Should the voluntary defense rule be changed ?!?

[Deanrw]

Very true. The Alphabet soup are motivated by money, there is no question about that. You can look at the Kessler/Miranda soap opera recently. Miranda jumped from #9 to #2 via the WBA for doing nothing. On the surface, it looks like the WBA is doing a good thing to try to make the fight happen for the belt Kessler wanted. If you look deeper though, they were cutting someone else off who worked hard for their own ranking. Money makes the world of boxing go round for sure.

Exactly. If looking only at that 168 WBA ranking, you could also point out Nader Hamdan, who mysteriously appeared as no. 15 despite no recent wins (he looked absolutely terrible in a 8 round shutout to Mads Larsen prior to this), or Sam Soliman who suddenly appeared as no. 14 without any noticeable recent wins either.

However, both had already secured dates with Mundine _before_ appearing in the rankings. Coincidence?

hehe yeah. Gotta love them. Others are just as bad. Look at the WBO as another one with deep pockets that Frank Warren keeps filling.

[killersheep]

I think it should be top 5 and I also think the commisions should recognize champs from other commisions, that way a unification match and mandatory could be one and the same.