There's never a scarcity of critics of the sport of Women's boxing, rather they tend to be legion in number. Some of the criticism is silly and misinformed, such as the ongoing cry that it is not aesthetically pleasing for female athletes to compete in a boxing ring. Other negative evaluations come closer to fact; the reluctance of the top fighters in the sport to step into the ring with each other. However, one element of the sport has remained somewhat inviolable: a championship fight, a bout deserving of that designation, usually has at least a modicum of competitiveness surrounding it. The reason for that is that the promoters, the sanctioning bodies, even the competing boxers and their management are reluctant to attach a championship label to a bout that clearly does not deserve it. That component has every indication of being violated on January 12 in the ring at the Palace in Auburn Hills, MI.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) has, with what must be assumed was a collective straight face, sanctioned an IBA Americas super Middleweight championship bout between Mary Jo Sanders and Gina Nicholas. You know Mary Jo Sanders, she of the unbeaten record of 22 fights, a fighter with the stated designs of eventually stepping up to challenge Laila Ali. You don't know Gina Nicholas? Not necessarily surprising. Gina Nicholas has not been in a professional boxing ring in over five years. That's right, five years, George W. Bush had been president less than a year. Gina Nicholas' last bout was November 2001, a three round KO loss to Ann Wolfe, putting her (Nicholas) record at 11-5-2, eight wins coming by way of knockout.

Five years ago, Mary Jo Sanders/Gina Nicholas is a pretty good fight. Gina Nicholas has shown that she has punching power and she has been in with some of the better fighters in the welterweight and middleweight ranks. In addition to Wolfe, Nicholas has fought Mitzi Jeter, Suzette Taylor, Kendra Lenhart, Mary Ann Almager and Leah Mellinger, a group that can be categorized as quality fighters, and who also have in common the fact that, at this point in time, they are all retired from the ring. Nicholas is not the retiring type and in the five year span she has been out of the ring, she spent almost two years as a civilian employee in Iraq, working as an Incinerator supervisor.

Unfortunately, this year is 2007, not 2001 and while Gina Nicholas was a good fighter who competed at the top level of her sport, the operative tense is "was" a good fighter. Does Gina Nicholas have the right to fight Mary Jo Sanders? Of course,. but a more prudent course for Nicholas' return to the ring after 62 months would be to take several bouts a bit below the championship level with opposition a bit below a fighter with a 22 fight win streak. Does Mary Jo Sanders have the right to pursue her path towards Mt. Ali by adding the IBA title to her growing collection of championship belts? Of course. But to win that belt in a bout with a fighter who has been inactive for five years, well, that is really not the stuff of legacy.

It is, rather, the stuff that the critics of the sport of Women's boxing thrive on. Mary Jo Sanders and her management are among the more knowledgeable in the sport, knowledgeable enough, certainly, to realize a Gina Nicholas fight is not a competitive match, much like Sanders' recent four round foray against Kimberly Harris, a 3-8 fighter. That fight, at least, was not disguised as a championship bout. As for the IBA, this organization is one of the purported overseers of the sport, the last line of defense against bouts that should not be sanctioned. The IBA should take a moment to consult not a matchmaking handbook, but rather a dictionary and peruse the definition of "to sanction": "to give effective, authoritative approval to." In sanctioning a bout such as Sanders -Nicholas, the IBA is acting neither effectively or with any semblance of responsible authority. Instead, they are neglecting their basic premise of assuring reasonably competitive, compelling boxing matches. In this particular case, it is rather the sanctioning body that needs oversight if this is what they consider to be a competitive, compelling bout.

Fans of Women's boxing continue to wait for a "turning point" in the fortunes of the sport, a time when good bouts among the top athletes in the sport are the norm, not the rare exception. Based on the scheduled bout in the Palace at Auburn Hills on January 12, that "turning point" is still not visible in the distance.  

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