By Gerardo Granados: I not only find interesting to read the comments on many boxing articles but also find real boxing knowledge in many. It is great to hear the voice of fight fans, be it the casuals, the hard core fight fans or boxing purists, because we all share a passion for boxing.
My own opinion is only that, and I don’t expect to convince all fight fans with my written rants. But it surprised me how some readers tried to justify both Canelo Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders avoidance of Gennady Golovkin.
If a boxer isn’t ready to become a World Champion, then he should prepare before taking a shot at the title, instead to prepare to become a World Champion while holding a major organization belt.
A prospect will develop his boxing skills and take on opposition that he can defeat and also help him improve.
A contender will step up the level of competition and perfection his overall boxing skills while acquiring experience.
A top ten contender is ready to challenge the World Champion and to defend the title if he wins it.
A World Champion must be ready to defend his title against the best opposition available and not only against the most profitable for him.
A World Champion worked hard and made sacrifices to get a shot at the title and no one manufactured one for him.
A World Champion take risks against dangerous contenders, not by hand pick beatable tomato cans or tailor made opponents to look good.
A World Champion doesn’t need to be tagged as the “lineal” champion anymore because now days it has become only a fancy name to tag a boxer with.
A paper belt holder is a marketable illusion created by a greedy promoter, who often got a manufactured belt from a sanctioning body willing to make money in the process.
There have been really great Middleweight Champions of the World, and I don’t recall any of them making excuses for not taking on dangerous contenders. Can the reader imagine Carlos Monzon, Sugar Ray Robinson, Marvin Haggler, Jake La Motta, James Toney or Bernard Hopkins overpricing their self to avoid a fight, or arguing not to be ready to fight each other once they already had become champions?
Why would fight fans have to tolerate Canelo Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders for not aiming to dethrone the middleweight lion king? Why would we be satisfied to watch them getting ready to face Gennady 666 Golovkin, whilst they already have claimed to be an organization champion and to have the right to be called World Champion? Why would anyone have any valid excuse to avoid a mandatory challenger or another organization champion if he already held a title at the same weight division? Is it because now Corporate Boxing has taken over the competition side of the sweet science?
Why would I call middleweight Champion of the World to Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs, Chris Eubank Jr or Billy Joe Saunders? In my eyes they all are mere belt holders and the only lion king is named Gennady Golovkin.
The world that we live in isn’t perfect, and I don’t expect, that the ones running the show behind the curtains to fix Pro Boxing any time soon. But it is extremely odd to see a prize fighter call himself World Champion and at the same time, to see him avoiding dangerous contenders under the lame excuse of wanting to take the most profitable fight available or even worst because he “isn’t ready”.
Yes, this is prize fighting. But if you take away the pride of the ring warriors, what is left can only be compared with the greed of stock exchange brokers in Wall Street.
Prizefighting is not solely about money, it also is about a way of life, it’s about a way to get out, it’s about find a way to save yourself, it’s about to witness acts of courage and bravery, also to see how the dreams of boxers come true after years of sacrifice and discipline when they finally become World Champions.
Maybe I am wrong Mr. Valenzuela, and I should call World Champion to any belt holder out there. Perhaps I should believe anything I am told by major sports media to be the truth. But, for sure I cannot be alone, in what I believe is the meaning of being called Middleweight Champion of the World.
But, do the readers think there is a difference between a mere belt holder and the Middleweight Champion of the World?
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