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US Tomato Can
27th November 2007, 07:40 AM
WBA - We Be Asking. We be asking for purses and trying to get whoever they can in their fold with a name to make themselves prominent.

WBC- We be Collecting. The infamous sanction started by Jose Suliaman now making prmonent the battle for interim titles and the status of interim champ in which you can bea champion and never lift a glove to defend it. Even better an automatic chance at the presumably more prominent WBC title. We be collecting indeed.

IBF - I be felonious. In between investigations by the CIA and FBI for rankings fixing. IBF factually proved it too. IBF has told Top Rank that if Marquez's bout with Chi was not a WBC eliminator then they would put Marquez back to his old ranking. Only problem with that is, they shouldn't have taken him out to begin with.

The organization never notified Top Rank that they were to begin negotiations for a Tapia-Marquez bout, in fact it was on August 27th that they found out that Marquez had been expunged from the ratings. Which handily just happened to be 60 days from when Tapia's mandatory defense was due on October 27th. The IBF gives notice of it's mandatory defenses being due, 60 days in advance.

WBO - Worthless Boxing Organization. Frank Warren's old hand puppet formed and conceived to be a place where budding boxers under his wing could have a title to and be a world champion. For a long time the rankings were filled with Warren's kids from Bantam to Heavy. In short it was a clearing house to pad records.

Seems now the organization has outgrown him and shockingly the WBO has begun to have some shred of signifigance and actual titular weight.

So where am I going with my mad rant?

It all began a long time ago in 1976 when ABC and Roone Arledge decided their televised bouts need heft and signifigance. To do this they made the fatal mistake of turning to none other than Don King to solve this by creating a made for TV 'U.S. Boxing Championships'. It was determined to be a contender one would need to be ranked by the boxing bible, Ring Magazine edited by Nat Loubet son-in-law of founder Nat Fleishcer.

Well, predictable results followed ABC made a killing in profits and so did Ring and King. A big happy family however was not to be because it came to light that Ring was fixing ratings of specific fighters who *shock and awe* were also Don king's fighters. This practice included tampering with records and finding suitable title shots for Don's den. With this scandal and notable omissions like Marvin Hagler the news was out. ABC and King and Ring Magazine were not to be trusted.

With this new issue how could it dealt with now with meaningful and credible rankings? Ahhhh enter the alphabet soup of independent sanctions. But is it truly their fault? With Pay per view and cable battling for boxing attractions and the Ring fallen out of favor they turned to the ABCs of boxing for credibility. Now like a vast pestilence tearing through the crops of Pharoah they run things they do now hence my interpretations of the acronym farm of boxing.

But no complete bitch thread is complete without an offered solution. I've been cooking this one in my head a long time now. Boxing needs an athletic board national czar. It's overdue. In the light of decent boxing board leadership coming under unjust fire such as Hazzard a national czar could step in and at least give recourse to answer back the heavy hand of non-sport legislation. They could oversee and audit State commisions to avoid the pitfalls of bribery, corruption and squeeze sanction orgs back to managing purses and keeping their hands out where they don't belong.

Don't get me wrong the national leadership position is in and of itself not without pitfalls. It would need right leadership and good leadership. In short it needs a right person but so many of the alphabet soup chaos going now could be cleaned up with an onpoint national czar. Ultimately I'd like all these independent sanctions answer to a national czar as well as a state one.

Holyfield continually risking health and safety and black eye for boxing could be avoided by not allowing him to merely reapply for license in another state after being denied in New York. Just my thoughts. What are yours?

Soulrise
27th November 2007, 09:46 AM
The sanctioning bodies in boxing are such a fucking mess I don't know if they'll ever be fixed. I like the original idea that ABC had in commissioning the Ring to determine official rankings, and once again when The Ring released their own belt. Of course the obvious problem is corruption and bribery and now that Golden Boy Promotions owns The Ring they're even more suspect. But that's the thing, in my eyes any number of the solutions that people have offered would work if those involved were clean. Whatever the solution is it needs to be closely regulated and overseen so that it doesn't decline into the mess that it's become. A national council could be a great step forward, but it could also be a complete mess. In the end as long as there's money to made there will be officials to tempt and bribe. And that goes for all sports. I personally would like to see an independent organization with a well-respected staff (Larry Hazzard, Margaret Goodman) that is strictly forbidden from making money from sanctioning fees, etc. The independent commission's income would come from revenue generated from the fights themselves (percentage from ticket sales, tv or ppv revenue, etc.). This would motivate them to only present the best and most attractive fights for fans since if they get paid off by some promoter to throw some undeserving fighter in a title shot they'd suffer by the public's lack of interest. Then again who knows if an idea like that could ever work or is even feasible. Sigh.

Mia Wallace
27th November 2007, 07:44 PM
HAHAA...IBF = I Be Felonious!!!

This is comedy gold.

US Tomato Can
27th November 2007, 08:10 PM
Well beyond independent bodies, that's what WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO are I'd like to see a federally employed national boxing overseer. Mostly to keep state sanctions straight. I mean the HIV debacle with Morrison bouncing from state to state and boxers getting cleared that shouldn't. Boxing doesn't need another death in the family.

Soulrise
28th November 2007, 12:14 AM
Well beyond independent bodies, that's what WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO are I'd like to see a federally employed national boxing overseer. Mostly to keep state sanctions straight. I mean the HIV debacle with Morrison bouncing from state to state and boxers getting cleared that shouldn't. Boxing doesn't need another death in the family.

I don't think being independent is the problem. I think being independent and corrupt is the problem. The idea of a federal commission where politicians are the ones who appoint the officials just doesn't sound like it will yield positive results (see Larry Hazzard's firing, CSAC in general, etc.) Also if we're talking about a comprehensive worldwide commission I can't really see government officials from the world over working collaboratively in an effective manner. Independently if the right individuals were chosen I think it could work. My two cents.