By Adam Laiolo: World football has FIFA, Formula One Motorsports has the FIA, Basketball has FIBA all providing the order and management of their sports. From grass roots to the top, the athletes in their respective fields know that they can look up and know they’re taken care of. Boxing has Jose Sulaiman of WBC and his other partners in crime i.e. Gilberto Mendoza of the WBA and their opposite numbers in other sanctioning bodies, the WBO, IBF and IBO etc.
Grey is the in-colour in boxing, there’s no right or wrong, only circumstantial guidelines depending what sanctioning body you bat for. There’s no competitors union, the thought of cramming 50 boxers into a room to discuss the pros and cons of current affairs isn’t the smartest idea. Sportsmen and women, whatever their trade, deserve some sort of representation at a level where they know their best interests are at heart. This is a cut-throat sport, and this is a lonely sport too.
To have a body or even a committee that can govern the body top to bottom would benefit everyone. The key is it has to be impartial which means no bias or favoritism. A little known fact is that this has been tried and tested before, with the IBU. Not to be confused with the current IBU of the same name, this was an attempt to bring clarity to a sport of broken factions.
The WBC was originally just that too, created by a host of nations designed to bring universal rules and regulations to boxing. The original IBU was 98 years ago. And since then the idea of a world recognized governing body was merely whispered and treated like a dirty thought.
Whisper loud enough and someone might hear you they say. If tomorrow, the respective sanctioning bodies were presented with an agenda, to have one omnipotent power they would veto it immediately. Why? Because that means they would lose control or an element their control over the boxing market.
To have one organization at the top would cause tremors in the offices of the alphabet bodies. The only way this could happen if there was a way they could co-exist, because another 25 years of ridiculous mandatory defenses, interim and super champions is not going to stimulate the sport in anyway, only stifle it.
Now I’m not for one second implying that the WBC or WBA does everything within their power to ruin our sport that would be unfair. But you get the sense that with all of them its money first, prestige second and then the health of the sport last. The term ‘champion’ is loosely thrown around these days and the real significance of the word is now lost. And that is all to do with these bodies, four world champions per division?
And how often do they ever all come together for a fight? Because the WBC or IBF don’t like the belt being in the hands of someone not to their liking, and will bend the rules accordingly (Chavez-Tszyu anyone?) This is what has to be cut out, the shysters and rats running our sport saying one thing but meaning another. They are like the politicians of our sport, bend the truth to aid themselves. To have someone over their head, watching their every move so their deals and schemes can be done in the light of day. I’m not totally against the idea of more than one champion in a division in an imperfect world, but four, is ridiculous.
This organization could be made up of people in the know and want to have the sport flourish. There could even be WBC, IBF, WBA and WBO representatives on this organization to give equality and fairness. The judges at fights would be appointed by the body impartially; ring doctors and referees too all employed or part of, an international ruling body. Sanctioning bodies appointing their own judge/s? Does that ever happen in any other sport?
New York Yankees appointing their specifically chosen umpire for the job? Manchester Utd having their own referee for a European Cup Final? Its nonsense, we need someone to clear all out the grey and paint it black or white. If the WBC want to try and bend their rules now, it would be easy. Sure they’d get some bad press, but ultimately they’d get away with it.
This has to change, we can’t have one rule for one and another for another, it’s got to be clear fair and managed. Transparency and clarity so everybody, even us fans lo-and-behold, would know where they stand and god forbid they ever put us fans first. They have to have someone to answer to, or this is going to go on for another however many years boxing can continue in this self-destruction mode.
We need this to happen and you can be sure the WBC & Co will do everything within themselves to make sure it never happens. It just a case of how to get the idea in motion, someone powerful and with a voice people listen has to stand up and make the sounds to let people know this is the direction we should go in. And it’ll take one hell of a brave person to do it.
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