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(OCT 20) I don't know about you, but I've been to a lot of boxing matches,
starting with Floyd Patterson fighting eight round main events because he
wasn't old enough to fight ten rounds in New York state. I've also logged
countless hours in front of the TV watching boxing, going back to the
"Friday Night Fights brought to you by Gillette razor blades" and never, not
once, have I ever heard a fan, an announcer on the air, or certainly, a
fighter, utter the words, "I sure liked the way that bout was sanctioned."
Rather, all the comments about all those boxing matches were about the
fighters; good, bad, and indifferent, the talk was always about the
fighters, and that's the way it should be, because that's what boxing is
about, it's about the fighters.
Sanctioning bodies in boxing have been around, in one form or another,
almost as long as two fighters have been lacing up gloves. Sanctioning
bodies are a lot like referees, they usually don't get noticed unless they
"screw up." The Women's International Boxing Association, the WIBA, has been
getting a bit of notice recently.
Now don't misunderstand, every sport, particularly boxing, needs oversight.
It needs an objective group that can bring "order to chaos" since in boxing,
chaos has a way of breaking out with distressing regularity. The WIBA does
as good a job of oversight as any other sanctioning body in the sport of
Women's boxing (which cynics might point out as an example of "faint praise,
indeed"), but, in point of fact, the WIBA has been involved in many of the
better boxing programs that have contributed to the growing popularity of
Women's boxing around the world. On the flip side, like all other
sanctioning bodies involved in a multitude of bouts, the WIBA has had its
share of mismatches. Most recently, the Shelby Walker/Emiko Raika and
Marcella Acuna/Daisy Padilla bouts won't make the highlight reel of the WIBA
or that of the sport, but, in fairness, mismatches "come with the territory"
of sanctioning boxing matches.
In September, the WIBA sanctioned two bouts in Kyoto, Japan: Yvonne Caples
and Yuko Sodeoka and "Missy" Fiorentino in with Raika. From every report,
both bouts were terrific ten round fights, Raika edging out a win over
Fiorentino and Caples and Sodeoka fighting to a draw. It was following the
bouts that chaos came to Kyoto. Incredibly, the Japanese officials awarded
the WIBA belt to Sodeoka, despite the draw decision and the fact that the
bout was for a vacant title. The reasoning for this outrage was an arcane
ruling that cumulative points from the three judging cards determined the
winner, a rule that seemed to surface only immediately after the bout. In
the other bout, Fiorentino, a recognized close loser, also had post-fight
issues. She protested that Raika had ingested an illegal substance in her
corner between rounds, that no one in the arena could seem to come up with a
copy of the scorecards, if indeed there were scorecards and that there was
no, supposedly mandated, post-fight drug test.
Following their return to the U.S., both Caples and Fiorentino went public
with their complaints, capped with demands for rematches. The WIBA went from
a deserved "high" of involvement in two very good boxing bouts to a "low" of
being enmeshed in dual controversies. The WIBA's response to the fighter's
complaints seemed, to me, to take the form of a Pontius Pilate-like attempt
to distance the organization from the controversy. The group's spokesman,
Ryan Wissow, the Executive Director of the WIBA, at times seemed to be
disingenuous, at best, and helpless at worst, claiming, basically, that he
was at a loss, in Kyoto, to bring a remedy to either situation since he
didn't understand the language and, as a result, in the Caples/Sodeoka bout,
didn't comprehend what was happening until the Japanese officials had
wrapped the belt around the local fighter.
Wissow's response to the Fiorentino litany of complaints outlined, in almost
stupefying detail, problems with local travel, the hotel arrangements, the
seating availability in the arena and, of course, the language barrier. In
fairness, it should be noted that in most of these instances, Wissow was
replying to issues raised by Fiorentino. However, the larger point is that
who's slightly inconvenienced by travel arrangements, who's sitting where
are superfluous issues, the primary concern should be what, when and where
is the WIBA going to take steps to address the primary issue raised by both
Caples and Fiorentino, that they each deserve a rematch. That, to me, was
what was largely missing from the WIBA responses to the fighters. Now, I
understand that the WIBA does not perform a matchmaking function, but as the
self-proclaimed "best" sanctioning body in the sport, I really wished the
WIBA response had expressed a whole lot more resolve about encouraging
matchmakers to make return bouts for Caples and Fiorentino and a whole lot
less on why the "best" sanctioning body did little or nothing to bring order
to chaos in Japan. I also probably could have used a bit more empathy from
the WIBA for Caples and Fiorentino, two fighters who traveled to a foreign
country and, in the toughest possible circumstances, put on two great boxing
performances against what many boxing observers thought, prior to the bouts,
were "stacked decks.". Instead, and unfortunately, the WIBA responses to
each fighter seemed to seek to put distance between the chaos in Kyoto, the
fighter complaints and the WIBA.
While the two bouts in Japan were examples of how good Women's boxing can be
inside the ring, the aftermath was disastrous. The WIBA deserves plaudits
for sanctioning the fights and criticism for the chaos that followed. Both
Yvonne Caples and "Missy" Fiorentino deserve rematches, not only because
good fights, and these were good fights, are always prime candidates for
rematches, but also because both fighters have raised valid mitigation about
the events surrounding the bouts and their aftermath. Caples has the
stronger case, but Fiorentino probably deserves another chance at Raika.
"Stuff happens" and what happened in Kyoto last month can't be undone or
explained away and neither should it be used as a negative brush to paint
the WIBA. The organization has had more accomplishments than failures and I
hope they use their influence to do "the right thing" for the fighters and
try to get Yvonne Caples and Yuko Sodeoka and "Missy" Fiorentino and Emiko
Raika in the ring with each other as quickly as possible. To paraphrase
James Carville, that noted Cajun political operative, "It's the fighters,
Stupid."
Bernie McCoy
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