I’ve never been one to openly criticize the sanctioning bodies much. I?ve always felt that there are so many others out there who do more than enough of it for me. It?s almost as if I?ve become immune to all of the questionable acts that they do. At this point, nothing seems to surprises me any more.
There has been one questionable act by one of the sanctioning bodies however, that has been very hard to let go unnoticed, and that sanctioning body is none other than the WBC.
Sergio Martinez was once their world middleweight champion only to have that title stripped from him for not facing the organization?s number one ranked mandatory challenger Sebastian Zbik, therefore leaving the title vacant. Martinez had every intention of facing Zbik, but for some odd reason, HBO, the network that Martinez regularly fights on, would not accept the fight. Martinez then had to look for another opponent that HBO deemed suitable, and that opponent ended up being former WBO Junior Middleweight Champion Serhiy Dziniruk. Martinez and Dziniruk fought for the vacant WBC Diamond Middleweight Championship which Martinez won by eighth round stoppage. The WBC went ahead and ordered a match for the vacant world title, having the number one ranked Zbik face the number two ranked Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Sergio Martinez was promised the winner and it was mandated by the WBC. Ironically enough Zbik was an opponent not deemed suitable for Martinez, but the network had no problem televising the fight between him and Chavez Jr. Needless to say Chavez Jr. won the WBC Middleweight Title by majority decision and it was assumed that he would fight Sergio Martinez next. Till this day it still hasn?t happened. The same organization that stripped Martinez for not facing his mandatory challenger allowed Chavez Jr. to avoid fighting him after they said that they would make it mandatory. The whole thing seems pretty peculiar if you ask me.
