Boxing chiefs in California have suspended Bulgarian heavyweight boxer Kubrat Pulev after he planted a non-consensual kiss on a female reporter and allegedly grabbed her buttocks during a post-match interview.
“Vegas Sports Daily” reporter Jenny SuShe was conducting an on-camera interview with Pulev following his win over Bogdan Dinu on Saturday night when the boxer grabbed her face and kissed her while she delivered her closing comments. In the video, SuShe, whose legal name is Jennifer Ravalo, is seen stepping away from Pulev and looking off camera following the encounter.
On Thursday, SuShe and her attorney Gloria Allred held a press conference regarding the incident which left the reporter “shocked and embarrassed.”
“It made me feel uncomfortable and frustrated that Kubrat Pulev would treat me in such an unprofessional manner,” she states, reading from a prepared speech at the press conference.
Allred says her client “didn’t know how to respond” after the non-consensual kiss, adding Pulev also squeezed her buttocks while she was packing up her things to leave. Pulev allegedly laughed as he did so.
“I did not encourage or consent to Mr. Pulev grabbing my face, kissing me, or grabbing my backside,” SuShe says. “I was there at the event covering the boxing match as a professional member of the press. Kissing a woman on her lips without her consent and grabbing her is not acceptable.”
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After the video of the kiss went viral, Pulev took to Twitter to counter the backlash by claiming he and SuShe are “friends” and that they both laughed it off. However, SuShe disputes his claim that they are friends, saying they had only met the previous day for a pre-fight interview.
SuShe says she did intend to attend the post-fight party following the incident in the hopes of interviewing other boxers. When Pulev arrived, he reportedly acted like “nothing happened,” but later asked her to “remove the kiss from the interview,” according to CNN. SuShe says she declined his request to edit the interview video.
“I did not remove it and instead posted it because I wanted people to see what he had done to me,” she says. “I wanted him to be accountable. I didn’t want him to get away with it. What he did to me was disgusting.”
In the wake of the incident, Pulev has been suspended by the California State Athletic Commission.
“On Tuesday Pulev was notified that, before he will be licensed to fight in California again, he must appear in front of the commission and demonstrate that he conforms to this principle of respect,” the organization said in a statement to CNN.
Pulev has yet to comment on the press conference or his suspension. Since his Twitter post on the “most commented kiss in the world,” he has remained silent, only posting a video of a match on Friday.
