By Jamie Eskdale: Deontay Wilder, 30 wins 30 KOs, 6 foot 7 inches tall, athletic muscular physique and to top it all off he’s American. Just what the world has been crying out for, a dominant American heavyweight wrecking machine, right?
Well maybe. But you see this is boxing where things aren’t always quite what they seem. Where things can get a little twisted from time to time.
Now at this point I must point out that after Lewis retired I haven’t been a huge fan of the heavyweight division. Don’t worry I won’t start slating the division because let’s be honest probably everyone reading this has done enough of that over the last 10 years or so.
No I’ve always been more a fan of lightweight through to super middle. But let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to see 2 giants square off and go at it.
Wilder it seems has been quite a divisive character. There are those who think he is the next big thing (hell there are 1 or 2 boxing writers who seem to have fallen head over heels for the guy) and there are others who don’t believe the hype. And ladies and gentlemen up until this point in the young mans’ career, that is precisely all we’ve had, hype.
You look at Wilder’s record and not many of the names are too familiar. The one that jumps out is Audley Harrison. So to be a 30 fight veteran and have A-Force Harrison as the best name on your resume I think speaks volumes for the calibre of fighter you’ve been in with.
So although Wilder has dealt with everything that has been thrown at him well and dispatched everyone via KO, with that calibre of competition how on earth can the WBC rank Wilder as their number 3 contender? How can that be possible?
Well I have 3 words for you. Golden Boy Promotions. They’ve given this kid the hype yet fed him absolute fodder. When they’re arguably the biggest promotional stable in the world things like rankings don’t pose too much of a problem for them.
Let’s turn our attention to the WBC, the 2nd longest running boxing federation of the big 4. The famous green belt should carry prestige, history, the wearer should be proud to have it round his waist.
Then of course we have Amir Khan listed as the number 3 Welterweight in the World despite never having fought at the weight.
Lucian Bute has had 1 fight at light heavyweight yet is listed as number 3.
At middleweight we have Domenico Spada (who I hear you say) listed at number 2 having fought the likes of Sandor Ramocsa (12-21-0), Norbert Szekeres(13-24-3) and Marijan Markovic (4-20-1) in his last 3 fights.
This one to me is particularly curious. With the wealth of talent in that division I could name 7 or 8 fighters off the top of my head who are far better than Spada.
The cynic in me says this could be a ploy. A ploy for when Sergio Martinez comes back so they could make it not too difficult to maneuver Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr back into contention fairly easily. Surely not, not the WBC!
Then we had the ridiculous situation of Andre Ward being stripped whilst nursing an injury. I think he had went something like 6 months without defending yet Vitali Klitschko has gone 14 months without a defence and not a word! Also let’s not forget that his last defence was also a voluntary one.
We had all the bluster from the WBC in the build up to Canelo-Mayweather of their policy of their champions holding no other belts and Canelo had to decide whether to keep WBA or WBC. He kept both.
There are far far more incidents from this organization and I could go on all night long.
But like I always say and I will keep saying it till I’m blue in the face. We need change! Boxing needs it to break the monopoly and make being a champion a privilege again.
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