Marquez Knocks Out Diaz in Brutal War!
February 28, 2009
February saved the best for last, as Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz turned in a Fight of the Year caliber performance in Houston, with Marquez winning with a ninth round knockout.
The fight got off to an extremely fast pace from the opening bell, with Diaz smothering Marquez and unloading punches in large quantities. The first two rounds were old fashioned toe-to-toe brawls, with Diaz seemingly getting the better of the older fighter.
In the third round, Marquez seemed to be able to avoid getting stuck on the ropes, where Diaz was doing most of his damage, and Marquez started to control the middle of the ring.
As the rounds went on, Marquez did a better job of boxing than he was doing early in the fight, but Diaz was still controlling the bulk of the action.
With each passing round, Marquez became a little more accurate, but also was getting more and more tired.
As Marquez seemed to be slowing down in the eighth round, he landed a series of left hands that both opened a vicious gash over Diaz’s left eye, and later wobbled him. Diaz was able to land a left hand of his own to keep Marquez from trying to finish him off and survive the round.
In the ninth, Diaz came out with his legs back under him and proceeded to pick up where he was in the seventh round, but a perfect right hand to the temple from Marquez wobbled Diaz, and this time he could not help but go to the canvas after a few more Marquez punches found their target.
Diaz beat the count, but with his legs gone and no ability to clinch, Marquez peppered him with combinations, hitting the body and the head, until a perfect uppercut sent Diaz straight down to the floor. The fight was waived off at 2:40 of the ninth round with no count from the referee needed.
No doubt this is the leader in the clubhouse for Fight of the Year, and as HBO’s Jim Lampley said, “good luck to the rest of boxing topping that.”
After the fight, Marquez chose to call out the retired former pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, saying that Manny Pacquiao isn’t interested in a third fight and Marquez wants to fight the best.
On the undercard, Chris John seemingly outboxed Rocky Juarez for the majority of their bout, but all three referees saw the fight as a 114-114 draw. John outclassed Juarez all night, but Juarez was more aggressive and threw far more power punches. Coupled with the Houston crowd roaring at everything Juarez did, John got the short end of the stick in a fight that he probably won.
Adamek, Johnson Both Big Winners
February 27, 2009
Glen Johnson took the headliner of Friday Night Fights with an impressive unanimous decision win over Daniel Judah, and Tomasz Adamek was a big winner over on SHOWTIME against Johnathon Banks via brutal eighth round knockout.
Johnson avenged a 2003 draw with the win, a fight that nearly ended quite early. Johnson dropped Judah with a straight right hand in the first round and had him hurt. Luckily for Judah, the knockdown happened very late in the round and he was able to survive the round.
From then on out, Johnson took control of the fight with his effective aggression and coasted home to the decision victory. According to ESPN’s stats, Johnson out threw Judah and landed nearly 100 more punches.
Scores were 99-89, 99-90 and 99-90 as Johnson goes to 49-12-2 with 33 knockouts.
Adamek was fighting less than three months after his epic battle with Steve Cunningham, and took a few rounds before finding his rythym against the previously undefeated Banks. Banks landed some big shots early as Adamek seemed to be reluctant to engage on the inside. Banks used his jab well in the first two rounds, and seemed to get Adamek’s attention several times with big blows.
Adamek turned the tide of the fight in the fifth round as he started to work the body. At this point, Banks started to lose his legs and abandoned his jab. Adamek picked up the pace through the sixth and seventh round, while doing hellacious body work.
In the eighth, Banks landed a huge right hand in the first minute, but was unable to follow it up with anything. Adamek then landed a perfect right hand on the chin and followed it up with a sweeping left hand to send Banks to the canvas. Banks beat the count, but Adamek quickly put a flurry together, sending Banks to the floor in a heap against the turnbuckle.
Adamek improves to 37-1 with 25 knockouts, while Banks falls to 20-1.
On the Adamek-Banks undercard, Giovanni Lorenzo gave us a Knockout of the Year nominee with a perfect one-punch stoppage of Dionisio Miranda. After landing a few solid shots to loosen him up, Lorenzo landed an absolutely perfect shot that dropped Miranda like a ton of bricks in the final minute of the second round.
An Open Letter To Vitali Klitschko From Oleg Maskaev
February 27, 2009
VITALI KLITSCHKO: STOP WHINING, STOP LYING, STOP CRYING
Dear Vitali,
Let’s stop the nonsense. When I fought you for the CSCA (Centrum Sports Club Army) Military Championship, I stopped you in the 1st round. You were badly hurt and your corner threw in the towel. Stop making excuses, stop lying and be a man and admit it. That was our 1st fight.
