?There?s a need to reestablish control of the sport, to bring credibility to how the fans look at the sport, because we have fallen into a numbed state??
?Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.??Deuteronomy 24:16
The Big Three has meant many things over the years. When the subject is universities, it means Harvard, Yale and Princeton. When the subject is television, it means, even in the age of cable, ABC, CBS, and NBC. When the subject is World War II, the Big Three refers to FDR, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.
Politics, no less than education and TV, makes for strange bedfellows, a truism that applies to boxing as well.
Boxing?s Big Three, the WBC, WBA, and IBF are meeting in Cancun, Mexico, tomorrow. The confab was proposed by Mauricio Sulaiman, for reasons not heretofore revealed.
The skeptic studies human nature and is apt to think the worst. It?s easy to do, often irresistible, and not without justification. The idealist wants to shove cynicism aside in favor of cautious inquiry.
The media has been unhelpful about what this meeting entails. The WBC website, for example, had this to say:
Final preparations are ready for the meeting between the heads of the major world boxing sanctioning bodies; the meeting will be held in Cancun, Mexico this coming Monday 23.
The WBC, WBA and IBF will be all represented by their respective presidents and other members of their Boards of Directors and a comprehensive agenda has been prepared to address several important topics. The WBO declined the invitation to participate.
Yesterday there was a blurb on Fight News that was no less mysterious.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman has arrived in Cancun for the Boxing Summit talks. Sanctioning body leaders will meet for two days to discuss the state of world boxing.
?I am very happy to be again in this beautiful place and ready to begin this important event,? said Sulaiman. ?I am certain that the heads of the three most important organizations in boxing, the WBC, WBA and IBF will meet with open mind and good will to make great things happen.?
I?m not opposed to generalizations in general. But vague pronouncements, however commonplace, are a poor substitute for facts. With that in mind I asked Mauricio Sulaiman about the confab in Cancun, its ostensible purpose, and his thinking going in.
?My father had been president of the WBC for 38 years and he always respected the other organizations and he was always clear on giving each their own due. When he passed away the Board of Governors elected me to be the President of the WBC. So one of the first actions I want to do is to sit down with the presidents of the other organizations and confirm the way the WBC would like to do relations with the boxing world.?
Mauricio Sulaiman is well-spoken but chooses his words with care, as any public figure with an ounce of sense might.
?But also,? he continued, ?I believe that this is a time that boxing urgently needs some actions. There?s a need to reestablish control of the sport, to bring credibility to how the fans look at the sport, because we have fallen into a numbed state. When there?s a big fight, there?s great hype, it happens, and it goes somewhere else, England, Japan, Mexico. But the industry as a whole is losing credibility.
?One of the situations that would be very helpful, something that has been discussed in the past, is to try to move forward with a tournament between champions to finally end up with one champion in each division?which on paper is a proposal that we have worked on which seems fairly easy, but in reality could become complicated. If there is goodwill, if there is a way of sitting down and setting ground rules, I believe that would be a tremendous step forward to bring back to the public the intention of recognizing one world champion.?
Not having one world champion in each division has been disastrous. But if the above plan is implemented and a WBC champion defeated a WBA champion, for example, the WBA would no longer have a champion. That, if I?m not mistaken, would be a problem, a big problem, a seemingly insurmountable problem in a world where capital is king.
After sharing my misgivings, I asked Mauricio Sulaiman how his idea was received by the other sanctioning bodies.
?It has been just informally discussed,? he said. ?We have an idea as to how this can be done which would include all the organizations participating in a world championship. Like in football, you have the NFC and AFC. Then they compete in the Super Bowl. But they continue to have their own activity separately. I have spoken with the three presidents and the WBA and IBF said they were willing to meet at any time. Mr. Varcarcel (of the WBO) doesn?t seem to think it is of any interest. But I?m willing to sit down and have a friendly approach and hopefully we can make it happen.?
