0's go in 4 world title fights, though did anyone pick the right results?....

In my most recent entry on this blog I spoke about a busy night at the end of the month which features a number of world title fights with out any of the fighters have a 0 in their loss column. Amazingly last weekend (16^th-18^th April) we saw 6 fighters with unbeaten records competing in world title bouts. Of those 6 fighters 4 of them had perfect winning records, a combined record of those 4 fighters stood at a very impressive 99-0 (75),with Juan Manuel Lopez at 30-0 (27), Andre Berto at 27-0 (21), Paul McCloskey at 22-0 (12) and Cesar Seda at 20-0 (15). Their opponents in the title fights had pretty impressive records overall themselves at a combined 109-14-6 (80) with the individual records of Omar Narvaez 33-0-2 (19), Victor Ortiz 28-2-2 (22), Amir Khan 24-1 (17) and Orlando Salido 34-11-2-1 (22).

Now what became rather surprising was that every one of the perfect winning records was ended within around 24 hours of each other. Cesar Seda's was the first to go as he was defeated by Narvaez in a fight for the WBO Super Flyweight title. Seda had put up a very competitive effort but the champions work rate, accuracy and handspeed was the telling factor. Paul McCloskey's 0 was the next to go as WBA Light Welterweight champion Amir Khan scored a hugely controversial technical decision win after a clash of heads opened a small cut on McCloskey's head and forced the fight to the score cards early. Neither of these results were that surprising, in all honesty. What was surprising were the other two results.

Juan Manuel Lopez had entered his bout as the WBO Featherweight champion, Boxrec.com had ranked him at #1 in the division and Salido had come in on a relatively one sided loss to Yuriorkis Gamboa. Lopez was a 1/16 favourite hours prior to the fight whilst you could back Salido at odds as high as 7/1. Those that backed the underdog would have been laughing themselves silly as their man force fed Lopez a steady diet of right hands and forcing the stoppage in the 8^th round. Andre Berto had entered his bout as the WBC Welterweight champion and was around 1/3 as the favourite and Ortiz was a 7/2 underdog. Ortiz started quickly dropping the champion twice in the opening round (though only 1 was scored) and dominated much of the fight (despite being dropped twice himself). This wasn't as surprising as the Salido result but was still a big upset of the man many had ranked as the 3^rd best Welterweight in the world.

Amusingly if you'd of had a double on the upsets at the best odds you'd have walked away with 36 times your stake. Salido was actually 14/1 to win by stoppage and Ortiz by decision was 7/1, had you picked both of those results you'd have won 120 times your stake. Not too bad for a return that right there.

The WBA, oh the loveable WBA and their bizarre decisions

The WBA have again gone and done it, they've made even the most knowledgeable of boxing fans scratch their heads wondering what happened. British fighter Amir Khan has been made “The Super Lightweight Super champion”. The reasons for this are business, the WBA are wanting their title to be fought for between Marcos Maidana and Erik Morales. That fight has all the ingredients of a short lived but very exciting war as an ageing veteran faces off against a powerful punching but limited prime opponent. Though the fight it really not one I can agree with that's a completely different matter. What I want to look at is the WBA title policy. No not the one in the rule book (sorry but I can't be bothered to read 72 pages of “rules” that can be found on here http://www.wbaonline.com/) but the one that appears to be made up as they go along.

The WBA has no less than 29 fighters walking around claiming to be “world champion” (be it “super”, “regular”, “interim”). They have 3 Middleweight “world champions” and now have a vacant world title at Super Lightweight (thanks to Kahn's title being upgraded). The “super” title rule was generally thought to have been brought in to allow unified champions some leeway in facing mandatory WBA challengers, though now appears to be nothing more than another way for the organisations to collection sanctioning fees. Current “Super” champions include not only Khan but Juan Manuel Marquez (Lightweight), Chris John (Featherweight) Miguel Cotto (Super Welterweight), Felix Sturm (Middleweight)and Andre Ward (Super Middleweight) with some boxing fans (who have read the WBA's rules) also calling Yuriorkis Gamboa a Super champion.

From the WBA's website:

WBA SUPER CHAMPIONSHIPS

(by WBA - Feb 11, 2009 - 11:12:37 AM)

DEFINITION

The SUPER WORLD CHAMPION CATEGORY OR UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPION was created for those World Champions who hold the title of two or more organizations recognized by the WBA, like the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

Gamboa currently holds the WBA's belt and the IBF's belt at Featherweight though on the website is classed as a “Unified” champion and not “Super” whilst John is the WBA's “Super” champion.


We all know boxing awarding bodies like to make things up as they go along but the WBA's proliferation of “World” titles is beyond a joke. It's due to the WBA's title policy, joke rankings and bizarre mandatory defences that have left me creating my own championship, the Scott Graveson is Awesome title. I have declared myself the Super Duper Awesome Champion for eternity at everything ever...can't be much more of a joke than the WBA's world title.