Jose Sulaiman has resigned as president of the WBC - good riddance!

[Lance Uppercut]

Although Kelly Pavlik is the WBC middleweight champion, and his last defense was against Marco Rubio, the WBC's own mandatory challenger, the WBC has inexplicably created an interim middleweight title which will up for grabs (for a small fee) in the Sebastian Zbik vs Domenico Spada July 11 fight.

source: fightnews.com




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Dan Rafael's blog today at ESPN.COM/Boxing




I won't even get into the fact that the WBC has positioned Oleg Maskaev as the mandatory heavyweight challenger for Vitali Klitschko, even though Maskaev was knocked out by Samuel Peter a year ago to lose the title and since then has earned nothing but a pair of inconsequential wins against guys who wouldn't rank in the top 50.


Today, let's simply take a look at the junior middleweight division, where the WBC has created such nonsensical rankings that upon first look you might think they were just a mistake. Sadly, they aren't.


Vernon Forrest holds the title and Sergio Martinez holds the interim belt, yet the organization has allowed them both to keep fighting others without taking a stand and ordering a direct fight between them. Put that aside for a moment, though, and scroll through the top 10. I can barely get past the top three because they're so horrendous.


No. 1 is Alfredo Angulo. He is one of my favorite prospects and an absolute delight to watch because of his all-action style. But he has yet to fight anyone of serious quality, so to rank him as the No. 1 contender at 154 pounds is simply a joke. Unfortunately, it's not as cruel a joke as the next two so-called contenders.


No. 2 is Ricardo Mayorga, a former titleholder who pulled out of a February HBO bout against Angulo at the last minute, screwing up the card and disappointing a lot of people. But that isn't even the point. Get this: The WBC ranks Mayorga second in the world (I don't have him in the top 10), even though he hasn't won a fight at 154 pounds since a 2005 decision against Michele Piccirillo.


Since that fight four years ago, Mayorga has fought only three times. In those bouts, he is 1-2. He was thrashed and knocked out by Oscar De La Hoya in May 2006, won a decision in a super middleweight fight against the totally shot Fernando Vargas in November 2007, then got drilled by Shane Mosley in September. For these accomplishments, Mayorga deserves the No. 2 rank in the world? Maybe in bizarro world.


No. 3 is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., which is one of the single worst rankings I have ever seen. In any division. In any organization. Ever.
This is clearly just the Mexico-based WBC sucking up to Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., the kid's father and one of the all-time Mexican greats, who held various WBC titles during his career.
To rank Chavez Jr. third in the world is an insult to anyone who believes rankings should be fair. Chavez shouldn't rank in the top 20, and that's being generous.


Chavez Jr. is undefeated, but he has faced nobody of remote quality in his career. Even his own handlers at Top Rank admit to pushing him extraordinarily slowly because he generates enormous money despite his limitations as a fighter. That's fine. Chavez headlines a Top Rank pay-per-view card on Saturday night from Tijuana, Mexico, against the thoroughly obscure Luciano Cuello. It's a card that could be pretty entertaining, but those who are going to buy it will do so because they enjoy watching Chavez fight or because they are interested in undercard bouts involving Fernando Montiel, Humberto Soto and Antonio Diaz.
Nobody -- and I repeat, nobody -- is going to buy the pay-per-view because they believe Chavez is the second coming of his father or will be facing a dangerous, world-class opponent.
Well, nobody except maybe the WBC.

[milmascaras1]

for those of you who hate the WBC and their corrupt business dealings, why don't you just boycott all WBC fights. it doesn't make any sense complaining about them if you continue to watch their fights. so my advice to you is this, boycott all regular HBO/SHOWTIME fights along with PPV events that have any WBC champions or contenders.

[generalbulldog]

I have to say I like Graciano Rocchigiani for basically suing and then bankrupting the WBC and it had to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 04, but the guy was too soft and was encouraged by other boxers to settle out of court with them. I wish he didn't and made the corrupt organization disappear. It was oh so close to forever disappearing. Close but no cigar!

[Nameless]

for those of you who hate the WBC and their corrupt business dealings, why don't you just boycott all WBC fights. it doesn't make any sense complaining about them if you continue to watch their fights. so my advice to you is this, boycott all regular HBO/SHOWTIME fights along with PPV events that have any WBC champions or contenders.

We don't hate the WBC, we hate what Sulaiman made out of it and we just said that boxing could exist without all these sanctioning bodies.

[armin]

"for those of you who hate the WBC and their corrupt business dealings, why don't you just boycott all WBC fights. it doesn't make any sense complaining about them if you continue to watch their fights. so my advice to you is this, boycott all regular HBO/SHOWTIME fights along with PPV events that have any WBC champions or contenders."

Hmmm I'm sure you defending them and standing up for them has nothing to do with them being from mexico...boycotting all those fights would hurt fighters more than the wbc. Sanctioning bodies are like cancerous parasites to boxing they'll do anything to make a buck.

[rjj tszyu]

I've been at Disneyland for the last 4 days and have heard no boxing news whatsoever, so when I read the title of this thread I was surprised but very happy indeed. Only to read through and be disappointed by the news that it is not really true.

