One of the by-products of boxing’s lack of organizational structure and real sanctioning body is that matchmaking decisions often have more to do with connections than accomplishments. The chaos in the sport often wreaks havoc on concepts such as justice and logic.
Here are five fighters recently cheated out of chances to move on to the next level:
Carlos Molina
The unheralded, underrated junior middleweight is the very definition of cheated. When the brawler beat Danny Perez, it was Perez who moved on to a prospect showdown with the UK’s Craig McEwan. When he drew with Erislandy Lara, it was Lara who moved on to an HBO fight against Paul Williams. Most recently, his comfortable unanimous decision victory over Kermit Cintron earned Cintron a shot at WBC junior middleweight champ, Saul Alvarez.
Dmitry Pirog
Brought into a bout against Golden Boy prospect, Daniel Jacobs for the vacant WBO middleweight title, Russia’s Pirog was an anonymous name with a mysteriously high WBO ranking. Inside the ring, Pirog completely exposed the inexperienced Jacobs, brutally knocking out the 23-year-old in the fifth round. Post-stoppage, the HBO pay-per-view broadcast team didn’t even bother to interview the surprise TKO victor. Instead, Pirog took his belt and went back home. Since then, Pirog has been out of the loop when it comes to proposed major bouts in the middleweight division.
Erislandy Lara
The talented junior middleweight Cuban exile found out the hard way that, in boxing, who you know is often more important than what you know. Since his universally panned controversial decision loss to Paul Williams in July, Lara has found himself completely out of the loop when it comes to big fights in the 154 lb. division. While the rest of the contenders at junior middleweight are pairing off for important divisional bouts over the next few months, Lara’s name has not come up in any proposed match-ups.
