Random Thoughts and Blurbs
About Boxing Part 1
By Matt Yanofsky
• The WBC (World Boxing
Council) has another acronym for its organization
which is World Boxing Cares. This refers to
the charitable work they have done around the
world, which I greatly respect. Unfortunately,
this is not completely the case because if they
really cared, they would not have let Oscar
Larios fight for the WBC interim featherweight
crown last weekend.
Larios was put on indefinite
medical suspension in America after a serious
brain injury occurred following his fight Jorge
Linares last July. The worst part of this is
that the WBC will now mandate Linares to face
Larios again, with the winner being the legitimate
champion. Sad what these organizations will
do to get sanctioning fees.
• Speaking of the WBC,
it’s about time their heavyweight rankings
made sense.Vitali Klitschko is supposedly at
the front of the line for a shot at champion
Samuel Peter due to his champion in emeritus
status (meaning he is automatically ranked the
#1
contender to the current belt holder since he
retired as champion). However, the WBC currently
has Vladimir Virchis ranked as its #1 contender
without any justification
The confusion doesn’t
end there as Juan Carlos Gomez recently won
TWO eliminators (eliminators are supposed to
be for the #1 ranking and a shot at the champion
remember?). The final chapter to this comical
ending is that Samuel Peter has an optional
defense coming up this summer when he potentially
has THREE mandatory fights. Only in pro boxing!
• Congrats to Yusuke
Kobori on winning the WBA “regular”
lightweight title. You are now in the ranks
with Anthony Mundine, Yuriy Nuzhnenko, Oscar
Larios and Firat Arslan among others as the
most fraudulent champion in the sport
• Speaking of Yuriy
Nuzhnenko, I’d like to congratulate him
on being held to a technical draw against Irving
Garcia. Garcia is the same man who two fights
prior to facing Nuzhenko fought a 5-10 opponent
and before that was dominated in two rounds
by the virtually unknown Said Ouali. So much
for “World” rankings having a meaning.
• Ricky Hatton looked average as he overcame
some tough moments in his unanimous decision
victory against Juan Lazcano a few weeks back.
Brits love to chant “theres onlyyyyyy
oneeeee Ricky Hattonnnn”. This is true
but Philly fight fans remember that there are
two Jose Medinas in fact; they fought each other
in the city of brotherly love.
• On the televise undercard of the Hatton
vs Lazcano bout, Paulie Malignaggi squeeked
by Lovemore N’dou to retain his IBF junior
welterweight crown. Malignaggi’s biggest
problems were his broken hand as well as his
hair situation. Malignaggi decided to put in
ridiculous hair extensions which got in his
way and greatly affected his performance.
Since Malignaggi had such
a problem with hair being in his way, he should
consider himself lucky he isn’t a heavyweight,
therefore doesn’t have to potentially
tangle with Nikolay Valuev’s 330 lbs of
chest hair. That would be a bad situation but
in all seriousness, Hatton vs. Malignaggi should
be an intriguing fight.
• HBO and Showtime
will be going go head to head again this Saturday.
HBO is airing Daniel Ponce De Leon vs Juan Manuel
Lopez and Kelly Pavlik vs. Gary Lockett while
Showtime is broadcasting the Paul Williams vs.
Carlos Quintana rematch and Vernon Forrest vs.
Sergio Mora. Both cards are decent and the opening
bout on each network will most definitely be
the best fight.
The problem here isn’t
with the quality of the fights but the fact
that the networks are going to head to head.
While each network wants supremacy, they need
to realize that the sport of boxing ultimately
loses because you can only watch one network
at a time and this will affect the sport’s
ratings.
Do you have any random thoughts of your
own or comments about mine? Email me yanoboxing@aol.com
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