By Gerardo Granados: Yesterday Amir Khan announced his next fight against light welter Chris Algieri and at many boxing sites & forums you could read how displeased fight fans were. Not even Khan´s fans seemed pleased with his choice but the worst thing is that the influential promoters might be able to do almost whatever they want because not just casual fans but also fight fans will watch whatever they are told to be a good fight.
Algieri is as raw and unexperienced as his corner men but somehow he has managed to land three consecutive major bouts without having much merit to deserve at least his last two. Before he faced Provodnikov I had never heard of him and maybe other fighters should have had the chance to dispute the title instead of him.
How come he got the chance to dispute the WBO welter belt against Manny Pacquiao? Well to have gained the WBO light welter strap isn’t enough merit but according to the WBO rules he had the right to fight for the welter strap. The result of that mismatch was no surprise or impressive at all.
But if he looked so limited and got floored six times how is it he gets to fight Amir Khan next? Well maybe that is the reason why he was chosen.
There have are been many times when a boxer loses and gets awarded with one more shot at a major title or a big name and the result is predictably one more defeat. You have many examples, super middle Sakio Bika lost to Anthony Dirrel (WBC super middle) but gets a shot at the light heavy WBC belt against Adonis Stevenson without previously defeating any top contender at the light heavy division; John Molina lost to Lucas Matthysse and Humberto Soto but then gets Adrien Broner; Brandon Rios lose to Mike Alvarado then gets Manny Pacquiao; Chris Eubank Jr. lost to Billy Joe Saunders and on his next fight he gets to fight for the interim WBA middle belt meanwhile Saunders still awaits for a shot; Peter Quillin vacates his belt to avoid his mandatory but gets to fight against Andy Lee to regain the belt he refuse to defend. On his last bout Raymundo Beltran lost to Terrence Crawford (WBO lightweight) and now gets to fight for that same strap against Takahiro Ao.
It seems like fight fans suffer from cognitive dissociation and are constantly summited into a mental trance that won’t allow them to difference between a good competitive bout and a scam. But is there anyone to blame?
Pro Boxing is steadily turning into a mere show business instead of competition between the best fighters in the world. Maybe Television Networks could force the so called big names to fight decent opposition instead of just hand pick opponents if the ratings were low. It’s time to raise your voice and stop supporting fighters who clearly don’t care or respect fight fans.
I have no interest to watch this bout; but what about the reader?
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