By Gav Duthie: The recent verbal battle between the trio involving WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez and new WBA regular champion Badou Jack got me thinking about each organization’s flawed obligations to their mandatories. The condensed version of this argument is that Alvarez has been mandatory for two years and wants his shot, Adonis Stevenson wants Jack because there’s more money in it and the WBC has a decision to make.
In this case I feel Alvarez deserves his shot but the wide issue is how the WBC behave in general making a mockery of mandatories. They are far too lenient but others are too strict. What is the best way to get the best fights and make sure everyone gets a fair shake.
WBC
All a fighter wants is what he deserves. If your British level you get a British title shot, European the same applies. Some fighters will go an entire career with fighting for a title and that’s fine. If you are good enough to become mandatory you deserve your shot. Eleider Alvarez is 2 years waiting as he’s been stepping aside for Stevenson to make pointless defenses like Tommy Karpency and an Andrej Fonfara rematch the Columbian Alvarez has beaten up former champions Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute. He is doing his best to build his reputation and is now promoted (Yvon Michel) and managed (Al Haymon) by the same people as Stevenson. Now the time has come Stevenson wants Jack. Adonis has made 8 defenses of his title and only one mandatory.
Filmmakers made an entire documentary on the WBC’s farcical treatment of Sergio Martinez where in the end they were bullied into giving him a shot against Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr. When the WBC wants a champion, they make sure they crown him. Last Friday, David Benavidez, a rising star, somehow almost blundered his easy slot against Ronald Gavril who they thought a soft touch. They made Gennady Golovkin the WBC middleweight mandatory despite already being a champion and Jorge Sebastian Heiland being number 1 for years. Floyd Mayweather was WBC Super Welterweight champion when he defeated Canelo and despite finishing his boxing career with 4 fights at welterweight Marcos Maidana x2, Manny Pacquiao and Andre Berto the WBC never forced any defenses at 154lbs.
The WBC want to be the celebrities they made Mexican heritage belts for Saul Canelo Alvarez v Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight, the ‘Money belt’ for Mayweather v Conor McGregor fight. They are the razzmatazz, if your Jorge Heiland, you need to wait 3 years to get a mandatory fight against Jermall Charlo, and if your Eleider Alvarez, who cares. In fairness, they do their best to make the sexy fights. Making Golovkin mandatory was in their own way an attempt to make the biggest events in the sport happen. They have also said that they will do all in their power to ease negotiations with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and IBF/WBA champion Anthony Joshua should they wish to unify. They help make the best fights where others don’t but not everyone gets what they deserve.
WBA
The WBA have more belts than the average office executive must keep up their trousers. For the casual fan, they are so confusing. They have Super champions, regular champions, International champions and pretty much every region has one. It wouldn’t be surprising if the top 10 in the WBA rankings in most divisions owned one title or another. Officially the mandatory is really the Regular champion. The Super champion’s mandatory is the regular champion and the international is the mandatory to the regular. I’m confused even writing it so it’s hard to know how the casual fan can understand. Golovkin, the WBA (Super) middleweight champion and Danny Jacobs, the WBA (Regular) champion, is one if the few instances in recent times where they have fought each other. Some divisions don’t have Super champions and it makes it difficult to decide who the next in line actually is.
IBF
Probably the strictest of the organizations for enforcing mandatories. The best example I can probably give is Kell Brook’s career over the last few years. His situation shows the good and the bad of the IBF. In 2013, no champion wanted any part of Kell. He was considered too dangerous for the money you could make fighting him. Risk v reward. Exactly why Adonis Stevenson doesn’t want Eleider Alvarez, not just because of the money but he knows he’s tough. He is happy to face Karpency and Fonfara for change because it’s an easy night’s work. The IBF forced Shawn Porter eventually to fight Kell Brook. The same way they made Kell Brook fight Errol Spence Jr. If you are lucky enough to become a mandatory with the IBF you will get a shot of that I have no doubt. The problem is they are obsessed with having someone as mandatory even when there aren’t any available. Going back to Brook, the IBF somehow sanctioned Jo Jo Dan and Kevin Bizier as mandatory challenger. Dan won it. If the top fighters aren’t available for a top contender fight they will go further and further down the list and pick opponents who don’t really deserve it and nobody wants to see. Dan was smashed up by Brook and then Bizier ended up mandatory anyway when he beat Freddy Lawson. Its ok when mandatories are Errol Spence but when the opponents are B level at best, it’s hard for the fans to swallow. Like I said before if you are mandatory you should get your shot but don’t force them on us.
The worst example in recent memory is Tyson Fury. Wladimir Klitschko was IBF champion from 2006. It was the first title he picked up in his second reign as champion. He held it with distinction from 2006-2015 fighting all his mandatories until he lost the title to Tyson Fury. After nearly 10 years did he get the chance to win the IBF title back? No, he did not. They said Fury had to fight Vyacheslav Glazkov and when he said no they took away his title. Surely after so long he should get to fight for his title again. It’s good that mandatories should get their shot but surely a common-sense approach here. In the end, we seen another B-level matchup between Glazkov and Charles Martin for the vacant title where Martin was just basically waiting for an opportunity to make a lot of money to fall over against Anthony Joshua. AJ won that title with a shrug of his shoulders.
WBO
The WBO have links with certain promoters, which makes it difficult sometimes to get in position. It can be hard to get up the rankings if you can’t get the fights. The WBO are often in their own little world, ignoring unifications but they are also rightly strict on mandatories. They are the newest organization forming in the 90s and they thank top fighters like Marco Antonio Barrera for putting them on the map. They are quite loyal to their champions. In the welterweight division for example apart from Mayweather v Pacquiao the last 12 fights have been between Top Rank promoted fighters like Tim Bradley, Pacquiao, Jessie Vargas and Jeff Horn. These are all good fighters so no problem but it’s just hard for others to get a look in.
Summary
In the end, all organizations have their positives and negatives and certainly in 2017 they have been more willing to work together to make big unification fights. There is no one way to act but all I would ask is that the boxers get what they deserve whatever level they are at.