Who Will Be Next In the IBF 140 Lb. Sweepstakes?

By Jake Donovan

If ever there was a time where a case could be made in favor of a return to one champion per division, you needn’t look any further than the junior welterweight division.

Kostya Tszyu’s second round knockout of Zab Judah in November 2001 helped fill an18-year vacancy left behind when Aaron Pryor retired as the lineal junior welterweight champion in 1983. Following that same path, the title has since changed hands just once, when Ricky Hatton forced Tszyu to quit on his stool after eleven rounds more than three years ago in what still rates as his career best win.

Hatton remains unbeaten as a junior welterweight, with his lone loss coming in his failed bid at the welterweight crown against then-champion Floyd Mayweather Jr in December 2007. Yet the alphabet belt he acquired the night he beat Tszyu will now be on the line when Herman Ngoudjo faces former titlist Juan Urango this Friday evening in Montreal.

In accepting alphabet sanctioning bodies as an occupational hazard that comes with following the sport, so too is their practice of stripping champions on a whim. So it shouldn’t be completely surprising that while Hatton is still regarded as the lineal 140 lb. king, someone else in the division will lay claim to his old ABC hardware.

What is surprising – even by alphabet standards – is that said victor this weekend will be the fifth claimant to that same title that was never lost in the ring by its last rightful owner.

The real issue began when Tszyu decided to only show up once a year after winning the lineal crown. A single defense in 2002, 2003 and 2004 led to two of his alphabet titles going the vacant route. One belt remained in his possession, at least until he decided to engage in a post-midnight standoff with Hatton in his challenger’s hometown of Manchester, England.

The belt has since changed hands in Hollywood, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; New South Wales, Australia and now in Montreal, Quebec City, Canada this Friday.

Only once has any of the fight involved Ricky Hatton – and that was when he won back the belt he never lost.

Confused?

The story goes like this: After unifying two belts in late 2005, Hatton decided to move up in a weight for a welterweight fight with Luis Collazo. Because an alphabet title was at stake in the fight, the sport’s politics forced him to decide whether the fight would be one and done, or if he was prepared to sever ties at junior welterweight

Strangely enough, he wound up giving up his belts at both weights. First came the decision to dump the 140 lb. belts, which he did so prior to his close, controversial points win over Collazo. Apparently his only goal was to become a two-division titlist, and not so much to swim deeper in the welterweight titles, as he would vacate the newly acquired belt three months later without making a single title defense.

At this point, Juan Urango had already become a titlist at 140, taking a controversial decision over Naoufel Ben Rabah to claim the vacant IBF belt.

That same belt would find its way back around Hatton’s waist just seven months later, in Urango’s only title defense. Hatton won a virtual shutout in their January 2007 HBO televised bout to help tidy up the picture.

His second claim to the title he never lost in the ring lasted all of 16 days. No sooner than his shutout win was he demanded to commit to a mandatory defense against Lovemore N’Dou. Hatton passed, instead proceeding with his handlers’ original plans, which was a summer clash with Jose Luis Castillo, who barely edged out Herman Ngoudjo in the televised co-feature.

Because Hatton opted for a more popular and lucrative defense, the alphabet boys decided it was in the sport’s best interest to instead crown a new champion. So began the N’Dou era, when he stopped Ben Rabah in their February ’07 clash.

Like Urango, N’Dou’s reign only lasted one fight. He would concede the crown in a lopsided decision loss to Paul Malignaggi, who managed two successful defenses, the most by any IBF 140 lb. titlist since Kostya Tszyu earlier in the decade. Both went the distance, in fights against Herman Ngoudjo and a rematch with Lovemore N’Dou.

Neither fight was particularly memorable, at least not for the right reasons, yet the IBF felt it was absolutely necessary for the Brooklyn boxer to once again face Ngoudjo for a second time in 2008. The problem was, Malignaggi already had a far more lucrative fight lined up with Ricky Hatton. The IBF could’ve once again righted its own ship and have collected a much larger sanctioning fee in the process.

Instead, they forced the hand of Malignaggi, who opted to dump the belt and take the payday – and ensuing beating just two months ago in Las Vegas. For the third time in just over three years, Hatton had defeated the last reigning IBF 140 lb. titlist in the ring.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, yet in this case the only thing remaining in Sin City is Hatton’s next payday, which comes in May against Manny Pacquiao.

Had the IBF elected to allow things run its course, they’d be looking at a sanctioning fee in the neighborhood of $720,000, with their belt at stake in what rates for the moment as the year’s biggest event.

Instead, their impatience and faulty policies put them in bed with an ESPN2-level fight, for a payoff that will barely cover expenses of one sanctioning body official.

At the rate they're going, there stands a great chance that by the time the lineal 140 lb. crown is decided in May, the IBF will be looking at the next two low-budget candidates to contend for their potentially once-again vacant belt.

Jake Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .