By Terence Dooley
Tony Dodson’s away day WBF 175lb title tilt against Harry Simon, 26-0 (19), has been KO’d after the BBBoC ruled Dodson, 27-6-1 (13), out of the contest due to an embargo on the lightly regarded title. The two men were due to meet in Namibia on September 30th; the board’s decision has left WBF president Howard Goldberg fuming.
“This Board at present is being heavily criticized for the failure to accept legitimate boxing sanctioning bodies such as the WBF and IBO [Writer’s note: The BBBoC sanctions IBO International title contests] to mention but a few,” revealed Goldberg in a statement.
“The BBBoC remains highly criticized and I do not believe that their conservative approach should have any effect on the positivity seen of the WBF by the rest of the world. In no way must we allow their antiquated approach to compromise Harry Simon of having the opportunity of winning the WBF world title.
“The very fact that the top boxing commissions in the world such as New York, Las Vegas, Mexico, Korea, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and others have accepted us with open arms speaks highly for what we stand for and who we are.”
Simon is scrambling for a new opponent whilst Dodson now faces Shaw’s Darren Stubbs for the IBO International light-heavyweight title in Liverpool on October 8th. Evidently the BBBoC feel that a fight against a domestic rival who is coming of an English title TKO reverse to Bob Ajisafe and holds a solid 21-6 (8) record for an Inter-Wotsit strap trumps a fringe ‘world’ fight against an undefeated, once highly rated opponent.
Dodson-Stubbs is a good domestic clash, no doubt about it, yet the Liverpudlian has lost out on a big fight and has been left disappointed by his domestic sanctioning body, an organization that was happy to sanction Ricky Burns versus Andreas Evensen (who was taking part in his first title fight at 130lb) for the WBO super-featherweight belt, and allow undefeated prospects to fight journeymen on a regular basis.
Time, perhaps, for the BBBoC to reconsider their stance and judge WBF fights on their own merit rather than imposing a blanket ban that is made to look ridiculous by their sanctioning of IBO International title fights. Indeed, they also regularly allow uneven journeyman versus prospect contests such as August 27th’s meeting between John McCallum, 2-0, and Ryan Clarke, 1-36-4, a fight that is unlikely to be as well contested as the scrapped Simon-Dodson scrap.
Above all things, the BBBoC must be seen make decisions rationally, individually and with due care. A blanket ban on the WBF may prevent yet another meaningless title from crossing our paths yet it is hard to justify the move if the body then allows other organizations free reign whilst sanctioning lesser contests than Simon-Dodson purely on the basis that established, often tarnished, titles are on the line in those instances.
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