Sulaiman is one of the worst men involved in boxing right now if not the worst and the sooner he is gone the better. But one question comes to my mind quite regular! Could boxing ever truly survive or recover to it's former greatness without sanctioning bodies? I'm sad to say I doubt it!! The top dogs (i.e. Mayweather) are too greedy let boxing be run by organisations like the UFC in MMA as he would get paid less due to his undercard being far more stacked and without the top men of the sport any such organisation would never hold any true legitimacy!

In an ideal world the best way forward would be for the 4 major bodies IBF, WBA, WBO and WBC all to merge as one business and have each champion fight one another until each division has one true champion, but with boxing politics the way it is that would be highly unlikely to happen, in the near future anyway. So the only other way for now is to leave it in the hands of the boxers and their promoters to try and unify a division, BUT if one boxer did hold all 4 titles he would then have 4 mandatory challengers a year in theory and that too would be almost impossible to see happening. These organisations have made boxing confusing and are the main reason for some of the top fights not happening. Something needs to be done soon for the sake of boxing, I just don't know what!!

[milmascaras1]

armin,

it doesn't do any good to whine about the WBC because they're not going away, at least not in the near future. again, if you people hate jose sulaiman and the WBC so much then boycott their fights. it's as simple as that. it's like if someone is punching you in the mouth and you don't do anything about it. it doesn't make sense. do i think jose sulaiman is the best person for boxing? hell no. but guess what, he's better than what we've got right now. he's better than the WBA, IBF and WBO combined. so again, if you don't like what sulaiman is doing, don't watch the fights.

[Mctaggert]

[QUOTE=rjj tszyu;915054] In an ideal world the best way forward would be for the 4 major bodies IBF, WBA, WBO and WBC all to merge as one business and have each champion fight one another until each division has one true champion[QUOTE]

I totally agree with this, it would make boxing credible and understandable to the casual sports fan. At the moment being a champion carries little weight compared to the days when there were just one or two belts.

As you say it will probably never happen but if Boxing is to survive it needs to pull in more interest around the world than it is doing at the moment. Yes certain weight divisions are strong, but Natural athletes especially those who could fight in the heavyweight division. Are already going to other sports because they can make more money and go through less pain than to go near Boxing.
It also annoys and sickens me when the belt holders duck each other, I remember at the start of 2010 discussing with my friends (who know the basics of the boxing world) the two big fights that could happen between Haye and the Klitchko's, Maywhether and Pac. Neither have happened and it just makes boxing more farcical in their eyes than ever.

In my opinion a shakeup needs to happen in the next few years before the sport goes beyond the point of no return.

[generalbulldog]

"for those of you who hate the WBC and their corrupt business dealings, why don't you just boycott all WBC fights. it doesn't make any sense complaining about them if you continue to watch their fights. so my advice to you is this, boycott all regular HBO/SHOWTIME fights along with PPV events that have any WBC champions or contenders."

Hmmm I'm sure you defending them and standing up for them has nothing to do with them being from mexico...boycotting all those fights would hurt fighters more than the wbc. Sanctioning bodies are like cancerous parasites to boxing they'll do anything to make a buck.

Just like him defending Margarito for loading his gloves has nothing to do with Margarito being Mexican.

[milmascaras1]

bulldog,

and so what if margarito is mexican? aren't i allowed to be a fan of mexican fighters too? FYI, i'm not only a fan of mexican fighters. i have other favorites as well. anything wrong with that? are you jealous? tell me, what is your problem with me like margarito? i was a fan of his before the scandal and i'll continue to be a fan of his through and through. what's your beef?

[rjj tszyu]

bulldog,

and so what if margarito is mexican? aren't i allowed to be a fan of mexican fighters too? FYI, i'm not only a fan of mexican fighters. i have other favorites as well. anything wrong with that? are you jealous? tell me, what is your problem with me like margarito? i was a fan of his before the scandal and i'll continue to be a fan of his through and through. what's your beef?

Although I have lost a lot respect for Marg, I think you are trying to say that you don't care about the nationality of a fighter, if you like them you like them. Well that I totally agree with, I like fighters for who they are not where they are from!

[generalbulldog]

bulldog,

and so what if margarito is mexican? aren't i allowed to be a fan of mexican fighters too? FYI, i'm not only a fan of mexican fighters. i have other favorites as well. anything wrong with that? are you jealous? tell me, what is your problem with me like margarito? i was a fan of his before the scandal and i'll continue to be a fan of his through and through. what's your beef?

You ain't no fan of boxing homey. You just talked about Mexican fighters and how this Mexican fighter would whoop the other guy just because he's Mexican or an Aztec warrior or something without analyzing styles and other attributes like chin, power, speed, ring tactics, etc. All of your posts contain the same stuff, I'm not the only guy that notices this. And let's be honest you're defending the slime ball Sulaiman and Margarito because they are the same ethnicity as you are. Other posters noticed it too as well. Take that kind of stuff to eastside or boxingscene.