By Rick Reeno
Last week, during the World Boxing Council's annual convention at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, key members of the sanctioning body were huddling together to figure out the proper strategy to Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s simultaneous hold of the WBC championship at welterweight and junior middleweight.
WBC President, Mauricio Sulaiman, said his organization's top priority was to stay away from placing any obstacles in the path of Mayweather's ability to negotiate a possible super-fight with Manny Pacquiao. Because of that, he refused to order a mandatory obligation for either title.
However, there are countless contenders moving up in the WBC rankings and there had to be a resolution to take care of those fighters.
Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz of Sampson Boxing LLC. stepped forward to present a solution.
Lewkowicz's explained his idea, which sets down a elimination tournament in each division - and only fighters ranked in the WBC's top fifteen would be eligible to participate. The WBC's board unanimously approved the idea.
The top eight challengers (depending on who agreed to participate) in each division would be paired against each other until one man was left standing as the mandatory challenger to Mayweather's title at each weight.
More than likely, Mayweather will be retired by the time the tournament is over - and there is a good chance that the overall winner of each tournament will be a champion in the end.
"As I said to the WBC, no fighter in the top 15 has done enough to earn a shot at Floyd Mayweather. Whether we like it or not, Mayweather has been the biggest name in the sport for many years. The only solution was the idea of a tournament in each division," Lewkowicz told BoxingScene.com.
"This idea will only help the sport of boxing moving forward. The tournaments will take over a year to complete. More than likely, Mayweather will be retired by that point. But, each tournament will create a legitimate challenger, or champion, because each fighter will have to go through at least three top contenders to get to the gold. I have already received several calls and emails from promoters and managers, from all over the world, who are interested in getting their fighters involved in these tournaments."
"I was one of the promoters who was going to be involved in WBC's World Cup tournament, an idea created by the late Don Jose Sulaiman. Don Jose passed away before the World Cup could take off. In the memory of Don Jose, I think each of these tournaments should be called the Jose Sulaiman Memorial Tournament. Don Jose was the one who advised me to get into boxing, introduced me to the sport and told me that I would do very well."
