Are contenders happy to fight at catch-weights against Miguel Cotto?

By Boxing News - 06/05/2015 - Comments

cotto2(Photo credit: Will Hart/HBO) By Gerardo Granados: This week the major attention towards the Miguel Cotto vs Daniel Geale has been focused on the unfair catch weight than the fight itself. There are fight fans who simply don’t agree that now the A side not only dictates all the terms on the contract, be it gloves or size of the ring, or the pay of the contender but now he has the privilege to impose the maximum weight to his opponent to drain him and make him weak on fight night.

I got the chance to talk to the President of the WBC Mr. Mauricio Sulaiman via twitter on this subject. Days ago he said that he would look for to study the catch weight problematic topic on the next annual convention. It seems the rules have not fully regulated this issue and it is legal to have such catch weights, but I wonder if the so called big names are taking an unfair advantage on the hungry contenders who will do anything to land a shot at a major organization title.

If Cotto had allowed Geale to come at the 160 limit no one would have criticized him and many including me would have praised him for taking on a bigger lion but instead he drained his opponent and then weigh inn not even at the division weight.
This is not a fight between Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez to arrange a catch weight; this is a fight between the supposed lineal middleweight champion and a middleweight contender so why should there be a catch weight imposed to the challenger.

Is it a catch weight supposed to be two fighters meeting at certain weight or is it a maximum weight agreed; maybe it should be called a drain weight instead. If Cotto had come in at 157 his speed and mobility would probably had been affected by the extra weight on his small body frame. Geale is a natural middle and undoubtedly will be affected by the extra 3 pounds he was forced to shed off to be able to get a shot at the title.

Is it fair for the middleweight contenders to not to be able to weight at the 160 limit? Is the A side now entitled to impose the most favorable maximum weight on a contract?

Mr. Sulaiman twitted “Yes that is our rule. Gale signed a contract With Cotto. That is their contract nothing to do with WBC” so I replied “it has everything to do with WBC cause your belt is on the line and you are sanctioning the fight.” But am I wrong or is it the responsibility of the WBC and the rest of the major boxing organizations the WBA – IBF – WBO to look for the safety and integrity of prize fighters?

I also asked Mr. Sulaiman “then what´s the use of weight divisions? Is it safe to allow fights between fly vs feathers?” I want to ask the readers who are prize fighters if you think there is a valid reason for the weight divisions and if you think it’s risky to allow a mismatch like the Danny Garcia vs Rod Salka? The brave Salka moved up in weight two divisions and it was clear Garcia had all the advantages and if Salka had been seriously injured no one could have been held accountable in a court.

During this week Cotto even stated that if someone wanted to fight him at middle then they would have to accept the catch weight. So now he is in control or the WBC is in control of the title bout? I think is unfair for the hungry contenders to have to accept all the terms on a contract to be able to land a shot at the title but it is even worst and also unjust to not to be able to fight at the weight limit.

If all the boxing organizations are to allow it then they should also allow fighters to engage at fifteen rounders if they sign a contract to do so. Maybe the fighters can raise their voice on this subject because the most affected are them. Perhaps there should be new weight division created so now we can have a super light middleweight championship belt at 157?

Geale looked emaciated during the weigh inn and I won’t give much merit to Cotto if he was to defeat him, because the scales have done more damage before the fight has even take place.

I do not agree with this type of catch weights. But what about the readers, are you happy about it?



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