WBC’s trick of ranking Pacquiao #1 won’t get him Mayweather

By Boxing News - 12/11/2013 - Comments

pac7847By Chris Williams: The World Boxing Council made a calculated move this month in elevating Filipino Manny Pacquiao to the #1 spot in their welterweight rankings. The move was done by the WBC to try and put WBC 147 lb. champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the hot seat to where he would feel obligated to fight Pacquiao since he was the #1 contender for him.

As Dan Rafael of ESPN points out, this move was a complete waste of time by the WBC, because Mayweather will not feel any more inclined to want to fight Pacquiao now than he did before.

As Mayweather said recently, Pacquiao is 1-2 in his last three fights, and he wishes him all the best with his career. If the WBC orders a purse bid between Mayweather and Pacquiao, they can count on two things: 1. Mayweather ignoring the order 2. Their WBC belt being vacated by him.

The WBC needs to straighten out their rankings by putting Pacquiao down well below the #1 spot because he hasn’t done anything to deserve that ridiculous ranking by beating light welterweight Brandon Rios and losing to his two previous fights before that to Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley. Mayweather will never waste his time fighting Pacquiao, so the WBC needs to rank fighters that have a realistic chance of getting a fight against him, like Amir Khan. He should be the #1 contender instead of being at #3.

The WBC should clear out Pacquiao and definitely #2 WBC Luis Carlos Abregu. The WBC is wasting their time ranking both of those guys in the top 5. Unless the WBC is going to try and force the issue with Mayweather, which will lead to him vacating, then they need to change their rankings. Just ignoring the silliness of Pacquiao at #1 for a second, what has Abregu done to deserve to be #2 by the WBC? That’s a very strange ranking.

The only way that Pacquiao can pick up the WBC belt at 147 is if the WBC strips Mayweather or orders him to fight Pacquiao. Mayweather will then vacate and the WBC will have Pacquiao in position to go after their belt. But unless they give the title to Pacquiao, he’s not going to waste a fight by battling #2 WBC Abregu for the vacant title. That’s why it’s pretty silly for the WBC to have Abregu ranked in that spot. It just means that Pacquiao will ignore the WBC title if Mayweather vacates it rather than having to fight Abregu for the vacant belt.

If Pacquiao wants a shot at Mayweather, he’s going to have to start beating quality opposition in the welterweight division. I’m sorry, but Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado probably don’t count for much in proving anything for Pacquiao. He’s got to beat real welterweights and good ones. Arum only has Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez at that weight in terms of known fighters. Beating Bradley still won’t be enough for Pacquiao to get the Mayweather fight. Bob Arum of Top Rank needs to add a lot more quality to his stable at 147 if he’s mainly going to be looking for in house fights for Pacquiao. Fighting Rios, Alvarado, Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov is hardly enough for Pacquiao to redeem himself for his recent two defeats.



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