By Jamie Eskdale: 2 weeks have passed since the controversy of one of the judges scoring of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight in Las Vegas on September 14th.
2 weeks isn’t a long time, particularly in boxing where fights generally happen on a weekend. However, this is how long it has taken for the latest controversy to appear. Ladies and Gentlemen strap yourselves in for the roller-coaster ride that is professional boxing.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been accused many times of living off of his famous fighting fathers’ name. He has been accused many times of being given an easy ride by the WBC who’s president Jose Sulaiman is not only a close friend of his fathers but also his Godfather.
With this being the case one would expect Chavez Jr. to work like a Trojan to dispel the myth that he is spoon fed and given every opportunity for success on a plate. One would expect that such a basic requirement of boxing as making weight would pose no problem.
Particularly coming off of a ban. One would expect Chavez Jnr to meet every obstacle head on and come bursting out the traps to prove everyone wrong.
What we wouldn’t expect was the weight limit to be changed so often that in the end up we had the ridiculous notion that the limit could be whatever weight Chavez Jr. came in at.
Who on earth is sanctioning this? Who is sitting with a straight face and agreeing to this happening? Who thinks this projects a good image of professional boxing?
The general public are already skeptical of boxing given recent and not so recent controversy. Quite frankly boxing needed this weekends’ events like a hole in the head.
I’ve always been quite suspicious of Top Rank and Bob Arum in particular. He comes across as a slippery little character. One who would shake your hand and stick a knife in your back at the same time. What an opportunity he missed here. He could’ve stopped this dead in its tracks when it became quite apparent that Chavez wasn’t making the weight.
Now I know some people will say fighters come in over the limit all the time and the opponent can always say no. But this was different. To have the limit changed so often and not even be certain of the weight limit a day or two before the fight is absurd.
Top Rank and whoever else were in control here could’ve rescued some integrity back for the sport at a time when it is crying out for some. It is getting more difficult to defend the sport and it’s getting worse. Here was a chance to help try and change this a little bit.
Yet here we are back again to where we were just a fortnight ago not even trying to defend the indefensible anymore.
Then the cherry on top of all of this was the ridiculous scoring. It was like one thing after another.
To be honest with you I’m not even going to bother dissecting the scoring because quite frankly I’m sick talking about judges scoring and there will be plenty of others willing to do it.
Maybe one week someone in a position of authority will stand up and say enough is enough. Take up the cause of fighting for the people’s sport. Because right one I feel we are stuck.
Now there will be people out there thinking I am being melodramatic here and maybe I am but at the same time we are being conned here. And if we feel short changed how on earth must Brian Vera must be feeling.
I bet he’s feeling pretty low at the moment, and so he should. He has been royally screwed and in the weeks and months to come he this will be forgotten about and Chavez will probably go on to fight for world honors.
We don’t need to like it, hell we don’t even need to watch it, but you know we probably will anyway. We as boxing fans are suckers and I get the impression the powers that be know this.
‘This is boxing’.