The passing of Jose Sulaiman, the lapdog of Don King and the man who has run the WBC for the past two-hundred years was a terrible tragedy for his family. He was a legitimate patriarch and those are the hardest losses to endure.
In the wider world, the world of boxing, we awaited the new era. The WBC has become a byword for corruption, the acronym re-designated in some corners, ?We Be Crooks? and there has been a hope, and I say this in recognition that it will be regarded by some as being in poor taste, that the passing of the man who has rode a boxing rankings organization like it was his personal pony, might result in that organization becoming something more akin to what it claims to be; an entity that rates and organizes rather than bleeds for cash.
It is a well-known fact that the WBC collects fees from fighters which compete for its various titles, including the silver title, the diamond title, the world title and a huge swath of regional, interim and continental titles. It is also a well-known fact that the WBC does pretty much whatever it likes in the name of maximizing its exposure and its income, for example, in bending over backwards to entertain Roy Jones and the sizeable change of heart he had regarding his WBC light-heavyweight title in 1998. Jones took the reasoned step of relinquishing the tarnished trinket in favor of something, anything, more wholesome, so the WBC did what it did best and organized a new championship decider, allowing it to collect fees from both combatants and announce a new fee earning ?champion.? The totally unqualified men it decided to approach for this honor were #7 Ring ranked light-heavyweight Graciano Rocchigiani and #9 ranked Ring contender Michael Nunn. Nunn had only fought at 175 lbs. once in the past two and a half years, and not at all in the previous twelve months; Rocchigiani, meanwhile, had. His last four fights had all been at 175 lbs. His record was 2-2.
Let?s just be clear ? that is utterly pitiful. Scrabbling around in the dirt for money, the WBC lit upon two men who were woefully underqualified to fight for a title and made the fight. Nobody, to my knowledge, tried to stop them. Rocchigiani won a split decision. He was named the new WBC champion. Jones then decided he wanted his championship back. They gave it to him. The WBC, pathetically, would go on to claim that their naming Rocchigiani a champion in their literature was a typo.
Rocchigiani successfully sued the WBC. Probably not as miserable or cancerous to boxing as the WBA it was nevertheless balm to every true lover of the sport when the WBC teetered on bankruptcy and liquidation. At the last minute, Rocchigiani agreed terms, the details of which have never been made public to my knowledge.
As a company, the WBC has always been a constriction of personal relationships, none more challenging than that of Sulaiman, the lapdog, and Don King, the master. King?s boxers walked upon the water when it came to the WBC. Whether it was Julio Cesar Chavez?s inexplicable draw with Pernell Whitaker in 1993 or the same fighter?s mandatory status at 140 lbs. outrunning his making that weight by months, King?s babies were nursed at the teat. When Tszyu knocked out Chavez in summer of 2000, Chavez hadn?t made 140 since 1998 and had not won a light-welterweight contest since 1995 ? but the WBC had made him mandatory.
When Mike Tyson lost to Buster Douglas, the WBC did their very best to withhold recognition of the result; when Tyson emerged from prison after four years in prison for rape, he was mysteriously installed as the #1 contender for the organization?s heavyweight title.
In short it was an utter and an unmitigated disaster for boxing, consistently and inarguably. Hopes that this might have stopped were dashed this week when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was installed as the WBC?s #1 contender at 168 lbs.
Junior has never ? ever ? made 168 lbs. for a professional fight. The WBC has named him the most qualified challenger to their champion Sakio Bika ? himself only the champion because the WBC unjustly stripped true champion Andre Ward with no real cause or justification ? without his ever having lifted his hands in anger at the weight. In his two previous fights he had the shit kicked out of him by both Sergio Martinez and Brian Vera, but was given a gift decision over Vera. He is grotesquely underqualified, just like pa was to challenge Tszyu.
In short, it is the latest in a long line of bad jokes told by an organization that takes money from fighters and oxygen from a sport that many feel is on life support.
Some say that it does not matter. If you are one of those people, consider this ? the WBC decides which fights you watch on television.
And they pick those fights based on personal relationships, not sporting excellence.
