The World Boxing Association in its infinite wisdom will reportedly strip Shane Mosley of his title because he and Floyd Mayweather declined to put up the title sanctioning fee for their fight two weeks ago, which thus became a non-title fight.
According to fightnews.com, the WBA welterweight title would then go to the renown interim champion Vyacheslar Senchenko, which would be another example of how ridiculous the ruling bodies of boxing have become.
To begin with, the ratings by the four major boxing organizations (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO) are a joke and utterly worthless in terms of merit. The Klitschko brothers, for instance, own three-fourths of the heavyweight world titles, but are not even ranked by the fourth group, the WBA.
The WBA champ, David Haye, is in turn not ranked by the other three. The No. 1 contender for Hayes’ title is Kali Meehan, a former sparring partner of the now retired John Ruiz.
Go down the list of the other weight divisions and you’ll find the same thing. The champions of one group are never ranked by the other groups. It’s like they don’t exist in the other groups.
With all the talent that’s in the welterweight division, the IBF has somehow come up with Jan Zaveck as its champion. (No, I’ve never heard of him, either.) Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather and Mosley, meanwhile, the top three pound-for-pound fighters (going into the Mayweather-Mosley fight), are not even ranked by the IBF. How silly is that?
You want more silliness? Pacquiao, the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, is unranked in three of the four divisions.
And then there’s Jose Sulaimen, the president of the WBC and the reigning king of boxing buffoonery. He had the audacity to publicly scold Mayweather and Mosley for their unfairness and ungratefulness in refusing to pay the WBA’s sanctioning fee.
“It was for me a humiliation and a threat to all world boxing institutions, which are who open (his words, not mine) the doors to all boxers from the very beginning, bringing them to world ratings (and the) opportunity to win world titles. … But how sad and unfair it is that they have forgotten the institutions that opened their doors …” et cetera, et cetera.
Excuse me, while I barf.
Opening their doors? Giving them opportunities? How about extortion for ratings and the title shots? What have the alphabet cartels done for boxing, pray tell, but screw up the sport and drive it out of the mainstream of sports with its cornucopia of tin titles. There are so many champions now, you need a calculator to keep track of them. The sport had more respect when the mob ran it.
Maybe if more name fighters like Mayweather and Mosley stood up to the alphabet mob and refused to pay those title sanctioning fees, they could persuade them to go into some other line of freeloading.
The solution to the whole mess, of course, is a single board of directors to compile the ratings, with a strong commissioner to enforce the rules. It would be asking too much to get all the boxing organizations around the world on the same page, but if the U.S. set up a one-board, one-commissioner system, it would be a start.
Unfortunately, greed rules and most fighters and promoters like the system as it is because there’s always another title for the fighters to chase and the promoters to promote.
LEFTOVER NOTES
Remember what I said about Mayweather’s ability to adjust and Mosley’s inability to do same? Listen to what Mosley said after his lopsided loss.
“I think after I caught him with that big right hand, I opened up too much and played into his hand. … When I hit him with the big right hand, I thought I was going to get the knockout (but) he started to avoid the punches. He did surprise me. Once I tried to get my timing back, I couldn’t adjust and he did.”
And this about Mayweather’s defense from his uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather. “(Mosley) has tremendous hand speed, but it means nothing if you can’t hit the target.”
On hand in the capacity crowd at the Twin River Event Center Friday night for the Jason Pires-Michael Clark fight was undefeated light heavyweight and former two-time champion Chad Dawson, who, since thumbing his nose at two of the boxing organizations, has been dropped from the ratings of all four alphabet groups.
Also on hand at Twin River was New Bedford’s Sucra Ray Oliveira, who if he returned to the ring tomorrow, it would probably be as a cruiserweight.
Barnstable heavyweight Jesse “Bad News” Barboza got some bad news from the judges at Twin River when he lost a split decision to late substitute Winston Thorpe (3-0) of Columbus, Ohio. It was Barboza’s first loss in four starts.
Bob Hanna covers boxing for The Standard-Times. Contact him at [email protected]