I became Heavyweight Champion in August ‘06 and made my 1st defense in December ’06 in Moscow before a sellout crowd in the 1st Heavyweight Championship bout in the history of Moscow. Your people contacted my promoter, Dennis Rappaport, and said that the WBC had designated you Champion Emeritus; and as such you had the right to immediately face me for the Heavyweight Championship. I agreed to fight you despite the fact that you were inactive for about 4 years and that you cancelled your last 4 fights due to injury. After months of negotiations surrounding the controversy as to who had the 1st right to fight for the Championship, Samuel Peter or you, I stood firm and supported your position. In return for my loyalty, you and your people started double-talking and procrastinating. On or about April ’07 HBO became disgusted and gave us a deadline for the contract to be signed. I signed the contract and was told that my promoter would receive your executed contract the next day. Vitali, your contract never was signed and you gave some ridiculous excuse that you wouldn’t have enough time to train. What were you doing for 4 months, getting a suntan and not training? I had very serious surgery for my elbow, due to injuries I suffered in my fight Dec. ’06. I went for rehabilitation after the surgery and was still ready to fight.
You claim that you shouldn’t have to fight 2 successive mandatories, but that’s exactly what the WBC had ordered me to do. You never complained or suggested that it was unfair or the WBC didn’t have the right. Of course not! It benefited you Vitali. Life is a two way street, there aren’t 2 sets of rules, one for you and one for everyone else.
You say you want to fight Arreola, Haye, or Dimentrinko, I don’t blame you….none of them have ever beaten a top ten contender.
Remember the words of Joe Louis, ‘you can run but you can’t hide’. For whatever the reason you have done everything humanly possible to avoid fighting me. I don’t know if it is psychological or what. Sometimes a fighter has another fighter’s number…like Mosely had DeLaHoya’s and Forrest had Mosely’s. These fighters won in the amateurs and also scored and won big upsets in the pros. Vitali, I know how to beat you. I stopped you in the amateurs and I’ll stop you whenever you have the courage to face me in the ring.
Prior to my fighting Peter I suffered a devastating back injury, the 1st in my professional career, I knew that if I had to postpone the Peter fight again, my title would have been stripped from me. There were strange and bizarre circumstances, surrounding the Peter fight, perhaps even bordering on the criminal. The truth of which will eventually come out. Suffice it to say that the real Oleg Maskaev was not in the ring that night. Today I am 100% healthy….and a 100% healthy Oleg Maskaev is a dangerous man. I respect you as a sportsman, so do whatever you choose; go to mediation, go to court, say your prayers, but remember if you defeat Gomez, you can’t fight anyone before you fight me. Vitali, stop the whining and let’s start fighting. I’ll fight you in Russia, in the U.S., or even in your own backyard. Let’s get it on.
Oleg Maskaev
Team Maskaev Responds to Klitschko Complaint
February 26, 2009
As per Fight News, Oleg Maskaev’s camp responded to Vitali Klitschko‘s complaint that he filed against the WBC to stop them from forcing him to make two consecutive mandatory defenses.
Maskaev’s team says that Klitschko is forgetting just how he got his title back.
“Klitschko is fighting about the very same thing he received,” said Maskaev’s promoter, Dennis Rappaport. “What does this guy have a double standard? One for the rest of the world and one for the Klitschko’s?”
Rappaport continued by saying, “He’s in the mirror position of Maskaev. Why didn’t he cry when it benefited him? It’s really like a joke. Now he wants to attack the very same thing he benefited from!”
Let me drop a little science on Mr. Rappaport.
When Vitali Klitschko retired as the WBC champion, he was guaranteed a shot at that same title if and when he returned to boxing. He earned his chance to fight Sam Peter for the title by the hard work he put in to win that belt in the first place. That is why he was the mandatory defense for the Peter-Maskaev winner.
The reason that the winner of Peter-Maskaev was to defend the title so quickly was that Maskaev was given 15 months between defenses by the WBC, so when he actually got back in the ring against the mandatory Peter, the winner was going to have to fight Klitschko in their next fight.
In this situation, Maskaev is simply a former champion who was knocked out in his last title fight, and has earned one single, meaningless win since that fight. He has not earned, in any sense of the word, mandatory challenger status.
Maskaev avoided fighting Peter and Klitschko for over a year and when forced to fight a real fighter, was promptly beaten around the ring. The man who beat him proceeded to get beaten around the ring by Vitali Klitschko. Maskaev beats a journeyman in the meantime and feels like he has earned being the mandatory challenger?
