The Ramblings of a Guy Called Lee 08.06.09: The Debut

Posted by David M. Lee on 08.06.2009

I kick off my brand new column by giving my thoughts on various topics within the boxing world including why more people should speak out against the alphabet boys, why Witter should stop crying and if Hopkins still deserves to be on the P4P list...

Is the war against the alphabet boys a losing battle?

I always assumed that boxing fans and journalists shared a universal hatred of the ludicrous sanctioning bodies. I mean, what's to like about these greedy, corrupt organizations that have been milking the sport for all it's worth for years? So I find it depressing that Boxing Monthly editor Glyn Leach, who I have the utmost respect for, is seemingly against boxers vacating these worthless pieces of tin. In this month's issue of Boxing Monthly, Mr. Leach wrote, "... mandatory challengers often don't get their shots, champions dump their belts, and superstar fighters turn up in whichever division offers them the best payday. It confuses and frustrates even the hardcore fight fan when things don't that should happen just don't."

No Glyn, what frustrates the hardcore and, especially, the casual fan is that there are several versions of the "world" title within each division, that most mandatory challengers are completely undeserving of their number one status and that these ridiculous governing bodies regularly strip their champions for chasing the best fighters, notable examples include Malignaggi v Hatton (Malignaggi was stripped of his IBF light-welterweight title for facing world number one Hatton) and the forthcoming Dawson v Johnson rematch (Dawson vacated his IBF title rather than face unheralded Tavoris Cloud. The IBF would have stripped him anyway).

Try explaining to the casual fan the WBA's nonsensical "Super Champion" policy, or the fact that guys like Morrade Hakkar, Mzonke Fana, Gary Lockett and numerous other sub-par boxers, are worthy number one contenders for the world title. The casual fan would look at you as if you had two heads and would probably say something like "the hell with that, I'll stick with UFC where there's just one champion and genuine number one contenders". And you know what, they'd be right.

If I were a casual boxing fan, I couldn't be bothered trying to understand the B.S. politics of these ghastly alphabet boys. These guys are killing boxing and we need editors of highly respected boxing publications like Boxing Monthly to stand up to these governing bodies and condemn them and not the boxers who have the moral courage to vacate their titles and tell the alphabet boys where to go. But if Mr. Leach feels differently then that's fine. If he feels that boxers should hang onto their alphabet baubles and face unworthy mandatory challengers for infinity, then that's his prerogative.

The funny thing is, Mr. Leach wasn't always singing the same tune. Back in the September, 2003 issue of Boxing Monthly, Glyn wrote, "... the only man with the balls to tell the sanctioning bodies to go forth and multiply is Marco Antonio Barrera. The rest might moan and snipe, but they are all bitches to the dollar bill, completely lacking in principles. Self-serving and immoral whores who care more about their own bank balances rather than the sport that keeps them in the black."

Wait, I'm confused. Either it's a good thing or a bad thing for a boxer to vacate his title, Glyn. It can't be both. Are boxers who keep their alphabet belts doing what's right for the sport or are they, to quote you from 2003, "self-serving, immoral whores?" Maybe I'm taking your quotes out of context and if that's the case then I apologise. But I think that somebody in your position needs to clarify their stance on the alphabet organizations. Because if you're not part of the solution then you are part of the problem.

Something to Ponder

Speaking of those lovely governing bodies, remember years ago when boxing fans complained that there were three versions of the "world" title? Nowadays there are three versions of the SAME DAMN TITLE. Just look at the ridiculous situation at super-bantamweight. Celestino Caballero is the WBA "Super-Champion", Bernard Dunne is the "regular" WBA champion and Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym is the "interim" WBA champion. What happens if Dunne and Caballero fight each other? Does the winner become the WBA "Super-Duper-Champion?" Absolute madness. Say what you want about "The Ring Championship," but if it's a choice between that or the WBA's crap, I know what I'd rather have.


Put the Violin Away Now Junior

For years now, Junior Witter has done nothing but bitch and moan that he's been avoided by all the big names at light-welterweight. While that may be true, he certainly didn't help his cause by constantly stinking out arenas with his dire performances, displaying a bad attitude and disrespectful behavior. Last Saturday against Devon Alexander, Witter had the perfect opportunity to make a real statement live on American television.

If Witter won, and done so impressively, the world would have been his oyster. Instead, Witter performed abysmally and, after being largely outboxed for eight rounds, quit on his stool before the start of the ninth, citing an elbow injury as the cause of his retirement from the contest. Now I don't know the severity of Witter's injury, but it seemed to me that, after being warned of excessive holding by referee Lou Moret, Junior threw his toys out of his pram and basically said "I don't need this" and promptly threw the towel in. Champions don't behave like this.

The real tragedy is that Witter is an extremely talented boxer. But his career will now, no doubt, go unfulfilled. And Witter has no-one else to blame but the man he sees every morning in the mirror.


Should he Stay or Should he go?

How much longer do we leave Bernard Hopkins in the pound-for-pound rankings? You won't find a bigger B-Hop fan than me, well other than our own Matt Knowles, but the fact is he's not been in the ring since October of last year and he doesn't seem to have any immediate plans to grace us with his in-ring presence anytime soon. Rumored bouts with Tomasz Adamek and Carl Froch have amounted to nothing and Chad Dawson has his hands full with Glen Johnson. If we don't hear anything regarding Hopkins in the next few weeks, I think it's time we remove him from the list. Its only fair, what say you Mr. Aranda?

Well that does it for this week. Agree or disagree with anything I said? Then please comment. See you next week.