The unfairness in boxing, but it’s business

By Boxing News - 08/18/2014 - Comments

rubio4354By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore:
Let me make this perfectly clear. Boxing has been and will always be about business. We have enjoyed a lot of big matches throughout boxing history. There are some fans who want big fight after big fight after big fight. And to them, it doesn’t matter what the economic factors are just get the fight done. What is disturbing is that there certain fighters who have worked their way into the number one spot only to be told “they don’t deserve a shot at the title because they haven’t fought anybody”.

So it’s no wonder that fighters jump all over the change to have an interim belt or an extra belt created by the WBC. It’s probably the closest they’ll get to title. Take Marco Antonio Rubio and Jarrod Fletcher.

Rubio got a crack at the WBC crown versus Kelly Pavlik in 2009, but he fell short when he refused to answer the bell for the tenth round. He’s worked his way back into the fold and became the number one contender to that same belt. Sergio Martinez (when he was champ) refused to fight him. Rubio even stepped aside to let the Miguel Cotto fight Martinez believing he would get his shot. He didn’t. Now he’s getting a chance to fight WBA middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin (GGG).

Interestingly enough, Rubio isn’t even ranked in the top ten for the WBA and the number one contender for that belt is Dimitry Chudinov. And should Rubio become victorious, Rubio will be looking for big money fights and Chudinov will become the new Rubio. Unfair right? Jarrod Fletcher, before his demise against Daniel Jacobs, was the mandatory challenger to GGG belt. K2, GGG’s promoter, and HBO (by their decision to let GGG fight Daniel Geale) told Fletcher he didn’t deserve a bout the champ. From a business standpoint I understood GGG’s and HBO’s position. Fletcher didn’t bring ratings. But it still does not exclude the fact that he deserves a shot at the title. He worked his way to the number one spot.

One of the things I like about Floyd Mayweather is that he is cut and dry. He has and will tell the public “I’m in the check cashing business”. I know where he stands and I don’t expect him to honor the rankings at all for his welterweight or junior middleweight titles. Right now welterweight Keith Thurman is the WBA’s number one contender the belt in which Floyd holds. I don’t expect that fight to happen at all. Khan is the WBC’s number one challenger to happen and I expect that bout to happen (especially if Khan takes the IBF away from Kell Brook).

There is something I like to call principle here. When a fighter tells someone else “you don’t deserve something” and it comes back around to the party who issued the statement, that party shouldn’t be shocked. People are clamoring for a unification bout between GGG and one of the other champions. But research has told me that unifications have never been mandated. They have been agreed upon (Donald Curry vs Milton McCrory; Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns; Mayweather vs Maidana). I could go on. So when other parties are telling GGG they don’t deserve a shot a huge pay day and a chance to make a bigger name for himself (and I believe he does), forgive me if I don’t cry for Argentina. It’s business. Miguel Cotto is trying to set up a bigger match for Saul Alvarez which in business terms would be a lot bigger than Cotto and Golovkin.

So if fans are going to whine about their favorite fighter not getting a big pay day, or a shot at a big name, make sure to whine for everybody across the board. And when you finish, understand that it will always come back to being about business. And understand this. The “you don’t deserve a shot” will continue to happen.



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