By Gav Duthie: In the past I have often criticized the various boxing authorities for playing their part in the bureaucracy that stops big fights from happening. To their credit the WBC have been actively looking to help give the fans what they want in the coming years with respect to the bouts we all want to see by avoiding some of these obstacles.
Boxing Organization Problems
Sonny Liston was the very first WBC champion back in 1963 when things were simple. Over the past 50 years the red tape has increased with a further three organizations WBA (and WBA Super), IBF and WBO and not to mention alphabet titles like the IBO and WBU. Furthermore the WBC have a silver title and International titles. Each fight needs to be sanctioned and some fighters have found it easier to even give up their titles in the past in order to chase the fights they want. Then their are mandatory defenses which also block big fights. The WBC have made three valuable contributions to avoiding obstacles.
Mandatory Transparency
The WBC recently published their entire mandatory list for all 17 weight classes for fans to see who we can expect our favourite fighters to be facing in the upcoming months. Interestingly they are making the Kovalev-Pascal winner the mandatory challenger position for Adonis Stevenson. This is not often the case for fighters who already own other titles (Kovalev WBA Super, WBO, IBF). They are also placing NO mandatory obligations on Floyd Mayweather at either 154lbs or 147lbs specifically to help negotiations for Mayweather-Pacquiao and are furthermore making the Golovkin-Murray winner the Miguel Cotto mandatory. This suggests to me if these fights do not happen then the WBC cannot be held responsible.
Collaboration
The WBC, WBA and IBF have also held two summits (3rd planned or February) to unify rules and reach agreements. They plan to define criteria regarding
– Unification Fights
– Pre-Weigh ins
– Scoring Systems
– Anti-Doping Tests
– Medical Issues
– Appointment of judges
– One champion
The WBO have also been invited but are yet to confirm. If everyone can get on the same page then we have much more chance of world champions facing each other which is what we all want.
WBC World Cup
They have also given the green light to a WBC world cup which had been shelved in 2012 due to the illness and subsequent passing of former president Jose Sulaiman. This tournament is to involve champions of every continental federation (NABF, South American, Asia, Europe, Africa, Great Britain) in 8 divisions (Flyweight, Bantamweight, Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight) plus one more to be decided. They are said to be committing around $16 million to the program with the prize money going up as you progress with the tournament said to be lasting around 40 weeks.
Conclusion
Get past one obstacle and there is always another one. Be it television networks, advisers, greedy promoters or the fighters themselves top fights are hard to get over the line. I believe though if everyone takes small steps like the WBC have then the fans might just get to see what they want in 2015.
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