fox Sports.

You have said the whole disciplinary process was farcical. How so?

I’ll list the problems as a chronology. I have provided you with the letter where I state same fore expansively.

1. They send me a letter which obviously has found me guilty of misconduct without even asking me for my comments/explanation.

2. There is some nature of report about me prepared that the IFMA Board and I never saw. I was never asked to answer any questions about what may have been in the report

3. There was an IFMA Executive Board meeting held to deal with the issue ( amongst other things) but no agenda for the meeting was ever sent out. This of itself invalidates the whole process. I challenged that there was no agenda and the only person who says they ever saw the agenda was Mr Fox. I have emails from IFMA Executive members saying they never saw an agenda. I have a video of the start of the meeting which you can show if you wish. I was refused the right to video the meeting because the IFMA lawyer says they do not want to air dirty laundry publicly.

4. I went to table several documents at the IFMA Board meeting and Mr Fox snatched them away from me and refuses to neither distribute them to the meeting nor return them to me.

5. I was refused the right to speak to the Board.

6. When I am charged no statements or documents against me are ever produced – especially the agenda notice I have spoken about

7.  After the lawyer for IFMA becomes aware of me raising allegations against Mr Fox with the Thai IOC member and that the Thai IOC member being critical of Mr Fox the IFMA lawyer then admits there is an investigation underway. Within a day he then sends me another letter saying there is no investigation underway. Very bizarre.

Why do you say Mr Fox is able to exert inappropriate influence over the IFMA Board?

The IFMA Executive has only there are a limited number of “independent” Board members – by this I mean members whose livelihoods are not dependent upon their muaythai activities. There are others who are only figureheads. Then there are other notionally “independent” Board members but through a lack of understanding of English are not able to perform a full Board role and are essentially reliant upon Mr Fox’s advices. There is no attempt by IFMA itself  to assist their understanding of what is said at meetings. Equally no proper papers in respect of what is to be dealt with at Board meetings are provided to Board members in advance of meetings. Then there are a number of commercially focused Board members who are reliant upon Mr Fox to ensure access to visas for athletes and assisting them with matchmaking. No headline international athlete –  no major promotion. Equally many of those who want Thai trainers to come to their country are dependent upon Mr Fox either making visa arrangements for them or having letters of support from the WMC/IFMA. Some of these people are heavily dependent upon the WMC “brand”.

Much thanks goes to John Cockburn for responding and telling his side of the story.  As always I invite the WMC, Fox, or any of the head generals to respond as well. In part 2 of this interview John Cockburn explains what specific issues were in dispute in regards to IFMA, WMC and the conflicts that arose specifically about policy.

Posted in Interviews
Tags: Australia, john Cockburn, Muay Thai, WMC