The WBC was willing to let Maskaev sit around for 15 months after he beat the extremely average (to be nice) Peter Okhello. So why should they change their ways now and mandate two back-to-back defenses of the title within 120 days of each other?
If they had a real challenger, or a fighter in a similar position to Klitschko a year ago, then I could understand trying to get the multiple mandatories out of the way as quickly as possible.
But this is just a former champion who has no business getting in the ring for a shot at any title, paper or otherwise, and his people are trying to make the argument that they are in the same spot as Klitschko a year ago.
I’m sorry Mr. Rappaport and Mr. Maskaev, but you couldn’t be more wrong on this situation, and for your own good, you should please stop talking now.
Adamek, Banks Make Weight
February 26, 2009
The four fighters who will appear on ShoBox: The New Generation tomorrow/Friday, Feb. 27, on SHOWTIME (11 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast) made weight on their first try Thursday at The Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Tomasz Adamek (36-1, 24 KOs), who weighed 199 pounds, will defend his IBF cruiserweight belt against Johnathon Banks (20-0, 14 KOs), who weighed the division-limit 200 pounds, in the ShoBox main event.
Giovanni Lorenzo and Dionisio Miranda will collide in a 12-round IBF middleweight elimination bout in Friday’s ShoBox co-feature at The Prudential Center.
Lorenzo (26-1, 18 KOs), of New York City via the Dominican Republic, and Miranda (19-2-2, 17 KO’s), of Barranquilla, Colombia, could be next in line to challenge IBF 160-pound champion Arthur Abraham.
The event is promoted by Main Events and Ziggy Promotions, in association with K2 Promotions. Tickets, priced from $38, can be purchased at the arena box office or by calling Ticketmaster (201) 507-8900. The first live fight starts at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Photos: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME
Mayweather Wants $20 Million To Come Back
February 26, 2009
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is willing to entertain offers to get back in the ring. The problem is, his idea of an acceptable offer is not in the same ballpark as the offers that are realistic.
It’s kind of a good news/bad news situation for boxing.
Good news that Mayweather is willing to entertain offers to return to the ring.
Bad news that he is so far off on the money issues that seeing him in the ring again is unlikely — until he drops his price.
Mayweather reportedly is looking for a $20 million guarantee to fight either Manny Pacquiao or Shane Mosley, a figure that Top Rank’s Bob Arum said was just unrealistic and out of line.
“Look, Golden Boy went to Mayweather about fighting Shane Mosley and he wanted a $20-million guarantee.”
…
“He is so bleeping way out of line that it is ridiculous. Nobody and no fight, against Manny or anyone else, is going to get him $20-million guarantee.”
…
“Could he work hard and earn $20 million if a fight with Manny did well, yeah, that is possible. But nobody is going to give Mayweather [the chance] to fight Pacquiao, Mosley or Jesus Christ.
“So is it possible that Mayweather will come back? I say yes, but his expectations and aspirations are just too unreasonable.”
Perhaps the problem that Mayweather is having, like Pacquiao had before him, is understanding that skill isn’t what sells. All of the fights that could make that kind of money involve either Oscar De La Hoya or Ricky Hatton. With back-to-back fights against them both, Mayweather likely believes that he can earn similar paychecks against anyone.
The fact is, Mayweather was never a big seller prior to the Oscar fight. Pacquiao’s big PPV was against Oscar. Mayweather’s fight with Hatton was huge worldwide.
A fight between Mayweather and Hatton would do huge business, but no one can guarantee it, since neither one has proven they can carry a promotion by themselves. The fight would be a huge hit with boxing fans, and huge in the Philippines, but neither of those means huge money.
If Mayweather were serious about wanting to fight either fighter, he’d be willing to take more money on the back-end and promote the shit out of the fight to guarantee its financial success. But like Arum said, the guarantee of $20 million is unrealistic.
The bottom line in all of this is that yes, Mayweather is willing to comeback — but at what price? Boxing would like to see Floyd Mayweather in the ring again, but if you can’t name his price for Pacquiao — the biggest fight out there — are you ever going to be able to?
Juan Manuel Marquez’s Odd Road to the Top
February 26, 2009
If you ask most boxing fans, they’ll tell you that Juan Manuel Marquez is one of the top two or three fighters in the world. They may be right. But the way he got there is about as odd as any you can think of.
It’s possible that without winning another fight, Marquez could ascend to the throne of pound-for-pound supremacy — without ever having beaten a top fighter in their prime.
