(SEPT 7) A vaudeville skit: Guy
walks into a diner and says, "I'll have some coffee." Waitress
brings the coffee and the guy, glancing out the window, says,
"Looks like rain," to which the waitress snaps, "Never mind what
it looks like, it tastes like coffee."
Boxing is the only sport in which there is no mandate requiring
the top athletes to face off with the top competition. In every
other sport, the best individual or teams are matched up, by
schedule, tournaments or playoffs, with the top competition. In
boxing, occasionally, the two best boxers, in a given weight
class, climb into the ring to fight for a title in well
publicized bouts that brings exposure and, oft times, credit to
the sport. More often, a top fighter climbs into the ring with
an opponent, who bears little resemblance to a top contender,
and easily defends the title. And the prevailing attitude of all
concerned seems to be: "Never mind what it looks like, we swear
it's a title fight."
In the second half of the last decade of the last century, the
sport of Women's boxing underwent the beginning of a troubling
trend that, today, has metastasized into an affliction that
could, eventually, relegate the sport to irrelevance: some of
the top female boxers, unencumbered by any requirement to fight
other top fighters, simply began, in the mid-1990s, to
systematically avoid top competition. Christy Martin and Lucia
Rijker never met in the ring; Sumya Anani, possibly the best
female fighter of that era, went through inordinately long
periods of inactivity, sometimes extending to a year, because no
one would agree to fight her; Laila Ali, who succeeded Martin,
both in and out of the ring, as the face of Women's boxing,
trolled the globe for opponents but never made any serious move
in the direction of Houston, TX and Ann Wolfe. This trend,
unfortunately, has burgeoned, today, into an almost "Business as
usual" strategy in the sport and the result is there are far too
many so called title fights, far too many so called champions
and not nearly enough good bouts.
That may seem a contradiction in terms, but, in point of fact,
title fights, once considered the crown jewel of boxing
match-ups are now, too often, a misnomer attached to almost
every bout featuring any prominent female boxer. Earlier last
week, a breathless missive arrived detailing one Jessica
Balogun's eight round TKO win over Angel McKenzie, in Germany,
for something called the WFC welterweight title. Balogun came
into the bout with a record of 17-1, compiled almost solely in
Germany and almost exclusively against overmatched fighters with
losing records, including a win over McKenzie in June, who came
to the "title fight" with a 4-20 record. It's easy to dismiss
this bout as a product of a very minor boxing sanctioning body,
an aberration, uncommon among the major sanctioning bodies
"overseeing" main stream Women's boxing. If only!
In May, in Denmark, Cecilia Braekhus beat Victoria Cisneros in a
ten round welterweight title fight sanctioned by the WBC, WBA
and WBO. It was an unanimous decision, in which the three judges
awarded all 30 rounds to Braekhus. According to some ringsiders,
the bout wasn't that close. Up to the moment that Cisneros was
anointed as a worthy contender for an unbeaten title holder, her
career highlight had been coming out of the crowd to box ten
rounds with Holly Holm after the Holm/Melissa Hernandez fight in
Albuquerque ran aground. Cisneros came to Denmark with a 5-8-2
record, Braekhus was 13-0. The WIBA must have seen something in
the bout that escaped almost everyone else, since three months
later, in New Mexico, Cisneros was approved for an eight round
title bout with Melissa Hernandez for WIBA interim lightweight
title. This time out, Cisneros was awarded one round of the
twenty-four on the three judges' scorecards. Thus, in two title
bouts, sanctioned by the WBC, WBA, WBO and WIBA, Victoira
Cisneros, according to the judges at ringside, won one of
fifty-four rounds in what major sanctioning bodies, the supposed
arbiters of what qualifies as quality in the sport they
supposedly oversee, deemed bouts worthy of the label title
fights.
Are these extreme examples of poorly matched title fights? Of
course. Have these same sanctioning bodies also staged more
competitive title fights? Yes, they have, although the recent
NABF (WBC) featherweight title bout between Maureen Shea and
Liliana Martinez and the WBA endorsement of the last three Kina
Malpartida super featherweight title defenses have little chance
of a long life in the archives of the sport. Is it fair to point
out such mismatches posing as title fights, without also listing
the good bouts. I think it is, and here's why.
A title bout needs to be a special bout. Not just some title
bouts, all title bouts. Like airplane landings, if title fights
are not done well, bad things happen, particularly to the sport.
Every title fight should match the champion in a weight class
with a top ranked challenger, not once in a while, every time
"title fight" appears in the press release. If, however, the
contender is a fighter with a losing record, a fighter the title
holder has beaten recently, or a fighter without a win against a
boxer with a winning record, the designation "title bout" should
immediately be stricken from that bout's publicity. Simply
stated, a challenger for a title should have a legitimate chance
of winning that title, in every title fight, not just a rare
few, such as the recent Jeannine Garside/Ina Menzer bout,
sanctioned by the WIBF, WBC and WBO.
And today, in the sport of Women's boxing, given the deep talent
pool of female fighters in almost every weight class it is not
an overwhelming hurdle to find a title contender who like,
Jeannine Garside, has a legitimate chance at winning the title.
But, instead, there are simply far too many bouts that do
nothing more that co-opt the label "title fight," to mask a
mismatch in which any fan with a modicum of boxing sense knows
the winner long before the first bell.
It's convenient and all too easy to lay sole blame on the
sanctioning bodies, who oversee the sport and place their
imprimatur on a the growing accumulation of mismatches posing as
title fights. In point of fact, the sanctioning bodies, for the
most part, have little, if any, input in making the match-ups.
That's, usually, the result of negotiation between the fighter's
management and the promoters and, in truth, the knowledge of the
relative talent of professional female boxers rests, largely,
with management. And while the vast majority of boxing
management in the sport of Women's boxing is composed of
experienced, knowledgeable and dedicated boxing veterans, who
form a large part of the backbone of the sport, when choosing
title opposition for their fighters, they will, given the
choice, err on the side of a winnable bout for their fighter.
It is at that point, the role of the sanctioning body becomes
crucial. In effect these organizations are the last line of
resistance between a mismatch being granted the elevated status
of "title fight." The WBC, the WBA, the WBO are, literally, the
names above the title. It's their title and these organizations
need to exhibit pride in each and every match-up they endorse as
title fights for their belts. They, alone, have the final "go/no
go" call on the competitive efficacy of a title fight. These
sanctioning bodies must answer the question "Is this the best
possible title fight available," not just for some of the title
fights they sanction, for all of the title fights they sanction.
These organizations must leave open the option of withholding
their seal of approval for a title bout when and if the proposed
match-up shouts "mismatch" long before the weigh-in. These
sanctioning bodies are in a position to restore the glitter to
the label "championship fight;" they are in a position to
restore the magic to the term "champion." Unfortunately, today,
that type of oversight is a rare commodity in the sport of
Women's boxing and the result has been a serving up of far too
many bouts that may look like title fights, but seldom pass the
taste test of fans.
Bernie McCoy
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