By Gav Duthie: One of boxing’s best divisions is becoming one of the biggest jokes in the sport. The 122 lb category doesn’t have huge depth but has 4 top class world champions that we would all like to see face each other. The problem is nobody seems to want to fight anyone else.
Carl Frampton’s demolishing of Chris Avalos (who is considered #5 in the division) showed the gulf in class between the champions and the rest. Nobody will touch Guillermo Rigondeaux 15-0 (10) with a six foot selfie stick, Leo Santa Cruz wants nobody or should I say Al Haymon doesn’t and Carl Frampton – Scott Quigg has a lot more obstacles to it happening than people might think.
Scott Quigg 30-0-2 (22)
Regular WBA champion Quigg is considered to be the weakest of them in the division hence every other champion seems to be targeting him. Rigondeaux has the biggest right to fight him considering he is the WBA super champion. Quigg’s ‘regular’ champ status makes him mandatory to the Cuban but there is no way Quigg and Eddie Hearn would take the risk of losing and end the opportunity to fight Carl Frampton. Leo Santa Cruz has also mentioned fighting Quigg despite being mute on the other champions.
Guillermo Rigondeaux 15-0 (10) v Leo Santa Cruz 29-0-1 (17)
Oscar De La Hoya lost Santa Cruz to his stable for trying to make this fight happen. Al Haymon had a clause in the Mexican’s contract that allowed him to exclusively manage him if Golden Boy Promotions tried to negotiate with Rigondeaux. Leo says he was willing to fight but Haymon advised him not too. He has been widely criticized for defending his WBC title against sub standard opposition but we can now expect this to continue for some time.
Carl Frampton 20-0 (14) v Scott Quigg
Frampton has only made one defence of his recently acquired IBF title so it would be unlikely the organization would easily agree to a unification bout with Scott Quigg. Apparently Rigondeaux’s management have been told that they would only sanction a unification bout with Rigondeaux as the highest ranked champion. There is also a bit of needle between Eddie Hearn who used to promote Frampton and his manager Barry McGuigan. Hearn has said he would be happy for the fight to be in Belfast or Manchester and the split should be 60/40 to the winner. There is also the issue of who would show it. Frampton has been on Sky Sports with Eddie Hearn, Boxnation with Frank Warren and most recently on ITV against Avalos. I hope this fight happens for the sake of the entire division.
Guillermo Rigondeaux
It is getting embarrassing now that nobody wants to fight him. I had hoped that him being knocked down twice in his last fight might motivate some of the others to face him but it seems to have changed nothing. People see him as difficult to look good against and not worth much commercially either. At 34 years old I fear he will never get a top fight other than when he beat Nonito Donaire.
Other competition
The problem is a lack of other competition. A lot of the divisions in boxing don’t have champions fighting each other. The Super Bantamweight division has been highlighted because Santa Cruz, Quigg and Rigondeaux have been defending their title against nobodies. There are a few potential candidates for big future fights and to give the division some depth.
We see returning champion Nonito Donaire soon who sees the remainder of his career at 122lbs. Having lost a couple of times in recent years the likes of Santa Cruz might fancy facing the Filipino. The UK and US both also have exciting prospects coming through in Kid Galahad and Jessie Magdaleno.
If some of these younger prospects can come through and offer legitimate challenges to the title holders then great but if not the division will just be full of pointless fights unless someone grows a backbone and agrees to fight Rigondeaux.
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