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.