Sure, you could argue that he beat Pacquiao twice, but the fights were both close enough that you just have to live with the decision losses.
So how close is Marquez to being the P4P king, all without having that one marquee victory that is usually required?
Imagine this scenario:
- Marquez fights to a draw with Juan Diaz in a great, action packed fight on Feb. 28.
- Just over two months later, Manny Pacquiao loses to Ricky Hatton in a super-lightweight showdown.
- More than likely, Marquez will become the new mythical “pound-for-pound” champion all over the boxing world.
It’s not such a crazy scenario — unlikely for both results to happen exactly in that way, but not outside the realm of possibility.
What makes it interesting is should that all happen, Marquez will become the new pound-for-pound king, all without winning a single major fight in his career against an elite-level, prime fighter.
Marquez’s Big Wins?
Sure, Marquez beat Marco Antonio Barrera, but that was not the same Barrera that was dazzling us against Erik Morales seven years earlier. It’s a good win, but it shouldn’t be the defining win of his career.
Joel Casamayor? The 37-year old Cuban gave Marquez all he could handle before getting knocked out. It would have been a fine win if Casamayor hadn’t been beaten around the ring by Jose Armando Santa Cruz in one of boxing’s greatest robberies, then taken to his limits by the very average but entertaining Michael Katsidis. Another decent win, but nothing that should be right near the top of a P4P resume.
Prior to those wins, the biggest win Marquez had ever gotten credit for was against Derrick Gainer in 2003. Another fine win, but nothing that makes somebody the best in the game.
In his fights against elite fighters at or near their prime, Marquez is 0-3-1. He lost twice to Manny Pacquiao, but many feel that he won one of or both fights. He lost to Chris John in a fight that some dispute, but many agree was just, and he lost to Freddie Norwood way back in 1999 in his first title fight.
The amazing thing is that his two close losses to Pacquiao not only add to his resume, they are the focal point!
I can’t recall a single fighter that has climbed as high as Marquez has without having any of the decisive wins that we usually require out of a fighter in his position.
The Pound-for-Pound King
Just what does it take to be the king of boxing, in it’s mythical pound-for-pound world? I’ve offered my opinion, but the question that is raised here is “can you inherit the spot” or does it have to be assigned when a fighter is deserving?
Looking at some recent pound-for-pound kings:
- Floyd Mayweather had wins over Diego Corrales, Genaro Hernandez, Jose Luis Castillo, and had been a three-division titlist before assuming the throne.
- Bernard Hopkins (if he was ever really the P4P king) had 19 consecutive successful defenses of his middleweight title, and wins over Felix Trinidad and Glen Johnson on his resume, among others.
- Roy Jones had wins over Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, John Ruiz and complete domination over everyone who crossed his path for his whole career, without exception.
- Manny Pacquiao is a multi-division champion with wins over Barrera, Erik Morales, Oscar De La Hoya and Marquez. Not all consider him a P4P king, but if you do, there is certainly a solid argument these days.
- Joe Calzaghe was undefeated with 24 defenses of his super-middleweight crown. He had wins over Chris Eubank, Robin Reid, Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler and Bernard Hopkins before anyone handed him the crown.
Is it possible that Juan Manuel Marquez is on the threshold of being the pound-for-pound king based only on the accomplishments of Manny Pacquiao and Marquez’s performances against him?
Maybe it’s me, but in my view, there must not always be a pound-for-pound king. When the March BoxingInformer.com rankings come out, there will be nobody in the number one spot on the pound-for-pound rankings, due to the retirement of Joe Calzaghe. I enjoy watching Pacquiao fight, but in my opinion, he never earned being the P4P king.
But I understand that others will have Pacquiao number one, and if he loses to Hatton, then there is a good chance that Marquez will inherit that spot.
I really have no problem with Pacquiao being ranked where he is. He’s an amazing fighter with some quality wins on his resume. I don’t quite view him the way your average boxing forum poster sees him, but I think he’s quite good. But that’s a different argument for a different day.
Marquez has shown in the ring that he is extremely talented, but he really lacks the great win that I feel you need to be on top of the whole sport.
Mis-Management
One of the problems that will always dog Marquez is his lack of fights with the top fighters when he was younger. Marquez was hanging around at featherweight and super-featherweight for most of the same time that Morales, Barrera and Pacquiao were.
But in that time, Marquez fought Barrera once and Pacquiao twice, but never Morales. That is the only combination of these fighters that never happened.
Why?
