Why I’m hard on Loma, fair or foul?

[Spicoli]

It's very simple why Loma got an alphabet shot in his second fight, there's nothing "shady," no conspiracy, it's how every single fight is made between fighters, promoters and governing body.

Promoters/managers canvass alphabet organisations on behalf of their fighters. The higher profile, the more the org is interested, as the dough they receive (sanction fees) is bigger and the publicity and promotion propels their business .

Loma asked his promoter, Bob, to get a title fight, the WBO and Nevada commission agreed he's safe and competent to challenge no.7 contender Ramirez, he accepted. Loma destroyed him, therefore proving to the WBO he was a worthy challenger for their champion. Salido accepted the challege. The Texas commission approved it. TV company bought it. Worldwide TV bought it. And everyone made a little coin.

If you don't accept that's the norm, feel free to explain how anyone "deserves" a shot at an alphabet?

Maybe because there was already 6 fighters ranked ahead of him the silly alphabet boys deemed worthy of being there when Arum started tossing around his amatuer highlight reel and all that coin. And he lost. Then got an immediate do-over ahead of all. Anyway, it's all history now.

[Fenster]

I can see both sides, but I lean more on the side of waiting for a title shot. The reason why is that there are many other fighters who have been fighting professionally for 5+ years and built their way up to it. It’s unfair to just skip them all.

Another thing is that once you become a star, you start to be able to call the shots. As a fighter, you should have to get through at least 10 guys in order to earn that right.

You can claim that Loma was on that level, but there will always be fringe contenders that give up and comers tough fights. For example, Salido was more known as a fringe contender but through a lot of grit, he won a belt. He could have easily remained a fringe contender. Imagine Loma still fought Salido but Salido didn’t have a belt. Now the story changes. It isn’t that he fought for a title on his second fight but came up short. The story now is that he stepped up a little too soon and needs a few more tune up fights before he fights for a title.

My point is that all fighters should go through a period where they have to fight contenders. I don’t think it’s fair that Loma got to skip all of those contenders that are fighting for their lives to get that shot at the title. There is no guarantee that he would have come out without a loss. Maybe he wouldn’t have, but we should have been able to see how it would have played out.

For sure, in an ideal world that's how boxing would work, everyone would get a fair shake, there'd be a perfect ranking system, unfortunately it's not like that, never has been and never will.

Loma didn't "skip" any contenders, he beat a top ten ranked WBO fighter therefore EARNT his spot in their rankings. Salido, as champion, could have "chosen" anyone in the top 15, he "chose" Loma for obvious reasons.

If Salido wasn't the champion they obviously wouldn't have fought.

[Fenster]

It's very simple why Loma got an alphabet shot in his second fight, there's nothing "shady," no conspiracy, it's how every single fight is made between fighters, promoters and governing body.

Promoters/managers canvass alphabet organisations on behalf of their fighters. The higher profile, the more the org is interested, as the dough they receive (sanction fees) is bigger and the publicity and promotion propels their business .

Loma asked his promoter, Bob, to get a title fight, the WBO and Nevada commission agreed he's safe and competent to challenge no.7 contender Ramirez, he accepted. Loma destroyed him, therefore proving to the WBO he was a worthy challenger for their champion. Salido accepted the challege. The Texas commission approved it. TV company bought it. Worldwide TV bought it. And everyone made a little coin.

If you don't accept that's the norm, feel free to explain how anyone "deserves" a shot at an alphabet?

Maybe because there was already 6 fighters ranked ahead of him the silly alphabet boys deemed worthy of being there when Arum started tossing around his amatuer highlight reel and all that coin. And he lost. Then got an immediate do-over ahead of all. Anyway, it's all history now.

Right, it's just a silly alphabet, it's not like the days of one champion (however, Salido was rated no.2 by The Ring).

Loma "deserved" an immediate shot at their WBO title. Their champion didn't even make weight and he lost a razor thin split decision after being fouled all night.