Maltese boxing authorities have come out swinging against reports in the British media that local regulations are "more lax" than those in the UK.

British tabloids reported on Monday that a man convicted of viciously attacking a father-of-two, causing his death, had sidestepped UK boxing regulations by getting a licence to fight in Malta.

Former soldier James MacDonald served five-and-half years for manslaughter after getting involved in a car park attack that led to a man dying of head injuries.

MacDonald subsequently received his licence from the Malta Boxing Commission, having been denied one by UK boxing's governing body, the British Boxing Board of Control.

Confusingly, the Malta Boxing Commission is not Malta's nationally-recognised boxing body. That title belongs to the Sport Malta-recognised Malta Boxing Association, an MBC breakaway organisation that is also a member of the European Boxing Union.

Papers like the Daily Mail and Birmingham Mail said MacDonald had managed to obtain a licence in Malta because rules here were "more lax" than UK ones.

But the heads of both the MBC and MBA have angrily denied that allegation, albeit for different reasons.

MBC chief Gianluca di Caro confirmed that they had issued a licence to MacDonald, but insisted the decision had nothing to do with rules being less stringent.

"People who serve their time should be given a chance to get back on their feet," Mr di Caro told Times of Malta. "Boxing has proven time and time again to be a positive way for offenders to become fully integrated back into society."

MacDonald (left) poses with his bout rival Vincent, with the latter's gloves sporting the scrawl 'BIBA'.

Only those who had been convicted of violent crimes against women or children were precluded from applying for an MBC licence, he said.

He insisted the MBC's regulations were "superior" to those of the UK governing body's when it came to issues of boxer health and safety.

'Our rules are a copy and paste of UK ones' - MBA

Although the MBC chief defended the decision to issue MacDonald with a licence, the CEO of its rival Malta Boxing Association said the call was giving Maltese boxing a bad name.

"The MBC is a pirate organisation," MBA CEO Marc James told Times of Malta.

Mr James said regulations for the MBA he ran were "a copy and paste job" of those of the British Boxing Board of Control, which had rejected MacDonald's application.

"Our licence regulations are as stringent as they come," the MBA chief said. "It is totally unacceptable for Maltese boxing to be denigrated in this way."

"The MBA is recognised by Sport Malta and is a full member of the EBU. If other pirate organisations want to operate outside of official circles, that's fine, but we will not recognise their fighters' records or allow them to compete at European level."

In the confusing alphabet soup of worldwide boxing federations, Mr James' charge of the MBC "operating outside official circles" is on the harsh side.   

Unlike many other sports, boxing lacks one unified governing body, with rival licensing organisations with their own sets of rules and entry requirements. Even at the sport's highest levels, boxers compete for titles belonging to at least four major organisations - the IBF, WBO, WBA and WBC.

For the past years, local boxing has been caught up in a vortex of political infighting between the MBC and the MBA, with the two organisations regularly trading verbal blows.

Bad blood between the two organisations has a long history, with the MBA - originally a splinter group created by wantaway MBC members - having replaced the MBC as an EBU member.

Despite the 'Malta' in its title, the MBC is a UK-registered firm with an address in Lancashire and two British nationals - Mr di Caro as managing director and former Floriana FC president Stephen James Vaughan as a director - at its helm.