Simple. Marquez made some real bad decisions, and his legacy is now paying the price.
Take for instance the time between Marquez’s draw with Pacquiao in 2004 and his fight with Chris John in Indonesia in 2006.
After the first fight with Pacquiao, HBO offered Marquez $750,000 to stage a rematch, but Marquez said he wanted $1.5 million. That was HBO’s entire license fee, so that fight didn’t happen.
Then, after a few meaningless fights, HBO offered Marquez $1.5 million to fight Erik Morales in 2005 on PPV. Marquez turned down this offer as well, saying that he wanted $3.5 million.
Later that year, Marquez had his IBF belt stripped because no promoter was willing to pay to stage any of his mandatory fights. That led him to take a fight in Indonesia against Chris John for a measly $30,000. The outcome of the fight is disputed, but Marquez’s boxing smarts, or lack thereof, are not.
Marquez had his opportunities to make himself a pound-for-pound king, but he has both passed on key fights, and failed to come out victorious in the ones he does take over the years.
It is possible that Marquez is among the best boxers in the world. In fact, I’m quite certain I’m in the minority if I say he’s not the second best behind Manny Pacquiao. I’m not necessarily arguing that he’s not one of the most talented individuals in the sport. I’m pointing out the fact that he is poised to take boxing’s highest mythical title without ever truly earning it in the ring. That, I have a problem with.
For that reason, even with a Manny Pacquiao loss to Ricky Hatton, there is no justification of Marquez being boxing’s pound-for-pound king.
Troy Ross Wins Contender Finale
February 25, 2009
Troy Ross scored a fourth round TKO victory over Ehinomen “Hino” Ehikhamenor at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods in Connecticut Wednesday night in the finale of The Contender reality boxing series on Versus.
Ross, (21-1, 15 KOs) landed a perfect combination, sending Ehikhamenor (15-4, 7) slumping into the corner, forcing Steve “Double S” Smoger to call a halt to the fight one minute into the fourth.
Both men had their moments as the first three-and-a-half rounds were pretty close. In the fourth round, Ross unloaded with a flurry, which set up a perfect right-left combination hand that ended the fight.
The series was filmed in Singapore this season, with 16 cruiserweights living together and fighting each other in five-round fights until just the two finalists remained.
Ross becomes the fourth Contender champion, following Sergio Mora, Grady Brewer and Sakio Bika in previous seasons. This was the first season on Versus, following three years on ESPN, with the first season starting out on NBC.
Preview: Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz
February 25, 2009
Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz combined to go 2-2 in 2008, with three of the four fights being split-decisions. Both lost early in the year, then came back to win big fights late in the year. With 10 years separating these two warriors, it is a fantastic matchup for both their styles and the points they are at in their respective careers.
Marquez is 49-4-1 in his career, but has gained more recognition in his disputed loss and draw against Manny Pacquiao than all of his wins combined. Since his draw with Pacquiao in 2004 and subsequent loss to Chris John in 2006, Marquez has climbed the pound-for-pound rankings due in large part to the success that Pacquiao has had. Marquez’s ability to give Pacquiao all he can handle has garnered him more attention and credit than his actual ring accomplishments.
That’s not to take anything away from Marquez as a fighter, as he has proven in the ring that he belongs amongst the sport’s elite. But outside of his loss and draw with Pacquiao, Marquez doesn’t have a long list of great wins. His win last year over an aged Joel Casamayor is a nice one to have on the resume, but it comes with a similar footnote as his win over Marco Antonio Barrera the year before. They are both nice names to have on your resume, but at the time of the fight, they were both clearly past their prime.
When fighting elite fighters in their primes, Marquez is 0-3-1, with his losses to Freddie Norwood and Chris John in addition to the Pacquiao fights. Add in the fact that this is only Marquez’s second fight at the lightweight limit, and he had just three fights at super-featherweight and this is a huge challenge for him. This is Marquez’s biggest fight against a younger, top-level opponent not named “Pacquiao” in several years. At 35-years old, Juan Diaz is a massive test for Marquez.
Juan Diaz, on the other hand, is just 25 years old, but he already has been in the ring with some big names. His biggest win was against an aged Acelino Freitas in 2007, and he followed that up with a unification bout with Julio Diaz later that year. His lone loss came to Nate Campbell, in a fight that he fought most of with a vicious gash over his eye from a headbutt. Campbell likely would have beaten him with or without the cut on that night, but Diaz continued to come forward, even when beaten and hurt in that fight, and that’s something Marquez must beware of.
