Banned Noundou denies hitting Abdul, claims UST star challenged him to a fight

FORMER Far Eastern University player Pipo Noundou has denied hitting a University of Santo Tomas player during a scuffle that led to the UAAP board’s decision to ban him from league venues this season.

Reacting to a Spin.ph story about his season ban, Noundou said that he never even touched a player, much less hit someone in the head, when he had an exchange of words with UST star Karim Abdul during the incident that nearly led to a melee after the Tamaraws’ 77-67 victory over UST on July 21.

“I’ll never hit someone's head,” said Noundou. “Even before as a player (I never did it), what more as a spectator? I’m an educated person and I was raised by good parents.”

The UAAP board made the decision to ban Noundou based on an incident report submitted by UST, which claimed that Noundou hit Abdul at the back of the head. (For full story on UAAP decision, see Former Tamaraw banned from UAAP cage venues for rest of season)

Noundou claimed otherwise, saying he was far away from Abdul when he confronted the latter for what he felt was a cheap shot by the UST player on FEU center Christian Sentcheu, who is Noundou's cousin.

He has vowed to appeal the ban.

Here's how the Cameroonian center recounted the incident: “I was 15 feet away from him when I said, ‘Hey Karim, I saw what you did to Christian. Don’t think you will get away that easy.'”

Noundou said that was the time Abdul challenged him to a fight.

“He started reacting like, ‘You want to fight? Come now, let’s fight,’” said Noundou. “I told him, ‘I’ll wait for you outside.’ All his coaches started overreacting. That’s it.”

Noundou said that Abdul has since apologized to him and Sentcheu. He, however, doesn’t understand why the UAAP banned him.

“I’m just a spectator and I didn’t enter the court,” he said.

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