what was the punch over?... some of the british officials want a good smacking
I`ll copy and paste what Peter Mcgough wrote on ironage a few years ago about what happened that night,i was at the show but had just left the building.The following day a night was arranged to meet all the pro`s at the Weider gym and Samir was banned from attending.But he turned up anyway and no-one stopped him.
The altercation between Samir Bannout and John Martin happened at the 1990 English Grand Prix staged at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. It was after the contest. Samir finished sixth and thought he had been robbed. He came out into the deserted auditorium (except for officials and venue workers) and asked promoter John Martin if he could see the score sheets. John was onstage with Wayne DeMilia talking to the Royal Concert Hall manager about arrangements for the next year. John gave the sheets to Samir who basically looked at them and then threw them away, and started to kick a few chairs around in disgust. John asked him to stop whereupon Samir leapt on the stage and whacked John on the jaw with a looping right hand. John staggered a little and was hampered by a large shoulder bag he was holding. He started to put the bag down when Selwyn Cotterill intervenened and basically picked Samirr up and carried him offstage. Later Samir profusely apologized, but he was suspended from the remainder of that tour. John was 6'5", around 265 pounds and a very strong dude.
I was at the contest and reported what happened in the mag I worked for and in the months that followed and the next time I saw him Samir disputed what I reported. In fact Samir and I had many running battles over the years but today we laugh about it. Interestingly enough Samir was at Weider HQ last week and brought up the John Martin incident and he still disputes what I wrote.