Diaz is a rough fighter. He walks forward, no matter what. He will work the body, he’ll fight on the inside and he’ll put immense amounts of pressure on you.
Marquez is a classic boxer. He will counterpunch you all night long, and beat you with hand speed, accuracy and footwork.
In that sense, the styles are going to make an interesting fight in this matchup.
One of the biggest things that jumps out at me in this fight is the question of how Marquez is going to handle Diaz’s pressure and power. Marquez is a great boxer, but he is no stranger to hitting the canvas. Pacquiao put him down four times in two fights while Barrera and Norwood each dropped him in their bouts.
A knockdown by the naturally bigger and stronger Diaz is not out of the question and if the fight goes to the scorecards, could be the difference.
I’m still not completely sold that Marquez is an elite lightweight. Diaz may not be in the long run either, but at 25 years old, he is a more natural lightweight. If we’ve seen anything over the years, it’s that the lightweight division is not friendly to older fighters. Nate Campbell, Diego Corrales, and Jose Luis Castillo have all had issues with weight, while Joel Casamayor and Acelino Freitas both seemed suddenly old at that weight. How Marquez will handle it at his age, we don’t know. But one thing we do know is that Diaz should be the more comfortable fighter at that weight.
Weight and natural size aside, Marquez carries a huge edge in experience in this fight. When you take a boxer with great smarts and experience and put him in with a young, less experienced slugger, you have the potential for Hopkins-Pavlik.
Since I don’t think that Diaz is as limited when it comes to “Plan-B” as Pavlik was, I don’t think we will see anything that resembles that fight, but I do think that Marquez’s experience can help him where his physical limits hurt him. For these reasons, this is a very tough fight to handicap.
The way I see it is that Marquez has never proven to be elite, except for fights with Manny Pacquiao. Diaz has not shown to be elite per se, but he has shown relentless desire, something Marquez may not have.
If he is disciplined and focused, I think Marquez boxes his way to a clean unanimous decision, but if his head is not in it (as it may not have been against Norwood or John, by reports) then he may be in for a rough night.
I think the potential for either fighter to dominate is their, and when that is the case, I’ll err on the side of caution and predict that they both have their moments, making the fight a close one.
I think Marquez will outbox Diaz early, but Diaz will be able to hurt him at some point in the middle round, shifting the momentum. The fight will become close in the late rounds, and I’ll lean towards the younger, natural lightweight to squeeze out a close win in the championship rounds.
Prediction: Diaz by split-decision.
Vitali Klitschko Files Complaint Against WBC
February 25, 2009
Vitali Klitschko filed a complaint against the WBC with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, trying to stop the organization from making him make two consecutive mandatory defenses, without the chance to make a voluntary defense.
The WBC has ordered that Oleg Maskaev face the winner of the March 21 bout between Klitschko and Juan Carlos Gomez. Normally, mandatory defenses are separated by a year, so the 120 days is a very short time in boxing-time.
Realistically, the WBC should simply be ashamed that they are making such undeserving fighters the mandatory challengers. Gomez is acceptable as a mandatory, since he has not proven that he doesn’t belong. Maskaev, on the other hand, has proven that.
How do you justify taking a fighter that was knocked out last year by Sam Peter and making him the mandatory. Especially since Maskaev has done nothing of note to erase that loss, and Peter was viciously beaten by Klitschko until he quit. Why would anyone in the world believe that Maskaev would do any better, much less be named a “mandatory” defense. This means that in the WBC’s eyes, Maskaev is the most deserving contender in the entire world to challenge Klitschko.
In a world of corrupt boxing organizations, even the WBO, IBF and WBA must be in awe of the levels that the WBC has reached in the last year. Perhaps WBC President Jose Sulaiman has been spending too much time devoted to his duties as President of the Manny Pacquiao Fan Club, instead of reviewing actually qualifications of the fighters his organization is elevating to mandatory status.
Klitschko filed the complaint hoping to be given an opportunity to make a more lucrative fight in a voluntary defense against a guy like David Haye or Chris Arreola. Considering Maskaev is ranked below both Haye and Arreola in the WBC rankings, this shouldn’t be a problem. But the WBC will never let logic and reason stand in the way of collecting a good sanctioning fee.
Hopefully for boxing Klitschko will win his case and get to fight his choice of fighters. The power grab that the WBC is trying to make in boxing has gone far enough, and until fighters with belts start standing up to them, it will never stop. For the good of boxing, the WBC needs to learn a lesson in humility. I doubt even losing this will make them learn, but it can only help.