by Cliff Rold

The greatest shame might be they won’t keep more of the checks they make this weekend, sanctioning fees needing to be paid and all.  One thing can be taken for granted: fights for major belts pay a little better.

This Saturday, at the Poliforum Zamna, Merida, Yucatán, Mexico, a pair of unlikely ‘championship’ contestants will get paid a little better.

One of them has held a belt before.  Once upon a time, Mexico’s Jose Antonio Aguirre (35-9-1, 21 KO) had some wondering if he would be the heir to the great Ricardo “Finito” Lopez at Strawweight.

With only one decision loss on his ledger, he won the WBC 105 lb. belt in 2000, vacated by Lopez the year before, with a narrow decision on the road over Thailand’s Wandee Singwancha.  He would defend the belt seven times, five times by knockout, before a loss to Japan’s Eagle Kyowa.

It would become apparent he was no heir.  Consecutive stoppage losses in title shots at 108 lbs. were followed by a decision defeat for a belt against Brian Viloria.  Two fights later, in May 2007, Aguirre would receive another title shot, this time for the IBF belt against the excellent Ulises Solis. 

He was stopped in nine. 

It was the first in a four-fight losing streak finally broken last summer. 

It took only one night for Aguirre to go from contender to titlist.  It took a little longer to settle into the role he occupies now. 

On most nights these days, Aguirre is, or would be, just an opponent.  He’s the guy a young up and comer, or a champion looking to stay busy, can call upon so that the announcer can say ‘former world champion’ and make the ticket buyer think they’re seeing more than they are in 2011.   

Saturday won’t be most nights.  For one evening, Aguirre is a contender once more. 

That’s because the man across the ring for him is as surprising a ‘champion’ as there has been in years.  In November, with 20 losses to his name, Gilberto Keb Baas squeaked out a narrow majority decision over Omar Nino for the WBC 108 lb. belt.  It was BoxingScene’s Upset of the Year, a feel good story even in a time where cynicism about boxing’s belts is prevalent and earned.

Seriously, it was bad enough when the WBO made it possible for four titlists to exist in one division.  That was before the WBA found a way to have upwards of three champions in single weight classes all by themselves.

Boxing’s belt situation? 

It’s stupid.

There’s no need to find nicer words for it.

There are also exceptions to any rule.  Keb Baas-Aguirre feels like one.  Even big grey clouds of stupid have their silver linings (not to be confused with Silver belts of course) after all. 

The fighters, the ones who actually take the shots, are the silver lining in this case.  The mismanagement of the sport leaves belts often as the safest insurance policy for what all that getting hit in the head is really about.

Food. 

Steaming, hot, and on the supper table.

Keb Baas (34-20-4, 21 KO), making his first defense of an unlikely belt, sewed up some nice meals with the upset last fall.  There’s no reason to look at this weekend’s fight as a ‘real’ World Championship or anything.  At 108, the peak belongs to Giovanni Segura.

That’s not disputable.  One could argue fights like this weekend’s are part of what ails the credibility of boxing but, in this case, that is highly disputable. 

Ring Magazine (rightly) voted Segura-Ivan Calderon Fight of the Year for 2010.  It was available in the U.S., in English, and it’s a fair bet avid boxing followers are the only people in the States who saw the fight, and a number of them probably still haven’t.  In other words, at 108 lbs., the overall credibility of the sport isn’t a valid question.

The fans following Jr. Flyweights have seen the title mess and kept watching anyways.

That’s what makes the story easy to appreciate.  108 lb. fighters, no matter how thrilling, struggle to make serious money.  They train just as hard, often absorb more punches, for only a fraction of the reward.  There are pockets of the world where more cash is available but it still doesn’t approach the sort of money greatness can fetch for Welterweights or Heavyweights.

Someone like Keb Baas, someone who has played the part of honest opponent for a slew of title-level fighters since 1995, and who fell short in two earlier title losses, winning a belt is one of those things that have to draw a smile.  Maybe the Nino win wasn’t as shocking as it felt.

He’d knocked out Romero years ago when both were one their way up.

It doesn’t matter.  Nino was a proven commodity, a respected force at 108, and the upset was genuine.  Now Keb Baas has a chance to defend the belt.  And Aguirre has a chance to win a belt one more time. 

It’s a pick ‘em fight between two fighters no one would have picked to dance together on such a stage a year ago. 

Hell, this even has the element of family feud.  In 2003, Aguirre made a successful defense by stopping Juan Alfonso Keb Baas in seven rounds.  Juan Alfonso is Gilberto’s brother. 

Every little bit counts.

The fighters will probably feel the same when they cash those title fight checks after this weekend.  

Weekly Ledger

But wait, there’s more…

Cliff’s Notes…
Nonito Donaire stating his willingness to face Anselmo Moreno is outstanding.  Let’s hope it gets done.  It would match the top two Bantamweights in the world after Donaire’s obliteration of Fernando Montiel, giving the sports its first lineal Bantamweight king since Bernardo Pinango in the 1980s.  With the Showtime tournament ending in the spring, the ‘number one contender’ to a Donaire-Moreno winner would emerge immediately.  Donaire-Moreno could be a key to making the best division in boxing the story of 2011 in the ring…Anyone who missed the recap of Juan Manuel Marquez and Nacho Beristain clowning Jose Sulaiman to his face should check out the story on the main page…Eddie Chambers says David Haye should fight him and the winner gets Klitschko?  Did Eddie forget the last time he was in the ring with big Wlad?  No one else has or wants to see that again.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com